The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society Part 25

We see, then, that although the influence of Mr. Bancroft was felt in arrangement and even in style, the Native Races was written almost entirely by other persons. But one would hardly suppose that such was the case from reading the words: "During the progress of this work I succeeded in utilizing the labors of my a.s.sistants to the full extent of my antic.i.p.ations": (Lit. Ind., 304).

When speaking in the Literary Industries of work done for him by others, Mr. Bancroft shows a habit which is derived from his long experience as manager of a business concern. His constant tendency is to speak of work done by those in his employ as his work, neglecting a distinction between a publisher and an author, which is a vital one.

The reputation of a publis.h.i.+ng house depends upon the workmans.h.i.+p of its employes, but that of an author depends solely upon his own talents and the work of his own hands. While a publisher may with all propriety speak of work done by agents as his printing, for him to say that writing done for him by others is his writing is a positive misstatement. When Mr. Bancroft paid his writers for their ma.n.u.script, he became its owner with full rights of publication, but no one will say for a moment that he thereby became the author. In speaking of the Native Races, as well as the History of the Pacific States, Mr.

Bancroft often does so in such terms as to indicate that writing was done by him when it was his only by purchase. (Compare statements in Literary Industries, 303, 568, 571, and in Native Races I, preface xiii, with the facts as shown by the statements of different members of Bancroft's literary corps as to the work actually done by each writer and as given later in this article.)

The division of responsibility for collating and arranging facts for the various divisions of the Native Races was made apparently toward the latter part of the year 1872. We are told that routine work was laid aside for three or four weeks in the middle of the summer, and this time devoted to placing the library in order and cataloguing the new books which had been added. This was obviously done preparatory to entering upon the new work. To a young Englishman who called himself T. Arundel-Harcourt, and who entered the library in November, was a.s.signed the preparation of that portion of the work devoted to the manners and customs of the civilized nations. (This man's true name he did not reveal. His collaborator Nemos says that he attended a boarding school, and then continued his studies in Germany, at Heidelberg, according to his own account. He claimed to have come to America with $5,000 in pocket money, and found his way first to Montana. On his arrival at San Francisco he entered the library.

Leaving in 1874 to a.s.sume editors.h.i.+p of the _Overland Monthly_ with Fisher, he was soon back in Bancroft's employ. Naturally he was the most able of the library corps. But while he was brilliant, handsome, and witty, he was at the same time erratic and unreliable. He died in 1884.)

Mr. Fisher's part was mythology, while the division of the work relating to language was given to Albert Goldschmidt, a German, who had been employed in the library since the end of 1871. (According to Nemos, Goldschmidt was said to have been the son of a Jewish clothing dealer at Hamburg. In early life he ran off to sea, and claimed to have become master of a vessel. He had acquired much general knowledge, and was musically inclined, often singing in church choirs.

Before coming to the library Nemos says that he led a "vagarious life"

in Nevada. As a linguist he had great ability, and was able to translate almost any language which he encountered, but was inclined to fritter away his time. Nemos declared him "the most systematic idler in the library." This failing brought about his discharge. Later he became a mining superintendent in Chihuahua.) Mr. Oak took the subject of Antiquities and Aboriginal History (preface to Native Races I, p. 13).

The undertaking was an enormous one, because of the vast quant.i.ties of material to be handled, as well as the inexperience of the workers, which made it necessary for them to devise their own system as they proceeded. It is said that by an actual calculation the sum total of all the labor expended upon each of the five volumes of the series represents an equivalent to the work of one man for ten years.

(Literary Industries, 305). Indeed, Mr. Bancroft's own reason for entrusting this work to others is that it would have taken him a half century, leaving his main work untouched. Mr. Oak's indexing system proved a great labor saver, as by it the indexers went through all the material, cla.s.sifying and making references. They were followed immediately by note-takers, who copied the facts indicated in these references. The writers then had the data placed before them for arrangement. When Mr. Bancroft's chapter on the Hyperboreans was completed he went over it with them, all making criticisms and suggestions to be adopted in the arrangement of the other divisions as well as that one. By this means was the library system perfected, a common method developed, and a corps of library workers trained: (Lit.

Ind., 304).

