Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1875-08-18
THE FOUNDATION STONE or
PACIFIC COAST STANDARD
LITERATURE.

Hitherto WI of the Pacific Coast
have had, properly speaking, no litera-
ture Of our own. The history and the
resources Of our country have re-
NAMED unwrritten, and, comparative
ly speaking, unknown. Information
respecting a territory as new as that
lying west of the Rocky mountains
must. at best, be scanty; but, as yet,
even this has not been available, and
for the reason hat it is scattered
through thousands of volumes and an
cientm manuscripts, and most of them diff
hcultto obtain and manyofthem almost
priceless. Sections of States and mat
ters of local interest have been written
up; travellers have given in sheir books
OF "travels around the world" a few
Jottings OF what they saw in California
or Oregon, but nothing more than this.
To obtain all matters which had been
printed or written concerning n only
of our States, it would therefore be
necessary to read through probably
five thousand volumes. Few iren in
this country have the inclination to do
this, fewer still have the time or money
to do it. What was necessary was that
some one should boil down, as it were,
should digest the whole mass of mate
rial and bring 1t into a readable and
available shape. We say this was what
was Wdnted, but it was never suggested,
and, for a good reason-where was the
nan to do il? In the first place, the
person undertaking such a vast work
must be a man of literary taste and
ability; in the second place, he must
be a man of wealth and leisure-and
what mar of wealth in this country is
a ma of leisure? In the third place,
he must be a man devoted to the
cause and entirely unselfish; for the
project certainly offered no pecuniary
inducements, and he might think him
self lucky If after years Of patient and
Luxurious toll, after paying out thou.
sands which brought no return, even
in the way of interest he came out
even. Such a man would be a phenix
of the first water and hard to find.
Such a man has been found, however;
not as proposing to do the work, bit us
hdUing done IL.
Fifteen years ago Mr.. Hubert Ban
croft withdrew from al eminently
successful business and devoted him
self to literature. Being impressed
with the magnitude OF the new field
which lay uncultivated and unexplorej
before him in the territory west of the
Rocky Mountains, he undertook to
exhaust the subject. lie made no stir
about il: he asked no assistance from
Government, where it might reason
ably be expected. His first step was
to collect, in the shape of a colossal
private library, all the books and man
uscripts that touched the subject. For
this purpose ne went upon several DC
casions to Europe, and spared neither
time nor trouble in collecting every
thing of the kind that money would
buy. The re &Glt was a library the
most complete on its subject in the
world, to which additions have since
and are now constantly being made.
Hubert Bancroft next engaged a strong
corps oil literary men, Europeans and
Americans, to help him. Their duty
has been To 90 through the works and
take out notes In such a shape as To
render il possible for him to digest and
write from them. Without such as
sistanco the work would have been I'M
practicable; Dumas, Humboldt, and
other great writer's have found this out,
and so has Mr.. Bancroft.
This gentleman now offers us the
first installnient of the result of his
labors in a five volume series of works
on The Ndtiue Races Of the Pacific
States. The ground covered is the en-
tire American territory west OF the
Rocky Mountains, including the Brit
ish Possessions and the whole of Mex
leo and Central America. The style is
clear, concise and attractive. while, in
the way Of foot notes, this work is
probably more complete than any ever
published, every shade of difference
in the authorities being laid before the
reader. Nothing is omitted, and all
difficulties are satisfactorily e~lucidated.
Some of the volumes are splendidly
and profusely illustrated, and most of
them contain original and valuable
maps. The typography is clear, and
shows great care; the binding Is ex-
cellent and tasteful. We may conclude
by saying that we heartily recommend
Hubert Bancrott's work to our readers,
and we feel assured that the American
people will not allow his task to be a
thankless one. r. Y. Anderson, of
Eureka, is agent for Eastern Nevada.