The Commerce of the Prairies Author:Josiah Gregg, Milo M. Quaife (Editor) History: American — Although no such stream of travel poured over the old Santa Fe Trail as that which followed the Oregon — Trail to California and the Pacific Northwest, its story in many respects even more interesting and picturesque. — Josiah Greg's narrative covering the years 1831-1844 originally bore the subtitle: "Journal of a Santa Fe Tr... more »ader During Eight Expeditions Across the Great Western Prairies, and a Residence of Nearly Nine Years in Northern Mexico. When it was first published in 1844 the importance of the work was at once apparent and it has long been recognized as the classic account of this facet of America's historical past. In the words of William E. Connelley: "It became the authority of all subjects of which it treated; and not only has retained the high place it immediately won, but its value has increased with more extensive knowledge of its times... [Greg's} fearlessness in the prominent characteristics of all his intercourse with the Mexicans and Indians . . . His iron will is typical of that unconquerable spirit that carried American conquest to the Pacific Ocean."
The present edition, edited by Milo M. Quaife and first published in 1926, is abridged from the original two-volume edition and includes only those chapters devoted to Gregg's personal narrative.« less