ch the tories as closely as they did the Indians;
there was a constant succession of murders, thefts, and savage
retaliations. Once a number of tories attempted to surprise and murder
Sevier in his own house; but the plot was revealed by the wife of the
leader, to whom Sevier's wife had shown great kindness in her time of
trouble. In consequence the tories were themselves surprised and their
ringleaders slain. Every man in the country was obliged to bear arms the
whole time, not only because of the Indian warfare, but also on account
of the inveterate hatred and constant collisions between the whigs and
the loyalists. Many dark deeds were done, and though the tories, with
whom the criminal classes were in close alliance, were generally the
first and chief offenders, yet the patriots cannot be held guiltless of
murderous and ferocious reprisals. They often completely failed to
distinguish between the offenders against civil order, and those whose
only crime was an honest, if mistaken, devotion to the cause of the
king.

Land laws

Early in '78 a land office was opened in the Holston settlements, and
the settlers were required to make entries according to the North
Carolina land laws. Hitherto they had lived on their clearings
undisturbed, resting their title upon purchase from the Indians and upon
their own mutual agreements. The old settlers were given the prior right
to the locations, and until the beginning of '79 in which to pay for
them. Each head of a family was allowed to take up six hundred and forty
acres for himself, one hundred for his wife, and one hundred for each of
his children, at the price of forty shillings per hundred acres, while
any additional amount cost at the rate of one hundred shillings, instead
of forty. All of the men of the Holston settlements were at the time in
the service of the State as militia, in the campaign against the
Indians; and when the land office was opened, the money that was due
them sufficed to pay for their claims. They thus had no difficulty in
keeping possession of their lands, much to the disappointment of the
land speculators, many of whom had come out at the opening of the
office. Afterwards large tracts were given as bounty, or in lieu of pay,
to the Revolutionary soldiers. All the struggling colonies used their
wild land as a sort of military chest; it was often the only security of
value in their possession.

The same year that the land office was opened, it w