narrator, and the varying fortunes of a great enterprise, mingle more happily, and one may say, more dramatically, with the itinerary. The clerkly minuteness {7} of the details is not without its charm either, and their fidelity speaks for itself. Take it altogether, it must be regarded as a fragment of our colonial history saved from oblivion; it fills up a vacuity which Mr. Irving's classic work does not quite supply; it is, in fact, the only account by an eyewitness and a participator in the enterprise, of the first attempt to form a settlement on the Pacific under the stars and stripes.
The editor has thought it would be interesting to add Mr. Franchere's Preface to the original French edition, which will be found on the next page.
Baltimore, February 6, 1854.
