Spread of English-Speaking Peoples 171 



could be best enjoyed. We owe the conquest of the 

 West to all the backwoodsmen, not to any solitary 

 individual among them ; where all alike were strong 

 and daring there was no chance for any single man 

 to rise to unquestioned pre-eminence. 



In the summer of 1769 a large band of hunters 18 

 crossed the mountains to make a long hunt in the 

 Western wilderness, the men clad in hunting-shirts, 

 moccasins, and leggings, with traps, rifles, and dogs, 

 and each bringing with him two or three horses. 

 They made their way over the mountains, forded or 

 swam the rapid, timber-choked streams, and went 

 down the Cumberland, till at last they broke out of 

 the forest and came upon great barrens of tall grass. 

 One of their number was killed by a small party of 

 Indians; but they saw no signs of human habita- 

 tions. Yet they came across mounds and graves 

 and other remains of an ancient people who had 

 once lived in the land, but had died out of it long 

 ages before the incoming of the white men. 19 



The hunters made a permanent camp in one place, 

 and returned to it at intervals to deposit their skins 

 and peltries. Between times they scattered out sin- 

 gly or in small bands. They hunted all through the 



18 From twenty to forty. Compare Haywood and Mar- 

 shall, both of whom are speaking of the same bodies of men ; 

 Ramsey makes the mistake of supposing they are speaking of 

 different parties; Haywood dwells on the feats of those who 

 descended the Cumberland; Marshall of those who went to 

 Kentucky. 



19 The so-called mound builders ; now generally considered 

 to have been simply the ancestors of the present Indian races. 



