A remarkably lucid and interesting account of three cen- turies
of travel is given by Dr. J. Bartlet Brebner, of Columbia University, in The Explorers of North America (Black, 18s.). He begins with Columbus, and deals successively with the Spanish journeys northward from Mexico, the French travels southward from Canada, and the English explorations westward from New England and Virginia, and south-westward from Hudson's Bay, together with other scattered efforts by the Russians and the Dutch, and with the later American travels down to 1806. The subject is vast, but, when treated com- prehensively as in this learned book, becomes intelligible, whereas the many special studies of separate journeys appeal only to experts. Dr. Brebner shows that the early Spaniards by 1540 had roamed far and wide over what is now the Middle West of the United States, though they made few permanent settlements north of the Rio Grande, because they could not find the gold mines of which they had been tokl by romancers. The French, working from Canada, had, of course, better fortune in that they occupied more or less the whole Missis- sippi valley, though they could not hold their ground against English arms and the pressure of English colonists moving westwards. The book is a valuable account of a great subject, and it is provided with useful maps and a good bibliography.
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