Search -
Early Western Travels, 1748-1846 Volume 15 ~ Leather Bound
Early Western Travels 17481846 Volume 15 Leather Bound Author:Reuben Gold Thwaites Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: LETTERS AND SKETCHES A NARRATIVE OF A YEAR'S RESIDENCE AMONG THE INDIAN TRIBES Łt)e Uockg Jflountaina. P. J. DE SMET, S. J. PUBLISHED BY M. rVT... more »HlAN, 61 U. SECOND STREET. 1843. PREFACE To those who love their country, and their fellow men, we present this interesting Narrative, with the hope, we might say, the certainty, that its perusal will afford them some moments of the purest gratification. We have seldom met any thing more entertaining. Its simple, manly eloquence enchants the attention. The facts it makes known to us of the "far, far West," the dispositions and habits of the Indian Tribes who roam over the vast region of the Oregon, their present state and future prospects, are such as cannot fail to awaken lively interest in all who love to look around them beyond the narrow horizon of every-day scenes, and learn what the holy servants of God are doing for His sake and in His name in distant parts of the world. We have conversed with the apostolic man from whose pen we receive this narrative; and as we listened we felt at once honoured and delighted to be so near one who in our days and in his own person brings before us that lofty spirit of missionary devotedness those thrilling scenes of Indian life and adventure which we so much admire in the pages of Charlevoix and Bancroft. [vi] Truly our country is full of interest to those who watch its progress, and compare it with the past. Who, for example, could have dreamt that the Iroquois, the savage Mohawk, under which name we best know the tribe, and whose startling yell so often made our forefathers tremble, would have been chosen to kindle the first faint sparks of civilization and Christianity among a large portion of the Indian tribes beyond theRocky Mountains? This is one of the singul...« less