of a century the more ambitious expedition on behalf of France by
Celoron de Bienville (see Chapter III), and gave a memorable
object-lesson in the true spirit of westward expansion. During
the ensuing years it began to dawn upon the minds of men of the
stamp of William Byrd and Joshua Gee that there was imperative
need for the establishment of a chain of settlements in the
trans-Alleghany, a great human wall to withstand the advancing
wave of French influence and occupation. By the fifth decade of
the century, as we have seen, the Virginia settlers, with their
squatter's claims and tomahawk rights, had pushed on to the
mountains; and great pressure was brought to bear upon the
council to issue grants for vast tracts of land in the uncharted
wilderness of the interior.

At this period the English ministry adopted the aggressive policy
already mentioned in connection with the French and Indian war,
indicative of a determination to contest with France the right to
occupy the interior of the continent. This policy had been
inaugurated by Virginia with the express purpose of stimulating
the adoption of a similar policy by North Carolina and
Pennsylvania. Two land companies, organized almost
simultaneously, actively promoted the preliminaries necessary to
settlement, despatching parties under expert leadership to
discover the passes through the mountains and to locate the best
land in the trans-Alleghany.

In June, 1749, a great corporation, the Loyal Land Company of
Virginia, received a grant of eight hundred thousand acres above
the North Carolina line and west of the mountains. Dr. Thomas
Walker, an expert surveyor, who in company with several other