, resolved, in conjunction with John Salling a weaver also
from Williamsburg, to prosecute an examination of the country, beyond
the limits which had hitherto bounded the exploratory excursions of
other adventurers. With this view, they travelled up the valley of the
Shenandoah, and crossing James river and some of its branches,
proceeded as far as the Roanoke, when Salling was taken captive by a
party of Cherokees. Morlin was fortunate enough to elude their
pursuit, and effect a safe retreat to Winchester.

Upon the return of the party by whom Salling had been captivated, he
was taken to Tennessee where he remained for some years. When on a
hunting expedition to the Salt licks of Kentucky, in company with some
Cherokees to kill buffalo, they were surprised by a party of Illinois
Indians, with whom the Cherokees were then at war, and by them Salling
was again taken prisoner. He was then carried to Kaskaskia, when he
was adopted into the family of a squaw whose son had been killed in
the wars.

While with this nation of Indians, Salling frequently accompanied
parties of them on hunting excursions, a considerable distance to the
south. On several occasions he went with them below the mouth of the
Arkansas, and once to the Gulph of Mexico. In one of those expeditions
they met with a party of Spaniards, exploring the country and who
needed an interpreter. For this purpose they purchased Salling of his
Indian mother for three strands of beads and a Calumet. Salling
attended them to the post at Crevecoeur; from which [43] place he was
conveyed to fort Frontignac: here he was redeemed by the Governor of
Canada, who sent him to the Dutch settlement in New York, whence he
made his way home after an absence of six years.[4]

The emigration from Great Britain to Virginia was then very great, and
at the period of Salling's return to Williamsburg, there were then
many adventurers, who had but recently arrived from Scotland and the
north of England. Among these adventurers were John Lewis[5] and John
Mackey. Salling's return excited a considerable and very general
interest, and drew around him many, particularly of those who had but
lately come to America, and to whom the narrative of one, who had been
nearly six years a captive among the Indians, was highly gratifying.
Lewis and Mackey listened attentively to the description given of the
country in the valley, and pleased with its beauty and fertility as
represented by Salling, t