"Seventeenth-That the convention have sole power of raising and appropriating all public moneys and electing their treasurer. "Eighteenth-That for a short time, till the state of the colony will permit to fix some plan of holding the convention which shall be permanent, the place of meeting shall be agreed upon between the proprietors and the convention. "To the faithful and religious and perpetual observance of all and every of the above articles, the said proprietors and the chairman of the said convention have hereunto interchangeably set their hands and affixed their seals, the 27th day of May, 1775 "RICHARD HENDERSON [Seal], "NATHANIEL HART [Seal], "JOHN LUTTRELL [Seal], "THOMAS SLAUGHTER, Chairman [Seal]." Throughout, these proceedings evince the spirit of lordly assumption and crafty self-seeking, which were instinctive with royalty and its patronizing favoritism to an exclusive few. It manifested itself in the extortions and wrongs with which the minions of the English Government outraged the colonists, and finally drove them into the war of the Revolution. Too many rights and powers were reserved in this compact to admit of a government of the people and by the people; the pervading principle of republicanism, which alone could satisfy the common sentiment of personal and civil liberty. Only a little time and reflection were needed to awaken discontent among the settlers. By that fatality which seems ever coincident with enterprise founded in uncertain justice and unstable tenure, the advantages gained by this concession of the delegates to the proprietors tempted the latter to the imprudent step of announcing the increased rates for lands, and for the fees of entry and survey, by an appreciable percentage. These and other irritant causes led the settlers to open protest. Virginia had, on the 4th of July, united with the other colonies in the Declaration of Independence, and all were at war with Great Britain. Yet Kentucky was held by many to be as much a part of Fincastle county, Virginia, now as before separation from the mother country. Under this jurisdiction of Virginia, the discontented settlers sought for a refuge. Feeling and action culminated in December in a formal petition to the General Assembly of Virginia, signed by eighty-four of the SETTLERS PETITION VIRGINIA FOR RELIEF. 51 settlers, protesting against the usurpations of the proprietors, and setting forth grievances on account of the extortions of the same, and asking the Government of Virginia to assert and maintain its jurisdiction over this part of Fincastle county. Many of these signers were the best men among the settlers, and some even were delegates in the Boonesborough convention. From the petition, we quote in part as follows: "But your petitioners have been greatly alarmed at the late conduct of those gentlemen in advancing the price of the purchase money from twenty to fifty shillings per hundred acres. At the same time, they have increased the fees of entry and surveying to a most exorbitant rate, and by the short period fixed for taking up the lands, even on these extravagant terms, they plainly evince their intention of rising in their demands as settlers increase, or their insatiable avarice shall dictate. *** As we are anxious to concur in every respect with our brethren of the united colonies for our just rights and privileges, as far as our infant settlement and remote situation will admit of, we humbly expect and implore to be taken under the protection of the honorable convention of the colony of Virginia, of which we can not help thinking ourselves still a part, and request your kind interposition in our behalf, that we may not suffer under the rigorous demands and impositions of the gentlemen styling themselves proprietors." 1 The animus of resistance, as well as the earnestness of protest, is breathed throughout. It is but the part of justice to permit the friends of Henderson to offer their defense against the charge in this petition, that the promoters of the Transylvania colony "plainly evince their intention of rising in their demands as the settlers increase or their insatiable avarice shall dictate." In the Virginia Calendar, John Williams is shown to have replied to this allegation, that the original purposes and propositions of the Transylvania Company were not changed. They had originally offered their lands to first settlers and improvers at minimum prices; but that privilege was announced to expire by limitation. With the increase of settlers, the assurance of greater safety, and the growing attractions of the country, the value of lands would naturally be enhanced, and this they had anticipated and set forth from the first. This statement of Williams was confirmed by Colonel John Floyd, which entitles it to great weight and respect.2 In the matter of Virginia vs. Henderson, from the same authority, Nathan Henderson, brother of Richard, stated in his deposition that the Transylvania Company reserved the right of veto over any act of the improvised Legislature, and gave as a reason for it that it would be dangerous to their rights and interests in the property purchased at the Wataga treaty to surrender the final and sovereign power of legislation to the people or their delegates. Whether he referred to the provision in the compact between the company and the people, by which the proprietors were made a third. 1 Hall's Sketches of History in the West, Vol. II., pp. 236-9. 3 2 Virginia Calendar, Vol. I., p. 275. 3 Virginia Calendar, Vol. I., p. 307. arm of government, beside the Legislature and council, with power to concur or not in all acts, or to some further agreement not mentioned in the earlier histories, is not determined with certainty. There is a remarkable episode brought out in this same case of Virginia vs. Henderson, in the deposition of Sam Wilson. 