In this volume we present reprints both of Brackenridge’s Journal of a Voyage up the Missouri (1811), and of Franchère’s Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America (1811-14).

Brackenridge’s Journal

Henry Marie Brackenridge, traveller, author, statesman, jurist, had a long and varied career. Born at Pittsburg in 1786, one of his earliest memories was the Whiskey Rebellion, in which his father, an eminent lawyer of that town, was a prominent actor. In later years, the son’s researches into his parent’s part in this incident, bore fruit in his History of Western Insurrection in Western Pennsylvania, commonly called the Whiskey Insurrection, 1794 (Pittsburg, 1859).

Henry Brackenridge has also given to the world an autobiography, in the work entitled Recollections of Persons and Places in the West (Philadelphia, 1834), from which we ascertain that at the age of seven years he was sent to learn French among the Creoles of Louisiana Territory. Having spent three years at the village of Ste. Genevieve—where his French was acquired at the expense of his English, which for a time was quite forgotten—he returned to Pittsburg, where his further education was conducted chiefly under his father’s supervision.

At an early age he began to read law, and was admitted to the bar before he had attained his majority. Acting upon his father’s advice, he attempted to begin practice in Baltimore; but finding his profession overcrowded in that city, retired for a year to Somerset, Pennsylvania, thence migrating to the West. Turning first to his boyhood home, he opened an office at Ste. Genevieve, but soon drifted to St. Louis, and there wrote sketches of the new territory, which were afterwards embodied in his Views of Louisiana.

While at St. Louis in the spring of 1811, Brackenridge, being fond of adventure, was easily induced by the fur-trader Manuel Lisa to accompany him on a voyage up the Missouri. Lisa’s party left the settlements three weeks later than the expedition under Hunt, which carried the overland Astorians, whose picturesque adventures as far as the Mandan are detailed in Bradbury’s Journal, reprinted in volume v of our series. There ensued a stern chase up the Missouri, in which Lisa’s keel-boat, manned by twenty-two oarsmen, made every effort to overtake the advance party, in order that forces might be joined against the hostile Sioux. It was not until the fourth of June that the Missouri trader overtook Hunt, nearly thirteen hundred miles above the mouth of the river. Brackenridge, already wearying of his long absence from civilization, now preferred to return in two boats which Lisa was sending down the river, being accompanied upon the home trip by his naturalist friend, John Bradbury. In less than two weeks upon the descending current, they reached the settlements.

Brackenridge left St. Louis in November following, and on his arrival at New Orleans was chosen deputy attorney-general for the Territory of Orleans. When Louisiana was admitted as a state, he was made federal district judge, with headquarters at Baton Rouge. There he devoted himself to the study of the Spanish law and language, and became of much use to the newly-organized government.

Before the close of the second war with England, Brackenridge was again in Baltimore, and at the instigation of his publisher in that city wrote his History of the Late War between the United States and Great Britain, which passed through eight editions and was translated into both French and Italian. The authenticity and impartiality of this work have been highly praised. The same year (1814) that he returned from the West, there was issued from a Pittsburg press his Views of Louisiana, including this journal of the voyage up the Missouri. Two years later, there appeared a separate edition of the journal, revised and enlarged by the author—the book here reprinted.

Brackenridge’s later history was replete with adventure, and brought him in contact with many phases of American life. In 1817 he wrote a letter to President Monroe, urging the recognition of the South American Republics. This having been translated into Spanish, was by many assumed to be an official opinion of the United States government, and as such elicited an elaborate reply from the Spanish minister. In the same year, Brackenridge was appointed secretary of a commission sent by the federal government to visit the revolted states of South America. Upon his return, he published his Voyage to South America performed by the Order of the American Government in the Years 1817 and 1818 in the Frigate Congress (Baltimore, 1819; London, 1820), which was highly commended by the great authority of that day, Baron von Humboldt.

Upon the purchase of Florida by the United States, Brackenridge concluded to cast his lot with that of the new territory. On his way south, he fell in with a party of the newly-appointed governor, General Andrew Jackson, and was invited to become one of the latter’s official family. Brackenridge’s knowledge of French and Spanish made his services especially useful to the Florida executive, whose public despatches and proclamations during 1821 were nearly all drawn by the hand of our author. Jackson then appointed him alcalde of Pensacola, and the following year secured his selection as judge of the western district of Florida—a position which he occupied for ten years. Through some misunderstanding with Jackson, during the latter’s presidency, Brackenridge was removed from office in 1832, and returned to his old home at Pittsburg. Here he re-entered public life, was candidate for Congress, and in 1841 served as a commissioner to draft a treaty with Mexico. His later years, spent in retirement, were largely devoted to literary labors. He died in Pittsburg in 1871.

