an 20,000, and it had grown steadily each year. Yet
Butler quotes Floyd as saying that in the spring of 1780 three hundred
large family boats arrived at the Falls, which would mean an increase of
perhaps four or five thousand people; and in the McAfee MSS. occurs the
statement that in 1779 and 1780 nearly 20,000 people came to Kentucky.
Both of these statements are probably mere estimates, greatly
exaggerated; any westerner of to-day can instance similar reports of
movements to western localities, which under a strict census dwindled
wofully.] Thus there were ever two tides--the larger setting towards
Kentucky, the lesser towards the old States; so that the two streams
passed each other on the Wilderness road--for the people who came down
the Ohio could not return against the current. Very many who did not
return nevertheless found they were not fitted to grapple with the stern
trials of existence on the border. Some of these succumbed outright;
others unfortunately survived, and clung with feeble and vicious
helplessness to the skirts of their manlier fellows; and from them have
descended the shiftless squatters, the "mean whites," the listless,
uncouth men who half-till their patches of poor soil, and still cumber
the earth in out-of-the-way nooks from the crannies of the Alleghanies
to the canyons of the southern Rocky Mountains.

In April, before this great rush of immigration began, but when it was
clearly foreseen that it would immediately take place, the county court
of Kentucky issued a proclamation to the new settlers, recommending them
to keep as united and compact as possible, settling in "stations" or
forted towns; and likewise advising each settlement to choose three or
more trustees to take charge of their public affairs. [Footnote: Durrett
MSS., in the bound volume of "Papers relating to Louisville and
Kentucky." On May 1, 1780, the people living at the Falls, having
established a town, forty-six of them signed a petition to have their
title made good against Conolly. On Feb. 7, 1781, John Todd and five
other trustees of Louisville met; they passed resolutions to erect a
grist mill and make surveys.] Their recommendations and advice were
generally followed.

Bowman Attacks Chillicothe.

During 1779 the Indian war dragged on much as usual. The only expedition
of importance was that undertaken in May by one hundred and sixty
Kentuckians, commanded by the county lieutenant, John Bowman, against
the In