THE FIRST EXPLORERS
The first real explorations of the great territory secured by Virginia
at the Treaty of Fort Stanwix were made by Dr. Thomas Walker, who later
so skilfully managed Virginia's part of that treaty, and Christopher
Gist, in the early years of the second half of the eighteenth century,
1750 and 1751.
The brief journals[1] written by these men are the sources of our first
information concerning the vast territory west of the Appalachian
mountain system--the eastern half of the Mississippi basin south of the
Ohio River. They are meager records of hard day's pilgrimages, an
outline of the routes pursued, and a description of the lands which were
traversed. Both were explorers for two newly-formed land companies.
Walker represented the Loyal Land Company of London, and Gist was the
representative of the Ohio Company. The company for which Walker acted
had secured a grant of eight hundred thousand acres in the territory now
embraced in Kentucky north of 36° 30´. The Ohio Company had a grant of
five hundred thousand acres between the Kanawha and Monongahela Rivers.
These men were sent to search out favorable lands and report on the
giants and grapes. They found both.
Little suggestion of the romance and daring of these historic journeys
can be found in either of the journals of them; they make slight books.
But volumes can be written on what can be read by the most careless
reader between their few lines. The long climbing over the almost
pathless mountains, the nights spent in discomfort, the countless
trials, fears, dangers of which they knew so much and told so
little--all this should make a story if it never has, that could not by
any means find an uninterested reader. No youth's history is of moment
until we know the man and know that he is a man among men. Our nation is
still a boy. Only with the passing of the years will its boyhood be
studied and known as it should be known; when that time comes, the brief
stories of such men as Walker and Gist will appear of priceless value.
"Having, on the 12th of December last, been employed for a certain
consideration to go to the Westward in order to discover a proper Place
for a Settlement, I left my house on the Sixth day of March, at 10
o'clock, 1749-50, in Company with Ambrose Powell, William Tomlinson,
Colby Chew, Henry Lawless & John Hughs. Each man had a Horse and we had
two to carry the Baggage. I lodged this night at Col. Joshua Fry's, in
Albemarle, which County includes the Chief of the head Branches of James
River on the East side of the Blue Ridge." Thus begins Dr. Walker's
journal. At this time England and her colonies were dating by the old
calendar, each new year beginning on the twenty-fifth of March.
Accordingly they started nineteen days before the beginning of the year
1750.
It was a brave little company of adventurous men. Walker had attended
William and Mary College, and then had joined the ranks of that
distinguished army of representative Virginians who, with saddle-bags
and surveying instruments, proved to be the vanguard of the army which
was to achieve the real conquest of the West. His home was Castle Hill,
near Charlottesville, Albemarle County, Virginia, where his companions
had rendezvoused for the present expedition and from which point they
began their historic journey. Powell was of the best Virginian stock,
and has left his name to one of the great valleys through which the
highway to the West ran. His son became a Revolutionary officer and his
great-grandson was General A. P. Hill, the famous Confederate leader.
Chew was from Orange County, Virginia, and belonged to the Maryland
branch of the Chew family. Two Presidents of the United States, Madison
and Taylor, could claim him as a relative. Seven years later he served
in Washington's regiment in Forbes's expedition against Fort Duquesne,
and was killed in Grant's wild attack on that fort. As the journal
states, this company spent the first night out with Colonel Joshua Fry.
Fry too was one of them in spirit, though he did not accompany them
westward. He was a graduate of Oxford University, joint author with
Jefferson of Fry and Jefferson's celebrated Map of Virginia, and a
commissioner for the crown in establishing the boundary line between
North Carolina and Virginia. He was killed by being thrown from his
horse while taking command of Washington's expedition against Fort
Duquesne, four years later. These statistics show plainly that the best
brain and blood of Virginia was foremost in attempting to realize
Virginia's dream of conquest and expansion.
But it was a time for brave men to show themselves. Ambitious Virginia
had been slow to claim the West, where even at this early date Frenchmen
had gone so far into the wilderness. Céloron, bold emissary of the
humpbacked Canadian Governor Gallissonière, was now burying leaden
plates at the mouths of the rivers which emptied into the Ohio, as a
sign of French possession of the West. One of these was placed at the
mouth of the Great Kanawha "at the mouth of the river Chinodahihetha,
this 18th day of August," claiming for the Bourbon crown the entire
territory in which the grant of land to the Ohio Company was located.
