IN THE COURSE
           of occasional visits
         to Canada many years since,
           I became intimately
              acquainted with
                   some of the principal partners
                    of the great Northwest
                            Fur Company,
         who at
             that time
                  lived in genial style
                       at Montreal,
           and kept almost open
               house for the stranger.

    At their hospitable boards
         I occasionally met with partners,
           and clerks,
         and hardy fur traders
               from the interior posts;
        men who
            had passed years remote
                   from civilized society,
           among distant and savage tribes,
         and who had
             wonders to recount
                   of their wide
                 and wild peregrinations,
           their hunting exploits,
         and their perilous adventures
               and hair-breadth
            escapes among the Indians.

    I was at an age
         when imagination
            lends its coloring to everything,
           and the stories
               of these Sinbads
             of the wilderness
              made the life
                   of a trapper
                 and fur trader perfect
                   romance to me.

    I even
        meditated at one
              time a visit
                   to the remote posts
                       of the company
                   in the boats
          which annually
            ascended the lakes and rivers,
           being thereto
              invited by
                   one of the partners;
        and I have ever
             since regretted
                 that I
                    was prevented
                           by circumstances
                               from carrying
                                   my intention into effect.

    From those early impressions,
           the grand enterprise
               of the great fur companies,
         and the hazardous errantry
               of their associates
             in the wild parts
                   of our vast continent,
           have always
            been themes of charmed
                   interest to me;
        and I
              have felt anxious
                  to get at the
                    details of
                           their adventurous expeditions
                         among the savage tribes
             that peopled the depths
                   of the wilderness.

    About two years ago,
           not long
              after my return
                   from a tour
                 upon the prairies of the
                       far West,
         I had a conversation
               with my friend,
           Mr. John Jacob Astor,
         relative to
             that portion of our country,
           and to the adventurous traders
               to Santa Fe
                   and the Columbia.

    This led him
           to advert
         to a great enterprise
          set on foot and
              conducted by him,
           between twenty
               and thirty years since,
         having for its object
              to carry the fur trade
                   across the Rocky Mountains,
           and to sweep the shores
               of the Pacific.

    Finding that
         I took an interest
               in the subject,
           he expressed a regret
             that the true nature
                   and extent of his enterprise
                 and its national character
                       and importance
                had never been understood,
         and a wish
             that I
                would undertake
                      to give
                           an account of it.

    The suggestion
          struck upon the chord
               of early
             associations
                already
              vibrating in my mind.

    It occurred to me
         that a work
               of this kind
            might comprise a variety of
                   those curious details,
           so interesting to me,
         illustrative of the fur trade;
        of its remote
               and adventurous enterprises,
           and of the various people,
         and tribes,
           and castes,
         and characters,
           civilized and savage,
         affected by its operations.

    The journals,
           and letters,
         also,
           of the adventurers
               by sea and land
             employed by Mr. Astor
                   in his comprehensive project,
         might throw light
               upon portions of our country
              quite out
                   of the track
                 of ordinary travel,
           and as yet
             but little known.

    I therefore felt disposed
          to undertake the task,
           provided documents of sufficient extent
               and minuteness
            could be furnished to me.

    All the papers relative
           to the enterprise
        were accordingly
              submitted to my inspection.

    Among them
        were journals and letters
             narrating expeditions by sea,
           and journeys to and fro
               across the Rocky Mountains
             by routes
             before untravelled,
         together with documents
             illustrative
                of savage
               and colonial life
             on the borders
                   of the Pacific.

    With such material in hand,
           I undertook the work.

    The trouble of rummaging