The American Wilderness 19 



ditions of the United States Government; he him- 

 self led the troops in victorious campaigns against 

 Apache and Navahoe ; and in the Civil War he was 

 made a colonel of the Federal Army. 



After him came many other hunters. Most were 

 pure-blooded Americans, but many were Creole 

 Frenchmen, Mexicans, or even members of the so- 

 called civilized Indian tribes, notably the Delawares. 

 Wide were their wanderings, many their strange 

 adventures in the chase, bitter their unending war- 

 fare with the red lords of the land. Hither and 

 thither they roamed, from the desolate, burning 

 deserts of the Colorado to the grassy plains of the 

 Upper Missouri; from the rolling Texas prairies, 

 bright beneath their sunny skies, to the high snow 

 peaks of the northern Rockies, or the giant pine 

 forests, and soft rainy weather, of the coasts of 

 Puget Sound. Their main business was trapping, 

 furs being the only articles yielded by the wilderness, 

 as they knew it, which were both valuable and port- 

 able. These early hunters were all trappers like- 

 wise, and, indeed, used their rifles only to procure 

 meat or repel attacks. The chief of the fur-bear- 

 ing animals they followed was the beaver, which 

 abounded in the streams of the plains and mountains ; 

 in the far north they also trapped otter, mink, sable, 

 and fisher. They married squaws from among the 

 Indian tribes with which they happened for the mo- 

 ment to be at peace; they acted as scouts for the 



