In the Current of the Revolution 125 



Thus it came about that with the fall of 1779 

 a strong stream of emigration set toward Kentucky, 

 from the backwoods districts of Pennsylvania, Vir- 

 ginia, and North Carolina. In company with the 

 real settlers came many land speculators, and also 

 many families of weak, irresolute, or shiftless peo- 

 ple, who soon tired of the ceaseless and grinding 

 frontier strife for life, and drifted back to the place 

 whence they had come. 5 Thus there were ever two 

 tides the larger setting toward Kentucky, the les- 

 sons whatsoever sworn too before me this ryth day of 



Nov. 1789." Later on, the purchaser, who did not take pos- 

 session of the land for eight or nine years, feared it would 

 not prove as fertile as Kenton had said, and threatened to 

 sue Kenton ; but Kenton evidently had the whip-hand in the 

 controversy, for the land being out in the wilderness, the 

 purchaser did not know its exact location, and when he 

 threatened suit, and asked to be shown it, Kenton "swore 

 that he would not shoe it at all." Letter of James Ware, 

 Nov. 29, 1789. 



5 Thus the increase of population is to be measured by the 

 net gain of immigration over emigration, not by immigra- 

 tion alone. It is probably partly neglect of this fact, and 

 partly simple exaggeration, that make the early statements 

 of the additions to the Kentucky population so very untrust- 

 worthy. In 1783, at the end of the Revolution, the popula- 

 tion of Kentucky was probably nearer 12,000 than 20,000, and 

 it had grown steadily each year. Yet Butler quotes Floyd as 

 saying that in the spring of 1780 three hundred large family 

 boats arrived at the Falls, which would mean an increase of 

 perhaps four or five thousand people; and in the McAfee 

 MSS. occurs the statement that in 1779 ar *d 1780 nearly 20,000 

 people came to Kentucky. Both of these statements are prob- 

 ably mere estimates, greatly exaggerated ; any Westerner of 

 to-day can instance similar reports of movements to Western 

 localities, which under a strict census dwindled wofully. 



