Spread of English-Speaking Peoples 163 



forth that "D. Boone tilled a bar on (this) tree in 

 the year 1760." 7 On the expeditions of which this 

 is the earliest record he was partly hunting on his 

 own account, and partly exploring on behalf of an- 

 other, Richard Henderson. Henderson was a prom- 

 inent citizen of North Carolina, 8 a speculative man 

 of great ambition and energy. He stood high in the 

 colony, was extravagant and fond of display, and 

 his fortune being jeopardized he hoped to more than 

 retrieve it by going into speculations in Western 

 lands on an unheard-of scale ; for he intended to try 

 to establish on his own account a great proprietary 

 colony beyond the mountains. He had great confi- 

 dence in Boone ; and it was his backing which enabled 

 the latter to turn his discoveries to such good account. 

 Boone's claim to distinction rests not so much on 

 his wide wanderings in unknown lands, for in this 

 respect he did little more than was done by a hun- 

 dred other backwoods hunters of his generation, but 

 on the fact that he was able to turn his daring wood- 

 craft to the advantage of his fellows. As he him- 

 self said, he was an instrument "ordained of God 

 to settle the wilderness," He inspired confidence 



1 The inscription is first mentioned by Ramsey, p. 67. See 

 Appendix C, for a letter from the Hon. John Allison, at pres- 

 ent (1888) Secretary of State for Tennessee, which goes to 

 prove that the inscription has been on the tree as long as the 

 district has been settled. Of course it can not be proved that 

 the inscription is by Boone; but there is much reason for 

 supposing that such is the case, and little for doubting it. 



8 He was by birth a Virginian, of mixed Scotch and Welsh 

 descent. See Collins, II., 336; also Ramsey. For Boone's 

 early connection with Henderson, in 1764, see Hay wood, 35. 



