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The author spent three years in Oregon as a government surveyor. Wagner-Camp notes that Armstrong apparently spent most of his time in Oregon west of the Cascade mountains, with seven chapters being devoted to that area, two to the Willmette valley alone. Streeter points out that "When Armstrong wrote this excellent account of Oregon it was still distinctly a pioneer country. Armstrong expected Oregon City, fifteen miles up the river from Portland, to be the great city of Oregon. He included very little about Washington except an account of the Indian Tribes." Brief vocabularies of the Chinook Jargon and the Nootka dialect are also given. Graff 87; Howes A318; Smith 285; Streeter 3330; Tweney 3; Wagner-Camp 283a.