ld my farm on the Yadkin, and what goods we could not
carry with us; and on the 25th day of September, 1773, bade a farewell
to our friends, and proceeded on our journey to Kentucky, in company with
five families more, and forty men that joined us in Powel's Valley, which
is one hundred and fifty miles from the now settled parts of Kentucky.
This promising beginning was soon overcast with a cloud of adversity;
for, upon the 10th day of October, the rear of our company was attacked
by a number of Indians, who killed six, and wounded one man. Of these, my
eldest son was one that fell in the action. Though we defended ourselves,
and repulsed the enemy, yet this unhappy affair scattered out cattle,
brought us into extreme difficulty, and so discouraged the whole company,
that we retreated forty miles, to the settlement on Clinch river. We had
passed over two mountains, viz., Powel's and Walden's, and were
approaching Cumberland mountain when this adverse fortune overtook us.
These mountains are in the wilderness, as we pass from the old
settlements in Virginia to Kentucky, are ranged in a southwest and
northeast direction, are of a great length and breadth, and not far
distant from each other. Over these, nature hath formed passes that are
less difficult than might be expected, from a view of such huge piles.
The aspect of these cliffs is so wild and horrid, that it is impossible
to behold them without terror. The spectator is apt to imagine that
nature had formerly suffered some violent convulsion, and that these are
the dismembered remains of the dreadful shock: the ruins, not of
Persepolis or Palmyra, but of the world!

I remained with my family on Clinch until the 6th of June, 1774, when I
and one Michael Stoner were solicited by Governor Dunmore of Virginia to
go to the falls of the Ohio, to conduct into the settlement a number of
surveyors that had been sent thither by him some months before; this
country having about this time drawn the attention of many adventurers.
We immediately complied with the Governor's request, and conducted in the
surveyors--completing a tour of eight hundred miles, through many
difficulties, in sixty-two days.

Soon after I returned home, I was ordered to take the command of three
garrisons during the campaign which Governor Dunmore carried on against
the Shawanese Indians; after the conclusion of which, the militia was
discharged from each garrison, and I, being relieved from my post, was