Leaving Saint Louis in May of 1850, Coke followed the Platte to the Sweetwater, crossed over South Pass, reaching the Dalles in Oregon in October; he then sailed to Hawaii, and returned to the United States via San Francisco. Howes remarks of the journey: "On this perilous 1850 trip undertaken for sheer adventure by two young English sportsmen, two of their seven companions perished; the survival of any was a miracle." Kurutz notes that the last chapter of the book features California and the Gold Rush, and that Coke visited Marysville, where he met Captain Sutter, and went on to observe mining. Cowan p.134; Graff 796; Howes C548; Kurutz 144; Sabin 14240; Streeter 3060; Wagner-Camp 211.