This restless and nomadic race, says the keenly observant Francis Baily, "delight much to live on the frontiers, where they can enjoy undisturbed, and free from the control of any laws, the blessings which nature has bestowed upon them." [3] Independence of spirit, impatience of restraint, the inquisitive nature, and the nomadic temperament--these are the strains in the American character of the eighteenth century which ultimately blended to create a typical democracy. The rolling of wave after wave of settlement westward across the American continent, with a reversion to primitive conditions along the line of the farthest frontier, and a marked rise in the scale of civilization at each successive stage of settlement, from the western limit to the eastern coast, exemplifies from one aspect the history of the American people during two centuries. [4] This era, constituting the first stage in our national existence, and productive of a buoyant national character shaped in democracy upon a free soil, closed only yesterday with the exhaustion of cultivable free land, the disappearance of the last frontier, and the recent death of "Buffalo Bill". The splendid inauguration of the period, in the region of the Carolinas, Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, during the second half of the eighteenth century, is the theme of this story of the pioneers of the Old Southwest. CONTENTS Introduction I. The Migration of the Peoples 3 II. The Cradle of Westward Expansion 19 III. The Back Country and the Border 32 IV. The Indian War 49 V. In Defense of Civilization 64 VI. Crushing the Cherokees 78 VII. The Land Companies 96 VIII. The Long Hunters in the Twilight Zone 116 IX. Daniel Boone and Wilderness Exploration 130 X. Daniel Boone in Kentucky 144 XI. The Regulators 160 XII. Watauga--Haven of Liberty 175 XIII. Opening the Gateway--Dunmore's War 196 XIV. Richard Henderson and the Transylvania Company 216 XV. Transylvania--A Wilderness Commonwealth 237 XVI. The Repulse of the Red Men 252 XVII. The Colonization of the Cumberland 269 XVIII. King's Mountain 289 XIX. The State of Franklin 306 XX. The Lure of Spain--The Haven of Statehood 327 List of Notes 351 Bibliographical Notes 363 Index 371 THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST CHAPTER I. The Migration of the Peoples