Back of the individual, back of the family, even, lurk the creative and formative impulses of colonization, expansion, and government.

In the recognition of these social and economic tendencies the individual merges into the group; the group into the community; the community into a new society.

In this clear perspective of historic development the spectacular hero at first sight seems to diminish; but the mass, the movement, the social force which he epitomizes and interprets, gain in impressiveness and dignity.
As the irresistible tide of migratory peoples swept ever southward and westward, seeking room for expansion and economic independence, a series of frontiers was gradually thrust out toward the wilderness in successive waves of irregular indentation.

The true leader in this westward advance, to whom less than his deserts has been accorded by the historian, is the drab and mercenary trader with the Indians.

The story of his enterprise and of his adventures begins with the planting of European civilization upon American soil.