The states and territories of the great West : including Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minesota [sic], Kansas and Nebraska ; their geography, history, resources ... comprising their local history, institutions, and laws ; giving a table of distances, and the most direct routes ... also, pointing out the best districts for agricultural, commercial, lumbering, and mining operations

Front matter

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MILLEfi. ORTON & MULLIGAN.

Chapter I

Early emigration to the West — Motives of the emigrants — Their independence and perils — The “ -western fever” — The substantial settler — Conveniences for traveling fifty years ago — The open-hearted frontiersman — The solitudes of the forest — Modes of conveyance — The old-fashioned J ersey-wagon — The season for emigration — The preparation — The good-by start — Progress — The wayside meal — Incidents by the way — The buried treasure. 1 8

Chapter II. Early History Of The West

Territory included in the Great West — Water-shed, or divide — The rivers and their tributaries — The fur hunter’s canoe-passage to the Gulf of Mexico — River system — Progress of the French missionaries, as early as 1632 — Nicolet — His influence over the Indians — - The journey of his life — His reception at Green Bay — Council with the chiefs — Iroquois war — Its effects on the missions — The great river west of the lakes — Claude Allouez, thefirst explorer of Lake Michigan — -Frozen in on Lake Michigan — Sailing on the ice in a canoe — Pitch Rock — Visit to the villages of the Illinois — M. Joliet and James Marquette explorers of the Mississippi — Their birth, education, and character — Marquette among the missions — Visited by the Illinois Indians — Contemplates exploring the Mississippi alone — Is stationed a* Michilimackinac — Arrival of Joliet with orders to explore the Mississippi — Prayers and thanksgiving for the favors conferred on them — Preparation and outfit — The Canadian canoe 28

Chapter III. Exploration Of The Mississippi

Departure from Michilimackinac — Wild oats — The tide at Green Bay — Ascending the Fox River — Indian village on the shore of Lake Winnebago — Wisconsin River — Its peculiarities — Joy at reaching the Mississippi — Strange fish — The abundance of game — Foot-prints on the shore — Discover an Indian village — ■ Council — Feast of corn meal, fish, and boiled dog — Presented with a calumet — A strange plant — Monsters painted on a rock — Frightful appearance of the water, at the junction of the Missouri — Clay paint — Indian method of dealing with musquitoes — viii

CONTEXTS.

“Snags” and “Sawyers” — Arkansas Indians — Return up the Mississippi and Illinois — Portage to Chicago — Arrival at Green Bay — James Marquette sets out on a return to Chicago, to instruct the Illinois Indians — Is detained all winter at the portage by sickness — Reaches the Illinois country in April, and founds a mission — His maladay increasing, he sets out on his return to Michilimackinac — Driven by westerly winds to the mouth of the St. Joseph’s — Becomes too weak to proceed — Expires on a bed of boughs, on the shore of Lake Michigan 60

Chapter IV. The Great Lakes

Ottawa and French rivers — Robert Cavalier de La Salle, first navigator upon the lakes — His patent for the monopoly of the trade of the West — “The Griffin,” the first sail vessel built on the Lakes — Her first and only trip — La Salle’s misfortune — Descends the Mississippi — Loses one of his hunters in the woods — Takes formal possession of the country at the mouth of the Mississippi — Plate engraved, and deposited in the earth — La Salle goes to France — Returns with three ships — The store-ship dashed in pieces on the coast of Texas — One hundred men lost by sickness — La Salle and sixteen men set out overland for the Illinois — La Salle murdered by two of his companions 64

Chapter V. French Settlements

Destruction of Montreal by the Iroquois — Iroquois conquered — Treaty of peace — French emigration — Fort Chartres — Manufacture of flour in the Wabash country — The adaptation of the Indian manners, etc., by the French — Its effects — Description of the French settlements — Dress of the settlers — Inroads upon the French — Attempts of the Spaniards to dispossess the French — Their defeat, and overthrow of the Santa Fe expedition — Progress of English settlements toward the W est — An English trader among the French — His fate — The Ohio Company’s grant — Gov. Dinwiddie dispatches Geo. Washington with a message to the French — Beginning of the French war — The West open to English emigration — Taking possession of the military posts — Robert Rogers — Rogers’ Rangers — Character of the Rangers — The Rangers at Cleveland — Visit from Pontiac — The forts delivered to the English 73

CHAPTER YI.

