painted by him in as dark colors as they are set forth by some of his compeers. Slight mention is made of the hardships through which he passed. While Ross enlarges upon the tediousness of the voyage, the bad fare and foul water, and the privations at Astoria and upon the river, Franchère passes over these with few words. On the other hand, he exhibits much enthusiasm over the beauties of the Columbia and the Saskatchewan basins, of verdant prairies, and of lofty forests.
Aside from the main historical value of the journal, there are interesting incidental references to the Western events of the second Anglo-American War. In the fastnesses of the Canadian wilderness, the news of Perry's victory upon Lake Erie brings consternation to the minds of British fur-traders. At Fort William, much anxiety over the fate of the yearly invoice of furs is manifested; and the flotilla bearing a million dollars' worth of peltries slips silently by the ruins of Sault Ste. Marie, the voyageurs listening with trepidation to the bombardment of Fort Mackinac. The wilderness, also, knew its own wars. Aside from the sharp and sometimes bloody international rivalry on the Northwest Coast, the struggle between the two Canadian companies was beginning to reach an acute stage. At the outlet of Lake Winnipeg, Franchère hears echoes of the strife between the North West Company and Lord Selkirk's Red River settlement—a rivalry that was to produce much bloodshed and hardship before the coalition of Canadian fur-traders in 1821.
But the main interest of the narrative centers in the Columbia region. The first white men to penetrate the interior since the expedition of Lewis and Clark, the testimony of the Astorians, and of Franchère in particular, in many important details corroborates that of the famous explorers. In his description of the native races, Franchère
