John Xántus: The Fort Tejon Letters 1857-1859.
Edited by
Ann Zwinger. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1986. Notes. Bibliography.
Appendix. Index. Maps. Illustrations. 255 + xxvi pages. $23.50.
Reviewed by John E. Sunder, Professor of History at The
University of Texas at Austin, author of several books on the Fur Trade, and a
birder.
Observing wild animals in their natural habitats is an
important American pastime. Thousands of wildlife enthusiasts sail annually from
San Diego and other west coast ports to view whales, dolphin, and seabirds such
as the small black and white Xantus' Murrelet, named after the Hungarian
adventurer-ornithologist John Xántus.
An extraordinary, rather mysterious expelle from Austria,
Xántus joined the United States Army as a private in 1855 and was stationed
initially at Fort Riley, Kansas Territory. When time allowed he collected birds
for Army surgeon William A. Hammond who sponsored Xántus' transfer to the Army
Medical Service and introduced him to Spencer F. Baird of the Smithsonian. By
then Xántus was an avid amateur ornithologist and an elected member of the
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Baird, ever eager to send collectors to remote places, arranged
Xántus' transfer to southern California. Posted for two years to newly-opened
Fort Tejon in 1857, Xántus, who was proud, arrogant, and hypersensitive,
bristled at everyone at the fort, yet doggedly collected, prepared, described,
and shipped eastward to his mentor specimens of "the feathered world . . . here
on a large scale represented" and whatever else he could collect from the
Grapevine Canyon country just north of present-day Gorman.
Ann Zwinger, known to many for her expressive books on the
natural world and a recipient of the John Burroughs Association Gold Medal
(1976), structures this edited volume around the "literate and often
sophisticated" 49 letters, all but two from Fort Tejon, that Xántus wrote Baird
in a "crisp, flowing, and generally easy to read" script between April, 1857 and
January, 1859. Zwinger includes plentiful explanatory endnotes to each letter;
an appendix of the birds that Xántus collected in the vicinity of the fort; and
two maps, one a superimposition of the present historic site upon an original
map of the fort. Birders and history buffs may notice a few editorial errors,
but they are minor ones outweighed by Zwinger's balanced portrayal of Xántus.
Although Xántus collected later at Cabo San Lucas; continued
to write, and sometimes plagiarize, voluminously; and lived out his days in
Hungary, his two years as a field naturalist at Fort Tejon highlighted his life.
The "boxes of skins, vials, skulls, and 'botles of alcoholics' " and his
accurately detailed sketches that illuminate his written descriptions of
specimens that he sent to Baird from the fort "contributed substantially to the
developing knowledge of the natural history of the western United States."
Xántus wrote Baird not only about topics as timely today as
then, earthquake shocks, the "quite numerous" Condors, and Americans creating
illwill in Central America, but also about topics now considered of antiquarian interest only, anticipated "Mormon depredations," abundant
California grizzlies, and the camel mail project. Despite his abrasive
personality and obvious psychological difficulties Xántus gave us, in Zwinger's
perfectly chosen words, new knowledge of "the crawlers and the flappers, the
hoppers and the soarers, the bounders and the leapers" that share the world with
us.
