قصة الكتاب :
This book paints a vivid picture of the area as it just started being influenced by European settlers and adventurers in the early 1800\'s. These early adventures in the Ozarks comprehend exploratory effort in the great area of the West. To traverse the plains and mountain elevations west of the Mississippi, which had once echoed the tramp of the squadrons of De Soto—to range over hills, and through rugged defiles, which had once searched in the hope of finding mines of gold and silver rivalling those of Mexico and Peru; and this, too, coming as a climax to the panorama of a long, long journey from the East—constituted an attainment of youthful exultation and self-felicitation, which might have been forgotten with its termination. But the incidents are perceived to have had a value of a different kind. They supply the first attempt to trace the track of the Spanish cavaliers west of the Mississippi. The name of De Soto is inseparably connected with the territorial area of Missouri and Arkansas, which was the first European to penetrate, and in the latter of which he died. The courage of such expeditions that bumped up against the western edges of civilization are remarkable.\r\n\r\n