Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 2).djvu/15



The second volume of our series of Early Western Travels is devoted to the reprint of John Long's Voyages and Travels of an Indian Interpreter and Trader, originally published in London in 1791.

Concerning Long, but little is known further than what he himself relates in his book. Coming from England to North America in 1768, he passed nearly twenty years upon this continent, chiefly consorting with the Indians—learning their languages, wearing their garb, living their life. An expert woodsman, fur-trader, and explorer, he penetrated into regions north and west of Canada, that are still practically unexplored.

At first an articled clerk in Canada, he later was apprenticed to a Montreal fur merchant. Having displayed an adaptability for Indian philology, Long was sent to the neighboring mission colony at Caughnawaga, where he remained seven years, becoming an adept in the arts and occupations of savage life. His term of service having expired, the excitements of army life attracted him. The American Revolution had just broken out, and volunteering for service with the British he was detailed to lead Indian parties to hang upon the flanks of the invading American army—one of these expeditions captured the famous Ethan Allen. After a year and a half of this service, in which—dressed as an Indian, and scalping his prisoners in their fashion—he could scarcely be distinguished from a brave, Governor Guy Carleton appointed Long a midshipman in the