people's in him, that a stand was ever attempted in order to wait
for our coming."

In the course of their journey over the mountains and through the
wilderness, the pioneers forgot the trials of the trail in the
face of the surpassing beauties of the country. The Cumberlands
were covered with rich undergrowth of the red and white
rhododendron, the delicate laurel, the mountain ivy, the
flameazalea, the spicewood, and the cane; while the white stars
of the dogwood and the carmine blossoms of the red-bud, strewn
across the verdant background of the forest, gleamed in the eager
air of spring. "To enter uppon a detail of the Beuty & Goodness
of our Country," writes Nathaniel Henderson, "would be a task too
arduous . . . . Let it suffice to tell you it far exceeds any
country I ever saw or herd off. I am conscious its out of the
power of any man to make you clearly sensible of the great Beuty
and Richness of Kentucky." Young Felix Walker, endowed with more
vivid powers of description, says with a touch of native
eloquence:

"Perhaps no Adventurer Since the days of donquicksotte or before
ever felt So Cheerful & Ilated in prospect, every heart abounded
with Joy & excitement . . . & exclusive of the Novelties of the
Journey the advantages & accumalations arising on the Settlement
of a new Country was a dazzling object with many of our Company .
. . . As the Cain ceased, we began to discover the pleasing &
Rapturous appearance of the plains of Kentucky, a New Sky &
Strange Earth to be presented to our view . . . . So Rich a Soil
we had never Saw before, Covered with Clover in full Bloom. the
Woods alive abounding in wild Game, turkeys so numerous that it