Note M-11 — MEMOIR OF ZEBULON MONTGOMERY PIKE. BY ELLIOTT COUES.

Thomas W. Field, Essay towards an Indian Bibl., etc., 1873, p. 313, throws the mantle of charity in the following terms: "Captain Pike could be charged with no association in this misdemeanor, as the work was edited and published in his absence on duty." This is true only in so far as the forerunner of the Mississippi voyage is concerned (see above, p. xxxiii,) and conveys an erroneous impression regarding Pike's princeps edition, in which the plagiarism occurs. For Pike wrote this book himself, and necessarily knew everything there was in it. See beyond, p. lxi, where the circumstances under which it was prepared are adduced from hitherto unpublished documents.