Spread of English-Speaking Peoples 207 



on foot, rifle on shoulder, the elder children driving 

 the lean cows, while the women, the young children, 

 and the few household goods, and implements of 

 husbandry, were carried on the backs of the pack- 

 horses; for in settling the backwoods during the 

 last century, the pack-horse played the same part 

 that in the present century was taken by the canvas- 

 covered emigrant wagon, the white- topped "prairie 

 schooner." 



Once arrived at the Watauga, the Carolina new- 

 comers mixed readily with the few Virginians al- 

 ready on the ground; and Robertson speedily be- 

 came one of the leading men in the little settlement. 

 On an island in the river he built a house of logs 

 with the bark still on them on the outside, though 

 hewed smooth within; tradition says that it was the 

 largest in the settlement. Certainly it belonged to the 

 better class of backwoods cabins, with a loft and 

 several rooms, a roof of split saplings, held down 

 by weighty poles, a log veranda in front, and a 

 huge fire-place, of sticks or stones laid in clay, 

 wherein the pile of blazing logs roared loudly in 

 cool weather. The furniture was probably precisely 

 like that in other houses of the class; a rude bed, 

 table, settee, and chest of drawers, a spinning- jenny, 

 and either three-legged stools or else chairs with 

 backs and seats of undressed deer hides. Robert- 

 son's energy and his remarkable natural ability 

 brought him to the front at once, in every way; 

 although, as already said, he had much less than 

 even the average backwoods education, for he could 



