"Guns on the early frontiers is concerned particularly with the arms used in the West during the first half of the nineteenth century, but since the guns used in the earlier settlement of the eastern half of the continent were the antecedents of the western arms, these too are discussed. And in order that the story of guns in the West may be better understood, the roots of the gun trade are traced to their seventeenth-century origins on the eastern seaboard and on the St. Lawrence. Dutch, French and English traders, especially, laid the groundwork for the gun trade in the New World two hundred years before the Americans started to trade in guns. Consequently, European arms and European influences are given some attention"--Page viii.