the chief trading house or mart. Inferior posts would be established in the interior, and on all the tributary streams of the Columbia, to trade with the Indians; these posts would draw their supplies from the main establishment, and bring to it the peltries they collected.

8. Coasting craft would be built and fitted out, also, at the mouth of the Columbia, to trade, at favorable seasons, all along the northwest coast, and return, with the proceeds of their voyages, to this place of deposit. Thus all the Indian trade, both of the interior and the coast, would converge to this point, and thence derive its sustenance. A ship was to be sent annually from New York to this main establishment with reënforcements and supplies, and with merchandise suited to the trade. It would take on board the furs collected during the preceding year, carry them to Canton, invest the proceeds in the rich merchandise of China, and return thus freighted to New York.

9. Such is the brief outline of the enterprise projected by Mr. John Jacob Astor, but which continually expanded in his mind. Indeed, it is due to him to say that he was not actuated by mere motives of individual profit. He was already wealthy beyond the ordinary desires of man, but he now aspired to that honorable fame which is awarded to men of similar scope of mind, who by their great commercial enterprises have enriched nations, peopled wildernesses, and extended the bounds of empire.

10. He considered his projected establishment at the mouth of the Columbia as the emporium of an immense commerce; as a colony that would form the germ of a

wide civilization; that would, in fact, carry the American population across the Rocky Mountains and spread it along the shores of the Pacific, as it already animated the shores of the Atlantic.

11. Mr. Astor now prepared to carry his scheme into prompt execution. He had some competition, however, to apprehend and guard against. The Northwest Company had pushed one or two advanced trading posts across the Rocky Mountains. To prevent any contest with that company, therefore, he made known his plan to its agents, and proposed to interest them, to the extent of one third, in the trade thus to be opened.

12. Some correspondence and negotiation ensued. The company were aware of the advantages which would be possessed by Mr. Astor should he be able to carry his scheme into effect; but they anticipated a monopoly of the trade beyond the mountains, and were loath to share it with an individual who had already proved a formidable competitor in the Atlantic trade. They hoped, too, by a timely move, to secure the mouth of the Columbia before Mr. Astor would be able to put his plans into operation; and, that key to the internal trade once in their possession, the whole country would be at their command. After some negotiation and delay, therefore, they declined the proposition that had been made to them, but subsequently dispatched a party for the mouth of the Columbia, to establish a post there before any expedition sent out by Mr. Astor might arrive.

13. In the meantime Mr. Astor, finding his overtures rejected, proceeded fearlessly to execute his enterprise

in face of the whole power of the Northwest Company. His main establishment once planted at the mouth of the Columbia, he looked with confidence to ultimate success. Being able to reënforce and supply it amply by sea, he would push his interior posts in every direction up the rivers, and along the coast; supplying the natives at a lower rate, and thus gradually obliging the Northwest Company to give up the competition, and retire to the other side of the mountains. He would then have possession of the trade, not merely of the Columbia and its tributaries, but of the regions farther north, quite to the Russian possessions. Such was a part of his brilliant and comprehensive plan.

I. Definitions: (1) trăv'ers ing, crossing; (2) eănꞌni balş, human beings who eat human flesh; (2) răv'âge, to ruin, to destroy; (5) stûpěn'doŭs, astonishing, wonderful; (5) děm'on strā těd, made plain; (5) prǎe ti eȧ bil'i tỹ, possibility, feasibility; (6) dū′bí oŭs lỹ, doubtfully, uncertainly; (6) må tur'ing, completing; (7) trib'û tâ rỹ, a stream whose waters flow into another stream; (8) eon vẽrge', tend to one point; (8) sus'të nançe, support; (9) ǎe'tù ā tĕd, moved, impelled; (11) compê ti'tion, rivalry; (12) nê gō ti a'tion (-she-), the treating with another person respecting sale or purchase; (12) mõ nop'ô lý, exclusive possession; (12) fôr'mi då ble, alarming; (13) eom prẻ hĕn'sive, including much, or many things.

II. Note: (1) Captain James Cook, who was one of the greatest of English navigators, was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1728. The voyage referred to in the selection was made in the years 1776 to 1779. Its main object was to discover a passage around the north coast of America from the Pacific. He rediscovered the Sandwich Islands in 1778. When he first stopped there the natives were friendly to him, but on his return from his voyage to the north their attitude changed. On February 14, 1779 he landed to secure a stolen boat. The natives then attacked him with great fury, and clubbed and stabbed him to death.

XXIX. ON THE FRONTIER IN 1846.

FROM "THE OREGON TRAIL," BY FRANCIS PARKMAN, JR.

FRANCIS PARKMAN.

What a determined will can accomplish in the face of great obstacles is most clearly seen in the career of Francis Parkman. That he might see the Indian as he was in the days of Wolfe and Montcalm and before, he made the trip described in this selection, undergoing hardships that ruined his health and left him an invalid for life. He did much of his work after his eyes had become nearly useless, and kept at his task when fifteen minutes was the longest time he could work without a rest. His life is an inspiration to those who aspire (and who does not?), but who find great obstacles in the way of success.

His conduct teaches two important lessons: 1st, He who would do a piece of the world's work must not begrudge the time necessary for preparation; 2d, The work being chosen, he must give himself wholly to its accomplishment. Having completed his college course, he gave two years to the study of law, that he might be able to treat the constitutional questions which he realized would confront him in his proposed history, His work chosen, neither impaired eyesight nor declining health deterred him from its accomplishment. His first book, "The Oregon Trail," appeared in 1849, and his last, "A Half-Century of Conflict," in 1892. The greater part of his history is suggested in the title, "The French in America." He was born in Boston in 1823 and died near that city in 1893, fully assured that the world had bestowed upon his labors the plaudit, "Well done!"

1. The spring of 1846 was a busy season in the city of St. Louis. Not only were emigrants from every part of

the country preparing for the journey to Oregon and California, but an unusual number of traders were making ready their wagons and outfits for Santa Fé. Many of the emigrants, especially of those bound for California, were persons of wealth and standing. The hotels were crowded, and the gunsmiths and saddlers were kept constantly at work in providing arms and equipments for the different parties of travelers. Almost every day steamboats were leaving the levee and passing up the Missouri crowded with passengers on their way to the frontier.

2. In one of these my friend and relative, Quincy A. Shaw, and myself left St. Louis on the 28th of April, on a tour of curiosity and amusement to the Rocky Mountains. The boat was loaded until the water broke alternately over her guards. Her upper deck was covered. with large wagons of a peculiar form for the Santa Fé trade, and her hold was crammed with goods for the same destination. There were also the equipments and provisions of a party of Oregon emigrants, a band of mules and horses, piles of saddles and harness, and a multitude of nondescript articles indispensable in the prairies.

3. The passengers on board the boat corresponded with her freight. In her cabin were Santa Fé traders, gamblers, speculators, and adventurers of various descriptions, and her steerage was crowded with Oregon emigrants, "mountain men," negroes, and a party of Kansas Indians who had been on a visit to St. Louis. Thus laden, the boat struggled upward for seven or eight days against the rapid current of the Missouri, grating upon snags and hanging for two or three hours at a time upon