Early Western Travels, 1748-1846, Vol. 28

Book excerpt: Excerpt from Early Western Travels, 1748-1846, Vol. 28: 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 In our volume xxi we traced the rise and fall of the trad ing adventures to this far Western territory of Captain Nathaniel Wyeth of Massachusetts. His two expeditions left on the Willamette River a small residuum of New Eng landers, and before his departure he had seen the coming of the first American missionaries, ploneers then as now in advancing American interests. The existence of Oregon had now come to be known to a considerable body Of our people, its fertility and beauty had been enlarged upon by several writers, its advantages pictured, and its possession desired. In returning to the United States, one of the missionaries, Jason Lee, undertook a tour through the border states of the West, lecturing and raising funds for his work. In the autumn of 1838 he stopped at the Illinois town of Peoria, where his glowing descriptions of the land whence he came produced an impression sufficiently lasting to result in the organization 'of an emigration society, which prepared to set forth for this land of promise early the fol lowing spring. Among the band was a young Vermont lawyer, Thomas Jefferson F arnham, who a few years ear lier had removed to Illinois, and who now sought on the Western prairies recuperation Of his wasting health through outdoor exploits and change of scene. He also avowed a patriotic purpose to take possession of this fair territory of Oregon for the American flag, and to aid in resisting the British fur - trade monopoly. His address and eloquence won him the honor of being chosen captain of the small band of nineteen adventurers, none of whom knew aught of wilderness life or was prepared to endure the hardships of the proposed journey. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.