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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: Agnes C. Laut (1871-1936) |
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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 produced, men whose wide ranging
explorations exceeded the achievements of Cartier and Champlain and La
Salle put together... Continue reading book >>
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