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Show BIBLIOGRAPHY Bancroft, Hubert Derby, J. C. Fremont, John C, Gregg, Dr. Josiah Kendall, George W. Niles’ Register Thompson, Waddy Santa Fé Archives Wilson, Benj. D. Yoakum, Henry History cisco, Iife of of Arizona and New Mezico, San 1889. Sam Houston, New York, 1855. Upham ’s Life of, Boston, 1856. Commerce of the Prairies, New York, CHAPTER Fran- THE OVERLAND Observations, History 1844. New York, STORIES Santa AND IV Ft Tram — INCIDENTS COMMERCE OF THE SUBJECT of more enduring interest than the story of the old Santa Fé Trail, the great highway over which was carried the 1856. commerce of the prairies, is not to be found in the history of the great southwest. ( In the early part of the nineteenth century the tide of western immigration had reached the valleys of the Mississippi and Missouri. Stories of the northern provinces of New Spain, the inhabitants, FEST their condition, their commercial and industrial needs, were brought to the western merchants and traders by the trappers, and less plains, opening infested with hordes hardy trapper, the plainsman, PS * The of commercial plainsmen relations was be- Spanish province, was an almost unknown stretch of treeless, tr a : « * a mountaineers. lieved worthy of investigation. Between the extreme western line of settlements and the capital of New Mexico, the most ne os 4 ra * ae OF THE Days OF THE STAGE CoacH, 1804-1872 Ms. of Texas, TRADE — OLp PRAIRIES — Texas-Santa Fé Expedition, New York, 1844. Baltimore, 1811-1849, 76 vols. Recollections of Mexico, New York, 1846. Smithsonian, Washington, D. C. * of hostile savages. None le a and the mountaineer had dare s penetrate the mysteries of the great American desert and the mig Fe t ‘y : ae * en Pi a & @ en oes Mountain ranges far beyond. Coupled with the spirit of a Which always characterized the pioneer of the far west yr a desire for gain. ve CT aE {_auren Howe In that far-off land of boundless distances ree op- portunity for fortune. From a Print of 1835 Beyond the pathless prairies was a s Scake empire; there existed opportunities for unsurpassed history of the west, Spanish provinces! trade The very thought was ; ao inspiration. On the American frontier were merchants, stur y men, ready to force the way in the interest of advancing eivilization and commercial interchange. ce It was known from the ae that the Spanish authorities in , |