of Cornstalk, "Be strong! Be strong!", had quit the
battlefield and left the victory with the whites.

The peace negotiated by Dunmore was durable. The governor had
accomplished his purpose, defied the authority of the crown, and
vindicated the claim of Virginia, to the enthusiastic
satisfaction of the backwoodsmen. While tendering their thanks to
him and avowing their allegiance to George III, at the close of
the campaign, the borderers proclaimed their resolution to exert
all their powers "for the defense of American liberty, and for
the support of her just rights and privileges, not in any
precipitous, riotous or tumultuous manner, but when regularly
called forth by the unanimous voice of our countrymen." Dunmore's
War is epochal, in that it procured for the nonce a state of
peace with the Indians, which made possible the advance of Judge
Henderson over the Transylvania Trail in 1775, and, through his
establishment of the Transylvania Fort at Boonesborough, the
ultimate acquisition by the American Confederation of the
imperial domain of the trans-Alleghany.

CHAPTER XIV. Richard Henderson and the Transylvania Company

I happened to fall in company, and have a great deal of
conversation with one of the most singular and extraordinary
persons and excentric geniuses in America, and perhaps in the
world. His name is Richard Henderson.--J. F. D. Smyth: A Tour in
the United States of America.

Early in 1774, chastened by his own disastrous failure the
preceding autumn, Boone advised Judge Henderson that the time was
auspicious for opening negotiations with the Cherokees for
purchasing the trans-Alleghany region." In organizing a company
for this purpose, Henderson chose men of action and resource,
leaders in the colony, ready for any hazard of life and fortune
in this gigantic scheme of colonization and promotion. The new
men included, in addition to the partners in the organization
known as Richard Henderson and Company, were Colonel John
Luttrell, destined to win laurels in the Revolution, and William
Johnston, a native of Scotland, the leading merchant of
Hillsborough.

Meeting in Hillsborough on August 27, 1774, these men organized
the new company under the name of the Louisa Company. In the
articles then drawn up they agreed to "rent or purchase" a tract
of land from the Indian owners of the soil for the express
purpose of "settling the country." Each partner obligated himself
to "furnish his Quota of