POLITICAL DIVISIONS, 8tc.—BOOK II. 117 
The manners of the first settlers, are not such as writers 
usually represent them. A principal cause of their removal to 
the frontier, is the want of wild pasturage, or range , as it is call¬ 
ed, for their cattle; and those who have been accustomed to the 
greater ease and freedom of this half shepherd life, naturally 
desire a continuance. These people, advancing westward, into 
the vast plains which do not admit of compact settlements, may 
come still nearer to the pastoral state. The remote settlers, 
contrary to what would be supposed, from their situation, are 
not only shrewd and intelligent, but also far from illiterate.—- 
The most trifling settlement, will contrive to have a school mas¬ 
ter, who can teach reading, writing, and some arithmetic. Ve¬ 
ry different from the good natured, but unenterprising creole, 
who does not know a letter of the alphabet. A lady, who had 
resided with her husband two years at fort Osage, three hun¬ 
dred miles up the Missouri, told me, that descending the river, 
on her return from that place, she observed on the very spot, 
where, on ascending she had seen a herd of deer, several chil¬ 
dren with books in their hands, returning from school! The 
settlement had been formed, while she was at the fort. 
The frontier is certainly the refuge of many worthless and 
abandoned characters, but it is also the choice of many of the 
nobiest souls. It seems wisely ordered, that in the part which is 
weakest, where the force of laws is scarcely felt, there should be 
found the greatest sum of real courage, and of disinterested vir¬ 
tue. Few young men who have emigrated to the frontier, are 
without merit. From the firm conviction, of its future import¬ 
ance, generous and enterprising youth, the virtuous unfortu¬ 
nate, and those of moderate patrimony, repair to it, that they may 
grow up with the country, and form establishments for them¬ 
selves and families. Hence in this territory, there are many ster¬ 
ling characters. Amongst others, I mention with pleasure, that 
brave and adventurous North Carolinian, who makes so distin¬ 
guished a figure, in the history of Kentucky, the venerable col. 
Boon. This respectable old man, in the eighty-fifth year of his 
age, resides on Salt river, up the Missouri, at the settlement I 
have before mentioned. He is surrounded by about forty fami¬ 
lies, who respect him as a father, and who live under a kipd of 
