The Conquest of the Old Southwest | Page 4

historic development the spectacular hero at first sight
seems to diminish; but the mass, the movement, the social force which
he epitomizes and interprets, gain in impressiveness and dignity.
As the irresistible tide of migratory peoples swept ever southward and
westward, seeking room for expansion and economic independence, a
series of frontiers was gradually thrust out toward the wilderness in
successive waves of irregular indentation. The true leader in this
westward advance, to whom less than his deserts has been accorded by
the historian, is the drab and mercenary trader with the Indians. The
story of his enterprise and of his adventures begins with the planting of
European civilization upon American soil. In the mind of the
aborigines he created the passion for the fruits, both good and evil, of
the white man's civilization, and he was welcomed by the Indian
because he also brought the means for repelling the further advance of
that civilization. The trader was of incalculable service to the pioneer in
first spying out the land and charting the trackless wilderness. The trail
rudely marked by the buffalo became in time the Indian path and the
trader's "trace"; and the pioneers upon the westward march, following
the line of least resistance, cut out their, roads along these very routes.
It is not too much to say that had it not been for the trader--brave, hardy,
and adventurous however often crafty, unscrupulous, and immoral--the
expansionist movement upon the American continent would have been
greatly retarded.

So scattered and ramified were the enterprises and expeditions of the
traders with the Indians that the frontier which they established was at
best both shifting and unstable. Following far in the wake of these
advance agents of the civilization which they so often disgraced, came
the cattle-herder or rancher, who took advantage of the extensive
pastures and ranges along the uplands and foot-hills to raise immense
herds of cattle. Thus was formed what might be called a rancher's
frontier, thrust out in advance of the ordinary farming settlements and
serving as the first serious barrier against the Indian invasion. The
westward movement of population is in this respect a direct advance
from the coast. Years before the influx into the Old Southwest of the
tides of settlement from the northeast, the more adventurous struck
straight westward in the wake of the fur-trader, and here and there
erected the cattle-ranges beyond the farming frontier of the piedmont
region. The wild horses and cattle which roamed at will through the
upland barrens and pea-vine pastures were herded in and driven for sale
to the city markets of the East.
The farming frontier of the piedmont plateau constituted the real
backbone of western settlement. The pioneering farmers, with the
adventurous instincts of the hunter and the explorer, plunged deeper
and ever deeper into the wilderness, lured on by the prospect of free
and still richer lands in the dim interior. Settlements quickly sprang up
in the neighborhood of military posts or rude forts established to serve
as safeguards against hostile attack; and trade soon flourished between
these settlements and the eastern centers, following the trails of the
trader and the more beaten paths of emigration. The bolder settlers who
ventured farthest to the westward were held in communication with the
East through their dependence upon salt and other necessities of life;
and the search for salt-springs in the virgin wilderness was an
inevitable consequence of the desire of the pioneer to shake off his
dependence upon the coast.
The prime determinative principle of the progressive American
civilization of the eighteenth century was the passion for the acquisition
of land. The struggle for economic independence developed the germ
of American liberty and became the differentiating principle of
American character. Here was a vast unappropriated region in the
interior of the continent to be had for the seeking, which served as lure

and inspiration to the man daring enough to risk his all in its acquisition.
It was in accordance with human nature and the principles of political
economy that this unknown extent of uninhabited transmontane land,
widely renowned for beauty, richness, and fertility, should excite
grandiose dreams in the minds of English and Colonials alike. England
was said to be "New Land mad and everybody there has his eye fixed
on this country." Groups of wealthy or well-to-do individuals organized
themselves into land companies for the colonization and exploitation of
the West. The pioneer promoter was a powerful creative force in
westward expansion; and the activities of the early land companies
were decisive factors in the colonization of the wilderness. Whether
acting under the authority of a crown grant or proceeding on their own
authority, the land companies tended to give stability and permanence
to settlements otherwise hazardous and insecure.
The second determinative impulse of the pioneer