special arrangement, Carter's Valley in this tract went
to Carter and Lucas; two days later, for two thousand pounds,
Charles Robertson on behalf of the Watauga Association purchased
a large tract in the valleys of the Holston, Watauga, and New
Rivers; and eight days later Jacob Brown purchased two large
areas, including the Nolichucky Valley. This historic treaty,
which heralds the opening of the West, was conducted with
absolute justice and fairness by Judge Henderson and his
associates. No liquor was permitted at the treaty ground; and
Thomas Price, the ablest of the Cherokee traders, deposed that
"he at that time understood the Cherokee language, so as to
comprehend everything which was said and to know that what was
observed on either side was fairly and truly translated; that the
Cherokees perfectly understood, what Lands were the subject of
the Treaty...." The amount paid by the Transylvania Company
for the imperial domain was ten thousand pounds sterling, in
money and in goods.

Although Daniel Boone doubtless assisted in the proceedings prior
to the negotiation of the treaty, his name nowhere appears in the
voluminous records of the conference. Indeed, he was not then
present; for a fortnight before the conclusion of the treaty he
was commissioned by Judge Henderson to form a party of competent
woodmen to blaze a passage through the wilderness. On March 10th
this party of thirty ax-men, under the leadership of Boone,
started from the rendezvous, the Long Island of Holston, to
engage in the arduous labor of cutting out the Transylvania
Trail.

Henderson, the empire-builder, now faced with courage and
resolution the hazardous task of occupying the purchased
territory and establishing an independent government. No mere
financial promoter of a vast speculative enterprise, he was one
of the heroic figures of the Old Southwest; and it was his
dauntless courage, his unwavering resolve to go forward in the
face of all dangers, which carried through the armed "trek" to a
successful conclusion. At Martin's Station, where Henderson and
his party tarried to build a house in which to store their
wagons, as the road could be cleared no further, they were joined
by another party, of five adventurers from Prince William County,
Virginia." In Henderson's party were some forty men and boys,
with forty packhorses and a small amount of powder, lead, salt,
and garden-seeds. The warning freely given by Joseph Martin of
the per