the historian Wheeler, "was a continued contest between himself and the
Legislature, on matters frivolous and unimportant. A high-toned temper
for Royal prerogatives on his part, and an indomitable resistance of the
Colonists ... The people were much oppressed by Lord Grenville's agents.
They seized Corbin, his agent, who lived below Edenton, and brought him
to Enfield, where he was compelled to give bond and security to produce
his books and disgorge his illegal fees."

This matter of illegal fees was part of a system of oppression, kindred
to the famous Stamp Act--a system which was destined to grow more and
more intolerable under Governor Tryon's administration, and to lead to
the formation of the famous company of Regulators, whose resistance of
taxation and tyranny was soon to convulse the whole State.

We are by no means to suppose that Daniel Boone was an unobservant
spectator of what was passing even at the time we are speaking of,
nor that the doings of the tax-gatherers had nothing to do with his
subsequent movements. He not only hated oppression, but he hated also
strife and disturbance; and already began to long for a new migration
into the distant woods and quiet intervals, where politics and the
tax-gatherer should not intrude.

The population in his neighborhood was increasing, and new settlements
were being formed along the Yadkin and its tributary streams, and
explorations were made to the northwest on the banks of the Holston and
Clinch Rivers. The times were already beginning to exhibit symptoms of
restlessness and stir among the people, which was soon to result in the
formation of new States and the settlement of the far West.

[Footnote 6: John H. Wheeler. "Historical Sketches of North Carolina."]