on, most phases of western
life. The volumes most closely related to the subject matter of the
present book are: "Military Roads of the Mississippi Valley" (VIII);
"Waterways of Western Expansion" (IX); "The Cumberland Road" (X); and
"Pioneer Roads and Experiences of Travellers" (XIXII). Mention should be
made also of Mr. Hulbert's "The Ohio River, a Course of Empire" (1906).

Further references will be found appended to the articles on Illinois,
Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin in "The Encyclopaedia Britannica"
(11th edition).

Opportunity to get the flavor of the period by reading contemporary
literature is afforded by two principal kinds of books. One is
reminiscences, letters, and histories written by the Westerners
themselves. Timothy Flint's "Recollections of the Last Ten Years" (1826)
will be found interesting; as also J. Hall, "Letters from the West"
(1828), and T. Ford, "History of Illinois" (1854).

The second type of materials is books of travel written by visitors
from the East or from Europe. Works of this nature are always subject
to limitations. Even when the author tries to be accurate and fair,
his information is likely to be hastily gathered and incomplete and
his judgments unsound. Between 1800 and 1840 the Northwest was visited,
however, by many educated and fair-minded persons who wrote readable
and trustworthy descriptions of what they saw and heard. A complete
list cannot be given here, but some of the best of these books are: John
Melish, "Travels in the United States of America in the Years 1806 &
1807 and 1809, 1810 & 1811" (2 vols., 1810; William Cobbett, A Year's
Residence in the United States of America (1818); Henry B. Fearon,
Sketches of America (1818); Morris Birkbeck, Letters from Illinois
(1818); John Bradbury, "Travels in the Interior of America in the Years
1809, 1810, and 1811" (1819); Thomas Hulme, "Journal made during a Tour
in the Western Countries of America, 1818-1819" (1828); and Michael
Chevalier, "Society, Manners, and Politics in the United States" (1839).
Copies of early editions of some of these works will be found in
most large libraries. But the reader is happily not dependent on this
resource. Almost all of the really important books of the kind are
reprinted, with introductions and explanatory matter, in Reuben G.
Thwaites, "Early Western Travels, 1714-1846" (32 vols., 1904-07), which
is one of our chief collections of historical materials.

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