James's _Account_ is the only narrative of the expedition, and his connection with the party gives his work the authority of an official report. Moreover, he not only had access to the notes of his associates, but received much personal assistance, especially from Long and Say. The original edition was published at Philadelphia in 1823, by Carey and Lea; it consisted of two volumes of 503 and 442 pages respectively, containing James's narrative, with appendices giving a catalogue of animals observed at Engineer Cantonment, the Indian sign language, Indian speeches at the councils held by Major O'Fallon, astronomical and meteorological records, and vocabularies of Indian languages, especially those of the Oto, Kansa, Omaha, Sioux, Minitaree, and Pawnee tribes. Extracts from Major Long's report to the secretary of war, dated January 20, 1821, and from the report made by his assistants to Long on the mineralogy and geology of the region explored, were incorporated in the second volume. A third volume contained the maps and plates, and the edition was provided with a brief index and "Preliminary Notice."
The same year another edition was published in London, by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown. This edition, the one selected by us for reprinting, was in three volumes, and contained the text essentially as printed in the Philadelphia edition.[8] In the arrangement of notes, however, a different plan was adopted; in the Philadelphia issue, all annotation was given at the foot of the appropriate pages, while in the London edition the notes for each volume were grouped in the back of the book. In the present reprint the former plan is followed. The Preliminary Notice found in the Philadelphia edition was omitted from the London version, but is supplied in the present reprint. The appendices giving astronomical and meteorological data and Indian vocabularies, which were omitted from the London edition, are also included in our reprint. Finally, instead of the atlas which accompanied the Philadelphia edition, selected illustrations, including a map of the region explored, were incorporated with the text in the various volumes of the London print.
In certain ways the results of the expedition were disappointing, even to those persons whose expectations were far less extravagant than the Missourian who had declared that "ten years shall not pass away before we shall have the rich productions of [China] transported from Canton to the Columbia, up that river to the mountains, over the mountains and down the Missouri and Mississippi, all the way (mountains and all), by the potent power of steam." To this class, the report which the expedition made on the trans-Mississippi country was far from encouraging. Said Major Long in his final estimate: "In regard to this extensive section of country, I do not hesitate in giving the opinion, that it is almost wholly unfit for cultivation, and of course uninhabitable by a people depending upon agriculture for their subsistence. Although tracts of fertile land considerably extensive are occasionally to be met with, yet the scarcity of wood and water, almost uniformly prevalent, will prove an insuperable obstacle in the way of settling the country. This objection rests not only against the section immediately under consideration, but applies with equal propriety to a much larger portion of the country. . . . This region, however, viewed as a frontier, may prove of infinite importance to the United States, inasmuch as it is calculated to serve as a barrier to prevent too great an extension of our population westward, and secure us against the machinations or incursions of an enemy that might otherwise be disposed to annoy us in that part of our frontier." In similar vein is the comment of Dr. James: "We have little apprehension of giving too unfavourable an account of this portion of the country. Though the soil is in some places fertile, the want of timber, of navigable streams, and of water for the necessities of life, render it an unfit residence for any but a nomad population. The traveller who shall at any time have traversed its desolate sands, will, we think, join us in the wish that this region may for ever remain the unmolested haunt of the native hunter, the bison, and the jackall." Such a verdict was not welcomed by an expansive people, eager to enter into and possess a land which imagination pictured as suitable for the seat of an empire.