There was not a moment to lose if the West was to be saved to England. A
settlement must be made quickly, and Walker and his band pushed on
immediately to find a "proper Place for a Settlement."
But all this, seemingly, is neither here nor there--so far as Walker's
Journal is concerned. There is not one mention of the political crisis
then at hand; instead of French claims, Walker deals with tired horses
or broken-legged dogs, and where one might suppose he would mention
national boundary lines he tells only of cutting names on trees. And at
the end, where the reader might look for a summary statement of the
results of his tour he finds this: "I got home about noon. We killed in
the Journey 13 Buffaloes, 8 Elks, 53 Bears, 20 Deer, 4 Wild Geese, about
150 Turkeys, besides small game. We might have killed three times as
much meat, if we had wanted it." Yet, so far as human interest is
concerned, the record is exceptionally entertaining, and to a student of
the great thoroughfare from Virginia to Kentucky it is full of meaning;
because of its many references to the difficulties of traveling at that
early date, and to the varied experiences of explorers on the earliest
thoroughfares westward. It is this story of experience in traveling west
in 1750 that makes Walker's Journal of interest in the present study.
On the day after the party left Colonel Fry's, "We set off about 8,"
writes Dr. Walker, "but the day proving wet, we only went to Thomas
Joplin's on Rockfish. This is a pretty River, which might at a small
expense be made fit for transporting Tobacco; but it has lately been
stopped by a Mill Dam near the Mouth to the prejudice of the upper
inhabitants who would at their own expense clear and make it navigable,
were they permitted." Virginia's great industry evidently flourished
this far from tidewater even at this early date, though handicapped by
these dams which were erected by the "Averice of Millers," on which Dr.
Walker comments again in his next day's record. The record for Sunday,
the eleventh, is appropriately brief: "11th. The Sabbath." In only one
or two instances did the party travel on Sunday, and then the journey
was occasioned by necessity. On the twelfth the party crossed the Upper
James River above the mouth of the Rivanna, and lodged with one Thomas
Hunt.
"13th. We went early to William Calloway's and supplied ourselves with
Rum, Thread, and other necessaries & from thence took the main Waggon
Road leading to Wood's or the New River. It is not well clear'd or
beaten yet, but will be a very good one with proper management." Wood's
River--or New River, as we know it today--was discovered in 1671 by
Colonel Abraham Wood, who explored along the line which later became the
boundary line between North Carolina and Virginia. He crossed the
Alleghenies through "Wood's Gap" (now Flower Gap) and, going down Little
River, found New River not far from Inglis Ferry, where Walker's party
crossed three days later. This mention of the road Walker traversed is
his first reference to the great road westward toward Cumberland Gap; he
remarks its roughness, but before he returned to Virginia he learned new
lessons on rough roads. "This night we lodged in Adam Beards low
grounds. Beard is an ignorant, impudent, brutish fellow, and would have
taken us up, had it not been for a reason, easily suggested." When thus
brought in contrast with the hospitality usually tendered Walker's
party, the deportment of this churlish mountaineer is conspicuous.
Travelers on these first highways were ever in need--if for nothing more
than a camping-place. The people who settled beside the frontier roads
were trained by bitter experience to a generous hospitality. This
hospitality was particularly marked, throughout the colonies, among
those who could afford it, especially on the frontiers; and here it was
often bestowed upon travelers when it could be ill-afforded. The modern
hotel has in a large measure relieved the general public from the burden
of continual and promiscuous hospitality, and it has been found that
where hotels are least known this prime requisite of an expanding
civilization may still be found. On the frontier, men were dependent on
those who lived beside the road, not only in time of accident and
sickness, but at all times--for little food and forage could be carried.
At times travelers nearly perished when once beyond the frontier line.
Walker's party, though they killed the large amount of game mentioned,
were once compelled to kill and eat one of their dogs. Captain Estill,
who lost his life in Kentucky in the engagement which bears his name, is
said to have done a great service for emigrants from Virginia by killing
game and leaving the meat beside the road, in order to "pass on and
notify incoming trains where they might find a supply of meat."
Instances of vile treatment of travelers are not often cited, but the
few that exist are the exceptions that prove the rule of generosity
which was common to the time.