The Native Races was very much in the nature of a compilation, and our knowledge concerning the authors.h.i.+p of its various parts is necessarily less exact than is true of any of the other Bancroft works. Such facts as are at hand come from two schedules--one of his own works, the other of that of the corps generally--prepared by William Nemos, a gifted Swedish writer who entered the library in 1873, subsequently becoming Oak's chief a.s.sistant, and ultimately his successor in the librarian's office; from separate information gained by Frances Fuller Victor as to the part of the work done by Oak. (This consists of three different statements, one in a letter to a friend, another in an autobiographical sketch, and a third in a statement copied by Mrs. Victor. Mr. Oak himself refuses to give testimony, doubtless on account of his former intimate personal connection with Mr. Bancroft and his acquiescence in the plan followed, as well as his poor health, which renders him unwilling to enter into a discussion of the question, and from statements in an autobiography of Thomas Savage, chief Spanish interpreter in the library after August, 1873.)

The facts as deduced from these sources show that Oak wrote more of the Native Races than any one else, two fifths of the entire work, or to be exact, fifteen hundred and ninety-seven pages out of four thousand. While engaged in this writing, it must be remembered that he also acted as "chief a.s.sistant to Mr. Bancroft, manager of all details of this work, as well as that on the History, overseer of the corps of workers, and chief proof reader," duties which so engrossed his time that he wrote princ.i.p.ally between eight o'clock in the evening and midnight. The fourth volume on Antiquities is his work entire, as is also the fifth on Primitive History, except the introductory chapter on the Origin of the Americans, in the preparation of which it would appear that Bancroft had a hand (Lit. Ind., 570), and the last three chapters dealing with the tribes of Central America, the authors.h.i.+p of which the writer has no means of determining. Nemos says, however, that he prepared "a good deal of clean ma.n.u.script" for this volume as well as for some others.

To Harcourt the division of the field as already given points as the author of the second volume. Oak wrote the introductory chapter ent.i.tled General View of the Civilized Nations, and also the chapter on the Aztec Picture Writing and Maya Arts Calendar and Hieroglyphics.

Bancroft is the author of the chapter on Savagism and Civilization, and Nemos is to be credited with the writing of some parts. As Harcourt wrote six hundred and thirty-six pages of the Native Races, and there appears but one reference to his writing in connection with another volume, and that a chapter of a hundred and fifty pages, we may conclude that the remainder of Volume II is from his pen.

With Fisher rests the credit for the authors.h.i.+p in the main of the Mythology portion of the third volume. Nemos relates that Fisher sought his aid for this work soon after he came to the library, believing that his previous training in philosophy fitted him for mythology, and that Fisher obtained for him the continuation of the volume, when in October, 1874, he left it "half finished" to accept the editors.h.i.+p of the _Overland Monthly_. Nemos then being new to the work, Harcourt revised his ma.n.u.script.

To Goldschmidt had been a.s.signed the task of writing the treatise on Indian languages for the third volume. The evidence of Nemos shows that Goldschmidt prepared this part of the work, although the quotation from the Literary Industries already given seems to show that it was revised throughout once, and afterward rewritten, in part, at least, by Bancroft. Goldschmidt also prepared the ethnographical map of the coast.

Of the first volume, Oak wrote about half of the preface, and the chapter on the Columbians, Harcourt the chapter on the Californians, and Nemos and Savage the remainder, with the exception of a few slight parts prepared by others.

In a compilation like the Native Races, there was of necessity much matter printed in such a form that those who prepared it could not claim the authors.h.i.+p. Of this character were the contributions of Mr.

Savage, the Spanish expert. Nemos also claimed to be the author of parts of every volume except the fourth, but from his own statements we learn that much of his work, like Savage's, consisted in making translations.

The public acknowledgment made in the introduction of this work concerning the part done by the several writers would be fair, if we overlook the fact that its wording tends to give an exaggerated idea of Mr. Bancroft's part in it--were the name of the latter but printed on the t.i.tle page as editor or compiler. But by omitting either word he has announced himself to the world as author. His own explanation for this seems to be that he considers himself responsible for the work in treatment and style (Native Races I, Preface XIII), but the real reason is no doubt to be found in a desire to give the work standing in the literary world by ascribing it to one name already quite widely known among book dealers and publishers.

As regards scientific merit these volumes can not make great claims.

No serious attempt was made to collect facts concerning the American Indians of the West at first hand. Mr. Bancroft made no pretensions as an antiquarian or ethnologist, content with compiling what others had written and thus discharging his duty toward the introductory part of his work that he might the sooner take up the more serious task of writing the histories. Different parts of the Native Races differ greatly in value. Oak was habitually scholarly and always made an effort at honest research. Nemos was likewise thoroughly reliable.

