He knew his game, and how it should be played, before a step was taken or a weapon drawn.

When he himself, or any of his parties, left the island, upon an expedition, they advanced along no beaten paths.
They made them as they went.

He had the Indian faculty in perfection, of gathering his course from the sun, from the stars, from the bark and the tops of trees, and such other natural guides, as the woodman acquires only through long and watchful experience.

Many of the trails, thus opened by him, upon these expeditions, are now the ordinary avenues of the country.

On starting, he almost invariably struck into the woods, and seeking the heads of the larger water courses, crossed them at their first and small beginnings.