326 The Winning of the West 



motion penetrated its hidden and inmost fastnesses. 

 Singly or in groups, the daring hunters roved 

 through the vast reaches of sombre woodland, and 

 pitched their camps on the banks of rushing rivers, 

 nameless and unknown. In bands of varying size 

 the hunter-settlers followed close behind, and built 

 their cabins and block-houses here and there in the 

 great forest land. They elected their own military 

 leaders, and waged war on their own account against 

 their Indian foes. They constructed their own gov 

 ernmental systems, on their own motion, without 

 assistance or interference from the parent States, 

 until the settlements were firmly established, and the 

 work of civic organization well under way. 



Of course some help was ultimately given by the 

 parent States; and the indirect assistance rendered 

 by the nation had been great. The West could 

 neither have been won nor held by the frontiers 

 men, save for the backing given by the Thirteen 

 States. England and Spain would have made short 

 work of the men whose advance into the lands of 

 their Indian allies they viewed with such jealous 

 hatred; had they not also been forced to deal with 

 the generals and soldiers of the Continental army, 

 and the statesmen and diplomats of the Continental 

 Congress. But the real work was done by the set 

 tlers themselves. The distinguishing feature in the 

 exploration, settlement, and up-building of Ken 

 tucky and Tennessee was the individual initiative 

 of the backwoodsmen. 



The direct reverse of this was true of the set- 



