arrears of pay to different bodies of Continental troops. They even at
times purchased a vague and clouded title from some Indian tribe. As
with most other speculative business investments, the great land
companies rarely realized for the originators and investors anything
like what was expected; and the majority were absolute failures in every
sense. Nevertheless, a number of men made money out of them, often on
quite a large scale; and in many instances, where the people who planned
and carried out the scheme made nothing for themselves, they yet left
their mark in the shape of settlers who had come in to purchase their
lands, or even in the shape of a town built under their auspices.

Land speculation was by no means confined to those who went into it on a
large scale. The settler without money might content himself with
staking out an ordinary-sized farm; but the new-comer of any means was
sure not only to try to get a large estate for his own use, but also to
procure land beyond any immediate need, so that he might hold on to it
until it rose in value. He was apt to hold commissions to purchase land
for his friends who remained east of the mountains. The land was turned
to use by private individuals and by corporations; it was held for
speculative purposes; it was used for the liquidation of debts of every
kind. The official surveyors, when created, did most of their work by
deputy; Boone was deputy surveyor of Fayette County, in Kentucky.
[Footnote: Draper MSS.; Boone MSS. Entry of August court for 1783.] Some
men surveyed and staked out their own claims; the others employed
professional surveyors, or else hired old hunters like Boone and Kenton,
whose knowledge of woodcraft and acquaintance with the most fertile
grounds enabled them not only to survey the land, but to choose the
portions best fit for settlement. The lack of proper government surveys,
and the looseness with which the records were kept in the land office,
put a premium on fraud and encouraged carelessness. People could make