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 Cones : On the Trail of a Spanish Pioneer 1 4 1 generally" from their British allegiance. The most recent investigation of this subject was made three or four years ago by Professor Victor Coffin, who maintained " that the provisions of the Quebec Act were neither occasioned nor appreciably affected by conditions in the early col- onies " and " that, far from being effectual in keeping the mass of Ca- nadians loyal to the British connection, the measure had a strong influence in precisely the opposite direction." ' We have no space to discuss the question involved, and shall not pass judgment upon it further than to re- mark that Professor Coffin's book is one with which the historian of the Northwest should feel that he is called upon to reckon. It is not even mentioned here. Once more, the treatment of some events that occurred just before the first American settlements beyond the Ohio were made, is not alto- gether satisfactory. The author's statement of the proposition made by Jefferson in 1784 relative to the exclusion of slavery from the Western country would certainly mislead the reader, unless he is able to check it by an earlier knowledge. The bare reference to the Land Ordinance of May 20, 1785, gives the whole credit of the rectangular system of land-surveys to Mr. Jefferson, who brought in the bill, but it was New England insistence upon such a system and definite locations of land in the Western country that effected this great piece of legislation. Once more, the land-grant educational policy eventually adopted by Congress had its origin in the Land Ordinance, and not in the Ordinance of 17S7, which simply contained an academical declaration on the subject. It is very true that an author has a right to have his book judged with reference to the plan on which it is written, and that, judged by this cri- terion, The Nortlnvest under Three Flags deserves high praise. The story, as a whole, has never been so well told before. At the same time, if Mr. Moore had somewhat enlarged his plan, so as to take a broader view of his subject, and to introduce some discussion of its more notable features, even at the expense of omitting some of the picturesque detail, he would have produced a more valuable book. B. A. Hinsdale. On the Trail of a Spanish Pioneer ; The Diary and Itinerary of Francisco Carets, 1775-1776. By Elliott Coues. (New York : Francis P. Harper. 1 900. [American Explorer Series, in.]. Two vols., pp. XXX, 312.) This book is a translation from the Spanish manuscript copy of the diary of Garces, kept through his journeys in Sonora, Arizona and Cali- fornia. It has a valuable introduction by Coues and an abridged trans- lation of the life of Garces by Juan Domingo Arricivita. The diary of Garces is very meagre, chiefly because there was little to write concerning his somewhat aimless wanderings in the wilderness > The Proz'ince of Quebec and the Early American Revoltition, Madison, Wis. 1S96, preface.