Leaving Beard's, Walker and his men went, on the fourteenth, to Nicholas
Welch's, "where," the Doctor writes, "we bought corn for our horses, and
had some Victuals dress'd for Breakfast." From here they climbed the
Blue Ridge through Buford's Gap, in Bedford County, through which the
Norfolk and Western Railroad now passes. "The Ascent and Descent is so
easie," writes Walker, "that a Stranger would not know when he crossed
the Ridge." On the day after, they reached "the great Lick" near the
present city of Roanoke, and continued up the trail on the following day
to near the historic Inglis Ferry, not far from the present village of
Blacksburg, Montgomery County, Virginia.
From this on, Walker's route is not of importance to our study, as he
missed the great trail which would have taken him to the pleasant
meadows of Kentucky--though he struck it again at Cumberland Gap but did
not follow it--and wandered over a circuitous route thus outlined by
Daniel Bryan: "They started from low down in Virginia, traveled
westwardly across Alleghany Mountains to Chissel's Lead Mine, on New
River; thence into the Holston Valley, thence over Walden's Ridge and
Powell's Mountain into Powell's Valley.... They then continued down the
valley, leaving Cumberland Mountain a small distance on their right
hand, until they came to Cumberland Gap.... At the foot of this mountain
they fell into an Indian path leading from the Cherokee towns on
Tennessee River to the Shawnee Indian towns on the Ohio, which path they
followed down Yellow Creek to the old ford of Cumberland River....
Thence they went on the path down the river to the Flat Lick, eight
miles; here they left the river, continued on the path, turning more
north, crossing some of the head branches of the Kentucky River over a
poor and hilly country, until they concluded there was no good country
in the West. They then took an easterly course over the worst mountains
and laurel thickets in the world.... They crossed the Laurel or
Cumberland Mountain and fell into the Green brier country, almost
starved to death ... and reached home with life only to pay for all
their trouble and suffering."
Regretting that this opinion of the final value of Walker's journey
cannot be gainsaid, it is yet of interest to follow his footsteps and
learn what were some of the experiences of such early explorers as
these.
On the twenty-sixth they "left the Inhabitans," as Dr. Walker called the
line of civilization, and were at last within the wild land where no
settlers had yet come. On the night of the twenty-ninth the "Dogs were
very uneasie," and the next day, on Reedy Creek, a branch of the South
Fork of the Holston, the tracks of a party of Indians were discovered,
which explained the restlessness of the dogs. It is probably little
realized in this day how valuable dogs were to explorers and immigrants.
They were not only of service in giving warning of the approach of
strangers, but were well-nigh indispensable in securing game and in
searching for lost horses. Dr. Walker's love for dogs is a tradition in
the family, and his care of them on this journey is typical of the
gentleman and the wise frontiersman. At the junction of Reedy Creek and
the Holston--an historic spot in Tennessee--Walker found a gigantic elm
tree, which measured twenty-five feet in circumference at a distance of
three feet from the ground. Pioneers and explorers considered the study
of trees a fine art. By this means they always judged the quality of the
soil, and knew at a glance by the growth that stood on it the character
of any piece of land. The diaries of all that old school of western
adventurers contain frequent mention of trees which were an almost
infallible criterion of the soil beneath. Washington had keen eyes for
trees--as for everything else--as illustrated in the journal of his trip
down the Ohio River in 1770. On the fourth of November he found a
sycamore on the Great Kanawha, in comparison with which this first elm
of Walker's was insignificant. It measured, three feet from the ground,
forty-five feet in circumference, and near by stood another measuring
thirty-one feet around. Upon hearing about this larger tree, some one
remarked that Washington might have told the truth about the cherry tree
but he told a "whopper" about the sycamore. But it was not guess-work,
for the record states clearly that the girth of the larger tree lacked
two inches of being the complete forty-five feet. Trees along the Ohio
grew to an immense size; an old Ohio River pilot affirms that in his
boyhood a burned trunk of a sycamore stood on his father's farm on the
Little Muskingum, into which he has frequently driven a horse, turned it
about, and come out again. General Harmar found on the Ohio a
button-wood tree forty-two feet in circumference, which held forty men
within its trunk.
On the seventh of April Dr. Walker writes: "It snowed most of the day.
