on the 25th day of September, 1773, bade a farewell
to our friends, and proceeded on our journey to Kentucky, in company
with five families more, and forty men that joined us in Powel's Valley,
which is one hundred and fifty miles from the now settled parts of
Kentucky, This promising beginning was soon overcast with a cloud of
adversity; for, upon the 10th day of October, the rear of our company
was attacked by a number of Indians, who killed six, and wounded one
man. Of these, my eldest son was one that fell in the action. Though
we defended ourselves and repulsed the enemy, yet this unhappy affair
scattered our cattle, brought us into extreme difficulty, and so
discouraged the whole company, that we retreated forty miles, to the
settlement on Clinch River. We had passed over two mountains, viz,
Powel's and Walden's, and were approaching Cumberland mountain when this
adverse fortune overtook us. These mountains are in the wilderness, as
we pass from the old settlements in Virginia to Kentucky, are ranged in
a southwest and northeast direction, are of a great length and breadth,
and not far distant from each other. Over these, nature hath formed
passes that are less difficult than might be expected, from a view of
such huge piles. The aspect of these cliffs is so wild and horrid, that
it is impossible to behold them without terror. The spectator is apt
to imagine that nature has formerly suffered some violent convulsion,
and that these are the dismembered remains of the dreadful shock; the
ruins, not of Persepolis or Palmyra, but of the world!

I remained with my family on Clinch until the 6th of June, 1774, when
I and one Michael Stoner were solicited by Governor Dunmore of Virginia
to go to the falls of the Ohio, to conduct into the settlements a number
of surveyors that had been sent thither by him some months before; this
country having about this time drawn the attention of many adventurers.
We immediately complied with the Governor's request, and conducted in
the surveyors--completing a tour of eight hundred miles, through many
difficulties, in sixty-two days.

Soon after I returned home, I was ordered to take the command of three
garrisons during the campaign which Governor Dunmore carried on against
the Shawanese Indians; after the conclusion of which, the militia was
discharged from each garrison, and I, being relieved from my post, was
solicited by a number of North Carolina gentlemen, that were about
purch