In the mind of the aborigines he created the passion for the fruits, both good and evil, of the white man's civilization, and he was welcomed by the Indian because he also brought the means for repelling the further advance of that civilization.

The trader was of incalculable service to the pioneer in first spying out the land and charting the trackless wilderness.

The trail rudely marked by the buffalo became in time the Indian path and the trader's "trace"; and the pioneers upon the westward march, following the line of least resistance, cut out their roads along these very routes.

It is not too much to say that had it not been for the trader--brave, hardy, and adventurous however often crafty, unscrupulous, and immoral--the expansionist movement upon the American continent would have been greatly retarded.
So scattered and ramified were the enterprises and expeditions of the traders with the Indians that the frontier which they established was at best both shifting and unstable.

Following far in the wake of these advance agents of the civilization which they so often disgraced, came the cattle-herder or rancher, who took advantage of the extensive pastures and ranges along the uplands and foot-hills to raise immense herds of cattle.