6 PREFACE. 
Here, in their vast interior solitudes, far re- 
moved from trans-Atlantic influences, are alone 
to be found, in the more comparative infancy of 
our country, characters truly suc generis—truly 
American. 
What man would be, uninfluenced by contact 
with the varied associations of long civilization, is 
here partially demonstrated in the denizens of the 
interior of a mighty continent. 
The discovery of America,—its vast extent,— 
and its developing destiny,—present facts, which 
far surpass the wildest imagery of the dreamers 
of the olden times. 
There are growing up, in these primitive wilds, 
men, whose daily life and conversation, when de- 
tailed, form exaggerations ; but whose histories 
are, after all, only the natural developments of 
the mighty associations which surround them. 
