Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1895-02-13

OF procuring game for his food. Fol
fourteen days he wandered without
eating, till he was so much reduced
and weakened, that he began seriously
to despair of ever returning to his home
again. But there is a providence which
rules over the destinies of men, and
preserves them to run the race, which
Is appointed for them. Unpromising
as were the expectations of James Rob-
ertson at that time, having neither
learning, experience, property nor
friends, TO give countenance, and with
spirits dropping under the pressure of
penury and low estate, yet the God
of nature had given him an elevated
soul, and plant, in it the seeds of vir.
tue, which made him in the midst of
discouraging circumstances, look. for
ward to better times. He was acci-
IDENTIFY met by two hunters, on whom
he could not without much and press
ing solicitation, prevail so far as to be
permitted to ride on one of their horses.
They gave him food, of which he ate
sparingly for several days, till both his
strength and spirits returned TO him.
This is the man, who, in the sequel of
this history, will figure so deservedly,
as the greatest benefactor of the first
settlers of the country. He reached
home in safety, and soon afterwards
returned to Watauga, with a few others
and there settled. Boone had been
there at an earlier period, and was then
there also. Robertson and sixteen
others in 1772, entered into covenant
with each other, to purchase lands of
the Indians, if they could do so upon
reasonable terms. They did not COM
plete the covenant amongst themselves,
which Boone communicated to Hen
derson, and it eventuated in the forma.
tton of company by Henderson, who
actually made purchase in 1774, and
1775.
Some transient person, who had come
to Watauga previously to the arrival
OF Robertson, intending to become resi-
dents there, were men of bad charac-
ter; others again, were men of indus
trious habits, and of honest pursuits,
who sought for good lands, to reward
their tolls in the tillage of the earth.
Soon afterwards, some arrived who had
fled from oppression, in the character
of regulators; some came thither who
had withdrawn from the demands of
public justice, in their own country,
and sought the most remote and inac-
ecssible frontiers that they could find.
Afraid of their own government, and
of the rewards due to their demerits:
and unwilling to trust themselves
amongst the savages for fear of the
punishment for offences like those
which had driven them from the bosom
of civilization; they herded together in
the wilderness, and involuntarily rem
dered to their country a beneficial SER
vice, which in no other way could have
been extracted from them. They form
ed barrier on the frontiers, between
the savages and the industrious cult
vators of the soil. AS tociety gathered
around them in their situation. thew
again enquired for new frontiers, and
established new station, to be resorted
10 by feeble population, but Just com.
mencing. A part of them, unable to
abandon the practice to which long
usage had naturalized them, retreated
into inaccessible parts of the mountains.
and there settled for some time, in the
enjoyment of their darling occupation.
When the inhabitants first settled that
part OF East Tennessee, now composing
the counties of Sullivan and Hawkins,
on the north side of Holston river, they
agreed among themselves to adhere to
the Government of Virginia, as well for
protection against the Indians, as
against the numerous bands of horse
thieves who infested the frontiers at
that early period. 1t was known, how
ever, as early as the year III, from an
experiment made by the late Colonel
Anthony Bledsoe, who was a practical
surveyor, and extended the boundary
line as far west as Beaver Creek, nearly
on the same parallel as it was after.
wards run by commissioners mutually
appointed by both States, that they
would fall into the State of North Car
olina, upon the extension of the bound.
ary line. Those who settled on the
south side of the Uolston, adhered to
North CaroliNa, and lived without law
or protection, except by rules of their
own adoption.
Continued next week.
Tennessee Legislature.