of fugitives from the Spanish and American frontiers; of
adventurers and desperadoes of every class and country, yearly ejected
from the bosom of society into the wilderness. We are contributing
incessantly to swell this singular and heterogeneous cloud of wild
population that is to hang about our frontier, by the transfer of whole
tribes from the east of the Mississippi to the great wastes of the
far West. Many of these bear with them the smart of real or fancied
injuries; many consider themselves expatriated beings, wrongfully exiled
from their hereditary homes, and the sepulchres of their fathers,
and cherish a deep and abiding animosity against the race that has
dispossessed them. Some may gradually become pastoral hordes, like those
rude and migratory people, half shepherd, half warrior, who, with their
flocks and herds, roam the plains of upper Asia; but others, it is to be
apprehended, will become predatory bands, mounted on the fleet steeds of
the prairies, with the open plains for their marauding grounds, and the
mountains for their retreats and lurking-places. Here they may resemble
those great hordes of the North, "Gog and Magog with their bands," that
haunted the gloomy imaginations of the prophets. "A great company and
a mighty host, all riding upon horses, and warring upon those nations
which were at rest, and dwelt peaceably, and had gotten cattle and
goods."

The Spaniards changed the whole character and habits of the Indians when
they brought the horse among them. In Chili, Tucuman, and other parts,
it has converted them, we are told, into Tartar-like tribes, and enabled
them to keep the Spaniards out of their country, and even to make it
dangerous for them to venture far from their towns and settlements. Are
we not in danger of producing some such state of things in the
boundless regions of the far West? That these are not mere fanciful and
extravagant suggestions we have sufficient proofs in the dangers already
experienced by the traders to the Spanish mart of Santa Fe, and to the
distant posts of the fur companies. These are obliged to proceed in
armed caravans, and are subject to murderous attacks from bands of
Pawnees, Camanches, and Blackfeet, that come scouring upon them in their
weary march across the plains, or lie in wait for them among the passes
of the mountains.

We are wandering, however, into excursive speculations, when our
intention was merely to give an idea of the nature of the wild