Manner of trading with the Indians — Early routes to the West — The Albany route — The Philadelphia route — The Indian trader — His dress — Trading stations — The Indian’s notion of the surveyor’s compass and chain — The Acadians — Destruction of their prop-

CONTEXTS.

IX ertv — Transported to the sea-coast — They gather, and emigrate in a body to the French settlements — Received with great hospitality — The Indian character, 99

Chapter VII

pontiac’s war.

Pontiac — Indian method of drilling their warriors — Pontiac assembles a council — Pontiac’s speech — His dream — The fort at Detroit— Pontiac inspects the fort dui'ing a calumet dance — Pontiac’s conspiracy on the fort at Detroit defeated-- A general destruction of the forts and settlements by the Indians — Stratagems of the game of ball between the Ojibways aud Sacs, and destruction of Hichilimackinac — Fall of Venango — Condition of the frontier settlements — Colonel Henry Bouquet — His victory near Fort Pitt — A council with the chiefs — Their apology for the war — Bouquet’s reply — Orders the Indians to bring in all their prisoners before giving them the hand of friendship — Meeting of long-lost friends — Conclusion of the Indian war — Assassination of Pontiac. . . 110

Chapter VIII. Conquest Of The West By The United States

English and French settlements contrasted — Want of elbow-room — The Yankee pioneers — Their character — Recklessness — Peculiar dress — Their houses, etc. — “ Hog and hominy ” — “ Old Ned ” — Tomahawk rights — Colonel Clark at the W est — His character — Descends the Ohio — Sinks his boats — Surprises Kaskaskia — Inhabitants declare for the United States — British Lieutenant-governor Rocheblane, captured — Vincennes taken — Militia organized— Clark among the Indians — “Courts of Illinois” — British Governor, Hamilton, descends the Wabash with one thousand men — Ruse of Captain Helm — Clark’s winter march — Hamilton surrenders— Territory held by Colonel Clark until the close of the war 139

Chapter IX. The Northwestern Territory

■Political organization — Permanent territorial laws — First and second grade — First church and schools — Cincinnati and North Bend — First civil court in the territory — Lawyers of the Northwestern Territory — Their manner of traveling from one court to another — The British posts in the territory surrendered to the United States. 155

Chapter X. Ohio

Division of the Northwestern Territory — State government — Early politics of the state — Rapid growth of the state — Its climate

1*

X

CONTENTS, and soil — Minerals — Salt springs — Water communications — Crops — Domestic commerce — Railroads — Institutions of learn ing — Churches — Taxable property, etc 165

Chapter XI. Michigan

French agriculture — Population — Geography — Geology — The lower peninsula — White-oak openings — Burr-oak openings — “ Cat-holes” — Pine woods of the north — Windfalls — Soil and fruits of the lower peninsula — Pasturage — Settlements of Michigan — Commercial advantages — Detroit and other ports — Site for a great central city — The rivers — The lakes around Michigan — Improved lands — Annual products — Schools, churches, and other institutions— Attractions to the settler — Exemption laws. . . . 173

Chapter XII. Indiana

Yankee emigrants — Emigration checked by the war of 1812 — Admission as a state — Rapid settlement of the state — Where the settlers came from — Soil of the state — The Ohio and Whitewater valleys — The White River Yalley — The Wabash Valley — River navigation — Canals — Railroads — Agricultural products — Charitable institutions, churches, colleges, and schools 191

Chapter XIII. Illinois

Extinguishment of the Indian titles — Admission as a state — Great earthquake Of 1811 — Eifect on the Mississippi — Effect on the Indians — First steamboat on the Mississippi — Keel-boat navigation — Keel-boatmen — Nature of the population — Length and breadth of the state — Number of counties — Lands improved and unimproved — Number of farms — Value of farming implements — Annual products — The soil — The “American Bottom” — Prairie lands — Grand Prairie — Coal regions — Yankee fences in Illinois — Mode of forming settlements on the prairie — Plowing the prairie — The timber region — Minerals — Lead region — Chicago — Rivers, canals, and railroads — Varieties of climate — The winter of 1855-56 — Seasons of the greatest cold — Schools, colleges, and libraries — Exemption laws 199

CHAPTER XIY.

WISCONSIN.

