he truly noble.
"Squatter" is now, in the west, only another name for "Pioneer," and
that word describes all that is admirable in courage, truth, and
manhood!

[75] Perkins's _Western Annals_.

[76] "Sketches of the West," by Judge Hall, for many years a resident of
Illinois.

[Illustration: THE RANGER.]

IV.

THE RANGER.

"When purposed vengeance I forego,
Term me a wretch, nor deem me foe;
And when an insult I forgive,
Then brand me as a slave, and live."

SCOTT.

In elaborating the character of the pioneer, we have unavoidably
anticipated, in some measure, that of the Ranger--for the latter was, in
fact, only one of the capacities in which the former sometimes acted.
But--since, in the preceding article, we have endeavored to confine
the inquiry, so as to use the term _Pioneer_ as almost synonymous with
_Immigrant_--we have, of course, ignored, to some extent, the
subordinate characters, in which he frequently figured. We therefore
propose, now, briefly to review one or two of them in their natural
succession.

The progress of our country may be traced and measured, by the
representative characters which marked each period. The
missionary-priest came first, when the land was an unbroken wilderness.
The military adventurer, seeking to establish new empires, and acquire
great fortunes, entered by the path thus opened. Next came the hunter,
roaming the woods in search of wild beasts upon which he preyed. Making
himself familiar with the pathless forest and the rolling prairie, he
qualified himself to guide, even while he fled from, the stream of
immigration. At last came the pioneer, to drive away the savage, to
clear out the forests, and reclaim the land.

At first, he was _only_ a pioneer. He had few neighbors, he belonged to
no community--his household was his country, his family were his only
associates or companions. In the course of time others followed him--he
could occasionally meet a white man on the prairies; if he wandered a
few miles from home, he could see the smoke of another chimney in the
distance. If he did not at once abandon his "clearing" and go further
west, he became, in some sort, a member of society--was the
fellow-citizen of his neighbors. The Indians became alarmed for their
hunting grounds, or the nations went to war and drew them into the
contest: the frontier became unsafe: the presence of danger drew the
pioneers together: they adopted a system o