38

EARLY DESCRIPTION OF THE WEST. [CHAP. II.

Southern, Western, and Northern tribes resorted to hunt. By his new captors, Salling was carried to Kaskaskia; afterwards sold to a party of Spaniards on the lower Mississippi; subsequently returned to Kaskaskia; and finally, after six years' captivity, was ransomed by the Governor of Canada, and transferred to the Dutch authorities at Manhattan. Thence he succeeded in making his way to Williamsburg, in Virginia.

His captivity became the subject of general conversation. The accounts which he gave of the extent and resources of the great West, embracing almost every variety of soil, climate, and production, and extending into remote parts, where human foot had probably never penetrated; where majestic rivers, issuing from unknown sources in the far North, rolled their volumed waters in solemn grandeur to the South; where vegetation was most luxuriant, and game of every description inexhaustible,—were enough, as they proved, to excite a deep interest in all who heard his glowing accounts.

Shortly before the return of Salling, a considerable addition had been made to the population of Virginia by recent arrivals at Jamestown. Of this number were John Lewis and John Mackey, both of whom, desirous of securing suitable locations, were much interested in the statements of Salling. Pleased with his description of the Valley, they determined to visit it, first having induced Salling to accompany them as guide. The three penetrated the fastness of the mountain, descended into the luxuriant valley, and pleased with the physical appearance of the country, determined to fix there their abode. Lewis selected the place of his future residence on a stream still bearing his name; Mackey chose a spot on the Shenandoah; and Salling, having concluded to remain, made choice of a beautiful tract of land on the waters of James river, and built his cabin.

Early in the Spring of 1736, an agent for Lord Fairfax, who held, under a patent from James II., all that part of Virginia known as the Northern Neck, came over, and after

1736.]

BURDEN'S GRANT.

39

remaining a short time at Williamsburg, accepted an invitation to visit John Lewis. During his sojourn at the house of Lewis, he captured, while hunting with Samuel and Andrew, (the latter afterwards the distinguished General,) sons of the former, a fine buffalo calf. Returning shortly after to Williamsburg, he presented the mountain pet to Governor Gooch, which so much gratified that functionary, that he forthwith directed a warrant to be made out, authorizing Burden (the agent) to locate 500,000 acres of land on the Shenandoah, or James rivers, west of the Blue Ridge. The grant required that Burden should settle one hundred families upon said land within ten years. The grantee lost no time in returning to England, and in the following year came out with the required number, embracing among his little colony many who became the founders of some of the most distinguished families in our state. Of these were the McDowells, Crawfords, McClures, Alexanders, Wallaces, Pattons, Prestons, Moores, Matthews, &c.1

The spirit of adventure now slumbered for a season, and but few additional improvements were made beyond the limits of the Burden grant, until 1751, at which time an influx of population took place; and then it was, the prophetic line of Bishop Berkeley began to be realized,—

"Westward, the star of empire takes its way."

Many of the new settlers in the Valley had come in with Governor Dinwiddie, and were men of undoubted worth, and

1 Among those who came out at this time, says Withers, was an Irish girl, named Polly Mulhollin. On her arrival, she was hired to James Bell, to pay her passage. At the expiration of her term of service, she clothed herself in man's apparel, and commenced making improvements in Burden's tract. When Burden the younger, made out the deeds, he was astonished to find no less than thirty improvements in the name of Mulhollin, (one hundred acres of land to each,) and on investigating the matter her sex was discovered, to the great amusement of other claimants. She resumed her Christian name and proper attire, and many of her respectable descendants still reside within the limits of "Burden's grant."

40

VIRGINIA SETTLERS-A CONTRAST.

[CHAP. II. great probity of character. They embraced the Stuarts,1 Paulls, McDowells, etc., names distinguished in the annals of Virginia. Most of those who thus forsook the pleasures, refinements and enjoyments of comfortable homes in the old world, to find a dwelling-place in the untrodden wilds of the new, were Scotch Covenanters; those stern, inflexible sectarians, who preferred religious freedom abroad, to ease and oppression at home. How different was this class of people from the Spanish adventurers who subdued Mexico and South America; those bloody conquerors, whose remorseless cruelty to the simple-minded natives, cast so much obloquy upon Spain, and darken her history with some of the foulest stains that ever disgraced a civilized nation! Who can wonder, that the smiles of Heaven attended the one, while the avenging hand of an outraged God smote the other!

1 Ancestors of Hon. Alexander H. H. Stuart, present Secretary of the Department of Interior.

1749.]

GREENBRIAR COUNTRY.

41

CHAPTER III.

FIRST SETTLERS WEST OF THE ALLEGHANIES.

PREVIOUS to 1749, Western Virginia was untrodden by the foot of white man, if we except an occasional trader, who may have ventured upon the heads of some of the tributary streams which take their rise in the Alleghany Mountains.

Some time during this year, a man laboring under aberration of intellect, wandered from Frederick county into the wilderness of the Greenbriar country. Although a supposed lunatic, there seemed yet enough of "method in his madness," to tell his friends, on returning home, that he had discovered rivers flowing in a contrary direction to those of the Valley. His description of the country soon induced some to visit it, among whom were Jacob Martin and Stephen Sewell. These men settled on the Greenbriar river, where they built a cabin; but soon disagreeing about some trivial matter, Sewell left his companion, and took up his abode in a hollow tree. In the Spring of 1751, when Andrew Lewis visited the country as agent for the Greenbriar Company, he discovered the lonely pioneers in the deep seclusion of their mountain home. Upon inquiry as to the cause of their estrangement, the gallant Lewis soon reconciled matters, but only for a brief time, as Sewell shortly afterwards removed farther into the wilderness, where he fell a victim to Indian barbarity.

Further attempts to colonize the Greenbriar country were not made for many years. John Lewis, and his son Andrew, proceeded with their explorations, until interrupted by the

42

CORN RIGHTS.

[CHAP. III. breaking out of the French war. In 1762, a few families began to penetrate the region on Muddy creek, and the Big Levels; but a royal proclamation of the next year, commanded that all who had settled, or held improvements on the Western waters, should at once remove, as the claim of the Indians had not been extinguished; and it was most important to preserve their friendship, in order to prevent them coalescing with the French. Those families already in the enjoyment of their improvements, refused to comply with the King's mandate, and most of them were cut off by the savages in 1763-4. From the date of these occurrences, up to 1769, the Greenbriar country contained not a single white settlement. In that year, Captain John Stuart, with a number of others, made improvements, which they continued to hold despite every effort of the Indians to dispossess them. Seven years later, (1776) settlements were made on New river. The lands taken up in this region, being held by what were known as "corn rights"-whoever planted an acre of corn, acquired a title to one hundred acres of land.

1 This proclamation contained among its provisions, the following, in reference to the settlements in Western Virginia.

"And we do further strictly enjoin and require all persons whatsoever, who have either willfully or inadvertently seated themselves upon any lands within the countries above described, or upon any other lands, which, not having been ceded to or purchased by us, are still reserved to the said Indians as aforesaid, forthwith to remove themselves from such settlements." &c. (See Land Laws, p. 86.)

* Washington, in his Journal, speaks of having met at the house of Mr. Frazier, mouth of Turtle creek, January 1st, 1754, twenty warriors, who had started for the South to war; "but coming to a place on the head of the Great Kanawha, where they found seven people killed and scalped, they turned about and ran back, for fear the inhabitants should rise and take them as the authors of the murder."

3

• Withers, 48.

4 Ibid.