50 The Winning of the West 



children, their cattle, and their few household goods, 

 they won and held the land in the teeth of fierce 

 resistance, both from the Indian claimants of the 

 soil and from the representatives of a mighty and 

 arrogant European power. The chain of events 

 by which the winning was achieved is perfect; had 

 any link therein snapped it is likely that the final 

 result would have been failure. The wide wander 

 ings of Boone and his fellow hunters made the 

 country known and awakened in the minds of the 

 frontiersmen a keen desire to possess it. The build 

 ing of the Watauga commonwealth by Robertson 

 and Sevier gave a base of operations, and furnished 

 a model for similar communities to follow. Lord 

 Dunmore's war made the actual settlement possible, 

 for it cowed the northern Indians, and restrained 

 them from seriously molesting Kentucky during its 

 most feeble years. Henderson and Boone made 

 their great treaty with the Cherokees in 1775, and 

 then established a permanent colony far beyond 

 all previous settlements, entering into final posses 

 sion of the new country. The victory over 

 the Cherokees in 1776 made safe the line of 

 communication along the Wilderness Road, and 

 secured the chance for further expansion. Clark's 

 campaigns gained the Illinois, or northwestern re 

 gions. The growth of Kentucky then became very 

 rapid; and in its turn this, and the steady progress 

 of the Watauga settlements, rendered possible Rob 

 ertson's successful effort to plant a new community 

 still further west, on the Cumberland. 



