From the early days of the Revolution, James Wilkinson was an important figure in American history. As a general in the Army of the United States, he was a friend of Presidents, a companion of conspirators, a master of intrigue, and a confederate of alien and domestic plotters. Few men had more intimate knowledge of the inhabited stretches of the American continent. He knew the slating streets of Montreal and was familiar with the tangled wilderness that covered the Champlain valley. In the old Northwest he traveled on the waters of the Great Lakes, wrangled with the British in Detroit, and ate boiled puppy with the savages along the Ohio. In Kentucky, he peddled merchandise and delivered pioneer women of their children.-Print ed.