To these, a wholesome
assortment of other descriptions may be added, of character and caste
such as will be found ordinarily to compose everywhere the frontier and
outskirts of civilization, as rejected by the wholesome current, and
driven, like the refuse and the scum of the waters, in confused
stagnation to their banks and margin. Here, alike, came the spendthrift
and the indolent, the dreamer and the outlaw, congregating, though
guided by contradictory impulses, in the formation of a common caste,
and the pursuit of a like object--some with the view to profit and gain;
others, simply from no alternative being left them; and that of
gold-seeking, with a better sense than their neighbors, being in their
own contemplation, truly, a _dernier_ resort.
The reader can better conceive than we describe, the sorts of people,
passions, and pursuits, herding thus confusedly together; and with these
various objects. Others, indeed, came into the society, like the rude
but honest woodman to whom we have already afforded an introduction,
almost purely from a spirit of adventure, that, growing impatient of the
confined boundaries of its birthplace, longs to tread new regions and
enjoy new pleasures and employments.
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