In the Evening our dogs caught a large He Bear, which before we could
come up to shoot him had wounded a dog of mine, so that he could not
Travel, and we carried him on Horseback, till he recovered." On the
thirteenth the party reached "Cave Gap," which Walker named Cumberland
Gap in honor of the "bloody Duke," the hero of Culloden. "Just at the
foot of the Hill is a Laurel Thicket.... On the South side is a plain
Indian Road. On the top of the Ridge are Laurel Trees marked with
crosses, others Blazed and several Figures on them.... This Gap may be
seen at a considerable distance, and there is no other, that I know of,
except one about two miles to the North of it, which does not appear to
be so low as the other. The Mountain on the North Side of the Gap is
very Steep and Rocky, but on the South side it is not So. We called it
Steep Ridge."
The party crossed the Cumberland River about four miles below the
present village of Barbourville, Knox County, Kentucky, on the
twenty-third of April. The river was named by Walker at this time. From
this spot Walker, with two companions chosen by lot--Powell and
Chew--went on a tour of exploration alone, leaving the others "to
provide and salt some Bear, build an house, and plant some Peach Stones
and Corn."
Walker and his two companions floundered about the neighboring region
for five days, not getting out of the mountainous country and not
finding any good land. They crossed the Cumberland again, on the third
day out, about twenty miles below the first crossing-place, and then
returned up the river to the main party and found that the work he had
ordered to be done was completed. "The People I had left had built an
House 12 by 8, clear'd and broke up some ground, & planted Corn, and
Peach Stones."
Thus was raised, beside the tumbling Cumberland, on the farm now owned
by George M. Faulkner four miles below Barbourville, Kentucky, the first
house now recorded as built by white men in the fine territory between
the Cumberland Mountains and the Ohio River, now the state of Kentucky.
It was not an "improver's cabin"--a log pen without roof--but a roofed
house, and instituted what the English Loyal Land Company could claim to
be a "settlement" in the territory which they had been granted. This was
completed by the planting of corn and peach trees. The formality of this
"settlement" is evinced by the fact that, two days later, the entire
party moved on for further exploration, never again to return to their
house or to reap their crops. It was twenty years before a house was
erected in Kentucky for the permanent dwelling.
From this on, Dr. Walker's journal is a long story of accidents and
disappointments. One horse became lame, and "another had been bit in the
Nose by a Snake." "I rub'd the wounds with Bear's oil, and gave him a
drench of the same and another of the decoction of Rattle Snake root
some time after." On the same day "Colby Chew and his Horse fell down
the Bank. I Bled and gave him Volatile drops, & he soon recovered." On
the first of May they reached Powell's River. This was named from
Ambrose Powell. During the journey Dr. Walker gave the name of each of
his companions to rivers he discovered; none were given his name, though
a mountain range to the north of Fort Chiswell still bears the name of
Walker's Mountain. On Powell's River the party this day again struck the
Indian path which later became the great highway to Kentucky. Again he
was on the route that would have taken him to the famous meadows below
the foothills of the mountains, and again he left it as he did when he
chose to explore on the south side of Cumberland Mountain, instead of
crossing at Pineville and following the trail northward. He did not
cross Rockcastle River. J. Stoddard Johnson says: "This was the farthest
western point reached by Doctor Walker. He did not cross the main
Rockcastle River, and, therefore, was never on the waters of Salt or
Green rivers, as claimed by some. A day or two's travel to the west or
northwest would have brought him to the fertile lands of Lincoln or
Madison County, his description of which would have left no doubt of his
having passed the watershed between the Rockcastle, the Salt, and the
rivers to the westward."[2]
Shoes formed an important item in the catalogue of necessaries for the
early traveler's outfit on the first traveled ways in America. Already
Walker's party, though they traveled largely by horse, had worn out the
shoes with which they started, and on the eleventh of May under one of
the great cliffs near Rockcastle River they set to work to make
themselves new shoes out of elkskin. "When our Elk's Skin was prepared,"
writes Dr. Walker on the fourteenth, "we had lost every Awl that we
brought out, and I made one with the Shank of an old Fishing hook, the
other People made two of Horse Shoe Nails, and with these we made our
Shoes and Moccosons."
On the twenty-third the party was on the Kentucky River, where Walker
found a sycamore which measured forty feet in circumference--almost, it
will be seen, the size of the tree Washington found on the Great
Kanawha--upon which he marked his initials, "T. W." On the day after, he
found another sycamore thirty feet in circumference. These trees, it
would naturally be inferred, marked the location of fertile soil. On the
twenty-sixth the "Dogs roused a large Buck Elk, which we followed down
to a Creek. He killed Ambrose Powell's Dog in the Chase, and we named
the Run Tumbler's Creek, the Dog being of that Name."
