2 The Winning of the West 



cessful in his private affairs; nevertheless, in 1779, 

 the restless craving for change and adventure surged 

 so strongly in his breast that it once more drove him 

 forth to wander in the forest. In the true border 

 temper he determined to abandon the home he had 

 made, and to seek out a new one hundreds of miles 

 further in the heart of the hunting-grounds of the 

 red warriors. 



The point pitched upon was the beautiful country 

 lying along the great bend of the Cumberland. 

 Many adventurous settlers were anxious to accom 

 pany Robertson, and, like him, to take their wives 

 and children with them into the new land. It was 

 agreed that a small party of explorers should go first 

 in the early spring to plant corn, that the families 

 might have it to eat when they followed in the fall. 



The spot was already well known to hunters. 

 Who had first visited it can not be said; though 

 tradition has kept the names of several among the 

 many who at times halted there while on their wan 

 derings. 1 Old Kasper Mansker and others had 

 made hunting trips thither for ten years past; and 

 they had sometimes met the creole trappers from 



1 One Stone or Stoner, perhaps Boone's old associate, is 

 the first whose name is given in the books. But in both 

 Kentucky and Tennessee it is idle to try to find out exactly 

 who the first explorers were. They were unlettered woods 

 men; it is only by chance that some of their names have 

 been kept and others lost; the point to be remejnbered is 

 that many hunters were wandering over the land at the 

 same time, that they drifted to many different places, and 

 that now and then an accident preserved the name of some 

 hunter and of some place he visited. 



