Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/270



This work, by Capt. Hiram M. Chittenden of the United States Corps of Engineers, is a departure from the old methods in history. We have in the past been satisfied to know the main incidents in human progress and their results without inquiry into the personal motives and technical features of our founders and builders. If we ever learned more, it was through the researches of an occasional biographer, who in his admiration for, or condemnation of, an individual character, brought to light hitherto unknown, often unsuspected facts. Inspired by emulation a rival biographer gave an opposite view, and in the course of time the true history was dragged to light. Thus, in the passing of centuries, by adding to and taking from, we get what we are satisfied to believe is a correct general account of our beginnings and progress.

In the book before us readers are saved this tedious method of getting at an understanding of events in the first century of American occupation of the Pacific Northwest. To accomplish such a result Captain Chittenden has, of course, been compelled to avail himself of the work previously done by others. But he has so carefully collected his material, and so artistically brought it together, that it has in effect the realistic features of the cyclorama, and we see all the participants in the action, which continues to go on.

The history of Oregon, subsequent to the navigator period, began with the Lewis and Clark expedition.