Organized as a territory — First settlements — Rapid emigration — * Source of emigration — Admission as a state — Number of counties, dwellings, and families — Nature of the population — State laws, with regard to voters — Courts — Interesting provisions of

CONTEXTS.

XI the constitution — Length, breadth, and general surface of the state — Southern Wisconsin — Superior natural advantages — Prairies— Oak openings — Abundant pasturages — Inducements to settlers — Southern Wisconsin compared with other states — Increase of agricultural wealth — Lead mines — Iron region — Limestone — White marble — Northern Wisconsin — Extensive pine regions — Water-power — The Wisconsin pine — Annual amount sawed — Climate of Wisconsin — Health — Opinion of physicians — Commerce — Harbors — Milwaukie brick — Railroads — Educational institutions and laws — Exemption laws, . . . 217

Chapter XV. Iowa

The Black Hawk Purchase — First settlements — Second Indian purchase — Reports of the surveyors — Erected into a territory — Garden of the West — Constitution formed — Provisions of the constitution — Refuses the terms of admission as a state — A new constitution — Admission as a state — Length and breadth of the state — Population — Number of dwellings and families — Number of counties — Amount of unimproved lands — Excess of male population — Source of emigration — Host populous counties — Land speculations — Advantageous geographical position — General appearance of the state — Agricultural condition and resources — Coal-fields — Limestone — Cedar Valley — Soil — Minerals — Commerce — Shipping ports — Capital of Iowa — Iowa City — Railroads— Advantage to settlers — Public institutions, . . . 235

Chapter XVI. Minesota Territory

Explorations of the Upper Mississippi — Location of the territory — “ The New England of the W est ” — Territorial boundary — Laws — Counties — Population — Nature of the population — Crops — General surface of the territory — Geology — Above Crowing River — Chalk formation — James River — Buffalo pasture-ground — Big Sioux River — Red pipestone quarry — St. Peters River — Bottom-lands— Blue Earth River — St. Peter’s Valley — The paradise of farmers — Lake Pepin — Terror of the lumbermen of the north — Timber — Wild rice — Soil and its products — The Red River of the North — Springs and lakes — Minesota the Artesian fountain of the continent — Underground hydraulic power — Boiling springs — Magnificent forest — Destiny of Minesota — Indian summers — Manner of perfecting a squatter’s title — St. Paul — Table of distances from Galena to St. Paul — Rates of fare, . . .253

Chapter XVII. The Superior Country

Lake Superior — American coast — Anchorage — Harbors — Danger of navigating the lake — Curiou3 phenomeira, of the lake —

Xll

CONTENTS.

Transparency of its waters — ‘The mirage of Lake Superior — Islands — Isle Royal — Lakes in Isle Royal — Perennial ice — Effect of the extreme cold on the growth of the trees — Rock Harbor — Streams emptying into Lake Superior — Appearance of the shore — Iron- works of Carp River — Porcupine Mountains — Table of distances — The La Grande Sables — Pictured Rocks — Ontonagon River — Montreal River — Sturgeon River — The Iron re gion — The different beds, etc. — Geologists’ opinion of the iron region — Location of good agricultural lands — Advantages of a railroad through the iron regions- — The copper region of the Superior country — Lake Superior reverenced by the Indians — The first Englishman who visited the copper region — Extract from his journal — First mining company — Mining companies of Keweenaw — Trap rock — Silver among the copper — Cliff mine — Copper Falls mine, rich in silver — Largest mass of copper — Table of the products of foreign mines — Eagle Harbor — Game and speckled trout — Fisheries of Lake Superior — Climate, etc 273

Chapter XVIII. Kansas And Nebraska

Boundary of Kansas — Best lands open for settlement — Valleys of the tributaries of the Arkansas River, and of the Smoky Hill Fork of the Kansas — Pasturage — The land between the desert hills and the Rocky Mountains — The Kansas River — Valley of the Grand River — Timber — Coal — Springs — Council Grove — The Grand Prairie — The Upper Arkansas — Pawnee Rock — The mirage — Table of distances from Independence City to Pawnee Rock — The Santa F6. trade — Southern Kansas ores — Settlements of Eastern Kansas — Kansas laws for the recognition of land claims — Indians of Kansas — “First right” — Table of distances from Fort Riley to Missouri border — Military roads — Climate of Kansas —

Nebraska, - 304

Chapter XIX. Kansas

Its history and politics 325

CHAPTER XX. Aid societies and preemptions 339

Vid the principal thoroughfares, to the Great West .... 347

EARLY EMIGRATION TO THE WEST

STATES AND TERRITORIES

OF

THE GREAT WEST.

