

E-text prepared by Larry B. Harrison, Charlie Howard, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images
generously made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org)



Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
      file which includes the original illustrations.
      See 53897-h.htm or 53897-h.zip:
      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/53897/53897-h/53897-h.htm)
      or
      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/53897/53897-h.zip)


      Images of the original pages are available through
      Internet Archive. See
      https://archive.org/details/trailsofpathfind00grinrich


Transcriber’s note:

      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).

      Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=).





TRAILS OF THE PATHFINDERS


      *      *      *      *      *      *

IN THE SAME SERIES

PUBLISHED BY CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS


  =The Boy’s Catlin.= My Life Among the Indians, by GEORGE
    CATLIN. Edited by MARY GAY HUMPHREYS. Illustrated.
    12mo.                                      _net_ $1.50

  =The Boy’s Hakluyt.= English Voyages of Adventure and
    Discovery, retold from Hakluyt by EDWIN M. BACON.
    Illustrated. 12mo.                         _net_ $1.50

  =The Boy’s Drake.= By EDWIN M. BACON. Illustrated. 12mo.
                                               _net_ $1.50

  =Trails of the Pathfinders.= By GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL.
    Illustrated. 12mo.                         _net_ $1.50

      *      *      *      *      *      *


TRAILS OF THE PATHFINDERS


[Illustration:

  CAPTAINS LEWIS AND CLARK WERE MUCH PUZZLED AT THIS POINT TO KNOW
      WHICH OF THE RIVERS BEFORE THEM WAS THE MAIN MISSOURI.]


TRAILS OF THE PATHFINDERS

by

GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL

Author of “Blackfoot Lodge Tales,” “Pawnee Hero
Stories and Folk Tales,” “The Story of the
Indian,” “Indians of Today,” etc.

Illustrated







New York
Charles Scribner’S Sons
1911

Copyright, 1911, by
Charles Scribner’S Sons

Published April, 1911

[Illustration]




PREFACE


The chapters in this book appeared first as part of a series of
articles under the same title contributed to _Forest and Stream_
several years ago. At the time they aroused much interest and there was
a demand that they should be put into book form.

The books from which these accounts have been drawn are good reading
for all Americans. They are at once history and adventure. They deal
with a time when half the continent was unknown; when the West--distant
and full of romance--held for the young, the brave and the hardy,
possibilities that were limitless.

The legend of the kingdom of El Dorado did not pass with the passing of
the Spaniards. All through the eighteenth and a part of the nineteenth
century it was recalled in another sense by the fur trader, and with
the discovery of gold in California it was heard again by a great
multitude--and almost with its old meaning.

Besides these old books on the West, there are many others which every
American should read. They treat of that same romantic period, and
describe the adventures of explorers, Indian fighters, fur hunters and
fur traders. They are a part of the history of the continent.

NEW YORK, _April_, 1911.




CONTENTS


  CHAPTER                                                           PAGE
       I. INTRODUCTION                                                 3

      II. ALEXANDER HENRY--I                                          13

     III. ALEXANDER HENRY--II                                         36

      IV. JONATHAN CARVER                                             57

       V. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE--I                                      84

      VI. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE--II                                    102

     VII. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE--III                                   121

    VIII. LEWIS AND CLARK--I                                         138

      IX. LEWIS AND CLARK--II                                        154

       X. LEWIS AND CLARK--III                                       169

      XI. LEWIS AND CLARK--IV                                        179

     XII. LEWIS AND CLARK--V                                         190

    XIII. ZEBULON M. PIKE--I                                         207

     XIV. ZEBULON M. PIKE--II                                        226

      XV. ZEBULON M. PIKE--III                                       238

     XVI. ALEXANDER HENRY (THE YOUNGER)--I                           253

    XVII. ALEXANDER HENRY (THE YOUNGER)--II                          271

   XVIII. ALEXANDER HENRY (THE YOUNGER)--III                         287

     XIX. ROSS COX--I                                                301

      XX. ROSS COX--II                                               319

     XXI. THE COMMERCE OF THE PRAIRIES--I                            330

    XXII. THE COMMERCE OF THE PRAIRIES--II                           341

   XXIII. SAMUEL PARKER                                              359

    XXIV. THOMAS J. FARNHAM--I                                       372

     XXV. THOMAS J. FARNHAM--II                                      382

    XXVI. FREMONT--I                                                 393

   XXVII. FREMONT--II                                                405

  XXVIII. FREMONT--III                                               415

    XXIX. FREMONT--IV                                                428

     XXX. FREMONT--V                                                 435




ILLUSTRATIONS


  CAPTAINS LEWIS AND CLARK WERE MUCH PUZZLED AT THIS POINT TO
      KNOW WHICH OF THE RIVERS BEFORE THEM WAS THE MAIN MISSOURI
                                                          _Frontispiece_

                                                             FACING PAGE
  “I NOW RESIGNED MYSELF TO THE FATE WITH WHICH I WAS MENACED”        28

  A MAN OF THE NAUDOWESSIE                                            62
      From _Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America_,
        by Jonathan Carver

  A MAN OF THE OTTIGAUMIES                                            62
      From _Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America_,
        by Jonathan Carver

  ALEXANDER MACKENZIE                                                 84
      From Mackenzie’s _Voyages from Montreal Through the Continent
        of North America_, etc.

  MACKENZIE AND THE MEN JUMPED OVERBOARD                             118

  LIEUTENANT ZEBULON MONTGOMERY PIKE, MONUMENT AT COLORADO SPRINGS,
      COLORADO                                                       208

  BUFFALO ON THE SOUTHERN PLAINS                                     236
      From Kendall’s _Narrative of the Texas Santa Fé Expedition_

  TWO MEN MOUNTED ON HER BACK, BUT SHE WAS AS ACTIVE WITH THIS LOAD
      AS BEFORE                                                      270

  FUR TRADERS OF THE NORTH                                           280

  ASTORIA IN 1813                                                    302
      From Franchere’s _Narrative of a Voyage to the Northwest
        Coast of America_

  CARAVAN ON THE MARCH                                               334
      From Gregg’s _Commerce of the Prairies_

  WAGONS PARKED FOR THE NIGHT                                        340
      From Gregg’s _Commerce of the Prairies_

  TRAPPERS ATTACKED BY INDIANS                                       360
      From an old print by A. Tait

  TRAIN STAMPEDED BY WILD HORSES                                     372
      From Bartlett’s _Texas, New Mexico, California_, etc.

  MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN C. FREMONT                                      394

  AN OTO COUNCIL                                                     414
      From James’s _An Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky
        Mountains by Major Stephen H. Long_.


  MAP
                                                                    PAGE
  ROUTES OF SOME OF THE PATHFINDERS                                    2




TRAILS OF THE PATHFINDERS

[Illustration: ROUTES OF SOME OF THE PATHFINDERS]




TRAILS OF THE PATHFINDERS




CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION


Three centuries ago half a dozen tiny hamlets, peopled by white men,
were scattered along the western shores of the North Atlantic Ocean.
These little settlements owed allegiance to different nations of
Europe, each of which had thrust out a hand to grasp some share of the
wealth which might lie in the unknown wilderness which stretched away
from the seashore toward the west.

The “Indies” had been discovered more than a hundred years before, but
though ships had sailed north and ships had sailed south, little was
known of the land, through which men were seeking a passage to share
the trade which