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Rh Barrows to expatiate on the ignorance of the west and of western history prevalent in the east, and it was to be his singular fortune to write a book on the west the acceptance of which as history by eastern scholars was to be a far more convincing demonstration of his thesis than anything he ever said in its support.

This rehash of Spalding and Gray, overladen with much irrelevant disquisition, became the accepted source of Oregon history for writers of text-books and popular articles, although H. H. Bancroft's Oregon, which was published a year later, offered a painstaking and comprehensive narrative based on contemporary sources and scrupulously authenticated by footnotes. But Bancroft's Oregon, since it formed part of a series which was too vast for one man to write and which therefore must be the work of various anonymous subordinates, was ignored as "machine made" history, and therefore unworthy of consideration, and confidence was reposed in the handiwork of Mr. Barrows. Never were confiding scholars and a