very slow, and it was not until April 24th that they reached the
Big Salt Lick, and found Robertson awaiting them. The long, toilsome,
and perilous voyage had been brought to a safe end.

There were then probably nearly five hundred settlers on the Cumberland,
one half of them being able-bodied men in the prime of life. [Footnote:
Two hundred and fifty-six names are subscribed to the compact of
government; and in addition there were the women, children, the few
slaves, and such men as did not sign.] The central station, the capitol
of the little community, was that at the Bluff, where Robertson built a
little stockaded hamlet and called it Nashborough [Footnote: After A.
Nash; he was the governor of North Carolina; where he did all he could
on the patriot side. See Gates MSS. Sept. 7, 1780.]; it was of the usual
type of small frontier forted town. Other stations were scattered along
both sides of the river; some were stockades, others merely
block-houses, with the yard and garden enclosed by stout palings. As
with all similar border forts or stations, these were sometimes called
by the name of the founder; more rarely they were named with reference
to some natural object, such as the river, ford, or hill by which they
were, or commemorated some deed, or the name of a man the frontiersmen
held in honor; and occasionally they afforded true instances of
clan-settlement and clan-nomenclature, several kindred families of the
same name building a village which grew to be called after them. Among
these Cumberland stations was Mansker's (usually called Kasper's or
Gaspers--he was not particular how his name was spelled), Stone River,
Bledsoe's, Freeland's, Eatons', Clover-Bottom, and Fort Union.

As the country where they had settled belonged to no tribe of Indians,
some of the people thought they would not be molested, and, being eager
to take up the best lands, scattered out to live on separate claims.
Robertson warned them that they would soon suffer from the savages; and
his words speedily came true--whereupon the outlying cabins were
deserted and all gathered within the stockades. In April roving parties
of Delawares, Chickasaws, and Choctaws began to harass the settlement.
As in Kentucky, so on the banks of the Cumberland, the Indians were the
first to begin the conflict. The lands on which the whites settled were
uninhabited, and were claimed as hunting-grounds by many hostile tribes;
so that it is certain that no one t