16 The Wilderness Hunter 



deer-hide leggings and moccasins, with tomahawk 

 and scalping-knife thrust into their bead-worked 

 belts, and long rifles in hand, they fought battle after 

 battle of the most bloody character, both against the 

 Indians, as at the Great Kanawha, at the Fallen 

 Timbers, and at Tippecanoe, and against more civ- 

 ilized foes, as at King's Mountain, New Orleans, 

 and the River Thames. 



Soon after the beginning of the present century- 

 Louisiana fell into our hands, and the most daring 

 hunters and explorers pushed through the forests of 

 the Mississippi Valley to ihe great plains, steered 

 across these vast seas of grass to the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, and then through their rugged defiles onward 

 to the Pacific Ocean. In every work of exploration, 

 and in all the earlier battles with the original lords 

 of the western and southwestern lands, whether In- 

 dian or Mexican, the adventurous hunters played 

 the leading part ; while close behind came the swarm 

 of hard, dogged, border-farmers, a masterful race, 

 good fighters and good breeders, as all masterful 

 races must be. 



Very characteristic in its way was the career of 

 quaint, honest, fearless Davy Crockett, the Tennes- 

 see rifleman and Whig Congressman, perhaps the 

 best shot in all our country, whose skill in the use 

 of his favorite weapon passed into a proverb, and 

 who ended his days by a hero's death in the ruins 

 of the Alamo. An even more notable man was an- 



