Original sentence: All of these characters and events bring out what the west was really like in 1848.And there is Jaimie's father.Finally, in San Francisco, we meet a street preacher who has decided to spend his life in a cause.He has some great attributes and some fatal flaws but we grow to love and admire him at the same time that we feel sorry for him.He knows that "temperance" seldom wins against the lure of strong drink but he never gives up none the less.His observations of Indian customs and way of life show a culture that is all but forgotten.In chapter after chapter the reader is introduced to many characters.It reads along lines of "Lonesome Dove".Jaimie is captured by Indians.Many of the events in the book have been shown in movies.Of course there is a tough wagon train leader with a secret from his past.On the wagon train, there is a strong silent farmer who joins up with his wife and children to search for gold.One wonders how much is truth and how much is "tall tales".Some of them are honest and some are thieving murderers.Taylor drew much of the story from a diary written by a doctor who had actually traveled across the west.The writers of the movies of John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, and Kevin Costner got their inspiration, if not their actual ideas from novels like "The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters".There are characters who are low and despicable.There are characters who are noble and kind.There are gunfights, and fistfights.There are heros and villans.There are poor farmers, scraping out a living.There are respectable townsmen.There is a duel.There is an aristocratic englishman who joins for adventure.There is frontier justice.There is murder.There is theft.This is a great historical american novel.When the wagon train stops in Salt Lake City for the winter, Jaimie describes something of early Mormans society.When they get to California, Jaimie describes the gold prospectors and their life