Goldschmidt was noted for his s.h.i.+ftlessness, and Fisher and Harcourt are charged with such uncritical methods as the incorporation in their writings of statements found in magazine articles which were nowhere verified. (Mrs. Victor had learned of this.) The last three must, therefore, be considered clever and brilliant writers rather than critical historians.

The chief value of the Native Races consisted in the fact that it presented in accessible form a cla.s.sified collection of all the facts known concerning the Indians of the Pacific slope. Philosophers who made use of these facts in their generalizations, while prizing the work highly, were not, however, especially concerned as to how it was written. In the East and in Europe the discovery was not made that it is merely a compilation. The Native Races was regarded as a work of great learning (see Literary Industries, 335, 356) and its authors.h.i.+p ascribed to Hubert Howe Bancroft in accordance with a literal reading of its t.i.tle page. The five volumes were published at three-month intervals between October 1, 1874, and Christmas, 1875. Just before the first volume appeared, Mr. Bancroft made what he called a literary pilgrimage to the Eastern States to bring himself and the work to the notice of the great literary men there. He also made arrangements for publication in France and Germany simultaneously with the issuing of the volumes in New York. This was the result as told in his own words: "Never probably was a book so generally and so favorably reviewed by the best journals in Europe and America. Never was an author more suddenly or more thoroughly brought to the attention of literary men everywhere": (Lit. Ind., 361.)

As director and manager of the Native Races, Mr. Bancroft performed a literary service of great importance and in such a capacity richly deserved the unsparing praise which was showered upon him. But the commendation and honor bestowed upon him as author of the work we must in all fairness regard as quite a different matter. According to his own statement (Lit. Ind., 361), this must be considered as the status generally a.s.signed him and the basis upon which he was presented with a number of complimentary certificates and honorary diplomas, among them being honorary members.h.i.+p in the Ma.s.sachusetts Historical Society, the American Antiquarian Society, and the Buffalo Historical Society, and the honorary degree of Master of Arts at Yale.

So far as the question of authors.h.i.+p was concerned, all reviews and general press mention of subsequent Bancroft publications followed along the same line as the reviews of the Native Races, recognizing Mr. Bancroft alone as the author. We may, therefore, conclude as does he himself (Lit. Ind., 361, 661) that it was his being accredited with the authors.h.i.+p of the Native Races which made for him his literary reputation. It has been shown that this credit depended in turn upon the fact that his own name was on the t.i.tle page as author instead of managing editor. The facts show, therefore, that Mr. Bancroft was a.s.sisted largely by his corps of writers even in the revision of ma.n.u.scripts, that due credit has never been given Oak, Fisher, Harcourt, Goldschmidt, and Nemos, who, aided by a number of compilers and writers of fragmentary bits, are the true authors of the work, and that the rise of the fame of Hubert Howe Bancroft as an historical writer was founded upon a popular misconception, both as to the nature of his first work and his connection with that work.

Just as fast as the members of the library force ended their respective labors on the Native Races, they were set to work taking notes for the history, Mr. Oak continuing to act as manager of detail as heretofore. The system of note-taking was perfected by Mr. Nemos and now included a boiling down process by which new members could so prepare rough material as to permit writers to turn out ma.n.u.script more quickly.

Laying aside for the time being the work on Central America and Mexico, Bancroft and Oak decided to direct the activities of a library force now thoroughly trained to the material on California, since California history is the starting point for that of a number of other states, including Northern Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah, and more especially because the ma.s.s of original material collected for this state was greater than for any other, a fact necessitating the reduction to a minimum of the possibility of its accidental destruction while yet unused: (Lit. Ind., 583.) The actual organization of the material on the Southwest, including the writing of the history of the Northern Mexican states and Texas down to 1800, together with the Spanish and Mexican annals of Arizona, New Mexico, California, and the Northwest Coast, was entrusted to Oak as his special field.

The story of the collection of this California material as told by Mr.

