their clearings, while the titular owners appealed to the authority of
the loose land laws, and wished them to be backed up by the armed force
of the State. [Footnote: See in Durrett MSS. papers relating to Isaac
Shelby; letter of John Taylor to Isaac Shelby, June 8, 1782.]

The government of North Carolina was far too weak to turn out the
frontiersmen in favor of the speculators to whom the land had been
granted,--often by fraudulent means, or at least for a ridiculously
small sum of money. Still less could it prevent its unruly subjects from
trespassing on the Indian country, or protect them if they were
themselves threatened by the savages. It could not do justice as between
its own citizens, and it was quite incompetent to preserve the peace
between them and outsiders. [Footnote: Calendar of Va. State Papers,
III., p. 213.] The borderers were left to work out their own salvation.

Further Indian Troubles.

By the beginning of 1782 settlements were being made south of the French
Broad. This alarmed and irritated the Indians, and they sent repeated
remonstrances to Major Martin, who was Indian agent, and also to the
governor of North Carolina. The latter wrote Sevier, directing him to
drive off the intruding settlers, and pull down their cabins. Sevier did
not obey. He took purely the frontier view of the question, and he had
no intention of harassing his own staunch adherents for the sake of the
savages whom he had so often fought. Nevertheless, the Cherokees always
liked him personally, for he was as open-handed and free-hearted to them
as to every one else, and treated them to the best he had whenever they
came to his house. He had much justification for his refusal, too, in
the fact that the Indians themselves were always committing outrages.
When the Americans reconquered the southern States many tories fled to