Spread of English-Speaking Peoples 173 



eluding Mansker, came overland with a drove of 

 horses that was being taken through the Indian na- 

 tions to Georgia. From the length of time all these 

 men, as well as Boone and his companions, were 

 absent, they were known as the Long Hunters, and 

 the fame of their hunting and exploring spread all 

 along the border and greatly excited the young 

 men. 22 



In 1771 many hunters crossed over the mountains 

 and penetrated far into the wilderness, to work huge 

 havoc among the herds of game. Some of them 

 came in bands, and others singly, and many of the 

 mountains, lakes, rivers, and creeks of Tennessee 

 are either called after the leaders among these old 

 hunters and wanderers, or else by their names per- 

 petuate the memory of some incident of their hunt- 

 ing trips. 23 



Mansker himself came back, g, leader among his 

 comrades, and hunted many years in the woods 

 alone or with others of his kind, and saw and did 

 many strange things. One winter he and those who 

 were with him built a skin house from the hi^es 

 of game, and when their ammunition gave out they 

 left three of their number and all of their dogs at 

 the skin house and went to the settlements for pow- 

 der and lead. When they returned they found that 



22 McAfee MSS. ("Autobiography of Robt. McAfee"). 

 Sometimes the term Long Hunters was used as including 

 Boone, Finley, and their companions, sometimes not; in 

 the McAfee MSS. it is explicitly used in the former sense. 



23 See Haywood for Clinch River, Drake's Pond, Mansco's 

 Lick, Greasy Rock, etc., etc. 