Chapter I

Early emigration to the West — Motives of the emigrants — Their independence and perils — The “ western fever ” — The substantial settler — Conveniences for traveling fifty years ago — The open-hearted frontiersman — The solitudes of the forest — Modes of conveyance — The old-fashioned Jersey-wagon — The season for emigration — The preparation — The good-by start — Progress — The wayside meal — Incidents by the way — The buried treasure.

For more than half a century public attention has been directed toward the setting sun. At the beginning of that period, the West was regarded with mingled emotions of curiosity and dread. The contemplation of a magnificent, boundless wilderness, was well calculated to excite the most sluggish imagination. But to the daring and resolute pioneer, the mystery that hung over the endless woods was continually a temptation to explore the furthest regions concealed beneath their shade. There lay, undisturbed, the hunter’s paradise, with every excitement necessary to savage life, from contact with wild beasts to warfare with human beings. Other motives, however, equally powerful, influenced men of widely different characters to resort to the western country. The criminal,

THE GREAT WEST.

flying from justice, made his escape into the woods. Those who disdained conformity to the usages of civil life, who abhorred the restraints of fashion, who aspired to entire independence of all control, sought, instinctively, beyond the borders of civilization, for the wild freedom of nature. Also, the victims of misfortune looked to the West, as a proper field for renewing the struggle of life. It opened before them like another creation — rugged, unorganized; but this was charming to them. The distribution of property would have to be begun over again, in their time. There could be no aristocracy of wealth or refinement in the woods. Abject poverty and heartless affluence could not meet together there for many years. The poor man, whose limited means were insufficient for the wants of a growing family, removed to the West; contented to endure its privations, and submit to its hardships ; cheered by the certainty of securing a competence to his children. But a small capital might there be made speedily to accumulate into a fortune, without having to wait upon the slow processes of industry. The speculator, eager to become rich, willing to place everything at hazard, to whom the opportunities, in populous countries, for acquiring property, were unsatisfactory, or too few, hastened impatiently into the wilderness in search of water-power, and sites for future cities, delighting himself in the solitudes, with the prospect of public streets, whose lines were blazed trees.

And, at the close of the Revolution, many of the heroes of that Avar, having become impoverished, sought in the western plantations a restoration of their fortunes; carrying with them into the woods the patient endurance and discipline acquired in the army, and manifesting a most courageous diligence in subduing alike the wilder ness and its savage inhabitants. Rocky New England,

EARLY EMIGRATION.

also, sent forth its hardy sons, inured to toil, laborious, calculating, frugal, and resolute, to plant in the new country the system of schools and churches that had been the blessing of their earlier days, and the pride of their fathers; rejoicing, moreover, to exchange the stubborn hill-sides, where they had been born, for the productive plains and fertile valleys of the West.

To the young man, energetic, hopeful, ambitious, the new country was a theater for noble aspirations. He could grow with its growth. Nothing seemed to be impossible to him there. He could mingle with the brave, and participate in the glory of their achievements. He could associate with the wise, and share their renown.

But another interesting class of men took part in the formation of the early settlements. The European emigrant might wTell avail himself of the opportunities presented to him by a new territory. He had heard the story of its fabulous advantages. Adventurous hunters, and soldiers returned from the Indian wars, had spoken of the marvels which their own eyes had seen. The men of the woods, seated at the hospitable firesides of the older states, and partaking of the good cheer of the long winter evenings, while the cider, and the apples, and the nuts were passing around, had recited to tingling ears the story of their long trails, and had stirred up afresh their smouldering camp-fires. The reports which had reached New York, New England, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, of the unexampled fertility of the West, of its early springs and lingering autumns, its forests of valuable timber, its sealike lakes and majestic rivers, its prairies of waving grass, its abounding mineral wealth, had flown also across the Atlantic, and had awakened, universally, a desire to participate in the fortunes of so magnificent a country. But often the European emigrant was acted upon by sterner

THE GREAT WEST.

necessities. A political outcast,- whose only crime consisted in his loving his native country too well, he looked for shelter to a foreign land. The interest with which he contemplated Republican institutions had strengthened his attachment to a government whose sway he had never felt, and whose flag he had never seen. The sturdy peasants of France and Germany, the mountaineers of Switzerland, the yeomanry of England, the patriotic Irishmen fleeing from unnatural oppression, found an asylum in the wilds of America.

