167

and no

not been written. For the student there is, in its
season, no better place than the saddle,
better companion than the rifle or the Oar."
The evil that was done was due to Parkman's
irritable organism, which spurred him to

highly

he undertook.

excess in everything
special sign of the mischief he was c

The first

doing to him

self and his health appeared in a weakness of sight. It was essential to his plan of historical work to study not only books and records but Indian life from the inside. Therefore, having graduated from college and the law-school, he felt that the time had come for this investigation, which would enable him to gather material for his history and at the same time to rest his eyes. He went to the Rocky Mountains, and after great hardships, living in the saddle, as he said, with weakness and pain, he joined a band of Ogallalla Indians. With them he remained despite his physical suffering, and from them he learned, as he could not have learned what Indian life really was. The immediate result of the journey first book, instinct with the freshness and wildness of the mountains and the prairies, and

any other way,

was

in

his

called

by him "The Oregon Trail." Unfortunately,

The illness

book was not the only outcome.
curred during his journey from fatigue and
I was followed by other disorders.
light of the sun became insupportable, and his

posure

the

in

ex

The

ner

168

vous syst

was now

and could

em was entirely deranged. His
so impaired that he was almost
neither read nor write. It was a

ble prospect for a brilliant and ambitious

but Parkm

Dan faced it unflinchingly. He de

a frame by which he could write with closed
and books and manuscripts were read to hi
this way he began the history of "The C

racy

of Pontiac," and for the first half-ye

rate of composition covered about six lines
His courage was rewarded by an improv

in

his health, and a little more quiet in

and brain.

to

In two and a half years he ma

complete the book.

He then entered upon his great subj
France in the New World." The materi

mostly in manuscript, and had to be exa gathered, and selected in Europe and in C He could not read, he could write only little and that with difficulty, and yet he that which he could not do himself, and and arranged it, using the eyes of others

on.

on and

on

He slowly collected his material and di

the verge of a complete breakdown
body.
the left

cise,

on w

In 1851 he had an effusion knee, which stopped his outdo ich he had always largely dep itability of the system then cont

All the ir esulting in intense poi

the less

head,

Bain and

o pain and in

and evouring activity of thought. H

self says:

The whirl, the confusion,

169

and strange,

undefined tortures attending this condition are
only to be conceived by one who has felt them."
The resources of surgery and medicine
hausted in vain. The trouble in the head and
constantly recurred. In 1858 there came a

eyes

period when for four years he was

months. When the

were ex

incapable of

a

the slightest mental application, and the attacks
varied in duration from four hours to as many
Pressure was lightened
little he went back to his work. When work
to horticulture, grew roses,
and wrote a book about the cultivation of those
flowers which is a standard authority.

impossible, he turned

As he

grew

older

was

the attacks moderated, al

though they never departed. Sleeplessness pur

sued him always,

the

slightest excitement would deprive him of the Power of exertion, his sight was always sensitive, and at times he dering on blindness. In this hard-pressed way he fought the battle of life. He says himself

that his books took four times as
and write as if he had been strong

to use the case

his faculties. That this should have been is little wonder, for those books came

the

into being with failing sight and shattered
with sleeplessness and pain, and
insanity ever hanging over
nevertheless, carried them through

the brave

man to an

Yet the result of those fifty years,

who,

end.

even in

170

amount,

great

known a

is a noble one, and would have ac hievement for a man who had sick day. In quality, and subjec ofnarration, they leave little to be de Parkman's volumes, is told v

method o There, in

of

strongly, and truthfully, the history of the struggle between France and England f mastery of the North American continer the most important events of modern This is not the place to give any critical es Mr. Parkman's work. It is enough to sa

of

it stands in the front rank. It is a great bution to history, and a still greater gift literature of this country. All American tainly should read the volumes in which Pa has told that wonderful story of hardsh adventure, of fighting and of statesmanship gave this great continent to the English ra the English speech. But better than th ature or the history is the heroic spirit of th which triumphed over pain and all other obstacles, and brought a work of such valu country and his time into existence. Th great lesson as well as a lofty example i

career, dered

by

country

bec

it is

The sam

carved

E

d in the service which such a
his life and work to literature: 1
On the tomb of the conquer:
written: "Here lies Wolfect

IC

epitaph might with entire ju ove the grave of Wolfe's his or