Bancroft (Lit. Ind., 365 and sq.) is one of the most interesting connected with the history enterprise. In October, 1873, there had entered his service one Enrique Cerruti, an erratic individual, born in Italy, but intimately acquainted with the ways of Spanish-Americans through a long residence in Bolivia, under the government of which state he had served in a diplomatic capacity. Cerruti's diplomacy was turned toward the securing of historical facts in the possession of the old Spanish residents of California, and the first task set for his craft was to gain the cooperation of General Vallejo, a native Californian, early alcalde at San Francisco, and colonizer of Sonoma.

After several months' negotiations, his efforts were rewarded by a personal narrative from Vallejo, by the gift of his papers, and by his enthusiastic support in gaining the aid of other Californians of his own race. Among those who furnished dictations at his instance were two of his brothers, and his nephew Alvarado, Governor of California under Mexican rule. For two years Cerruti and Vallejo worked together collecting, their time being divided between Sonoma, San Francisco, and Monterey, from which centers they made divers excursions. It seems that the wily Italian, together with other representatives of Mr.

Bancroft, sometimes gained possession of valuable ma.n.u.scripts by such indirection as to cause much dissatisfaction on the part of the original owners.

The official Spanish records of the country which had been turned over to the United States Surveyor General at San Francisco consisted of four or five hundred volumes. To copy these, twelve Spaniards worked for a year under the direction of Mr. Savage,[40] "the greatest single effort" ever made in connection with the Bancroft enterprise. The mission records in possession of the archbishop of San Francisco were copied by Mr. Savage and three a.s.sistants in a month. In quest of data on Southern California, Bancroft and Oak took a trip to San Diego early in 1874, returning overland and visiting depositories of records. On this tour, Judge Benjamin Hays of San Diego turned over to Mr. Bancroft his historical collections, and subsequently directed the collecting in the south. The most efficient of the a.s.sistants employed by him was Edward F. Murray who, among other services, copied the records of the Santa Barbara missions. In March, 1877, Mr. Savage began work on the civil and ecclesiastical archives at Salinas, continuing the work at San Jose, Santa Cruz, and Sacramento. With others, he obtained dictations of the highest importance from native Californians and others, and in 1877 and 1878 spent eight months in that work, visiting all the missions from San Diego to San Juan Bautista with the exception of San Fernando and Purisima.

While his aids were thus gathering the material upon which the History of California is founded, Mr. Bancroft, as he tells us (Lit. Ind., 657-663), was devoting his attention more especially to the gaining of information concerning the proceedings of the two vigilance committees that held sway in San Francisco in the "fifties," by no means an easy task, since the acts of both of these organizations were illegal and their surviving members could not be expected to talk very freely, even after a lapse of twenty years. After considerable urging, however, those who had custody of the records were induced in the interest of history to turn them over for Mr. Bancroft's inspection.

This material was made use of in the supplemental volumes on Popular Tribunals; in the first writing of which Mr. Bancroft was himself engaged from 1875 to 1877. Like his ma.n.u.script for Central America, however, this work had to be revised before its publication ten years later.

At an early date, Mr. Bancroft tells us (Lit. Ind., 623-628), he had corresponded with the heads of governments lying within his territory.

The presidents of the Mexican and Central American republics and the governors of all the states had accorded him every facility. In 1874, especially favorable letters were received from the presidents of Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, the latter appointing a special commissioner to secure and s.h.i.+p doc.u.ments.

The great ma.s.s of California matter, at first so voluminous as to be appalling, was now in hand, and in 1878 Mr. Bancroft turned his attention to the Northwest. Upon a visit to British Columbia in that year, he obtained access to the official records of the province, took the reminiscences of many old fur traders, secured the papers of others, and had help from several who had undertaken to write a history of the country: (Lit. Ind., 534; Hist. N. W. Coast, preface, viii). It was from this data that Mr. Bancroft in the years immediately following wrote, with the aid of some other writers, the History of the Northwest Coast, and the History of British Columbia, volumes const.i.tuting the great part of the work of which he can claim the actual authors.h.i.+p: (See Lit. Ind., 549.)

The history seeker had already secured the writings of Gov. Elwood Evans of Was.h.i.+ngton Territory. Crossing the straits from Victoria, he made some collections about Puget Sound, and then went to Portland and Salem, accompanied by Amos Bowman, a stenographer who subsequently became one of the writers in the library and prepared some ma.n.u.script for the History of British Columbia. (Bowman was a Canadian with some experience in government surveys and mining explorations. Before joining Mr. Bancroft on this expedition, he was located at Anacortes, Was.h.i.+ngton.) The Oregon Pioneer a.s.sociation was then in session at Salem, and a number of its members furnished dictations. The secretary, J. Henry Brown, was engaged to copy doc.u.ments in the state archives (Lit. Ind., 540-546). He subsequently made this matter the basis of a book which he himself published on Oregon history.

