And they could shoot too, with their rusty matchlocks or clumsy snaphances.

In some few the motive was fear, for they had seen or heard of the tender mercies of the savages.
But in most, I think, it was a love of bold adventure, and especially the craving to push the white man's province beyond the narrow borders of the Tidewater.

If you say that this was something more than defence, I claim that the only way to protect a country is to make sure of its environs.

What hope is there of peace if your frontier is the rim of an unknown forest?
My hardest task was to establish some method of sending news to the outland dwellers.

For this purpose I had to consort with queer folk.
Shalah, who had become my second shadow, found here and there little Indian camps, from which he chose young men as messengers.