The result was innumerable errors, both of the writing and of the printing, most of which might have been eliminated with due care.

In the original edition, which has never before been reprinted in full, or in anything like its own make-up, the three separate itineraries above noted followed one another consecutively, with only the interruption of certain meteorological tables. These itineraries made about one-half of the volume in bulk, but perhaps only about one-third of the total ems. They were called "Parts," respectively enumerated I., II., III., and were the only portions of the whole which were printed in large type, as the main "body" of the work. The greater remainder of the author's materials were then thrown into the form of three Appendixes, one for each of the three foregoing Parts, each one being necessarily displaced from its proper connection, and all being set in small type. The contents of these Appendixes were miscellaneous and multifarious, but reducible in the main to two sorts: (1) Formal retraversing of the ground gone over in the itineraries, with reference to geography, ethnology, commerce, military and political topics, and related matters which came under Pike's observation; (2) Letters and other documents upon a variety of subjects, representing what may be regarded as the officialities of Pike's Expeditions.

The determination to edit Pike with the omission of nothing whatever which the work originally contained, and to preserve as far as seemed reasonably possible the shape in which it came from his own hand, involved a problem whose solution was one of no ordinary difficulty. The division of the book into three Parts was perfectly sound, and by all means to be preserved. The main departure from Pike's plan that seemed to be required was simply to bring each Appendix into direct connection with its own Part, and set it in uniform typography, as being of equal value and interest with the itinerary. Having made these transpositions, I found it an easy matter to introduce chapter-heads which should co-ordinate the whole of the contents. Each of the three itineraries could be conveniently divided into three chapters, covering as many stages of the several journeys; and in like manner it was found that the contents of each of the three Appendixes could be naturally grouped under a few heads, thus carrying out the plan of chaptering the whole book. To effect this result required no change whatever in the course of the itineraries, and in the appendicial matters involved only some few unimportant transpositions, mainly for the purpose of rearranging the official correspondence in the chronological sequence of the letters and other documents of which it consisted. But even in this small matter I have been at the pains of pointing out the position which each separate piece occupied in the original edition—perhaps with needless scrupulosity. A glance at the tables of contents of this edition will show how well or ill the remodeling has been done.

The transpositions thus effected, together with the repeatedly broken and sometimes blank pagination of the original, made it obviously impossible to indicate in this edition the former numeration of the pages. Otherwise, in editing Pike's text, I have been guided by the same principles which I applied to my recent redaction of Lewis and Clark. I do not think that any editor may feel free to rewrite his author. It would be an unwarrantable liberty to sacrifice an author's individuality upon the altar of literary style. And especially in the case of an old book—one whose intrinsic merits survive what are "the defects of its qualities," and thus cause it to reappear in a new guise—is it desirable that the reader should feel sure he is offered a genuine text. At the same time, the essentials of genuineness are different from its factitious ear-marks, and may be preserved with fidelity by an editor who, nevertheless, feels free to disregard non-essentials. Pike's is both a rare and a curious book; yet we need not venerate its abounding misprints, or burn the incense of admiration in the face of its frequently solecistic grammar, or even kowtow to its peculiar punctuation. Such things as these are assuredly among the non-essentials of a pure text, always amenable to editorial revision, and always open to the welcome attentions of a friendly printer. But for the rest, as I lately said on a similar occasion, "I have punctiliously preserved the orthography of proper names in all their variance and eccentricity; and wherever I have amplified any statement in the text, or diverted the sense of a passage by a hair's breadth, square brackets indicate the fact."

A few words may be expected in this connection upon the new matter, by the introduction of which the single volume of Pike has been extended to three volumes, thus more than doubling the original text. I have seldom, if ever, studied a work whose author seemed to me in so great need of an interpreter. Pike was not always precise in his statements of fact, and sometimes failed to convey his own meaning with entire lucidity. Much was thus left to be supplied by the imagination of the reader, or to be clarified by the exercise of his critical faculties, whether or no he were sufficiently informed in the premises to follow his author intelligently. In subjecting the text to a scrutiny, perhaps exceptionally close and rigid, I have desired in the first place to inform myself of the exact significance which the author intended his words to have, thus putting myself as nearly as possible in his place, and always, as I trust, in full sympathy with him, however diverse from his views any of my own opinions may have been. Coming to such understanding of the work in hand—one whose accomplishment is now nearly a century old—my duty seemed to be to criticise the subject-matter from the standpoint of to-day, however copious might prove to be the additional information required, or to whatever extent the resulting commentary might be protracted. This part of my work is represented by the notes with which the present edition has been freighted, and which are typographically distinguished from the main text. These notes bespeak their own variety and perhaps comprehensiveness; but of their value or interest it is not for me to express any opinion.

Aside from this main exercise of an editorial function to the best of my ability, I have been induced to add another to the several good memoirs of Pike which we already possessed—notably Whiting's and Greely's. In the preparation of this I have been able to avail myself of much hitherto unpublished documentary material and other sources of information which have not before been utilized for this purpose. Under the circumstances of its present connection this biography could be prepared with little regard to Pike as an explorer, for these volumes cover all such ground; and thus I could dwell for the most part upon other aspects of his life and character, such as those which led up to his conspicuous adventures, and especially those of the War of 1812 which closed with his death a career of military honor and renown.

At the time when Pike first appeared in print, it was the fashion to regard an index to a book rather as an elegant superfluity, or a luxury of leisurely authorship, than as the imperative obligation and absolute necessity which we now find it to be, whenever anything else than fiction or poetry becomes a candidate for public favor. Pike has never been indexed before; and many who now see how lengthy is the list of proper names of persons, places, and other things, may for the first time become aware of the extent and variety of information of which this author's work has proved to be either the prolific source or the pregnant occasion.

All of the plates which illustrated the original edition of