Wanderer on the American Frontier: The Travels of John Maley, 1808–1813 ed. by F. Andrew Dowdy (review)

Historians owe much to speculators and scientists of old, whose interest in mining precious minerals or whose curiosity about meteorites led to the creation and preservation of many writings that are of significant interest to historians. Such is the case of the two manuscripts written by explorer John Maley, which are reunited for the first time in this edited volume.

For decades, historians have known that an earlier part of Maley’s account had existed, but it was not until 2012 that the first half of the manuscript was recovered. That manuscript has been essential in answering historians’ questions about the veracity of the second half of the account, which has been most easily accessed via a 1971 master’s thesis by historian Dan L. Flores. Although Flores and other historians have questioned whether Maley actually traveled to the places he described or simply wrote a secondhand account, the work has remained useful, particularly to environmental historians and others attempting to understand the natural history of the Old Southwest.

According to F. Andrew Dowdy, who has aptly annotated this volume of the entire Maley account, the contents of the first half of the manuscript put to rest questions about whether Maley himself actually traveled to the Old Southwest. Dowdy believes that the inconsistencies in the second half of the journal stem from the fact that Maley probably wrote the account at least five years after his travels. Certain sections of the account give detailed and verifiably accurate descriptions of people, places, and things, while other sections are vague or even incorrect. These inconsistencies are explained, according to Dowdy, by the fact that Maley sometimes took notes as he traveled and sometimes did not, so when he later attempted to write a full account of the journey, memory sometimes failed to supply completely accurate details.

Dowdy’s editorial approach is greatly appreciated. He has added footnotes to explain important context, but he also inserts himself directly into the text, creating an explanatory conversation between the reader and Maley. For example, the portion of the Maley text that covers the fall of 1810, when he claimed to traverse the cotton-growing region of the Red River, is followed by a two-page explanation of what the cotton industry in the region was like and what other things Maley would (or would not) have known about it.

Because of his own interests, Dowdy focuses heavily on the scientific elements in Maley’s journal, particularly Maley’s discussions of the mining potential in the regions that he visited. However, Dowdy also spends significant time discussing the Native people whom Maley encountered, providing context about the federal policies that led to removal within a few decades of Maley’s travels. Overall, Dowdy provides brief but helpful context for every aspect of Maley’s account. The book also includes helpful maps and modern-day photographs of locations that Maley visited.

There can now be no doubt that Maley indeed traveled to all the places he wrote about in his journal, and his account is a valuable resource for historians of the Southeast and the Old Southwest in the early republic.