io Preface 



country after Clark's conquest; the McAfee MSS., 

 consisting of an Account of the First Settlement of 

 Salt River, the Autobiography of Robert McAfee, 

 and a Brief Memorandum of the Civil and Natural 

 History of Kentucky; MS. autobiography of Rev. 

 William Hickman, who visited Kentucky in 1776, 

 etc. 



I am also under great obligations to Col. John 

 Mason Brown of Louisville, another member of the 

 Filson Club, for assistance rendered me ; particularly 

 for having sent me six bound volumes of MSS., 

 containing the correspondence of the Spanish Min- 

 ister Gardoqui, copied from the Spanish archives. 



At Lexington I had access to the Breckenridge 

 MSS., through the kindness of Mr. Ethelbert D. 

 Warfield; and to the Clay MSS., through the kind- 

 ness of Miss Lucretia Hart Clay. I am particu- 

 larly indebted to Miss Clay for her courtesy in send- 

 ing me many of the most valuable old Hart and 

 Benton letters, depositions, accounts, and the like. 



The Blount MSS. were sent to me from Cali- 

 fornia by the Hon. W. D. Stephens of Los An- 

 geles, although I was not personally known to him ; 

 an instance of courtesy and generosity, in return 

 for which I could do nothing save express my sin- 

 cere appreciation and gratitude, which I take this 

 opportunity of publicly repeating. 



The Gates MSS., from which I drew some im- 

 portant facts not hitherto known concerning the 

 King's Mountain campaign, are in the library of the 

 New York Historical Society. 