It was to have been expected that, with these streams of population flowing in upon the West from unfailing sources, the center of political power in the Union would become removed beyond the Alleghanies. The founders of the Republic seem, indeed, to have contemplated the formation of states to the north-west of the river Ohio; and they made ample provision for the integrity of them. It may well be doubted, however, if any of the framers of the American system of government could have foreseen the splendors of that reality which has been unfolded before our eyes.

But the West had its perils as well as its advantages; and the settler had to brave the former, in order to the enjoyment of the latter. A homestead he could there have, at little expense beyond that of taking possession of the land, and reducing it into cultivation; but it would have to be obtained at the risks incident to a howling wilderness. The soil might be fertile ; but it was covered over with dense forests. The exuberant vegetation of the prairies might furnish pastures for innumerable herds of buffalo ; but the Indian war-paths intersected these prairies in all directions. Life in the wilderness, evidently, was one of rugged independence; free from officious neighbors, free from meddlesome impertinence of every sort;

THE SUBSTANTIAL SETTLOR. 3 7

free from the wholesome restraints, also, of established customs and laws. But such a life was clearly deficient in many things necessary to civilized man. It could furnish no security to person or property, beyond the exercise of mere brute force in self-defense. It could not surround itself with those genial influences of civilization which call into play the finer qualities of human nature. The school was wanting. The church was wanting. Society was wanting. The majority of those, however, who contemplated removing to the West, looked habitually on the brighter side of the picture. Visions of sunlit woods, of glittering streams and silvery lakes, of tables groaning with venison, of barns filled with grain, of days spent in wild, boisterous enjoyment, kept the mind feverish and impatient. If a dark shadow did occasionally flit over the view, it was but for a moment only, and then the reaction carried the mind to a still higher degree of excitement. This was the “Western fever,” a disease that has carried many a one off — West. But the man of a cool head and clear judgment, not unmindful of the difficulties of the undertaking, could see his way opening gradually before him to solid and enduring results. Brawny arms and a muscular frame could contend successfully with the trees of the forest that had swayed to the winds for centuries. In skillful hands, the American ax is a masterly weapon of warfare upon wood. The burning to ashes of great slashings of timber and underbrush would prepare the ground as well for seed as it could be done with the plow. A bountiful harvest would allay all anxiety respecting a scarcity of provisions. Incessant toil, in a few years, would turn the hunting-grounds into farms. Orchards could he planted. Buildings could be erected. Each isolated

house, in the new country, would be a point of attraction

B

THE GREAT WEST.

to future emigrants ; it would soon become the center of a growing neighborhood ; and a society would be steadily forming, which, for a time, at least, would remain free from those odious contrasts which deform and corrupt more populous communities.

Such was the prospect which was pleasing to the substantial settler. But it is human to magnify anticipated results, and to diminish anticipated obstacles. The most difficult thing in this world is, to forecast so wisely that our calculations shall correspond to the rigid severity of experience. Before a single blow could be struck in the wilderness, before a place could be selected where to put up a temporary cabin, a long and dangerous journey had to be accomplished. And traveling, fifty years ago, to any considerable distance, was not an affair of trifling moment. The era of steamboats and railroads had not then dawned on the world. The canal which connects the Hudson Biver with the lakes, existed only as a dream in the mind of an enthusiastic statesman. The highways leading westward were little more than wheel-ruts cut deep in the soil. Bridges were rarely seen. The struggling teams were plunged into the waters at the fordingplaces. On approaching the remote frontier, the traces of a road had -become more and more faint and indistinct ; a little further on, the road itself had dwindled into a horse^ path, then a blind trail, and then, as a facetious traveler has said, “it turned into a squirrel track, and ran up a tree.”

