t that
that commonwealth should refuse to recognize the colonists as within its
jurisdiction and under its protection, he proposed to employ the lands
of the country as a fund to obtain settlers and establish an independent
State. The election had, however, gone too far to change its object when
Clark arrived at Harrodstown, and the gentlemen elected, although aware
that the choice could give them no seat in the legislature, proceeded to
Williamsburg, at that time the seat of government. After suffering the
most severe privations in their journey through the wilderness, the
delegates found, on their arrival in Virginia, that the Legislature had
adjourned, whereupon Jones directed his steps to the settlements on the
Holston, and left Clark to attend to the Kentucky mission alone.

He immediately waited on Governor Henry, then lying sick at his
residence in Hanover County, to whom he stated the objects of his
journey. These meeting the approbation of the governor, he gave Clark a
letter to the Executive Council of the State. "With this letter in his
hand he appeared before the council, and after acquainting them fully
with the condition and circumstances of the colony, he made application
for five hundred-weight of gunpowder for the defense of the various
stations. But with every disposition to assist and promote the growth of
these remote and infant settlements, the council felt itself restrained
by the uncertain and indefinite state of the relations existing between
the colonists and the state of Virginia, from complying fully with his
demand. The Kentuckians had not yet been recognized by the Legislature
as citizens, and the proprietary claimants, Henderson & Co., were at
this time exerting themselves to obtain from Virginia, a relinquishment
of her jurisdiction over the new territory. The council, therefore,
could only afford to _lend_ the gunpowder to the colonists as
_friends_, not _give_ it to them as _fellow-citizens_."[32]

At the same time, they required Clark to be personally responsible for
its value, in the event the Legislature should refuse to recognize the
Kentuckians as citizens, and in the mean time to defray the expense of
its conveyance to Kentucky. Upon these terms he did not feel at liberty
to accept the proffered assistance. He represented to the Council, that
the emissaries of the British were employing every means to engage the
Indians in the war; that the people in the remote and exposed Stations