gentlemen had made a tour of exploration through eastern
Tennessee and the Holston region in 1748, was chosen as the agent
of this company. Starting from his home in Albemarle County,
Virginia, March 6, 1750, accompanied by five stalwart pioneers,
Walker made a tour of exploration to the westward, being absent
four months and one week. On this journey, which carried the
party as far west as the Rockcastle River (May 11th) and as far
north as the present Paintsville, Kentucky, they named many
natural objects, such as mountains and rivers, after members of
the party. Their two principal achievements were the erection of
the first house built by white men between the Cumberland
Mountains and the Ohio River a feat, however, which led to no
important developments; and the discovery of the wonderful gap in
the Alleghanies to which Walker gave the name Cumberland, in
honor of the ruthless conqueror at Culloden, the "bloody duke."

In 1748 the Ohio Company was organized by Colonel Thomas Lee,
president of the Virginia council, and twelve other gentlemen, of
Virginia and Maryland. In their petition for five hundred
thousand acres, one of the declared objects of the company was
"to anticipate the French by taking possession of that country
southward of the Lakes to which the French had no right . . . ."
By the royal order of May 19, 1749, the company was awarded two
hundred thousand acres, free of quit-rent for ten years; and the
promise was made of an additional award of the remainder
petitioned for, on condition of seating a hundred families upon
the original grant and the building and maintaining of a fort.
Christopher Gist, summoned from his remote home on the Yadkin in
North Carolina, was instructed "to search out and discover the
Lands upon the river Ohio & other adjoining branches of the