Excerpt from A Condensed Geography and History of the Western States, or the Mississippi Valley, Vol. 1 of 2 He foelsitto beaduty, once for all, to make the most frank and ample avowal of the sources, to which he has chiefly repaired [or compilation. That works of history and geography must no cessan'ly be prepared in this way, no person, at all acquainted with the nature of such writings, need be told. As well might a travel ler presume toclaim the feesimple of all the country, which he has surveyed, as a historian and geographer expect to preclude those, who come after him, from making a proper use of his labors. If the former writers have seen accurately, and related faithfully, the latter ought to have the resemblance of declaring the same facts, with that variety only, which nature has enstamped upon the dis tinct elaborations of every individual mind Those, who have preceded him, have availed themselves of the observations of their predecessors. The author flutters himself, that his work, in its turn, will be consulted by those, who will come after him. As works of this sort become multiplied, voluminous and detailed, it becomes a duty to literature to abstract, abridge, and give in sy noptical views, the information that is spread through numerous volumes. So far from its being the tendency of a work of this kind to undervalue, and preclude the use of works, from which it is compiled, he would hope, that adverting to the original works, by pointing to the sources of his information, would have the contrary effect of inducing those readers, who wish to view the subject in all its details and hearings, to repair to those works, and rescue them from oblivion. Many of them are works of great merit, and have undeservedly passed into disuse. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.