Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 4.djvu/360

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350
William Alfred Morris.

neglected to put in institutions, leaving them for W. N. [himself] and Savage." In view of Oak's oft-repeated assertion that he was sole author of these five volumes, this must mean that they were supplied in other volumes. Moreover, there are no institutional parts properly speaking in these five volumes, and if such parts as "Mission Progress," "Commercial Affairs," and the like are to be regarded, they make up half the work.)

The early American history of California was a topic in which Mr. Bancroft was naturally interested because of his own mining experience during the early gold days. Nemos' schedule shows that he wrote sixty pages for the sixth volume of California, a circumstance which taken with our knowledge of fields of research into which he entered in the preparation of California Pastoral and Popular Tribunals makes us reasonably sure that he wrote the first, second, and twenty-fifth chapters. Mrs. Victor, who in her work on Oregon had been found especially strong as a writer on political subjects, was assigned the task of working up the political history of California, and, according to her own statement, wrote two hundred and thirty-four pages for this volume. We can positively identify chapters twelve, thirteen, twenty-three, and twenty-four as her work. From the similarity of their subject-matter to some already treated by her in the Oregon history, and from the fact that their addition to the work just indicated brings the total almost exactly to the figures given, we may conclude that she also wrote the third, fourth, and fifth chapters. The chapter entitled Mexican Land Titles is Oak's work, and the remainder of the volume, almost two thirds, is that of Nemos.

Information given by Mrs. Victor shows that she wrote for the final volume of the History of California four hundred and eighty-nine pages on politics and railroads.