8 The Winning of the West 



in the breast of the hunter, who made a "tomahawk 

 claim" by blazing a few trees, and sold it for a small 

 sum to a new-comer, as in that of the well-to-do- 

 schemer, who bought an Indian title for a song, and 

 then got what he could from all outsiders who came 

 in to dwell on the land. 



This speculative spirit was a powerful stimulus 

 to the settlement not only of Kentucky, but of 

 middle Tennessee. Henderson's claim included the 

 Cumberland country, and when North Carolina an 

 nulled his rights, she promised him a large but in 

 definitely located piece of land in their place. He 

 tried to undersell the State in the land market, and 

 undoubtedly his offers had been among the main 

 causes that induced Robertson and his associates to 

 go to the Cumberland when they did. But at the 

 time it was uncertain whether Cumberland lay in 

 Virginia or North Carolina, as the line was not run 

 by the surveyors until the following spring; and 

 Robertson went up to see Clark, because it was ru 

 mored that the latter had the disposal of Virginia 

 "cabin-rights"; under which each man could, for a 

 small sum, purchase a thousand acres, on condition 

 of building a cabin and raising a crop. However, 

 as it turned out, he might have spared himself the 

 journey, for the settlement proved to be well within 

 the Carolina boundary. 



In the fall very many men came out to the new 

 settlement, guided thither by Robertson and Man- 

 sker; the former persuading a number who were 

 bound to Kentucky to come to the Cumberland in- 



