xii                INTRODUCTION.

  It was not alone the rugged and opposing forces of
savage nature that the pioneer had to contend with:
attracted from the older states by the genial climate,
the fat and fertile lands, and the splendid rivers of
the Mississippi Valley, at every advancing step into
the wilderness he was followed by a lurking and re-
morseless foe, who, regarding the invader as a nat-
ural enemy, neglected no contrived or chance oppor-
tunity to overcome and destroy him.
  Surprised in his newly built cabin, attacked in his
half-cleared field, tracked in his hunting excursions,
the pioneer, with the ever-present consciousness of
danger, became inured to peril, as the sailor to that
of the treacherous sea, and, without relaxing his vig-
ilance, he matched craft with cunning, strength with
sagacity, lightness of foot with suppleness of arm,
and, not unfrequently, cruelty with ferocity.
  Under no other conditions could such characters
as McClellan, the spy, Captain Brady, the scout, and
Lewis Weitzel, the hunter, have been developed. To
a greater or less degree, all experienced pioneers re-
sembled them in intrepidity of conduct, alertness of
action, and hardiness of constitution. They were sim-
ply a more perfect type of the back-woodsman, who
divided his life between hard labor, rough fighting,
andl rude frolicking.
  One will search in vain in the romantic pages of
Cooper and Simms for incidents of such surpassing
and thrilling interest as are to be found in the plain
stories of marvelous escapes from captivity, torture,
and death, recorded in this volume. Were they not,