Omaha daily bee., 1906-06-03

country Itself It would be wise to infer
that If they got to the interior back of the
mountains the shadows of which they may
nave seen they would be safe and having
once started there would be no going back,
because going back would be going to GER
tain death. There would be nothing to do
out pitch onward forever on, because no
matter how far they might go they might
sun encounter Indians. 1t would be rea-
sonaole for them to expect that somewhere
they would reach the end of the Indian
country.
In Many Battles.
| Unhappily there was no end, for the an
cestors Of the Cherokees were all over the
carolina country; six nations were south to
the Gulf the mountain Cherokees claimed
the country as theirs beyond the Cumber-
land Mountains, and the place that is now
Kentucky was hunting ground of all the
Southern Indians and of the Northwest
tribes about the Ohio River
| As doubts here expressed that Iawson's
discovery Of white blood in the Hatteraa
Indians was the white blood of the Roam
/ oke colony rather than the white blood
! OF the Adventures of the beginning OF the
seventeenth century, so by reflection the
suggestion may be discarded that the vic
Tins of the massacre Of Bloody Creek
Wolfe county, KY, may have been the
colony from Roanoke Island In favor Of
the suggestion that the unfortunate people
were a party of much later date from the
colonies Of North Carolina or Virginia
Little fragments of history aid the de-
cislon. In 1867 the country beyond the
ICumberlands was to the people of Vir-
/ gina as doubtful and obscure as America
| itself to the people of Europe before the
voyage of Columbus. Whether in
habted by men or beasts or both or neither
they knew not. II inhabited by men they
were supposed to be Indians, for such al
g..r st..eg aNaA q
been a powerful reason for not exploring
the regions west Of the great mountains
which concealed Kentucky from her side.
The country was known only on
the English maps as filling up certain de-
grees of latitude and longitude. Mar
shall, History of Kentucky.
John Finlay and few wandering white
men, it is learned, entered this country
from the British colony of North Carolina
in the year 1867. Long before this time.
according TO the physical evidence and ira
dition of Bloody Creek the heaps OF
white mems bones were there.
'Finlay's account of what he had seen
raised no enthusiasm for immediate ad-
ventures for the painless wilderness and
dark forests and mountains overshadoW-
| ing the promised lands
| II was two years later that Daniel Boone
entered the country and began the max
ing of his thrilling personal history, which
is also the history Of the early settlements
OF Kentucky, but not of its mountain
Businesses. II took leaders OF men 70
organize and lead parties into the Wllaer.
ness in those days, and took the Dest
woodsman OF the day. II IS Impossible 20
believe that any party of men straNeu -,
I there from the colonies or virginia ~
North Carolina, or that any party OI me- NJ
could have departed for that supposedly
Iabyssmal country without note haElhs
lbeen taken Of their departure ana their
ifaiIure 70 return The fact Is that state
lraDers ana local historians have made
Iclosa. tabs on these expeditions. IhelF go
Iings and comings, successes ana iahure'
were Of record. -. 40, ,.-.--,,
oe tba recently discovered region OF Ken
trIclv reached Virginia. Then party OF
Sorty stout hunters led by Colonel James
Knox reached Kentucky, only nine or
them entering the unknown land, the
others having been killed by the way or
having turned back before they entered
the country, overcome by fatigue or over
whelmed by the increasing dangers, The
records of this party were kept The par
Nv that fell on Bloody Creek had turned
10 whltened bones by this time.
The first surveying parties Of the country
OF the Ohio, sent IN 10 survey the boun-
dairy lines of the British ground, did not
get in there until 1773 In 1915. various
small parties We're passing into Kentucky
and returning home to Virginia. Eight or
ten years later II was not a very uncOm-
mon thing for an intrepid traveller 70 make
his way back to Virginia by way OF the
Wilderness which meant by way Of the
mountains and their black forests.
All the parties and all the travellers, be
ginning with Boone, invariably entered
the country Of the Cumberland through
Cumberland Gap. which Is nearly 100 miles
south Of Bloody Creek. II was the natural
course from the east where the bottoms
or the ridges followed, ana il avoided
crossing and recrossing Of the heights
which a bearing to the north would have
m.osed.
Colonists froEs Roanoke Island would
have made directly as possible for the
mountain elevations and held 20 them in
the hone OF losing the sayages and them
selves IN the land beyond.