m in his
"History of Middle Tennessee." I follow the original, in the Nashville
Historical Society.] As with all the other recorded wanderings and
explorations of these backwoods adventurers, it must be remembered that
while this trip was remarkable in itself, it is especially noteworthy
because, out of many such, it is the only one of which we have a full
account. The adventures that befell Donelson's company differed in
degree, but not in kind, from those that befell the many similar
flotillas that followed or preceded him. From the time that settlers
first came to the upper Tennessee valley occasional hardy hunters had
floated down the stream in pirogues, or hollowed out tree-trunks. Before
the Revolution a few restless emigrants had adopted this method of
reaching Natchez; some of them made the long and perilous trip in
safety, others were killed by the Chickamaugas or else foundered in the
whirlpools, or on the shoals. The spring before Donelson started, a
party of men, women, and children, in forty canoes or pirogues, went
down the Tennessee to settle in the newly conquered Illinois country,
and skirmished with the Cherokees or their way. [Footnote: State
Department MSS., No. 51, Vol. II., p. 45:

"JAMES COLBERT TO CHAS. STUART.

"CHICKASAW NATION, May 25, 1779.

"Sir,--I was this day informed that there is forty large Cannoes loaded
with men women and children passed by here down the Cherokee River who
on their way down they took a Dellaway Indian prisoner & kept him till
they found out what Nation he was of--they told him they had come from
Long Island and were on their way to Illinois with an intent to
settle--Sir I have some reason to think they are a party of Rebels. My
reason is this after they let the Dellaway Indian at liberty they met
with some Cherokees whom they endeavoured to decoy, but finding they
would not be decoyed they fired on them but they all made their Escape
with the Loss of their arms and ammunition and one fellow wounded, who
arrived yesterday. The Dellaway informs me that Lieut. Governor Hamilton
is defeated and himself taken prisoner," etc.

It is curious that none of the Tennessee annalists have noticed the
departure of this expedition; very, very few of the deeds and wanderings
of the old frontiersmen have been recorded; and in consequence
historians are apt to regard these few as being exceptional, instead of
typical. Donelson was merely one of a hundred leaders of flotillas that