Moravian town sixty odd miles distant. Skins were in such demand
that they soon came to replace hard money, which was incredibly
scarce in the back country, as a medium of exchange. Upon one
occasion a caravan from Bethabara hauled three thousand pounds,
upon another four thousand pounds, of dressed deerskins to
Charleston. So immense was this trade that the year after Boone's
arrival at the Forks of Yadkin thirty thousand deerskins were
exported from the province of North Carolina. We like to think
that the young Daniel Boone was one of that band of whom Brother
Joseph, while in camp on the Catawba River (November 12, 1752)
wrote: "There are many hunters about here, who live like Indians,
they kill many deer selling their hides, and thus live without
much work."

In this very class of professional hunters, living like Indians,
was thus bred the spirit of individual initiative and strenuous
leadership in the great westward expansionist movement of the
coming decade. An English traveler gives the following minute
picture of the dress and accoutrement of the Carolina
backwoodsman.

"Their whole dress is very singular, and not very materially
different from that of the Indians; being a hunting shirt,
somewhat resembling a waggoner's frock, ornamented with a great
many fringes, tied round the middle with a broad belt, much
decorated also, in which is fastened a tomahawk, an instrument
that serves every purpose of defence and convenience; being a
hammer at one side and a sharp hatchet at the other; the shot bag
and powderhorn, carved with a variety of whimsical figures and
devices, hang from their necks over one shoulder; and on their