Pathfinders of the West

Pathfinders of the West

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pathfinders of the West, by A. C.
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Title: 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
Author: A. C. Laut
Release Date: April 20, 2006 [EBook #18216]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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PATHFINDERS OF THE WEST ***

Produced by Al Haines

[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
trace the paths of early explorers, I found that all authorities--first,
second, and third rate--alike referred to one source of information for
their facts. The name in the tell-tale footnote was invariably your own.
While I assume all responsibility for upsetting the apple cart of
established opinions by this book, will you permit me to dedicate it to
you as a slight token of esteem to the greatest living French-Canadian
historian, from whom we have all borrowed and to whom few of us
have rendered 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 the wind's wild mane-- No hand can check thy frost-steeds bursting
forth To gambol madly on the storm-swept plain! Thy hissing
snow-drifts wreathe their serpent train, With stormy laughter shrieks
the joy of might-- Or lifts, or falls, or wails upon the wane-- Thy
tempests sweep their stormy trail of white Across the deepening
drifts--and man must die, or fight!
Yes, man must sink or fight, be strong or die! That is thy law, O great,
free, strenuous West! The weak thou wilt make strong till he defy Thy
bufferings; but spacious prairie breast Will never nourish weakling as
its guest! He must grow strong or die! Thou givest all An equal
chance--to work, to do their best-- Free land, free hand--thy son must
work or fall Grow strong or die! That message shrieks the storm-wind's
call!
And so I love thee, great, free, rugged land Of cloudless summer days,
with west-wind croon, And prairie flowers all dewy-diademed, And
twilights long, with blood-red, low-hung moon And mountain peaks
that glisten white each noon Through purple haze that veils the western
sky-- And well I know the meadow-lark's far rune As up and down he
lilts and circles high And sings sheer joy--be strong, be free; be strong
or die!

Foreword

The question will at once occur why no mention is made of Marquette
and Jolliet and La Salle in a work on the pathfinders of the West. The
simple answer is--they were not pathfinders. Contrary to the notions
imbibed at school, and repeated in all histories of the West, Marquette,
Jolliet, and La Salle did not discover the vast region beyond the Great
Lakes. Twelve years before these explorers had thought of visiting the
land which the French hunter designated as the Pays d'en Haut, the
West had already been discovered by the most intrepid voyageurs that
France