After dictations had been secured in pa.s.sing through Southern Oregon, the Oregon material at Mr. Bancroft's disposal was further increased on his return to San Francis...o...b.. the employment of Frances Fuller Victor, a writer of experience and author of several books on Oregon, who, during a residence of more than ten years in the state, had collected data with the intention of herself writing and publis.h.i.+ng its history. As by her researches she had become familiar with the history of the entire northwestern part of the United States, the working up of this field was a.s.signed her just as the southwest had been a.s.signed to Oak.

(Frances Fuller was born in the towns.h.i.+p of Rome, New York, May 23, 1826. She was a near relation of Judge Reuben H. Walworth, Chancellor of the State of New York, and through her ancestor, Lucy Walworth, wife of Veach Williams, who lived at Lebanon, Connecticut, in the early part of the eighteenth century, claimed descent from Egbert, the first king of England. Veach Williams himself was descended from Robert Williams, who came over from England in 1637, and settled at Roxbury, Ma.s.sachusetts.

When Mrs. Victor was thirteen years of age, her parents moved to Wooster, Ohio, and her education was received at a young ladies'

seminary at that place. From an early age she took an interest in literature, and when but fourteen years old, wrote both prose and verse for the county papers. A little later the _Cleveland Herald_ paid for her poems, some of which were copied in English journals.

Mrs. Victor's younger sister, Metta, who subsequently married a Victor, a brother of Frances' husband, was also a writer of marked ability. Between the two a devoted attachment existed, and in those days they were ranked with Alice and Phoebe Carey, the four being referred to as Ohio's boasted quartet of sister poets. The Fuller sisters contributed verse to the _Home Journal_ of New York City, of which N. P. Willis and George P. Morris were then the editors. Metta was known as the "Singing Sybil." Both sisters were highly eulogized by Willis, who regarded them as destined for a great future as writers.

In her young womanhood Frances spent a year in New York City, amid helpful literary a.s.sociations. Being urged by their friends, the two sisters published together a volume of their girlhood poems in 1851.

In the more rigorous self-criticism of later years, Mrs. Victor often called it a mistaken kindness which induced her friends to advise the publication of these youthful productions. But in these verses is to be seen the true poetic principle, and their earnestness is especially conspicuous.

Metta Fuller Victor, after her marriage, took up her residence in New York City, and continued her literary work both in prose and in verse. Frances' husband, Henry C. Victor, a naval engineer, was ordered to California in 1863. She accompanied him, and for nearly two years wrote for the San Francisco papers, her princ.i.p.al contributions consisting of city editorials to the _Bulletin_, and a series of society articles under the _nom de plume_ of Florence Fane, which, we are told, by their humorous. .h.i.ts, elicited much favorable comment.

About the close of the war, Mr. Victor resigned his position and came to Oregon, where his wife followed him in 1865. She has often told how, upon her first arrival in this state, she recognized in the type both of the st.u.r.dy pioneers and of their inst.i.tutions something entirely new to her experience, and at once determined to make a close study of Oregon. As she became acquainted with many of the leading men of the state, and learned more and more about it, she determined to write its history, and began to collect material for that purpose.

Her first book on the history of Oregon was The River of the West, a biography of Joseph L. Meek, which was published in 1870. Many middle-aged Oregonians tell what a delight came to them when in boyhood and girlhood days they read the stories of Rocky Mountain adventures of the old trapper Meek as recited by this woman of culture and literary training, who herself had taken so great an interest in them. The book was thumbed and pa.s.sed from hand to hand as long as it would hold together, and today scarcely a copy is to be obtained in the Northwest. Intensely interesting as The River of the West is, the chief value of the work does not lie in this fact, but rather in its value to the historian. Meek belonged to the age before the pioneers.

It was the trapper and trader who explored the wilds of the West and opened up the way for the immigrant. Later writers freely confess their indebtedness to Mrs. Victor's River of the West for much of their material. The stories of the Rocky Mountain bear killer, Meek, romantic though many of them are, check with the stories given by other trappers and traders, and furnish data for an important period in the history of the Northwest.

