Thus the settler speedily followed in the hunter's wake.

In his wake also went many rude and lawless characters of the border, horse thieves and criminals of different sorts, who sought to hide their delinquencies in the merciful liberality of the wilderness.

For the most part, however, it was the salutary instinct of the homebuilder--the man with the ax, who made a little clearing in the forest and built there a rude cabin that he bravely defended at all risks against continued assaults--which, in defiance of every restraint, irresistibly thrust westward the thin and jagged line of the frontier.

The ax and the surveyor's chain, along with the rifle and the hunting-knife, constituted the armorial bearings of the pioneer.

With individual as with corporation, with explorer as with landlord, land-hunger was the master impulse of the era.
The various desires which stimulated and promoted westward expansion were, to be sure, often found in complete conjunction.
The trader sought to exploit the Indian for his own advantage, selling him whisky, trinkets, and firearms in return for rich furs and costly peltries; yet he was often a hunter himself and collected great stores of peltries as the result of his solitary and protracted hunting-expeditions.