Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 4).djvu/17

Rh learn that his first Western journey from Pittsburg was undertaken at least in part to observe some lands in Ohio, which he had previously purchased in Europe, and with whose situation and location he was agreeably surprised. The journey to Mississippi appears to have been undertaken with a view to making his home in that territory. The place and date signed to the preface—"Mississippi territory, 20th Oct. 1809"—would indicate that he had decided upon remaining where he had found the social life so much to his taste, and some of his former friends and acquaintances had settled.

It is the natural impulse of almost every traveller to record the events of a somewhat unusual tour. Cuming wished, also, to afford information to Europeans and Eastern men of "a country, in its infancy, which from its rapid improvement in a very few years, will form a wonderful contrast to its present state." His attitude was sympathetic towards the new and raw regions through which he travelled; nevertheless this fact does not appear to have unduly affected his purpose of giving an accurate picture of what he saw. He does not slur over the disadvantages, nor extenuate any of the crudeness or vulgarity; but at the same time portrays the possibilities of the new land, its remarkable growth, its opportunities for development, and the vigor and enterprise of its inhabitants.

In plain, dispassionate style, he has given us a picture of American life in the West, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, that for clear-cut outlines and fidelity of presentation has the effect of a series of photographic representations. In this consists the value of the book for students of American history. We miss entirely those evidences of amused tolerance and superficial criticism that characterize so many English books of his day, recounting travels in the United States—a state of mind sometimes developing