It Is Not Easy To Do Justice To The Exulting Feelings Of The
Worthy Captain At Finding Himself At The Head Of A Stout Band Of
Hunters, Trappers, And Woodmen; Fairly Launched On The Broad
Prairies, With His Face To The Boundless West.
The tamest
inhabitant of cities, the veriest spoiled child of civilization,
feels his heart dilate and his pulse beat
High on finding himself
on horseback in the glorious wilderness; what then must be the
excitement of one whose imagination had been stimulated by a
residence on the frontier, and to whom the wilderness was a
region of romance!
His hardy followers partook of his excitement. Most of them had
already experienced the wild freedom of savage life, and looked
forward to a renewal of past scenes of adventure and exploit.
Their very appearance and equipment exhibited a piebald mixture,
half civilized and half savage. Many of them looked more like
Indians than white men in their garbs and accoutrements, and
their very horses were caparisoned in barbaric style, with
fantastic trappings. The outset of a band of adventurers on one
of these expeditions is always animated and joyous. The welkin
rang with their shouts and yelps, after the manner of the
savages; and with boisterous jokes and light-hearted laughter. As
they passed the straggling hamlets and solitary cabins that
fringe the skirts of the frontier, they would startle their
inmates by Indian yells and war-whoops, or regale them with
grotesque feats of horsemanship, well suited to their halfsavage
appearance.
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