Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/58

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
52
F. G. Young.
52

52 REUBEN GOLD THWAITES. in Kentucky, and eventually became the property of the Wisconsin Historical Society. It was published in 1894 in the proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, with an introduction by James Davie Butler. Soon after the return of the expedition, Robert Fraser, one of the privates, solicited subscriptions in Vermont for a publica- tion of his journal, to be "contained in about 400 pages octavo"; but it did not appear, and the present writer has no knowledge of the manuscript. The existence of a journal (67,000 words, covering the dates May 14, 1804- November 6, 1805,) by Private Joseph Whitehouse was unknown until recently. It was purchased in San Fran- cisco by Dodd, Mead & Co., to be published in connection with the original journals of Lewis and Clark. After having been edited for the press the manuscript was ac- quired from the publishers by Edward E. Ayer, the well- known Chicago collector. Thus, seventy-five years after Jefferson's quest, and within a few weeks of a hundred years after the arrival of the Lewis and Clark expedition at their preliminary camp on River Dubois, there have at last been located presumably all of the literary records now extant of that notable enterprise in the cause of civilization. When published, as they bid fair to be within a twelve- month, their original journals will create a new interest in the deeds of Lewis and Clark. Not only are they much more extensive than the Biddle narrative, and the voluminous scientific data in botany, zoology, meteor- ology, geology, astronomy, and ethnology an almost entirely new contribution ; but we obtain from the men's notebooks, as written from day to day, a far more vivid picture of the explorers and their life than can be seen through the alembic of Riddle's impersonal condensation. The pages of the journals are aglow with human in- terest. The quiet, even temper of the camp ; the loving