[76] "Sketches of the West," by Judge Hall, for many years a resident of Illinois.
"When purposed vengeance I forego, Term me a wretch, nor deem me foe; And when an insult I forgive, Then brand me as a slave, and live."
In elaborating the character of the pioneer, we have unavoidably anticipated, in some measure, that of the Ranger--for the latter was, in fact, only one of the capacities in which the former sometimes acted. But--since, in the preceding article, we have endeavored to confine the inquiry, so as to use the term _Pioneer_ as almost synonymous with _Immigrant_--we have, of course, ignored, to some extent, the subordinate characters, in which he frequently figured. We therefore propose, now, briefly to review one or two of them in their natural succession.
The progress of our country may be traced and measured, by the representative characters which marked each period. The missionary-priest came first, when the land was an unbroken wilderness. The military adventurer, seeking to establish new empires, and acquire great fortunes, entered by the path thus opened. Next came the hunter, roaming the woods in search of wild beasts upon which he preyed. Making himself familiar with the pathless forest and the rolling prairie, he qualified himself to guide, even while he fled from, the stream of immigration. At last came the pioneer, to drive away the savage, to clear out the forests, and reclaim the land.
At first, he was _only_ a pioneer. He had few neighbors, he belonged to no community--his household was his country, his family were his only associates or companions. In the course of time others followed him--he could occasionally meet a white man on the prairies; if he wandered a few miles from home, he could see the smoke of another chimney in the distance. If he did not at once abandon his "clearing" and go further west, he became, in some sort, a member of society--was the fellow-citizen of his neighbors. The Indians became alarmed for their hunting grounds, or the nations went to war and drew them into the contest: the frontier became unsafe: the presence of danger drew the pioneers together: they adopted a system of defence, and the ranger was the offspring and representative of a new order of things.