Thus, far down in the vague Southwest, at some distant time, in some distant portion of old, mysterious Mexico, there fell into line the hoof prints which made the first faint beginnings of the Long Trail, merely the path of a half nomadic movement along the line of the least resistance.
The Long Trail began to deepen and extend.

It received then, as it did later, a baptism of human blood such as no other pathway of the continent has known.

The nomadic and the warlike days passed, and there ensued a more quiet and pastoral time.

It was the beginning of a feudalism of the range, a barony rude enough, but a glorious one, albeit it began, like all feudalism, in large-handed theft and generous murdering.

The flocks of these strong men, carelessly interlapping, increased and multiplied amazingly.