"31st. We crossed 2 Mountains and camped just by a Wolf's Den. They were
very impudent and after they had twice been shot at, they kept howling
about the Camp. It rained till Noon this day."
"June ye 1st. We found the Wolf's Den and caught 4 of the young ones."
It was very common for frontiersmen to invade the dens of wolves without
any opposition on the part of the old wolves. Wolf cubs have often been
pulled away from their mothers, who would only snarl and show their
teeth. Bears, on the other hand, would fight to the death any invader of
their dens. Notions which commonly prevail today, about the dangers in
the primeval forests of America from wild animals, undergo a great
change after a careful reading of pioneer literature.
On the fourth of June "a very black Cloud appearing, we turn'd out our
Horses, got tent Poles up, and were just stretching a Tent, when it
began to rain and hail, and was succeeded by a violent Wind which Blew
down our Tent & a great many Trees about it, several large ones within
30 yds. of the Tent. We all left the place in confusion and ran
different ways for shelter. After the Storm was over, we met at the
Tent, and found all safe."
On the fourteenth the party had gone east as far as the dividing ridge
between the two forks of the Big Sandy; but within a few days the horses
were spent, and the whole party floundered onward afoot. On the
twentieth they reached Flat-top Mountain, Raleigh County, West Virginia.
This day Dr. Walker's horse was bitten by a snake; "... having no
Bear's Oil," he wrote, "I rub'd the place with a piece of fat meat,
which had the desired effect."
Passing the present site of Hinton, West Virginia, the party followed
about the present line of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. They crossed
the Allegheny divide July 8, and Hot Springs the ninth. They found "Six
Invalides there. The Spring Water is very Clear & warmer than new Milk,
and there is a spring of cold Water within 20 feet of the Warm one. I
left one of my Company this day." They reached Augusta Court House
(Staunton, Virginia) on the eleventh, and Castle Hill on the sixteenth,
having been four months and seven days on the journey.
Walker's hard tour amounted to very little for the plain reason that he
never got west of the mountains. He found no good land and his report
was depressing.
It remained for another brave frontiersman to go further and bring back
the welcome news of large areas of splendid land in the Ohio Valley. In
1748 John Hanbury, London merchant; Thomas Lee, President of the
Council of Virginia; and a number of prominent Virginians formed the
Ohio Company, elsewhere mentioned, and received a large grant of land in
the West. The grant was made March 18, 1749: two hundred thousand acres
between the Monongahela and Great Kanawha Rivers, and later three
hundred thousand acres, to be located on the waters of the lower Ohio.
In 1750 this company employed Christopher Gist, a hardy, well-trained
frontiersman who lived on the Yadkin in North Carolina, to explore the
Ohio Valley and make a report upon the land there found. For his arduous
service he was to receive one hundred and fifty pounds sterling "and
such further handsome allowance as his service should deserve." His
instructions read as follows:
"You are to go out as soon as possible to the Westward of the great
Mountains, and carry with you such a Number of Men as You think
necessary, in Order to Search out and discover the Lands upon the river
Ohio & other adjoining Branches of the Mississippi down as low as the
great Falls thereof: You are particularly to observe the Ways & Passes
thro all the Mountains you cross, & take an exact Account of the Soil,
Quality & Product of the Land, and the Wideness and Deepness of the
Rivers, & the several Falls belonging to them, together with the Courses
& Bearings of the Rivers & Mountains as near as you conveniently can:
You are also to observe what Nations of Indians inhabit there, their
Strength and Numbers, who they trade with, & in what Comodities they
deal.
"When you find a large quantity of good, level Land, such as you think
will suit the Company, You are to measure the Breadth of it, in three or
four different Places, & take the Courses of the River & Mountains on
which it binds in Order to judge the Quantity: You are to fix the
Beginning & Bounds in such a Manner that they may be easily found again
by your Description; the nearer in the Land lies the better, provided it
be good & level, but we had rather go quite down the Mississippi than
take mean broken Land. After finding a large Body of good level Land,
you are not to stop but proceed further, as low as the Falls of the
Ohio, that we may be informed of that Navigation; And You are to take an
exact Account of all the large Bodies of good level Land, in the same
Manner as above directed that the Company may the better judge when it
will be most convenient for them to take their Land.
"You are to note all the Bodies of good Land as you go along, tho there
is not a sufficient Quantity for the Company's Grant, but You need not
be so particular in the Mensuration of that, as in the larger Bodies of
Land.
