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EDITOR'S BOOK LOCKER The Age of Exploration Samuel Eliot Mori son 's The European Discovery of America _¡ Th e So uthern Voyages, A.D. 1492- 1616 (O xford U ni ve rsity Press, 1974) remains the li veli est and most authe nti c acco unt of the reali ties of ocean voyag ing in the Age of Exploration . Mori son also offers sound appreciations of the character of suc h people as Columbus, Queen Isabe ll a, Magell an and Charles V. An ex pe rienced deep wate r sa il o r and di s tin g ui s hed scho lar at Harva rd Co ll ege, he a lso showed a budding appreciati on of nati ve peoples' cultures , and he was a great admirer of Bi shop Las Casas and others who protested at the time agai nst the ex ploitation of A meri can Ind ians by Europeans. G . V. Scamme ll 's The World Encompassed : The First European Maritime Empires, c. 800- 1650 (Uni versity of Californi a Press, 198 1), written by another first-cl ass scho lar with first-hand knowl edge of seafaring, is particul arly strong on the economic and cultural story of the developing European states, and includes sensiti ve apprec iati on of nati ve cultures. Someone sho uld publi sh an emended and updated edition of this sprawling but eminentl y readable and instructive work . The Age of Discovery, edited by John B . Hattendorf, is Volume I in a new series entitled Maritime History (Krieger Publi shing, Ma labar FL, 1996). It includes the spl endid essay "The Sea and C hivalry in Late Medieval S pain" by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, referred to in "The Ca pe Ho rn Road" in thi s issue, together with furth er fresh and insightful work on the peri od . Fernandez-Armesto is also author of the 8 16-page Millennium _¡ A History of the Last Thousand Yea rs (Scribner, 1995), which includes our period with a rich appreciation of native cultures, and of the indi genous Afri can and Central and South Ameri can empires which rose and fe ll in thi s period . A somewhat donnish (Oxoni an and Castili an) tone pervades thi s wo rk , however, to the detriment of on-deck reporting, with a tendency to over-blame the Europeans fo r introducing ideas and measures which have certainl y not uni versa ll y worked to mankind 's disadva ntage. We ll , there's no end to the mak ing of books -but these are distinctl y wo rth reading and coming back to. P ETER STANFOR D
Undaunted Courage: Meriwethe r Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West, by Stephen E. Ambrose (S imon & Schu ster, NewYorkNY, 1996, 511pp, illu s, notes , bibli o , index, ISBN 0 -684-8 11 07 -3; $27.SOhc) T he cross ing of thi s continent by the Lewi s and Cl ark ex pediti on ( 1803- 1806) was surely the grandest inl and maritime journey in America's hi story. Ove r 80 % of the 8,000-mile trek was waterborne as the ex plorers tra veled the Ohi o, Mi ss issippi , M issouri , C learwater, Snake and Columbi a ri ve rs on their way to the Pacifi c. Professor Ambrose's scho larship, love of hi s subject and g ift fo r storyte ll ing produce an engross ing and hi ghl y readable narrati ve of the c ritica ll y im portant journey. The subtitle alerts one to the book's emphasis on Lewi s. The earl y cha pters are devoted to hi s educati on and ex perience as a Virgini a pl anter and as a so ld ier during and after the Whi skey Re be lli on. Hi s background made him a natu ral choice as persona l secretary to Pres ident Jeffe rson, who literally groomed Lewi s to become leader of the ex peditio n to realize Jefferson 's dream of findin g the most direct route across the continent. Ambrose goes on to descri be the pre parations fo r the journey, the di fficulties of Congress ional approva l, the challenges of assembling and training men, and the joyful send-off from St. Charles, Mi ssouri , in May 1804. Through hi s di sc uss ion of the exped ition itse lf, Ambrose puts us in Lew is's shoes as he sees the vastness and varied beauty of the unex pl ored interi or and meets and deals with Indi an tribes. O ne can fee l the men 's burdens as they contend with swe ltering heat, mosquitoes, gri zzly bears, pri ckl y pears, near starvation, deep snow and rushing wate r. T he reader shares fru strati ons and triumphs as obstacl es are faced and ove rcome . In concluding, Amb rose does not shy away from Lew is ' s short post-expedition li fe whi ch ended with hi s death (and pro bable suic ide) onl y three years afte r hi s ex ultant return from the ex pedition. While the book serves as a bi ograph y of Lew is and a thorough introductio n to the expediti on fo r someone reading about it fo r the first time since hi gh schoo l, it also prov ides va luable in sights fo r someone ve rsed in the story. It te ll s fo r all readers an exciting sto ry of one of the greatest adve ntures in A meri can hi story. B RADFORD SM IT H
Peekskill, New York SEA HISTORY 79, AUTUMN 1996