At his father’s instance Parkman then entered the Dane Law School at Cambridge and obtained his degree (1846), but took no steps to be admitted to the bar. He studied by himself history, Indian ethnology, and ‘models of English style.’ The passage in _Vassall Morton_ describing the influence of Thierry’s _Norman Conquest_ in directing the hero of the novel towards ethnological study, is thought to be autobiographical. Having weakened his sight by immoderate reading, Parkman (in 1846) made a journey to the Northwest, ‘partly to cure his eyes and partly to study Indian life.’ He was accompanied by his friend Quincy Adams Shaw. For some weeks he lived in a village of Ogillallah Indians, sharing the tent of a chief and following the wanderings of the tribe in their search for enemies and buffalo. The hardships of the life ruined his health. His sight was made worse rather than better, and his first book, _The Oregon Trail_ (1849), describing these western experiences, had to be written from dictation.[52] It was followed by _The Conspiracy of Pontiac_ (1851), and that by _Vassall Morton_ (1856), an attempt at fiction. This ends the initial period of Parkman’s literary life. In 1850 Parkman married Catharine, a daughter of Doctor Jacob Bigelow of Boston. She is said to have been a woman of a sweet and joyful disposition, having a keen sense of humor, and, above all, endowed with ‘the high courage requisite to tend unfalteringly the pain and suffering of the man she loved.’[53] It was a perfect union, but unhappily it was not to last long. Mrs. Parkman died in 1858. The historian’s health steadily declined. For years together his chief study was to keep himself alive. As a part of this study he took up floriculture, and soon found himself absorbed in it for its own sake. He became famous for his roses and lilies, and was the recipient of prizes innumerable from horticultural societies.[54] Yet at no time did he lose sight of his main object, the history of France in North America. Little by little his store of materials accumulated. Even when he was at his worst physically, some progress was made. It might be only a step, but the step had not to be retraced. As his strength returned he began to travel. To renew his acquaintance with the Indians he went to Fort Snelling in 1867. He was repeatedly in Paris consulting archives and doctors. He visited Canada in 1873 and explored over and over again the region between Quebec and Lake George. The great historical series to which its author gave the title of _France and England in North America_ began to appear just at the close of the Civil War. The volumes in the order of their publication are: _The Pioneers of France in the New World_, 1865; _The Jesuits in North America_, 1867; _The Discovery of the Great West_, 1869;[55] _The Old Régime_, 1874; _Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV_, 1877; _Montcalm and Wolfe_, 1884; _A Half-Century of Conflict_, 1892.