New-York tribune., 1897-07-30

and Columbia Rivers. Edited with Copous
volumes Octave. Vol. /. The Red River Of the
North Pr xviii 4is Vol H. The .sSaS sanSa'Shs Gn
III. Index and Maps PIP. sl7-i@7 Francis T.
Harper.
The part Of this book mos. likely to interest
all readers is that which relates to Astoria
Irvings famous book. deeply interesting as II
Is, has the defects OF a narrative based on re-
ports and not on personal experience. Its geog-
raphy is often vague Mr.. Coues complains
that he cannot tell in reading Astoria where
important incidents took place. nor fix the routes
travelled without the risk OF an error of fifty
or one hundred miles. From purely literary
point OF view, these defects are OF minor impor-
tance. Nobody took the less interest IN
Irvng's adventures because he could not fnd
all their camping places on map But any ef-
fort to get the dry details Of mere history out
Of the racy narrative is attended with dill
culties Still Mr. Coues has to agree with every
one else that when it comes to bringing out TO
clear view the human nature involved in the
clumsy reports which furnished his material
Irving worked with unerring skill.
Alexander Henry's journal. though not one
Of the documents accessible to Irving Illus
trates the character of some that he had to
deal with. The reader. however. does not get
Il in its untamcd exuberance In the first place
there was vastly more Of 1t than could be COM
pressed into two thick volumes of the series
which Mr.. Coues is editing. So the blue pencil
was used in obliteratng great superfiuity or
words. Then, apparently many passages IN
which big words were used were changed TO
simpler forms. The editor frankly confesses his
efforts 10 make his hero presentable But ne
has an excuse in addition to all that may be
said for the success OF his labors If Henrys
own writings exist, their hiding-place Is un-
known. What passes for transcript OF MS
Journals Is a manuscript bound in two volumes
which is preserved in the Library OF Parila-
ment at ottawa. But this is not merely
copy. but partly original work by man
who signed himself George Coventry. What is
Henry's own in this manuscript Is easily dis
tinguished, according 10 Mr. Coues, from the
additions made by Coventry, since the latter was
obliged by his ignorance of life in the fur
trading regions to confnc himself to more or
less vapid moral observations, morality, except
as 1t helped or hindered the gathering of pelts,
being quite foreign to Henry's disposition. AS
nobody unless interested in the antiquities or
the fur trade of the far Northwest ever
heard Of either man. Mr.. Coue- was fully al
liberty TO handle the material at his dlsposai
very much as he liked, subject TO the require
mentS or history ana geography lH0 "'ih
In hand is a compromise between what Mr..
Coues found written and what he would have
written If he had composed the journal or ed
tied II himself al first hand 1t is mine OF
geographical information and. only in less de-
gree. Of information about the Indians at the
opening Of the present century. With the help
Of numerous authorities. but especially with
that Of the manuscripts left by the geographer
Mr.
notes elaborate study Of the whole field
over which his literary fur-trader wandered. -ie
has recovered where he could-and that was in
many hundreds of instances-the biography of
traders and trappers and Indians whose names
are mentioned AS there was in the Of
nearly every one OF these men something note
worthy-for the age and the place were marked
by turmoil and activity such as settled civil
ization knows nothing Of-these personal notes
will all be Of use to the future historian.
Henry would have remained obscure as
most OF his comrades had it not been for his
persistent labor with the pen. He does not
figure at all In Irvngs narrative. though there
were only one or two men more prominent than
he in the taking of Astoria. His name occurs
in other narratives not his own with about
the same frequency as those of other post-trad-
ers men whose authority. such as it was, ex-
tended over a wide region. but whose subor-
dnates were few and usually much scattered
He had his Indian wife and his half-breed chill
dren He was so accustomed to Indian brawls
and TO bloodshed in general that he writes with
as much emotio~ about setting his hen on thir-
teen eggs as about the murder of his mother
in-law. Almost the only point OF morals he
writes strenuously upon is the crime Of furnish
ing the savages with liquor. But as this is
matter of business. he deals out the rum ana
the rhetoric Wit. the same hand. He is no
student of human nature like the famous Cat
lin. and he takes no pains to understand saw
ages except from the fur-trader's and white ad-
venturer's point of view. The Mandans. when
he visited them one occasion. scandalized
him by their easy going ways, but he made no
attempt to learn the code of tribal morality,
which is now known t. be as strict in its own
way as that Of civilized men. His testimony on
various points of ethnoogy is valuable because
It Is given in ignorance of all theories.
Perhaps. with his meagre education. he would
not have kept any record of his adventures II
the habit had not, so to speak. run in the family
His uncle also named Alexander Henry who
was a fur trader In the period between the
French war and the Revolution, wrote a book
which was published under the title of Travels
and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Ter
ritories" SO the nephew must write a book.
too In the course of fifteen years he gathered
plenty Of material. He was from the first an
important man in the service of the Northwest
Company. the mos; aggressive rival that tie
Hudson Bay Company ever had. His posts and
his travels extended from Lake Superior TO the
mouth Of the Columbia River. and from the
valley of the Missouri to the Red River OF the !
North. Within that vast expanse he had to |
make himself familiar with varied stocks Of !
most of whom significant in |
pioneer history. His experiences not novel |
to his class. The novelty lay In his recording |
them. Most Of his comrades. the Mortimer" |
of Western tradition. contented themselves with !
telling their adventures at campfres or over the