SIR GEORGE SIMPSON, GOVERNOR-IN-CHIEF OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY'S TERRITORIES. PHILADELPHIA: LEA AND BLANCHARD. 1847. ΤΟ THE HONORABLE COMMITTEE OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY, SIR JOHN HENRY PELLY, BART., Governor, JOHN HALKETT, ESQUIRE, HENRY HULSE BERENS, ESQUIRE, AARON CHAPMAN, ESQUIRE, M. P., EDWARD ELLIS, ESQUIRE, M. P., THE EARL OF SELKIRK, THESE PAGES ARE RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, BY THEIR OBLIGED AND FAITHFUL SERVANT, THE AUTHOR. PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. LEDYARD and Cochrane, to the best of the author's knowledge and belief, were the only travelers that ever attempted before himself to accomplish an overland journey round the world; they both followed an easterly direction; and they both returned, the former from Irkutsk and the latter from Kamschatka, without having even seen the American Continent. In offering this remark, the author wishes merely to state the fact, for he has much pleasure in admitting, that, if either of those enterprizing individuals had enjoyed his peculiar advantages, the task would not have been left for him to achieve. In one respect, however, he has performed more than either Cochrane or Ledyard contemplated, for, in addition to the Russian Empire and British America, he has embraced within his range Upper California and the Sandwich Islands. If the lapse of four years since the author's return may seem to require some explanation or apology, he can only plead that he has been engaged in constant and arduous occupations of the same description as his journey round the world; that he has, in fact, nearly doubled the extent of travel which forms the subject of the following pages. But this very delay he has endeavored to turn to good account by occasionally drawing illustrations from subsequent events. |