92 The Winning of the West 



for the moment further from the border. Some 

 times settlers squatted on land already held but 

 not occupied under a good title; sometimes a man 

 who claimed the land under a defective title, or 

 under pretence of original occupation, attempted to 

 oust or to blackmail him who had cleared and tilled 

 the soil in good faith ; and these were both fruitful 

 causes not only of lawsuits but of bloody affrays. 

 Among themselves, the settlers' talk ran ever on 

 land titles and land litigation, and schemes for se 

 curing vast tracts of rich and well watered country. 

 These were the subjects with which they filled their 

 letters to one another and to their friends at home, 

 and the subjects upon which these same friends 

 chiefly dwelt when they sent letters in return. 5 Often 

 well-to-do men visited the new country by them 

 selves first, chose good sites for their farms and 

 plantations, surveyed and purchased them, and then 

 returned to their old homes, whence they sent out 

 their field hands to break the soil and put up build 

 ings before bringing out their families. 



The westward movement of settlers took place 

 along several different lines. The dwellers in what 

 is now Eastern Tennessee were in close touch with 

 the old settled country; their farms and little towns 

 formed part of the chain of forest clearings which 

 stretched unbroken from the border of Virginia 



5 Clay MSS. and Draper MSS., passim: e. g., in former, J. 

 Mercer to George Nicholas, Nov. 28, 1789: J. Ware to George 

 Nicholas, Nov. 29, 1789; letter to Mrs. Byrd, Jan. 16, 1786, 

 etc., etc., etc. 



