he other two children were kept by the Shawnee.Follow the River had a lot of dialogue leaving the reader with the feeling that they were battling the Virginia wilderness right along with Mary Ingles. James Alexander Thom used vivid description on everything that he wrote, he painted the picture for the reader with a myriad of words, and he left no leaf undescribed in the Virginia wilderness. The only thing that seemed confusing about this book is that the reader can never figure out where Mary Ingles is , it would help a lot if a map was placed somewhere in the book showing the trail of Mary and her companion. James Alexander Thom did seem a little bias in his book. He would call The Shawnee Indians heathens, he always just looked at the English point of view and never the Indians point of view, because at this time the reader should be informed that the Indians are being forced to be moved from place to place by the white man, but I don’t believe that the authors intent was to give the Shawnee Indians a bad name he just wanted to get the point across that some young pioneer women was courageous enough to battle the untamed wilderness all by her self(with a little help from the Dutch woman). Also he made the Dutch woman to be a little crazy to make Mary look better in the story but also it could have been true that the Old Dutch woman was senile.James Alexander Thom’s purpose for this book was to let America know about the courageous Mary Ingles who survived the unsurvivable for a woman of her time and age. Thom wanted to laud the woman that you will never see in history books, one of the first white women to ever see the Ohio River and know where it led and one of the first white women to ever see the Virginia wilderness. James Alexander Thom accomplished his purpose of his book which was to make known that Mary Ingles is a very important part of American history. Follow The River was a very easy book to read, very unders...
