Who can know whether any of those daring souls,
the trappers of the earliest days of American history, ever penetrated to
the depths of these canyons in their expeditions after the pelts of
fur-bearing animals?
These men were the true pioneers. They ever kept
thrusting the frontier line further forward. As civilization, with people,
villages, towns, cultivated lands, advanced westward, still further west
pushed the trapper. Civilization was a hindrance to his business. The wild
animals he sought fled from the presence of many men. Though the Indian had
penetrated more or less to all these secluded regions, the Indian has
enough of the reserve of outdoor life not to disturb any of the animals. It
is the imperious, self-willed, noisy white man who drives away the shy
creatures of the wild.
United States Purchases New Territory. In 1815, the small nation known as
the United States had become eager to grow, and Jefferson had made his
memorable purchase of all the territory north of the Red River, the
Arkansas and the forty-second parallel, as far as the British boundary or
Canadian line, then still unsettled, and the disputed region of Oregon.
Lewis and Clark had made their wonderful expedition, and the world, through
the publication of their report, knew a little of the immense territory now
acquired. In the previous century, the Spaniards had discovered the value
of the pelts of the fur-bearing animals of California, and a few
venturesome spirits were soon to learn that the western mountains, forests
and rivers abounded in the same profitable game. In his interesting and
illuminative American Fur Trade of the Far West, Chittenden has shed a
flood of light on these early-day operations.
Trappers Seek Riches. Padilla, Kino, Garces, Escalante, and others of the
brave Spanish padres, had penetrated into some portion of these unknown
territories, but they had gone with the vow of poverty upon them. No greed
for gold blinded their eyes to the rights of others. A hunger for the
salvation of souls was their only hunger; the glitter of the golden harps
and crowns in heaven the only glitter that attracted them. But the trappers
had a different purpose. They were a different kind of men. Rough and
ready, venturesome to the last degree, turbulent as the raging Colorado,
imperious in their high-handed dealing with all who stood in their way,
they were about to enter the conflict for the sake of gold, and gold is the
most remorseless driver, the most soul-destroying master man ever has had.
Trappers the Primary Cause of Indian Wars. It has been the trappers who
largely have given to us our notions of the American Indians of the West.
For they were the first men to come into conflict with them. They were the
first to dispute with them about water-holes and springs, about "rights,"
about "property." Is it necessary to ask what kind of a report such men
would bring of any who stood in their way?
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