s early as 1769; and a true copy, made in London,
April 1, 1772, was transmitted to Judge Henderson. Armed with the
legal opinions received from England, Judge Henderson was fully
persuaded that there was no legal bar whatsoever to his seeking
to acquire by purchase from the Cherokees the vast domain of the
trans-Alleghany. A golden dream of empire, with its promise of an
independent republic in the form of a proprietary colony, casts
him under the spell of its alluring glamour.

In the meantime, the restless Boone, impatient over the delay in
the consummation of Judge Henderson's plans, resolved to
establish himself in Kentucky upon his own responsibility.
Heedless of the question of title and the certain hazards
incident to invading the territory of hostile savages, Boone
designated a rendezvous in Powell's Valley where he and his party
of five families were to be met by a band under the leadership of
his connections, the Bryans, and another company led by Captain
William Russell, a daring pioneer of the Clinch Valley. A small
detachment of Boone's party was fiercely attacked by Shawanoes in
Powell's Valley on October 10, 1773, and almost all were killed,
including sons of Boone and Russell, and young John and Richard
Mendenhall of Guilford County, North Carolina. As the result of
this bloody repulse, Boone's attempt to settle in Kentucky at
this time was definitely abandoned. His failure to effect a
settlement in Kentucky was due to that characteristic disregard
of the territorial rights of the Indians which was all too common
among the borderers of that period.

This failure was portentous of the coming storm. The reign of the
Long Hunters was over. Dawning upon the horizon was the day of
stern adventurers, fixed in the desperate and lawless resolve to
invade the trans-Alleghany country and to battle savagely with
the red man for its possession. More successful than Boone was
the McAfee party, five in number, from Botetourt County,
Virginia, who between May 10th and September 1, 1773, safely
accomplished a journey through Kentucky and carefully marked
well-chosen sites for future location." An ominous incident of
the time was the veiled warning which Cornstalk, the great
Shawanoe chieftain, gave to Captain Thomas Bullitt, head of a
party of royal surveyors, sent out by Lord Dunmore, Governor of
Virginia. Cornstalk at Chillicothe, June 7, 1773, warned Bullitt
concerning the encroachments of the whites, "designed