The latest and best edition of Pike which has hitherto appeared in the United States, was published in 1889, as follows:
_[1889.] Exploratory Travels | through the | Western Territories | of | North America: | comprising a | Voyage from St. Louis, on the Mississippi, | to the | Source of that river, | and a | Journey through the Interior of Louisiana, | and the | North-eastern Provinces of New Spain. | Performed in the years 1805, 1806, 1807, by Order of the Government of the United States. | -- | By Zebulon Montgomery Pike, | Major 6th Regt. United States Infantry. | -- | London: | Paternoster-Row. | -- | 1811. | -- | Denver: | W. H. Lawrence & Co. | 1889. |_
One vol., large 4^to. Engr. portrait, frontispiece, answering to pp. i, ii; title, verso copyright, pp. iii, iv; introduction (new, by Wm. M. Maguire, Denver, 1889), pp. v-xii; missing, pp. xiii, xiv; Report of Committee, etc. (1808), pp. xv-xxii (abstracted from Doc. No. 6 and accompanying papers of Appendix III. of the original); contents, pp. xxiii, xxiv, or pp. 23, 24; main text, pp. 25-351; blank, p. 352; Appendix, pp. 353-394; Mississippi map, reduced, opp. p. 24; 1st Louisiana map, reduced, opp. p. 146; 2d do., do., opp. p. 208; maps of Falls of St. Anthony and of Mexico not found; folding tables reset to page size.
As appears from the foregoing title and collation, this is a faithful and complete reprint of the English quarto. The title page is facsimiled with the camera, down to the publishers' names; the text is identical throughout, barring such slight literal or punctual differences as are necessarily incident to resetting type. The only noticeable change from the London edition is that Dr. Rees' advertisement is replaced by a new introduction, from the pen of William M. Maguire, Esq., of Denver. This is a valuable feature; my only regret is that so competent and conscientious an editor as Mr. Maguire--one familiar with much of Pike's route, and enthusiastic on the subject--did not give the work that extended critical revision which would have forestalled my own commentary and left me to exercise my editorial wits in some other direction. As it is, I am indebted to my valued correspondent in several particulars which appear in their proper connections in the course of my notes.
