[Frontispiece: Stealing from the Fort by Night.]
Pathfinders of the West
BEING
THE THRILLING STORY OF THE ADVENTURES
OF THE MEN WHO DISCOVERED
THE GREAT NORTHWEST
RADISSON, LA VÉRENDRYE, LEWIS AND CLARK
BY
A. C. LAUT
AUTHOR OF "LORDS OF THE NORTH," "HERALDS
OF EMPIRE," "STORY OF THE TRAPPER"
ILLUSTRATIONS BY
REMINGTON, GOODWIN, MARCHAND
AND OTHERS
NEW YORK
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS
COPYRIGHT, 1904,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1904. Reprinted February,1906.
WILDWOOD PLACE, WASSAIC, N.Y.
August 15, 1904.
DEAR MR. SULTE:
A few years ago, when I was a resident of the Far West and tried to tracethe paths of early explorers, I found that all authorities—first,second, and third rate—alike referred to one source of information fortheir facts. The name in the tell-tale footnote was invariably your own.
While I assume all responsibility for upsetting the apple cart ofestablished opinions by this book, will you permit me to dedicate it toyou as a slight token of esteem to the greatest living French-Canadianhistorian, from whom we have all borrowed and to whom few of us haverendered the tribute due?
Faithfully,
AGNES C. LAUT.
MR. BENJAMIN SULTE,
PRESIDENT ROYAL SOCIETY,
OTTAWA, CANADA.
THE GREAT NORTHWEST
I love thee, O thou great, wild, rugged land
Of fenceless field and snowy mountain height,
Uprearing crests all starry-diademed
Above the silver clouds! A sea of light
Swims o'er thy prairies, shimmering to the sight
A rolling world of glossy yellow wheat
That runs before the wind in billows bright
As waves beneath the beat of unseen feet,
And ripples far as eye can see--as far and fleet!
Here's chances for every man! The hands that work
Become the hands that rule! Thy harvests yield
Only to him who toils; and hands that shirk
Must empty go! And here the hands that wield
The sceptre work! O glorious golden field!
O bounteous, plenteous land of poet's dream!
O'er thy broad plain the cloudless sun ne'er wheeled
But some dull heart was brightened by its gleam
To seize on hope and realize life's highest dream!
Thy roaring tempests sweep from out the north--
Ten thousand cohorts on