When the Spaniard held the mouth of the Great River, the Frenchman the
upper sources, the American only the thin line of coast whose West was
the Alleghanies, how then did the West-bound travel, these folk who
established half a dozen homes for every generation?
The answer would seem easy. They traveled in the easiest way they
could. It was a day of raft and boat, of saddle-horse and pack-horse,
of ax and rifle, and little other luggage. Mankind followed the
pathways of the waters.