Page:History of Cumberland, Maryland 2.djvu/25



For nearly two hundred and fifty years after the discovery of the New World had been made known to the nations of the Eastern Hemisphere, by the great Genoese navigator, the country lying along the base of the AUeghanies was a trackless wilderness. The march of civilization made but little advance in its progress from the sesrshore to the mountain fastnesses, and the new-comers seemed content to settle down upon the coast, whence they could look out upon the expanse of ocean which separated them from the ideas and theories they had left forever when they spread their sails to the heaven- invoked breezes which were to waft them to a strange but prolific world. For nearly two centuries and a half had the gorgeous hues of autumn tinted these boundless forests, ere the white man came to behold their beauties. These mountains and valleys were peopled by the Red Man, whose history was dimly preserved in unsubstantial legend, and who was destined to yield his possessions to the sure encroachments of Anglo-Saxon intelligence. 8