PBA Galleries

First printed account of the first emigrant party to cross the plains. Streeter, rather floridly, called the expedition "That extraordinary venture by a band of hardy Yankees from Cambridge, Massachusetts who failed to get rich quick in the fur trade but who succeeded in crossing the Rocky Mountains to within 400 miles of the Pacific." The expedition, led by Nathaniel Wyeth, was undoubtedly inspired by Hall J. Kelley's propaganda and pamphlets on the colonization of Oregon. John B. Wyeth was the younger cousin of Nathaniel, and split with the main party after crossing the continental divide to return to New England; the main party continued on to the Columbia, but a ship dispatched around the Horn with supplies failed to arrive, and the adventurers were forced to return to Cambridge, where Nathaniel resumed his profitable ice business. The present account, which was edited and possibly largely written by Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse, seems to have been intended to discourage western adventurers, and has been much maligned, Bernard DeVoto, in Across the Wide Missouri, calling it "lively and exceedingly malicious," and Nathaniel Wyeth himself disparaging it as "little lies told for gain." Notwithstanding these criticisms, it still ranks as one of the most important accounts in the annals of Transmississippi journeys, being the first of many emigrant parties venturing to Oregon. This copy attractively rebound, probably around the turn of the century, without the original wrappers and without the half-title. Also there is no errata slip with this copy, but the existence of one is perhaps open to question. Howes calls for an errata slip, and Wagner-Camp says that some copies were issued with one, but neither the Streeter copy, the Graff Copy, or the copy in the Bancroft Library had an errata, and none of the last six copies to appear at auction had one. It would be very interesting to hear of a copy which does have an errata slip.