Produced by Melissa McDaniel and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) Transcriber's Note: Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. Footnote 1 in the section "DEATH AND BURIAL OF DE SOTO" is missing. There are two [7] anchors for Footnote 7 in the section "SWORD AND GOWN IN CALIFORNIA". There are two [3] anchors for Footnote 3 in the section "THE LOST COLONY: ST. LOUIS OF TEXAS". The second appears to be a printer's error. No map was identified in the text showing the Santa Fé and Oregon trails. No section was found referring to the "Edmunds Bill". The following alternate spellings were identified and retained: practise and practice Pekitanoüi and Pekitanoui Clarke and Clark Compte and Comte Nicolet and Nicollet Cortes and Cortez Chicasaw and Chickasaw New-England and New England. [Illustration: CARTIER TAKING POSSESSION FOR FRANCE.] THE MAKING OF THE GREAT WEST 1512-1883 BY SAMUEL ADAMS DRAKE _WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS_ London GIBBINGS & COMPANY, LTD. 18 BURY STREET, W.C. 1894 COPYRIGHT, 1887, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS. PRESSWORK BY BERWICK & SMITH, BOSTON, U.S.A. PREFACE. "_Time's noblest offspring is the last._" This history is intended to meet, so far as it may, the want for brief, compact, and handy manuals of the beginnings of our country. Although primarily designed for young people, the fact has not been overlooked that the same want exists among adult readers, to whom an intelligent view of the subject, in a little space, is nowhere accessible. For the purpose in hand, the simplest language consistent with clearness has been made use of, though I have never hesitated to employ the right word, whenever I could command it, even if it were of more than three syllables. As in the "Making of New England," "this book aims to occupy a place between the larger and lesser histories,—to so condense the exhaustive narrative as to give it greater vitality, or so extend what the narrow limits of the school-history often leave obscure as to supply the deficiency. Thus, when teachers have a particular topic before them, it is intended that a chapter on the same subject be read to fill out the bare outlines of the common-school text-book.