river contained a resident Indian population. The portion south of the Ohio was the Korea of the Central West—the "dark and bloody" battle ground of surrounding nations half a century before white men came, in their turn, to fight for it.
North of the Ohio river, in the valleys of the Allegheny, Beaver, Muskingum, Cuyahoga, Scioto, Sandusky, Miami, Maumee, Wabash, and Illinois rivers, white men came to know the red man more intimately than anywhere else on this continent in the eighteenth century. This knowledge of the Indian in his home-land resulted in giving to the world a mass of material concerning his country, customs, and character. Much was supplied by missionaries; a great deal by traders[1] and explorers. The armies of conquest and the first of the host of pioneers told the rest.
Among other things this knowledge of the Central West before the Indian left it
- ↑ "The map of Ohio, and its Branches, as well as the Passes through the Mountains Westward, is laid down by the Information of Traders and others who have resided there, and travelled them for many years together."—Darlington's Journals of Christopher Gist, p. 271.