"You are to draw as good a plan as you can of the Country You pass thro:
You are to take an exact and particular Journal of all Your Proceedings,
and make a true Report thereof to the Ohio Company."
Gist was the man for the business in hand. He came from an enterprising
family and was well educated. His father was one of the Commissioners
for laying off the city of Baltimore. "Little is known of his early
life, but the evidences he has left in his journals, his maps, plats of
surveys, and correspondence indicate that he enjoyed the advantages of
an education superior to that of many of his calling in those early
days. His signature and manuscript are characterized by the neatness and
uniformity of a copy plate, while his plats and surveys are models in
their mathematical exactness and precision of drawing. To this evidence
of scholarly order and professional skill he added the hardy qualities
of the pioneer and backwoodsman, capable of enduring the exposure of
long journeys in the most rigorous weather. In him were combined the
varied talents which made him at once an accomplished surveyor, an
energetic farmer who felled the forest and tilled the soil, a skilful
diplomat who understood the Indian character and was influential in
making treaties, a brave soldier, an upright man, trusted by the highest
civil and military authorities with implicit faith."[3]
The earlier portion of Gist's journey, which he began in October, 1750,
is not of importance in the present monograph. He reached the Ohio River
by way of the Juniata and Kiskiminitas Rivers. Crossing the Ohio he
worked his way westward on the Great Trail to the "Crossing Place of the
Muskingum" (Bolivar, Ohio), and from thence he traversed the Indian
trail to the country of the Shawanese and Miamis.
It was not until Tuesday, the twelfth of March, that Gist again crossed
the Ohio, and entered what is now the state of Kentucky. His first day's
experience was typical--in a land so well known for great things and
strong; for on the day after crossing at the Shawanese Shannoah Town, he
found two men who had "Two of the Teeth of a large Beast.... The Rib
Bones of the largest of these Beasts were eleven Feet long, and the
Skull Bone six Feet wide, across the Forehead, & the other Bones in
Proportion; and that there were several Teeth there, some of which he
called Horns, and said they were upwards of five Feet long, and as much
as a Man could well carry."
Gist was now in Kentucky--the land of which thousands were waiting to
hear, the home of the race that was to come and conquer and settle and
hold the West. Of it Gist came to know only a little, but this little
was the beginning of a revelation.
After crossing the Ohio, Gist journeyed over a hundred miles down the
southern bank of the river, and on March eighteenth crossed "the lower
Salt Lick Creek," the Licking River. Reports of Indians at the "Falls"
and "the footsteps of some Indians plain on the Ground" made him desist
from visiting that spot, but he took down descriptions of it. On the
nineteenth he turned southward into the interior. On the twentieth he
ascended Pilot Knob, near Clay City, Powell County, and writes of the
view from that height from which he saw, as John Finley wrote later,
"with pleasure the beautiful level of Kentucky."
With but a glimpse of the good lands of Kentucky, Gist, like Walker
before him, journeyed into the mountainous country to the southeast. For
a month he floundered around in the desolate laurel ridges where Walker
had spent so many distressing days the year before. On Red River Gist
crossed Walker's route and came on homeward between Walker's outward and
homeward courses. From Red River he went through Pound Gap and
eastward, down what is known as Gist's or Guesse's Fork of the Clinch in
Wise County, Virginia, and then upon Bluestone, a tributary of New
River. On the thirteenth of May he crossed Walker's route again at
Inglis Ferry, near Draper's Meadows. On the seventeenth he passed into
North Carolina through Flower or Wood's Gap toward his home on the
Yadkin. He reached home on the eighteenth and found that his family had
removed to Roanoke, thirty-five miles eastward, because of depredations
of the Indians during the winter.
Gist's journey was far more successful than Walker's. He found the fine
fertile valleys of the Muskingum, Scioto, and Miami Rivers north of the
Ohio, and he caught a glimpse of the beautiful meadows of Kentucky. He
singularly made a complete circle about the land between the Monongahela
and Kanawha Rivers, where the Ohio Company's grant of land was made. As
he did not approach it on any side it is probable that he knew that only
rough land lay there. Had it not been for the sudden breaking out of the
old French War, the Ohio Company would undoubtedly have settled on
lands in the Ohio Valley according to Gist's advice. Hostilities on the
frontier soon drove back the farther settlements, and rendered
activities in the land Gist had discovered out of the question, either
on the part of land companies or private individuals.