The early writings of a man who in maturer years attained such eminence as that won by Judge Brackenridge, are interesting for their promise and suggestion. But the Journal of a Voyage up the Missouri has in itself much intrinsic value. It is a record free from youthful exaggeration, being singularly clear and accurate. Inspired solely by a desire to describe in simple terms the vast regions lately become our national possession, Brackenridge gives us a vivid picture of the great plains of the West, clad in their summer verdure, with vast herds of wild animals giving a touch of vitality to the lonely scenes. His descriptions of the marvellous atmospheric effects, and the wide expanses of sky and plain, are the product of one who possessed keen enthusiasm for wilderness landscape; but he confesses his disillusion in regard to the simplicity and charm of the savage in a “state of nature.” His accounts of Indian life and customs, although slight in volume, are suggestive and valuable; yet he reaches the harsh judgment that “the world would lose but little, if these people should disappear before civilized communities.” Our author’s remarks upon existing conditions are apposite and often sound, especially upon the value of the Louisiana Purchase to the growth of the United States—nevertheless as a prophet he is not always happy. He thought the region about Omaha the highest point to which settlement would extend for many years, and that the Indians would hold undisputed possession of the Upper Missouri for at least a century. This was in view of the difficulties of navigation, which he well described—the changes and rapidity of the current, the falling in of the banks, the snags, and the shifting nature of the river bed. Brackenridge lived to see steam navigation and transportation transform the entire Missouri Valley into a thriving centre of civilization; on the sites which his eye had selected for towns, to be established in a far-distant future, there soon arose large cities. His opinion that the interests of the West would serve to break down sectionalism and conserve the Union, was amply justified by the course of events.

Franchère’s Narrative

The expedition organized by John Jacob Astor for the purpose of founding an American fur-trading post at the mouth of the Columbia, although unhappy in its outcome, was most fortunate in its historians. The Astoria of Washington Irving is an American classic. The journals upon which he based his delightful tale are less well known, but deserving of wide acquaintance. Among the “scribbling clerks” whose fondness for keeping journals excited the ire of the “Tonquin’s” choleric captain, was a young Canadian, whose narrative is, in charm of style, second only to that of Irving’s; it has the added advantage of being the account of one who participated in the adventures which he describes.

Gabriel Franchère was of an honorable Canadian family. His grandfather Jacques, early in the eighteenth century, had come to New France as a ship surgeon. Jacques’s son, the elder Gabriel, established himself in business at Montreal, where our author was born November 3, 1786. As a young man, Gabriel fils became a merchant’s apprentice, but was easily persuaded to abandon the desk and the counter for the more adventurous life of a fur-trade clerk. He himself tells us in brief but telling sentences of his emotions on leaving Montreal to join the contingent of the American Fur Company which departed thence for New York, where Astor’s sea-going party were to embark for the Pacific. Leaving New York September 6, 1810, the expedition arrived the following spring at the bar of the Columbia, and after a series of disasters began the construction of the fort named for the senior partner.

Franchère faithfully narrates the occurrences of the following years, until the sale of the entire property to the rival North West Company in October, 1813. One of his fellow clerks (Alexander Ross, whose journal is to be published as volume vii of this series) intimates that Franchère was eager to accept employment in the new company. The latter’s narrative, however, and his subsequent movements, refute this statement. Indeed, Franchère was singularly loyal to his American employers; and although offered advantageous terms because of his linguistic facility, remained with the North West Company only until the first opportunity presented itself to return to Montreal. This occurred when the trading brigade left the Columbia, April 4, 1814. After a difficult and perilous trip across the continent, Franchère reached his father’s home in September of the same year, being received there as one risen from the dead.

Early the following spring the young Canadian married the maiden who, in alternate hope and despair, had during four long years waited for his return. He then entered Astor’s employ as his Montreal agent. Several years later, he removed to Sault Ste. Marie—whose appearance during the War of 1812-15 he so graphically describes in his book—and for several years made this his home. Upon the liquidation of the American Fur Company’s affairs, Franchère was employed by the St. Louis firm of which Pierre Chouteau was the head. Later, he removed to New York, and established a fur-trading firm under his own name.

Franchère was a loyal citizen of his adopted country, and naturally much concerned over the Oregon question. Upon its discussion in the Senate (1846), Thomas Benton invited him to Washington. After citing, in a famous speech, this work of our author (not yet translated) as an authority of value upon the matter in hand, Benton presented him to his senatorial colleagues. One of Franchère’s most cherished recollections was the deference and honor with which he was treated by the famous statesmen of that day—Webster, Clay, and Benton.

