foothold north of the Ohio, were of the
utmost importance to Kentucky. Until this time, the Kentucky settlers
had been literally fighting for life and home, and again and again their
strait had been so bad, that it seemed--and was--almost an even chance
whether they would be driven from the land. The successful outcome of
Clark's expedition temporarily overawed the Indians, and, moreover, made
the French towns outposts for the protection of the settlers; so that
for several years thereafter the tribes west of the Wabash did but
little against the Americans. The confidence of the backwoodsmen in
their own ultimate triumph was likewise very much increased; while the
fame of the western region was greatly spread abroad. From all these
causes it resulted that there was an immediate and great increase of
immigration thither, the bulk of the immigrants of course stopping in
Kentucky, though a very few, even thus early, went to Illinois. Every
settlement in Kentucky was still in jeopardy, and there came moments of
dejection, when some of her bravest leaders spoke gloomily of the
possibility of the Americans being driven from the land. But these were
merely words such as even strong men utter when sore from fresh
disaster. After the spring of 1779, there was never any real danger that
the whites would be forced to abandon Kentucky.

The Land Laws.

The land laws which the Virginia Legislature enacted about this time
[Footnote: May, 1779; they did not take effect nor was a land court
established until the following fall, when the land office was opened at
St. Asaphs, Oct. 13th. Isaac Shelby's claim was the first one considered
and granted. He had raised a crop of corn in the country in 1776.] were
partly a cause, partly a consequence, of the increased emigration to
Kentucky, and of the consequent rise in the value of its wild lands.
Long before the Revolution, shrewd and far-seeing speculators had
organized land companies to acquire grants of vast stretches of western
territory; but the land only acquired an actual value for private
individuals after the incoming of settlers. In addition to the
companies, many private individuals had acquired rights to tracts of
land; some, under the royal proclamation, giving bounties to the
officers and soldiers in the French war; others by actual payment into
the public treasury. [Footnote: The Ohio Company was the greatest of the
companies. There were "also, among private rights, the an