Louisiana and Aaron Burr 149 



six of them give notice that hereafter they will 

 give no legal advice unless it is legally paid for. 



All the settlers, or at least all the settlers who had 

 any ambition to rise in the world, were absorbed 

 in land speculations ; Blount, Robertson, and* the 

 other leaders as much so as anybody. They were 

 continually in correspondence with one another 

 about the purchase of land warrants, and about lay- 

 ing them out in the best localities. Of course there 

 was much jealousy and rivalry in the effort to get 

 the best sites. Robertson, being furthest on the 

 frontier, where there was most wild land, had pe- 

 culiar advantages. Very soon after he settled in 

 the Cumberland district at the close of the Revo- 

 lutionary War, Blount had entered into an agree- 

 ment with him for a joint land speculation. Blount 

 was to purchase land claims from both officers and 

 soldiers amounting in all to fifty thousand acres and 

 enter them for the Western Territory, while Rob- 

 ertson was to survey and locate the claims, receiv- 

 ing one-fourth of the whole for his reward. 15 Their 

 connection continued during Blount's term as Gov- 

 ernor, and Blount's letters to Robertson contain 

 much advice as to how the warrants shall be laid 

 out. Wherever possible they were of course laid 

 outside the Indian boundaries; but, like every one 

 else, Blount and Robertson knew that eventually 

 the Indian lands would come into the possession of 

 the United States, and in view of the utter confusion 



15 Blount MSS., Agreement between William Blount and 

 James Robertson, Oct. 30, 1783. 



