"With the exception of the fourth book, they deal with the Far West and are therefore of great interest to students of Oregon and California history.

Dahlin, Ebba

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BOOK REVIEWSHall 1. Kelley on Oregon. Edited by FRED \VILBUR POWELL.(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1932. Pp. 411. $3.50.)The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and CaJifornia. By LANSFORD W.HASTINGS. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1932.Pp. 157. $3.00.)Scenery of the P.lains, Mountains and Mines. By FRANKLIN LANG-WORTHY. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1932. Pp.292. $3.50.)Scout and Ranger. By JAMES PIKE. (Princeton: Princeton Uni-versity Press. Pp. 164. $2.50.)In accordance with the plan for providing reprints of rare andinaccessible titles, the Princeton University Press has continued itsseries of Narratives of the Trans-Mississippi Frontier with thepublication of the four titles listed above. With the exception ofthe fourth book, they deal with the Far West and are therefore ofgreat interest to students of Oregon and California history.Hall Jackson Kelley, the New England school teacher, urgedcolonization of Oregon from 1824 to 1844 through numerous pamph-lets, books, letters and petitions to Congress. He became interestedin 1814 after reading the Journals of Lewis and Clark, devoting hisrather confused and active talents to the project. From 1832 to1836 he made a journey to Oregon, by land and sea, and returnedto describe its geography and history in a pamphlet published in1849. The volume includes five of Kelley's published works and anumber of hitherto unpublished letters. Although he did not suc-ceed in founding a settlement he furnished effective stimulus todiscussion and argument and thus increased interest in the OregonTerritory.The increase of settlers through emigration that Mr. Kellyurged seemed to other forward-looking enthusiasts to be the mostimportant element in the problem.Lansford Hastings of Ohio became a special pleader foremi-gration to California. His book, first published in 1845, was reallyan excellent example of good advertising. Hastings joined the springcaravan of 1842 under Dr. Elijah White, but after a few days,Hastings was chosen captain. The young man was dissatisfied withconditions in Oregon and led a contingent of emigrants to Califor-nia. A point of interest is that Dr. McLoughlin hired Hastings, whowas an attorney, to survey a land claim. A townsite was platted(232)Scout and Rangier 233by the name of Oregon City. A year after he left Oregon, thenew town boasted several settlers. He seems not to have had anypart in the organization of the Provisional Government. In Cali-fornia, Captain Sutter welcomed the Americans and from that time,Hastings decided to use his energies to encourage American settle-ment in California. The book has some errors and exaggerationsbut is on the whole an excellent help to understanding the West ofthe 1840's.A pioneer of Carroll County, Illinois, who travelled the Over-land Trail to California, was Franklin Langworthy, a preacher, sci-entist, and philosopher. He kept a diary of the trip, published firstin 1855, entitled "Scenery of the Plains, Mountains and Mines."There are hundreds of journals of the gold rush, but not many arewritten in Langworthy's impersonal style. He knew a good dealabout geology, botany and zoology. His descriptions were univer-sally accurate. He combined modern scientific learning of the periodwith an adequate knowledge of practical political questions. Whiletravelling, he delivered lectures to his fellow-travellers, the pros-pectors, on astronomy, geology,' sacred history, Mormonism, andnatural history. His diary is valuable as a philosophical descriptionof the Overland Trail, perhaps the only one of its kind.The last title, Sco/,Ll and Ranger, describes the personal adven-tures of James Pike of the Texas Rangers, in 1859 and 1860. Cor-poral Pike was sent out with the 2d U.S. Infantry troops in order toescort the Reserve Indians from Texas to Indian Territory. Aquarrel between officers of the Indian Service had complicated asituation already fraught with danger for the Indians. CorporalPike relates many tales from the region, notably the Cynthia AnnParker episode, recaptured from the Commanches, 23 years afterthe original capture. The writer's style is sometimes florid, but onthe whole, he tells a straight tale of rare adventure.Missionary zeal dominated Kelley; patriotic ambition to secureCalifornia inspired Hastings; scholarly and philosophic interestspervaded Langworthy's share in the gold rush; love for adventureanimated Pike. But they all alike, school teacher and lawyer, phil-osopher and soldier, told their contemporaries all they had learnedabout the West and provided historians with additional sources forthe history of our expansion movement.EBBA DAHLIN

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Scout and Ranger. By James Pike

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Scout and Ranger. By James Pike

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