In course of time the Mustang Valley began
to assume the aspect of a thriving settlement, with cottages and waving
fields clustered together in the midst of it.

Of course the savages soon found it out, and paid it occasional visits.
These dark-skinned tenants of the woods brought furs of wild animals
with them, which they exchanged with the white men for knives, and
beads, and baubles and trinkets of brass and tin. But they hated the
"Pale-faces" with bitter hatred, because their encroachments had at this
time materially curtailed the extent of their hunting grounds, and
nothing but the numbers and known courage of the squatters prevented
these savages from butchering and scalping them all.

The leader of this band of pioneers was a Major Hope, a gentleman whose
love for nature in its wildest aspects determined him to exchange
barrack life for a life in the woods. The major was a first-rate shot,
a bold, fearless man, and an enthusiastic naturalist. He was past the
prime of life, and, being a bachelor, was unencumbered with a family.
His first act on reaching the site of the new settlement was to commence
the erection of a block-house, to which the people might retire in case
of a general attack by the Indians.

In this block-house Major Hope took up his abode as the guardian of the
settlement,--and here the dog Crusoe was born; here he sprawled in the
early morn of life; here he leaped, and yelped, and wagged his shaggy
tail in the excessive glee of puppyhood, and from the wooden portals of
this block-house he bounded forth to the chase in all the fire, and
strength, and majesty of full-grown doghood.

Crusoe's father and mother were magnificent Newfoundlanders. There was
no doubt as to their being of the genuine breed, for Major Hope had
received them as a parting gift from a brother officer, who had brought
them both from Newfoundland itself. The father's name was Crusoe; the
mother's name was Fan. Why the father had been so called no one could
tell. The man from whom Major Hope's friend had obtained the pair was a
poor, illiterate fisherman, who had never heard of the celebrated
"Robinson" in all his life. All he knew was that Fan had been named
after his own wife. As for Crusoe, he had got him from a friend, who
had got him from another friend, whose cousin had received him as a
marriage gift from a friend of _his_; and that each had said to the
other that the dog's name was "Crusoe," without reasons