Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 4).djvu/21

Rh commerce, with its ultimate outlet by way of the Mississippi and New Orleans.

Cuming's work was not immediately published after writing. The manuscript passed into the possession of Zadok Cramer, a Pittsburg printer who was particularly interested in Ohio and Mississippi navigation, for which he published a technical guide called The Navigator, that ran through numerous editions. Cramer annotated Cuming's manuscript, adding thereto a considerable appendix of heterogeneous matter—collected, as he says in his advertisement, "from various sources while the press was going on with the work, and frequently was I hurried by the compositors to furnish copy from hour to hour." This material, much of it irrelevant and reprinted from other works, the present Editor has thought best to omit. It ranges from a description of the bridge at Trenton to Pike's tour through Louisiana—embracing such diverse matter as "Of the character of the Quakers," "Sculptures of the American Aborigines," and "Particulars of John Law's Mississippi Scheme."

The hope of Cramer that a second edition would soon be called for, was not fulfilled. Put forth in 1810, the book has never been reprinted until the present edition, which it is believed will be welcomed by students of American history.

As in former volumes of the series, Louise Phelps Kellogg, Ph.D., of the Wisconsin Historical Library, has assisted in the preparation of the notes. The Editor desires, also, to acknowledge his obligations to Mrs. Frances C. Wordin, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, for valuable information concerning her grandfather, Dr. John Cummins, of Bayou Pierre, Mississippi.

R. G. T., April, 1904.