This speculative spirit was a powerful stimulus to the settlement not
only of Kentucky, but of middle Tennessee. Henderson's claim included
the Cumberland country, and when North Carolina annulled his rights, she
promised him a large but indefinitely located piece of land in their
place. He tried to undersell the state in the land market, and
undoubtedly his offers had been among the main causes that induced
Robertson and his associates to go to the Cumberland when they did. But
at the time it was uncertain whether Cumberland lay in Virginia or North
Carolina, as the line was not run by the surveyors until the following
spring; and Robertson went up to see Clark, because it was rumored that
the latter had the disposal of Virginia "cabin-rights"; under which each
man could, for a small sum, purchase a thousand acres, on condition of
building a cabin and raising a crop. However, as it turned out, he might
have spared himself the journey, for the settlement proved to be well
within the Carolina boundary.

Many Settlers Join Him.

In the fall very many men came out to the new settlement, guided thither
by Robertson and Mansker; the former persuading a number who were bound
to Kentucky to come to the Cumberland instead. Among them were two or
three of the Long Hunters, whose wanderings had done so much to make the
country known. Robertson's especial partner was a man named John
Donelson. The latter went by water and took a large party of immigrants,
including all the women and children, down the Tennessee, and thence up
the Ohio and Cumberland to the Bluff or French Lick. [Footnote: The plan
was that Robertson should meet this party at the Muscle Shoals, and that
they should go from thence overland; but owing to the severity of the
winter, Robertson could not get to the shoals.] Among them were