of Kentucky, Daniel Boone as already noted was engaged as secret
agent, to treat with the Cherokees for the lease or purchase of
the trans-Alleghany region, on behalf of Judge Henderson and his
associates. Embroiled in the exciting issues of the Regulation
and absorbed by his confining duties as colonial judge, Henderson
was unable to put his bold design into execution until after the
expiration of the court itself which ceased to exist in 1773.
Disregarding the royal proclamation of 1763 and Locke's
Fundamental Constitutions for the Carolinas, which forbade
private parties to purchase lands from the Indians, Judge
Henderson applied to the highest judicial authorities in England
to know if there was any law in existence forbidding purchase of
lands from the Indian tribes. Lord Mansfield gave Judge Henderson
the "sanction of his great authority in favor of the purchase."
Lord Chancellor Camden and Mr. Yorke had officially advised the
King in 1757, in regard to the petition of the East Indian
Company, "that in respect to such territories as have been, or
shall be acquired by treaty or grant from the Great Mogul, or any
of the Indian princes or governments, your Majesty's letters
patent are NOT NECESSARY; the property of the soil vesting in the
company by the Indian grant subject only to your Majesties right
of sovereignty over the settlements, as English settlements, and
over the inhabitants, as English subjects, who carry with them
your Majesties laws wherever they form colonies, and receive your
Majesties protection by virtue of your royal charters." This
opinion, with virtually no change, was rendered in regard to the
Indian tribes of North America by the same two authorities,
certainly as early as 1769; and a true copy, made in London,
April 1, 1772, was transmitted to Judge Henderson. Armed with the
legal opinions received from England, Judge Henderson was fully