ht be made, or the foe driven
for the moment farther from the border. Sometimes settlers squatted on
land already held but not occupied under a good title; sometimes a man
who claimed the land under a defective title, or under pretence of
original occupation, attempted to oust or to blackmail him who had
cleared and tilled the soil in good faith; and these were both fruitful
causes not only of lawsuits but of bloody affrays. Among themselves, the
settlers' talk ran ever on land titles and land litigation, and schemes
for securing vast tracts of rich and well watered country. These were
the subjects with which they filled their letters to one another and to
their friends at home, and the subjects upon which these same friends
chiefly dwelt when they sent letters in return. [Footnote: Clay MSS. and
Draper MSS., _passim: e.g._, in former, J. Mercer to George Nicholas,
Nov. 28, 1789; J. Ware to George Nicholas, Nov. 29, 1789; letter to Mrs.
Byrd, Jan. 16, 1786, etc., etc., etc.] Often well-to-do men visited the
new country by themselves first, chose good sites for their farms and
plantations, surveyed and purchased them, and then returned to their old
homes, whence they sent out their field hands to break the soil and put
up buildings before bringing out their families.

Lines Followed in the Western Movement.

The westward movement of settlers took place along several different
lines. The dwellers in what is now eastern Tennessee were in close touch
with the old settled country; their Western farms and little towns
formed part of the chain of forest clearings which stretched unbroken
from the border of Virginia 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;