Breaking of the Wilderness; The Story of the Conquest of the Far West, from the Wanderings of Cabeza de Vaca, to the First Descent of the Colorado by Powell, and the Completion of the Union Pacific Railway, with Particular Account of the Exploits of Trappers and Traders . By Frederick S. Dellenbaugh , Member of the Powell Colorado River Expedition; author of “The Romance of the Colorado River,” “The North American Indians of Yesterday,” etc. (New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1905. Pp. xxiii, 360.)

What is probably the best thing about this book is the rather vivid impression it gives of the Far West and of the difficulties that had to be overcome by the explorers who first penetrated it. The impression is greatly aided by the excellent series of illustrations, most of which are made from photographs, and a considerable part of the rest from sketches by the author and by others. Mr. Dellenbaugh has traveled extensively, as he says, along all “the principal historical trails” in the country with which his narrative deals, and he seems quite familiar with it. His descriptions have no small degree of the actuality that attaches to the view of an eye-witness, as, e. g., that of the mouth of the Columbia as seen from seaward (p. 142).

The author is also fairly familiar with the work of the principal explorers, and he gives the reader a good general impression of the process of wilderness breaking described in his book. It is, however, apparent that he is not as familiar with the sources of Western history as with the physical aspects of the West. His failure to use the proper Spanish accents for such names as Cíbola, Pánuco, etc., suggests a lack of intimate acquaintance with the only language in which many of those sources are yet to be found. He holds to the discredited theory that the Espíritu Santo of Pineda was the mouth of the Mississippi (p. 104); he thinks that the Malhado of Cabeza de Vaca was Galveston Island, or some other island on the Gulf coast between that and the mouth of the Mississippi (p. 104), and, while he refers to The Quarterly, he seems not to have read the articles by Judge Coopwood; in spite of the work of Frank Hamilton Cushing—with which, by the way, he doesn't seem to trouble himself—he refuses to believe that Cíbola is to be identified with Zuñi (p. 113); although he cites H. H. Bancroft, who gives good reasons for rejecting the story of Juan de Fuca, he doesn't question the story itself (p. 119); he repeats the baseless legend that the Spaniards made a settlement at San Antonio in 1692 (p. 134); he refers to Natchitoches as “a Spanish post in Texas” (p. 182); and his entirely inadequate and misleading explanation of the Texas Revolution is that “the Texans desired to have Texas a sovereign Mexican State, but a military government was proposed by the Mexicans” (p. 298). Such errors make it unsafe to depend on the book as an authority, but it will nevertheless remain useful to the reader who is on his guard against them.

G. P. G.

How to cite:
"Breaking of the Wilderness; The Story of the Conquest of the Far West, from the Wanderings of Cabeza de Vaca, to the First Descent of the Colorado by Powell, and the Completion of the Union Pacific Railway, with Particular Account of the Exploits of Trappers and Traders", Volume 010, Number 1, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, Page 110 - 111. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v010/n1/review_18.html
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