CHAPTER IX 



WHEN the first Continental Congress began 

 its sittings the only frontiersmen west of the 

 mountains, and beyond the limits of continuous set 

 tlement within the old Thirteen Colonies, 1 were the 

 two or three hundred citizens of the little Watauga 

 commonwealth. When peace was declared with 

 Great Britain the backwoodsmen had spread west 

 ward, in groups, almost to the Mississippi, and they 

 had increased in number to some twenty-five thou 

 sand souls, 2 of whom a few hundred dwelt in the 

 bend of the Cumberland, while the rest were about 

 equally divided between Kentucky and Holston. 



TJiis great westward movement of armed settlers 

 was essentially one of conquest, no less than of 

 colonization. Thronging in with their wives and 



1 This qualification is put in because there were already a 

 few families on the Monongahela, the head of the Kanawha, 

 and the upper Holston; but they were in close touch with 

 the people behind them. 



* These figures are simply estimates; but they are based 

 on careful study and comparison, and though they must be 

 some hundreds, and maybe some thousands, out of the way, 

 are quite near enough for practical purposes. 

 VOL. VII.-3 (49) 