New roadways and wagon-tracks are thrust forward by civilization, in advance of its great, general movements. When, therefore, the emigrant had passed all those, he had got beyond the border — he had come into the' midst of the great western woods. And there the difficulties of the way began to thicken around him. His

THE OPEN-HEARTED FRONTIERSMAN.

perilous journey was but just beginning. For, although be may have been traveling for weeks, since be bad left the eastern shore of Virginia, or the river counties of New York, or the bills of New England, bis course thus far bad taken him along the line of the settlements, where be bad been sure of a cordial reception at every farm-house. The inhabitants of a country which has been brought recently into occupation, dwelling far apart from each other, are keenly alive to every opportunity for social intercourse. They live with an open door to strangers. The choicest fare is brought out, the best accommodations made ready which the house affords, to promote the traveler’s comfort, so long as he shall choose to remain with them. The stranger is always welcome. The settler feels a manly pride in extending to all a free invitation to take shelter beneath his roof. To pass him by without so much as halting, or apologizing for such an apparent slight, is looked upon as an exceedingly shabby proceeding. It is contrary to all his notions of propriety. Instances have occurred of grave offense being given, by refusing to stop to dinner, or to stay all night with the rude, open-hearted frontiersman; who, actuated by a generous instinct, acknowledges that all new-comers have claims upon him, which he is anxious to make good ; and who feels that he, in his turn, has demands upon them, for conversation, for news from down-country, for friction ‘of mind upon mind, which they ought to satisfy. Indeed, a capital story is received as lawful tender for victuals and lodging, eyerywhere along the border.

The unstinted hospitality of the settlers scattered along the ways leading toward the West greatly facilitated the progress of emigration, by softening its hardships and lessening its expenses. But between the settlements lay wide reaches of forest, and, further on,

THE GREAT WEST.

the unbroken wilderness. When, therefore, the emigrant had pressed forward beyond the established dwellingplaces of men, his journey began to assume an entirely different character. Cultivated fields no longer opened before him, with the grateful assurance of plenty and welcome good cheer near at hand. No longer the smoke curled upward invitingly from the house by the roadside. Surrounded now by the grand old forms of nature, the emigrant felt isolated, cut off from all human associations. In the midst of savage sights and savage sounds, he was moving onward through perpetual shade. His present situation would be apt to make the stoutest heart feel its weakness and dependence. Alone in the wilderness, the trees must be his companions by day and his shelter by night. The woods were before him, the woods were round about him. They interposed their huge trunks between him and the world. They lifted on high their umbrageous tops, and shut out the heavens. Many have turned back from their awful presence. But the solitude of the forest was far from being repulsive ; it was simply overpowering. Its terrors were softened by many peculiar beauties. There was the witchery of its swinging shadows. There was the sunshine glancing from innumerable leaves. And on every hand, opening down into the distant gloom, were long avenues of trees, arched over with waving branches and foliage, through which the struggling light penetrated below, and danced to the music of the winds. At night, the stars hung out upon the tree-tops. If no human voice was responsive to the emigrant’s voice, yet the birds, morning and evening, poured their songs into his ear. And in the repose of midday, and in the silence of night, all was not hushed ; for the very stillness of the woods was audible. The trees were continually sighing and moaning in the breathing air. But when storms

MODES OF CONVEYANCE.

swept down upon them, they writhed, and shrieked, and clashed their rude arms, and roared upon a thousand trumpets.

Day after day, amid scenes of solitary grandeur, the emigrant had to grope about in the woods with no other guides than the sun and stars, the courses of the hills and streams, hewing for himself a passage through interminable windfalls of timber, winding around swamps, rafting over rivers — toward that distant point where he wTas hoping to he able to ascertain and secure his claim. In this present age of rapid and easy transition from place to place, it is difficult to form a just conception of the length, the tediousness, the hardships of those earlier emigrations to the West.

When men, alone, undertook to penetrate into the depths of the wilderness, they usually went forward on horseback, or on foot, as was best suited to their circumstances or convenience. Quite frequently, however, a whole family was to be removed at once, together with the household goods, farming implements, tools, and cattle. It must have required great resolution to break up the old attachments which bind men to the places of their birth. It must have required an heroic courage to do this for the purpose of seeking a new home, not only among strangers, but among wild beasts and savages. But the fathers and mothers, fifty years ago, seem to have possessed a spirit which rose above the perils of their times. They went forward, unhesitatingly, in their long and toilsome journeys westward, driving their slow-footed oxen and lumbering-wagons hundreds of miles over ground where no road was, through woods infested with bears, and wolves, and panthers, and warlike tribes of Indians, settling in the midst of those dangerous enemies, and conquering them all.