In 1853 Franchère revisited his early home at Montreal, being received there with much respect, both as an author whose fame contributed to that of his native city, and as a philanthropist whose interest in young Canadian exiles in New York had led to excellent practical results. Thus, amid honors and pleasant associations, his last years wore away; and he died (1863) at the home of his step-son, John S. Prince, of St. Paul, Minnesota, in the seventy-seventh year of his age.

Franchère’s character was one of much simplicity and charm. Physically, he was of medium stature, with a gentle, kindly face. Gifted with abundant health, cheerful spirits, a fund of quiet humor, and ability to adapt himself to changing environments, the verbal recital of his early adventures became a never-failing source of interest to all his associates. His experiences were first committed to writing, merely for his own entertainment and the perusal of his family circle. As interest in the Great West increased, he was persuaded to publish his narrative in the original French. Unaccustomed to literary effort, he secured the collaboration of Michel Bibaud père, a well-known Canadian editor, and in 1820 the work appeared from the Montreal press of C. P. Pasteur.[1] The original manuscript of the journal is now preserved in the Toronto Public Library. Irving, in Astoria, makes acknowledgment of his indebtedness to this narrative, and among French Canadians it at once acquired a considerable popularity. Much later, when Franchère was a resident of New York, there arose a demand for an English version, to which Franchère gave his consent and cordial co-operation. The translation was made by a Baltimorean, J. V. Huntington, who incorporated several changes and additions; the whole being published in 1854 under the title of the present reprint.

Franchère’s purpose in this English version was partly to vindicate the reputation of his compagnons de voyage, whose characters he considered aspersed by Irving’s account; partly to correct certain errors in the latter; but chiefly to set before the American public a simple, unvarnished relation by a participant in an important historical event, after the period of passion and recrimination had passed away.

Aside from the excellent style of the narrative, which its American editor characterizes as “De Foe-like” in simplicity and clearness, the value of the journal is due to the historical information it affords. Franchère’s sympathies were evidently with the American party. Although Canadian-born, he does not appear to approve of the Nor’ Westers among the partners—characterizing McDougall as a “traitor,” and describing McKenzie in uncomplimentary terms. His criticisms, however, are as a rule neither caustic nor severe. Even for Captain Thorn he has a measure of appreciation; and upon the mismanagement of affairs he comments but casually. A kindly nature is revealed in remarks upon his fellow clerks; even the Indians are not painted by him in as dark colors as they are set forth by some of his compeers. Slight mention is made of the hardships through which he passed. While Ross enlarges upon the tediousness of the voyage, the bad fare and foul water, and the privations at Astoria and upon the river, Franchère passes over these with few words. On the other hand, he exhibits much enthusiasm over the beauties of the Columbia and the Saskatchewan basins, of verdant prairies, and of lofty forests.

Aside from the main historical value of the journal, there are interesting incidental references to the Western events of the second Anglo-American War. In the fastnesses of the Canadian wilderness, the news of Perry’s victory upon Lake Erie brings consternation to the minds of British fur-traders. At Fort William, much anxiety over the fate of the yearly invoice of furs is manifested; and the flotilla bearing a million dollars’ worth of peltries slips silently by the ruins of Sault Ste. Marie, the voyageurs listening with trepidation to the bombardment of Fort Mackinac. The wilderness, also, knew its own wars. Aside from the sharp and sometimes bloody international rivalry on the Northwest Coast, the struggle between the two Canadian companies was beginning to reach an acute stage. At the outlet of Lake Winnipeg, Franchère hears echoes of the strife between the North West Company and Lord Selkirk’s Red River settlement—a rivalry that was to produce much bloodshed and hardship before the coalition of Canadian fur-traders in 1821.

But the main interest of the narrative centers in the Columbia region. The first white men to penetrate the interior since the expedition of Lewis and Clark, the testimony of the Astorians, and of Franchère in particular, in many important details corroborates that of the famous explorers. In his description of the native races, Franchère in many ways supplements the accounts of Lewis and Clark. His ethnological distinctions are less minute; but his remarks upon the polity, slavery, marriage, warfare, and religion of the natives west of the Rocky Mountains are worthy of attention. His skill in Indian languages, as well as long residence in the country, gave him unusual opportunity for acquiring valuable information of every sort. At the present time, when we are celebrating the close of a century after the expedition of Lewis and Clark, the reprinting of this journal of one who followed closely on their footsteps, is of peculiar importance.

As in the previous volumes of the series, Louise Phelps Kellogg, Ph. D., has given valuable assistance in the preparation of notes; and some further aid has been received from Edith Kathryn Lyle, Ph. D., and Homer C. Hockett, B. A.

R. G. T.

Madison, Wis., July, 1904.

[1] Relation d’un Voyage à la Côte du Nord-Ouest de l’Amérique Septentrionale dans les années 1810-1814 (Montreal, 1820).