The Indian Wars, 1784-1787 93 



down the valleys of the Watauga and the Holston. 

 Though they were sundered by mountain ranges 

 from the peopled regions in the State to which they 

 belonged, North Carolina, yet these ranges were 

 pierced by many trails, and were no longer haunted 

 by Indians. There were no great obstacles to be 

 overcome in moving in to this valley of the upper 

 Tennessee. On the other hand, by this time it held 

 no very great prizes in the shape of vast tracts of 

 rich and unclaimed land. In consequence there was 

 less temptation to speculation among those who 

 went to this part of the Western country. It grew 

 rapidly, the population being composed chiefly of 

 actual settlers who had taken holdings with the 

 purpose of cultivating them, and of building homes 

 thereon. The entire frontier of this region was 

 continually harassed by Indians; and it was steadily 

 extended by the home-planting of the rifle-bearing 

 backwoodsmen. 



The danger from Indian invasion and outrage 

 was, however, far greater in the distant communi 

 ties which were growing up in the great bend of 

 the Cumberland, cut off, as they were, by immense 

 reaches of forest from the sea-board States. The 

 settlers who went to this region for the most part 

 followed two routes, either descending the Ten 

 nessee and ascending the Cumberland in flotillas of 

 flat-boats and canoes, or else striking out in large 

 bodies through the wilderness, following the trails 

 that led westward from the settlements on the 

 Holston. The population on the Cumberland did 



