ASTORIA OF AN ENTERPRISE BEYOXD THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS - WASHINGTON IRVING - IN the course of occasional visits to Canada many years since, I became intimately acquainted with some of the principal partners of the great Korthwest Fur Company, who at that time lived in genial style at Montreal, and kept al nost open house for the stranger. At their hospitable boards I occasionally met with partners, and clerlrs, and hardy fur traders from the interior posts men who had passed years remote from civilized society, among distant and savage tribes, and who had wonders to recount of their wide and vild p eregrinations, their hunting exploits, and their perilous adventures and hair-breadth escapes among the Indians. I was at an age when imagination lends its coloring to every thing, and the stories of these Sinhads of tlie wilderness made the life of a trapper and fur trader perfect romance to me. I even meditated at one time a visit to the remote posts of the company in the boats which annually ascended the lakes and rivers, being thereto invited by one of the partners and I have ever since regretted that I was prevented by circumstances from carrying my intention into effect. From those early impressions, the grand enterprises of the great fur companies, and the hazardous errantry of their associates in the mild parts of our va continent, have always been themes of charmed interest to me and I have felt anxious to get at the details of their adventurous expeditions among the savage tribesethat peopled the depths of the wilderness. Abo ttw o years ago, not long aftei my return from a tour upon the prairies of the far West, I had a conve. sation with my friend, Mr. John Jacob Astor, relative tothat portion of our country, and to the adventurous traders to Santa F6 and the Columbia. This led him to advert to a great enterprise sot on foot and conducted by him, between twenty and thirty years since, having for its object to carry the fur trade across the Rocky Xountains, and to sweep the shores of the Pacific. Finding that I took an interest in the subject, he expressed a regret that the true nature and extent of his enterprise and its national character and importance had never been understood, and a wish that I would undertake to give an accou t of it. The suggestion struck upon the chord of early - associa-tions, alrezdy vibrating in my mind. It occurred to me that a work of this kind might comprise a variety of those curious details, so interesting to me, illustrative of the fur trade of its remote and adventurous enterprises, and of the various people, and tribes, and castes, and characters, civilized and savage, affected by its operations. The journals, and letters also, of the adventurers by sea and land employed by Mr. Astor in his comprehensive project, might throw light upon portions of our country quite out of the track of ordinary travel, and as yet but little known. I therefore felt Jisposed to undertake the task, provided documents of sufficient extent and minuteness could be furnished to me. All the papers relative to the enterprise were accordingly submitted to my inspection. Among them were journals and letters narrating expeditions by sea, and journeys to and fro across the Rocky Mountains by routes before untravelled, together with documents illustrative of savage and colonial life on the borders of the Pacific. With such materials in hand, I undertook thework. The trouble of rummaging among business papers, and of collecting and collating facts from amid tedious and commonplace details, was spared me by my cephew, Pierre M. Irving, who acted as my pioneer, and to whoin I am greatly indebted for smoothing my path and lightening my labors...
评价“Astoria or Anecdotes of an Enterprise Beyond the Rocky Mountains”