led off
in the immediate neighborhood of the town at the Falls, and Clark
undertook to supply the inhabitants with meat, as a commercial
speculation. Accordingly he made a contract with John Saunders, the
hunter who had guided him on his march to the Illinois towns; the latter
had presumably forgiven his chief for having threatened him with death
when he lost the way. Clark was to furnish Saunders with three men, a
packhorse, salt, and ammunition; while Saunders agreed to do his best
and be "assiduously industrious" in hunting. Buffalo beef, bear's meat,
deer hams, and bear oil were the commodities most sought after. The meat
was to be properly cured and salted in camp, and sent from time to time
to the Falls, where Clark was to dispose of it in market, a third of the
price going to Saunders. The hunting season was to last from November
1st to January 15th. [Footnote: Original agreement in Durrett MSS.;
bound volume of "Papers Relating to G. R. Clark." This particular
agreement is for 1784; but apparently he entered into several such in
different years.]

Thus the settlers could no longer always kill their own game; and there
were churches, schools, mills, stores, race tracks, and markets in
Kentucky.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE HOLSTON SETTLEMENTS, 1777-1779.

Organization of the Holston Settlements.

The history of Kentucky and the Northwest has now been traced from the
date of the Cherokee war to the close of the Revolution. Those portions
of the southwestern lands that were afterwards made into the State of
Tennessee, had meanwhile developed with almost equal rapidity. Both
Kentucky and Tennessee grew into existence and power at the same time,
and were originally settled and built up by precisely the same class of
American backwoodsmen. But there were one or two points of difference in
their methods of growth. Kentucky sprang up afar off in the wilderness,
and as a separate entity from the beginning. The present State has grown
steadily from a single centre, which was the part first settled; and the
popular name of the commonwealth has always been Kentucky. Tennessee, on
the other hand, did not assume her present name until a quarter of a
century after the first exploration and settlement had begun; and the
State grew from two entirely distinct centres. The first settlements,
known as the Watauga, or afterwards more generally as the Holston,
settlements, grew up while keeping close touch with the Virginians,