La Salle and the discovery of the great West - North Central ...

viiiPREFACE OF THE ELEVENTH EDITION.of my own inquiries, I owed much to his friendlyaid ; but his collections, as a whole, remainedinaccessible, since he naturally wished to be thefirst to make known the results of his labors.An attempt to induce Congress to furnish himwith the means of printing documents so interestingto American history was made in 1870and 1871, by Henry Harrisse, Esq., aided by theAmerican minister at Paris ; but it unfortunatelyfailed.In the summer and autumn of 1872, I hadnumerous interviews with M. Margry, and at hisdesire undertook to try to induce some Americanbookseller to publish the collection. On returningto the United States, I accordingly madean arrangement with Messrs. Little, Brown &Co., of Boston, by which they agreed to printthe papers if a certain number of subscriptionsshould first be obtained. The condition provedvery difficult ; and it became clear that the besthope of success lay in another appeal to Congress.This was made in the following winter,in conjunction with Hon. E. B. Washburne;Colonel Charles Whittlesey, of Cleveland ; 0. H.Marshall, Esq., of Buffalo ;and other gentlemeninterested in early American history. The attemptsucceeded. Congress made an appropria-