Trials and sufferings of all imaginable kinds he expected to undergo, but his life was to be spared until the work was accomplished.

Of that he never experienced a moment's doubt.
Our readers will bear in mind that the period of which we write, although but a little more than forty years since, was when the territory west of the Mississippi was almost entirely unknown.
Trappers, hunters and fur-traders in occasional instances, penetrated into the heart of the mighty solitude.

Lewis and Clarke had made their expedition to the head-waters of the Columbia, but the result of all these visits, to the civilized world, was much the same as that of the adventurers who have penetrated into the interior of Africa.
It was known that on the northwest dwelt the warlike Blackfeet, the implacable foes of every white man.

There, also, dwelt other tribes, who seemed resolved that none but their own race should dwell upon that soil.

Again, there were others with whom little difficulty was experienced in bartering and trading, to the great profit of the adventurous whites, and the satisfaction of the savages; still, the shrewd traders knew better than to trust to Indian magnanimity or honor.