Excerpt from The Californian, Vol. 5: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine, January June, 1882 In no fair sense of the term was Captain Aubrey a pioneer of California, notwithstanding the fact that, during the gold-discovery years, he explored the route hither which is now utilized in the greatest railroad enterprise of distinctively Californian character in its through connection with the States beyond the Rocky Mountains, to the south and east, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic seaboard. But his deeds as a pioneer in neighboring territory, and in other respects, entitle him to consideration, and his name to worthy remembrance at the hands of this people. There are many in California, and elsewhere on this coast, who personally knew him, and these, without exception, honor his memory. But there is, in the story of his life, enough to entitle it to place in Californian literature. Captain Francis Xavier Aubrey was a native of Canada, the son of French Canadian parents. In early boyhood he manifested the wild spirit of adventure and daring which in his riper years made him conspicuous among men of similar nature in the grand field which the explorations of Marquette and Joliet, of Hennepin and La Salle, and of others who made known to the world the wonders and vastness of the region of the great rivers of the West, and their contiguous and far western and south-western territory, so largely developed in the pioneering and settlement of what are now prosperous States and rapidly growing Territories of our common country. Whilst yet a mere lad, he left his home, and, as the self-reliant architect of his own fortune, began the foundation of that life of uncommon energy, unbounded ambition, and unconquerable fortitude, with that zeal and tact and fearlessness combined, which won for him a name, ere he saw his thirtieth year, as celebrated in the field of startling adventure, and in romantic yet valuable exploration, as it was honorable to himself and advantageous to his adopted country. He had pushed his way to St. Louis, and there obtained employment in the mercantile house of Lamoreaux Blanchard the first-named partner himself of French extraction. 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.