KENTUCKY. 453 



ed into an independent state. It was first discovered in 1 770 by some 

 Virginian hunters, and the favourable account they gave of it, in- 

 duced others to go thither. However, there was not any fixed esta- 

 blishment formed till 1780. At that time this extensive country was 

 not occupied by any Indian nation : they came there to hunt, but 

 with one accord carried on a war of extermination against all who 

 attempted to settle there. This was the cause of giving the name of 

 Kentucky to the county, which, in the language of the primitive 

 Americans, signifies the land of blood. When the whites appeared 

 there, the natives gave a still more obstinate opposition to their esta- 

 blishment : for a long time they spread devastation and slaughter 

 through the country, and, according to their custom, put their prison- 

 ers to death with the most cruel torments. This state of things last- 

 ed until 1783, at which time the American population having become 

 tco great for them to be able to penetrate into the heart of the esta- 

 blishments, they were reduced to attacking the emigrants on their 

 road. In 1782, roads for carriages were begun to be opened through 

 the interior of the country. Before that time there were nothing but 

 tracts, passable only by people on foot or on horseback. Until 1788 

 the road through Virginia was the only one followed by the emigrants 

 who came from the eastern states to Kentucky. They went first to 

 the block-house, situate at Houlston, to the west of the mountains; 

 and as the government of the United States did not furnish any es- 

 cort, they waited at this place until their numbers were sufficient to 

 pass safely through the wilderness, an uninhabited interval of a hun- 

 dred and thirty miles, which they were obliged to cross before they 

 arrived at Crab-orchard, the first post occupied by the whites. 



" The enthusiasm for emigrating to Kentucky was at this time 

 carried to such a height in the United States, that in some years as 

 many as 20,000 emigrants went thither, and several of them even 

 abandoned their property, if they were unable to dispose of it in a 

 short time. The influx of new colonists soon raised the price of land 

 in Kentucky, so that from two or three pence an acre, at which it had 

 been sold, it rose rapidly to forty or fifty pence. Speculators took ad» 

 vantage of this infatuation. A multiplicity of illicit means were em- 

 ployed to make these lands sell to advantage. Even forged plans were 

 fabricated, on which rivers were laid down, calculated for the esta- 

 blishment of mills, and for other uses. In this manner many ideal lots 

 from 500 to 100,000 acres were sold all over Europe, and in some of 

 the large towns of the United States."* This has given rise to a mul- 

 titude of disputed titles, and vexatious law suits. At present the peo- 

 ple are more cautious of purchasing Kentucky titles, and the rage for 

 emigration abates, 



* Michaux. 



Vol. II. S M 



