The Indian Wars, 1784-1787 177 



importance was relatively far greater. Steam, rail 

 roads, electricity, have worked a revolution so stu 

 pendous, that we find it difficult to realize the facts 

 of the life which our forefathers lived. The con 

 ditions of commerce have changed much more in the 

 last hundred years than in the preceding two thou 

 sand. The Kentuckians and Tennesseans knew only 

 the pack train, the wagon train, the river craft and 

 the deep-sea ship ; that is, they knew only such means 

 of carrying on commerce as were known to Greek 

 and Carthaginian, Roman and Persian, and the na 

 tions of mediaeval Europe. Beasts of draught 

 and of burden, and oars and sails, these, and these 

 only, were at the service of their merchants, as 

 they had been at the service of all merchants from 

 time immemorial. Where trade was thus limited 

 the advantages conferred by water carriage, com 

 pared to land carriage, were incalculable. The 

 Westerners were right in regarding as indispensa 

 ble the free navigation of the Mississippi. They 

 were right also in their determination ultimately 

 to acquire the control of the whole river, from the 

 source to the mouth. 



However, the Westerners wished more than the 

 privilege of sending down stream the products of 

 their woods and pastures and tilled farms. They 

 had already begun to cast longing eyes on the fair 

 Spanish possessions. Spain was still the greatest 

 of colonial powers. In wealth, in extent, and in 

 population both native and European her colonies 

 surpassed even those of England; and by far the 



