Early Western Travels 1748-1846 Volume XXVI Early Western Travels 1748-1846 A Series of Annotated Reprints of some of the best and rarest contemporary volumes of travel, descriptive of the Aborigines and Social and Economic Conditions in the Middle and Far West, during the Period of Early American Settlement Edited with Notes, Introductions, Index, etc., by Reuben Gold Thwaites, LL.D. Editor of "The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents," "Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition," "Hennepin's New Discovery," etc. Volume XXVI Part I of Flagg's The Far West, 1836-1837 [Illustration] Cleveland, Ohio The Arthur H. Clark Company 1906 COPYRIGHT 1906, BY THE ARTHUR H. CLARK COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The Lakeside Press R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY CHICAGO CONTENTS OF VOLUME XXVI PREFACE TO VOLUMES XXVI AND XXVII. _The Editor_ 9 THE FAR WEST: OR, A TOUR BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS. Embracing Outlines of Western Life and Scenery; Sketches of the Prairies, Rivers, Ancient Mounds, Early Settlements of the French, etc. etc. (The first thirty-two chapters, being all of Vol. I of original, and pp. 1-126 of Vol. II.) _Edmund Flagg._ Copyright Notice 26 Author's Dedication 27 Author's Preface 29 Author's Table of Contents 33 Text (chapters i-xxxii; the remainder appearing in our volume xxvii) 43 ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOLUME XXVI Map of Oregon; drawn by H. J. Kelley, 1830 24 Facsimile of title-page to Vol. I of Flagg's _The Far West_ 25 PREFACE TO VOLUMES XXVI-XXVII These two volumes are devoted to reprints of Edmund Flagg's _The Far West_ (New York, 1838), and Father Pierre Jean de Smet's _Letters and Sketches, with a Narrative of a Year's Residence among the Indian Tribes of the Rocky Mountains_ (Philadelphia, 1843). Flagg's two-volume work occupies all of our volume xxvi and the first part of volume xxvii, the remaining portion of the latter being given to De Smet's book. Edmund Flagg was prominent among early American prose writers, and also ranked high among our minor poets. A descendant of the Thomas Flagg who came to Boston from England, in 1637, Edmund was born November 24, 1815, at Wescasset, Maine. Being graduated with distinction from Bowdoin College in 1835, in the same year he went with his mother and sister Lucy to Louisville, Kentucky. Here, in a private school, he taught the classics to a group of boys, and contributed articles to the Louisville _Journal_, a paper with which he was intermittently connected, either as editorial writer or correspondent, until 1861.