Chapter I: Preface

“Trail and Trading Post” is a complete story in itself, but forms the sixth and last volume of a line known under the general title of “Colonial Series.”

As I have mentioned before, when I started this series I had in mind to write not more than three volumes, telling of colonial times during the war between France and England for the possession of Canada and the territory bordering the Great Lakes. The first book, entitled “With Washington in the West,” told of the disastrous Braddock campaign against Fort Duquesne; the second, called “Marching on Niagara,” gave many of the particulars of General Forbes’s advance against the same French stronghold and likewise the particulars of the advance of Generals Prideaux and Johnson against Fort Niagara; while the third volume, “At the Fall of Montreal,” told of the heroic fighting of General Wolfe at Quebec, and that last contest which brought this long-drawn struggle to a close.

The war with France was now over, but the Indians were very bitter against the English, and in a fourth volume, called “On the Trail of Pontiac,” were given the particulars of how that noted red warrior formed a conspiracy among a number of tribes to exterminate the English. The first conspiracy failed to come to a head, but Pontiac was not disheartened, and in a fifth volume, “The Fort in the Wilderness,” were related how the warriors under him laid siege to Fort Detroit and Fort Pitt, and how the English under Colonel Bouquet won the bloody battle of Bushy Run,—the last regular contest with the red men for some years to come.

With the Indian struggle at an end, the English were more eager than ever to push forward to the west, to establish trading posts and settlements, and it is with this movement that the present volume concerns itself. The advance of the whites was watched with hatred by the Indians, who lost no opportunity to do them injury. Among those to push onward, to the fertile country bordering the Ohio River, were our old friends, the Morrises—and what they did to make our glorious country what it is to-day I leave the pages which follow to relate.

In closing this series I wish to thank the many thousands who have shown their appreciation of my efforts to amuse and instruct them. In penning the volumes I have endeavored to be as accurate historically as possible, and I trust the perusal will do my young readers much good.

EDWARD STRATEMEYER.

_Independence Day, 1906._

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I. A GLIMPSE OF THE PAST 1
II. A BUFFALO AND A BEAR 9
III. DAVE AND THE INDIAN 18
IV. TAKEN BY SURPRISE 28
V. THE FLIGHT TO THE RIVER 37
VI. BACK TO THE FORT 46
VII. THE START FOR THE EAST 56
VIII. THE MASSACRE OF A PACK-TRAIN 65
IX. UNDER THE CLIFF 75
X. BARRINGFORD AS A SCOUT 85
XI. IN WHICH WHITE BUFFALO APPEARS 95
XII. HOME ONCE MORE 105
XIII. AN OLD ENEMY APPEARS 115
XIV. A FIGHT WITH A WOLVERINE 125
XV. WOLVES, AND A SNOWSTORM 135
XVI. SAVED BY A WINDSTORM 145
XVII. THE JOURNEY TO THE TRADING POST 155
XVIII. RUNNING INTO A TRAP 164
XIX. THE SHOOTING CONTEST 174
XX. ANOTHER LONG JOURNEY 184
XXI. A NEW MOVE 194
XXII. A FIGHT AMONG WILD BEASTS 204
XXIII. THE RESCUE OF THE STRANGER 214
XXIV. SNOWBOUND ON THE TRAIL 225
XXV. CRUSHING NEWS 234
XXVI. BY WAY OF THE TUNNEL 244
XXVII. HOLDING THE TRADING POST 254
XXVIII. IN WHICH A BATTERING RAM IS USED 264
XXIX. FROM ENEMIES TO FRIENDS 274
XXX. FOR LIFE OR DEATH 285
XXXI. DAYS OF PEACE—CONCLUSION 297

ILLUSTRATIONS

The battle was now on in all its fury (page 287) _Frontispiece_

PAGE.
Both were now getting ready to renew the contest 15

He glanced up, saw his dire peril, and let himself drop 49

“Boka must kill both before either awakens,” murmured
the Indian 77

“I think we had better take turns watching,” said Henry 147

“A bull’s-eye for Henry Morris!” 176

The old frontiersman swept through the opening 258

Bevoir pitched headlong into the smoldering campfire 298

TRAIL AND TRADING POST