Spread of English-Speaking Peoples 195 



They were a sturdy race, enterprising and intelli- 

 gent, fond of the strong excitement inherent in the 

 adventurous frontier life. Their untamed and turbu- 

 lent passions, and the lawless freedom of their lives 

 made them a population very "productive of wild, 

 headstrong characters; yet, as a whole, they were 

 a God-fearing race, as was but natural in those 

 who sprang from the loins of the Irish Calvinists. 

 Their preachers, all Presbyterians, followed close 

 behind the first settlers, and shared their toil and 

 dangers; they tilled their fields rifle in hand, and 

 fought the Indians valorously. They felt that they 

 were dispossessing the Canaanites, and were thus 

 working the Lord's will in preparing the land for 

 a race which they believed was more truly His 

 chosen people than was that nation which Joshua 

 led across the Jordan. They exhorted no less ear- 

 like Boone and Henderson, members of families who had 

 drifted down from the north. The position of the Presby- 

 terian churches in all this western hill country shows the 

 origin of that portion of the people which gave the tone to 

 the rest; and, as we have already seen, while some of the 

 Presbyterians penetrated to the hills from Charleston, most 

 came down from the north. The Presbyterian blood was, of 

 course, Irish or Scotch ; and the numerous English from the 

 coast regions also mingled with the two former kindred 

 stocks, and adopted their faith. The Huguenots, Hollanders, 

 and many of the Germans, being of Calvinistic creed, readily 

 assimilated themselves to the Presbyterians. The absence of 

 Episcopacy on the western border, while in part indicating 

 merely the lack of religion in the backwoods, and the natural 

 growth of dissent in such a society, also indicates that the 

 people were not of pure English descent, and were of differ- 

 ent stock from those east of them. 