In 1872 was published Mrs. Victor's second book touching the Northwest, All Over Oregon and Was.h.i.+ngton. This work, she tells us in the preface, was written to supply a need existing because of the dearth of printed information concerning these countries. It contained observations on the scenery, soil, climate and resources of the Northwestern part of the Union, together with an outline of its early history, remarks on its geology, botany, and mineralogy, and hints to immigrants and travelers. Her interest in the subject led her at a later date to revise this book and to publish it again, this time under the t.i.tle Atlantis Arisen.

In 1874 was published Woman's War With Whiskey, a pamphlet which she wrote in aid of the temperance movement in Portland. Her husband was lost at sea in November, 1875, and from this time, she devoted herself exclusively to literary pursuits. During her residence in Oregon she had frequently written letters for the San Francisco _Bulletin_ and sketches for the _Overland Monthly_. These stories, together with some poems, were published in 1877 in a volume ent.i.tled The New Penelope.

This last volume was printed by the Bancroft publis.h.i.+ng establishment in San Francisco. The Bancrofts were an Ohio family of Mrs. Victor's early acquaintance. Hubert Howe Bancroft now laid before her his plan for writing the history of the Pacific slope, and asked her to work on the part concerning Oregon. In 1878 she entered the Bancroft library.

Leaving the library at the completion of the work, in 1890 she returned to Oregon and was employed by the state in 1893 to compile her History of the Early Indian Wars of Oregon, a volume which was published by the State Printer the following year. She continued to write for the Oregon Historical Quarterly up to the time of her death.

Her last published work was a small volume of poems printed in 1900, and selected from the many metrical compositions which she had written for newspapers and magazines through a period of sixty years. She was an able writer of essay, and possessed an insight into the evolution of civilization and government rare, not only for an author of her s.e.x, but for any author. Combining the qualities of poet, essayist and historian, she occupied a position without a peer in the annals of Western literature. She died at Portland, Oregon, November 14, 1902).

Data on Alaska and the Russian Colony at Fort Ross, California, were being collected and translated during these years by Ivan Petroff, a highly educated Russian some time resident at Cook's Inlet. Material from Russia was furnished by the savant M. Pinart who had made a special study of Alaska, and Petroff prepared translations. In 1878 he visited Alaska in search of more material, and spent the year 1879 and part of 1880 in Was.h.i.+ngton extracting matter from papers, the existence of which he had discovered on the northern trip; (Lit. Ind., 551-561.) Petroff had begun the writing of this material and had done part of the Alaska volume when he left the library to become supervisor of the census of 1880 in the Northern Territory, leaving Mr. Bancroft and others to bring this part of the work to completion.

(The main facts of Petroff's life which had been a very eventful one are here taken from Bancroft's Literary Industries, 270-272. He was born at St. Petersburg in 1842, his father being a soldier. His mother died in his infancy, and at the age of five, he was placed in the military academy of the first corps of cadets at St. Petersburg. Left an orphan when but a boy by the death of his father at the battle of Inkerman, a remarkable talent for languages secured his transfer to the imperial academy of sciences for training as military interpreter.

A serious illness caused an impediment in his speech which ended such prospects, but he was nevertheless permitted to continue his studies and became amanuensis for Professor Bohttink while engaged in the preparation of a Sanscrit dictionary. Attached subsequently to M.

Brosset, who was making a study of Armenian antiquities and literature, he became so proficient in the language that he was chosen to accompany his superior on a two-year scientific expedition through Georgia and Armenia. He was then sent to Paris to St. Hilaire with part of the material obtained, thence sailing for New York in 1861.

After working a short time on the _Courier des Etats Unis_, he enlisted in the seventh New Hamps.h.i.+re regiment. By hard study he mastered the language, after writing letters for the soldiers as a means of practice, and acquired a proficiency in the use of English such as one seldom meets with in a foreigner. From private he became corporal, then sergeant and color bearer, a rank which he held in 1864, when his company was sent to Florida. He took part in all the battles fought by Butler's army and was twice wounded. After the battle of Fort Fisher, he was promoted to a lieutenancy. Mustered out in July, 1865, he returned to New York, and accepted a position for five years with the Russian American Company at Sitka, believing that this region was sooner or later to pa.s.s to the United States. On the way to Alaska he was delayed and improved the time by making a horseback tour of Northern California, Idaho, Was.h.i.+ngton, and Oregon.