1 There was much contention and dissent on the part of some of the Indians at Wataga, as to concessions to the Transylvania Company, and especially when the latter insisted on including all the territory south of the Kentucky river to the Cumberland. In the proceedings of the council, Dragging Canoe, a noted chief, arose and made an impassioned speech, in the delivery of which he turned to the white party, and lifting his arm and pointing his finger ominously to the north-west, sternly said: "Bloody ground!" and then pausing a moment, he stamped his foot violently on the earth and continued, "and dark and difficult to settle!" In a few minutes, Oconistoto's squaw, whose suspicions were intensely excited by some person telling her that a dangerous advantage was being taken of her tribe in the terms urged, rushed frantically into the midst of the assembly, and by her wild and hysteric cries produced a panic in the proceedings. In a babel of confusion, the council was adjourned to another day. With some delay and trouble, confidence was enough restored to reassemble the parties and resume negotiations. Henderson boldly warned the Indians that unless Chenoca, or all the land south of Kentucky to the Cumberland river was embraced, he would not open the goods for distribution as presents. The majority of the Indians yielded assent, and the treaty was finally concluded and duly ratified. We here recall the coincidence of the passage in the closing sections of Boone's autobiography, where he relates that at Wataga an old Indian chief, who signed Colonel Henderson's deed, took him by the hand at the delivery of the same, and said: "Brother, we have given you a fine land, but I believe you will have much trouble in settling it." This evidence of new light upon the question of the origin of the phrase, "Dark and Bloody Ground," brought out in the State papers as published in the Virginia Calendar, is interesting. It affords strong presumptive evidence to the minds of some of the most learned in this literature, that the significant appellation crystalized into this form from the frequent utterances of a current sentiment among the Indians at Wataga. The Boonesborough convention never reassembled, and the rights and powers claimed by the proprietors of Transylvania were more and more feebly asserted. Dissensions among themselves sprang up, and the ambitious dream of an independent and sovereign government west of the Alleghanies, to be molded and destined amid the confusion and doubt of jurisdictions for the future, was not now to be realized. 1 Virginia Calendar, Vol. I., p. 283. TRANSYLVANIA PURCHASE DECLARED NULL AND VOID. 53 The proprietors met at their old home, in Oxford, North Carolina, on the 25th of September, and appointed James Hogg to represent the colony of Transylvania in the Continental Congress, then sitting at Philadelphia, and to request "that Transylvania be added to the number of the united colonies, and that Mr. Hogg be admitted to a seat as their delegate." 1 He was refused the honor of such admission. Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson failed to encourage their advances toward gaining the acquiescence of Virginia; and Governor Martin, of North Carolina, early in this same year of 1775, issued his proclamation declaring illegal the Wataga purchase from the Cherokees, so far as it embraced lands now in Tennessee; and Governor Dunmore did the same for the territorial jurisdiction of Virginia. Soon after, the transaction was made null and void by statute. As a measure of equity, on November 4, 1778, the Virginia House of Delegates formally "Resolved, That the purchases heretofore made by Richard Henderson & Company, of that tract of land called Transylvania, is void. But as the said Henderson & Company have been at very great expense in making the said purchase and in settling the said lands, it is just and reasonable to allow the same a compensation." Soon after, it was "Enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That all that tract of land situate and being on the waters of the Ohio and Green rivers, to-wit: Beginning at the mouth of Green river, thence up the same twelve and a half miles, when reduced to a straight line, thence running at right angles with the said reduced lines twelve and a half miles on each side the said river, thence running lines from the termination of the line extended on either side the said Green river, at right angles with the same, until the said lines intersect the Ohio, which said Ohio shall be the western boundary of the said tract, be, and the same is, hereby granted the said Richard Henderson & Company-two hundred thousand acres at the mouth of Green river, and on both sides of same." 2 In the like spirit of justice, the Assembly of North Carolina granted to the company two hundred thousand acres more, lying within its jurisdiction. Thus ended, in compromise and concession, the first bold attempt to separate Kentucky from her natural alliance with Virginia. Whether England or Spain secretly connived at this movement at a time most opportune, we may conjecture, but will never know. If it was the first, it was certainly not the last, interference by retainer and intrigue upon the same theater. Had the proprietors been less extortionate and more conciliatory, the future of Kentucky might have been different. I Collins, Vol. II., n. 511. 2 Littell's Laws of Kentucky, and Virginia Appendix, Vol. III., p 5. CHAPTER IX. Harrod, McAfee, and others lead in one hundred men. Many return home from fear of the Indians. First crops raised. Harrodstown fortified. Life and services of Captain James Harrod. His untimely death. Other gallant spirits at Harrodstown. St. Asaphs settled by Colonel Benjamin Logan. Person and qualities of Logan. Rejects the rights of primogeniture, and divides his property with his brothers and sisters. His military spirit. Other daring adventurers enter upon this theater of action. Simon Kenton leaves Fort Pitt to join Lewis' army as a scout and spy. After the battle of Point Pleasant, he resumes a hunter's life in Kentucky. Finds the "Caneland" at last. Builds a camp at Washington, Mason county, clears and plants an acre in corn, and eats the first roasting-ears. The Blue Licks a great rendezvous of game. Meets there two wandering white men. Hendricks captured in camp and burned at the stake. Accompany Michael Stoner to Hinkson's station. Other settlements and surveys in Mason county. Settlement of McClelland and others at Royal Spring, Georgetown, becomes McClelland's station. Other settlements at Hinkson's, Bourbon county, and Drennon's Lick, Henry county. Three hundred explorers in Kentucky this year. Over two hundred acres of corn planted, besides gardens and orchards. Stories of the New Canaan. The First women in Kentucky come to Miller's follow these. Douglas', Gist's, and other survey par ties. Three weeks in advance of Boone's arrival at the mouth of Otter creek, on the Kentucky river, early in April, nearly one hundred men, in separate parties, had arrived at Harrodstown and vicinity, the vanguard of immigration for 1775. Captain James Harrod and his comrades, after the campaign and great battle of the Kanawha, not only held firmly to their purpose of settling in Kentucky, but were re-enforced by others who volunteered to share the dangers of the wilderness with them. Harrod and Hite led about fifty men on their return, and this party reached the site of their cabin improvements, near Salt river, on the 15th of March, and finding them yet standing, at once reoccupied them. On the 11th of March, four days before, the McAfee company had preceded them, and located at their old survey, a short distance below, on Salt river, and at what was afterward known |