Spread of English-Speaking Peoples 199 



and disorderly colony, unable to enforce law and 

 justice even in the long-settled districts; so that it 

 was wholly out of the question to appeal to her 

 for aid in governing a remote and outlying com- 

 munity. Moreover, about the time that the Wa- 

 tauga commonwealth was founded, the troubles in 

 North Carolina came to a head. Open war ensued 

 between the adherents of the royal governor, Tryon, 

 on the one hand, and the Regulators, as the insur- 

 gents styled themselves, on the other, the struggle 

 ending with the overthrow of the Regulators at the 

 battle of the Alamance. 12 



As a consequence of these troubles, many people 

 from the back counties of North Carolina crossed 

 the mountains, and took up their abode among the 

 pioneers on the Watauga 13 and upper Holston; 

 the beautiful valley of the Nolichucky soon re- 

 ceiving its share of this stream of immigration. 

 Among the first comers were many members of 

 the class of desperate adventurers always to be 

 found hanging round the outskirts of frontier 

 civilization. Horse-thieves, murderers, escaped 

 bond-servants, runaway debtors all, in fleeing 

 from the law, sought to find a secure asylum in the 



12 May 16, 1771. 



13 It is said that the greatest proportion of the early settlers 

 came from Wake County, N. C., as did Robertson; but many 

 of them, like Robertson, were of Virginian birth; and the 

 great majority were of the same stock as the Virginian and 

 Pennsylvanian mountaineers. Of the five members of the 

 "court" or governing committee of Watauga, three were of 

 Virginian birth, one came from South Carolina, and the 

 origin of the other is not specified. Ramsey, 107. 



