xt7rjd4pkn8j https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7rjd4pkn8j/data/mets.xml Alvord, Clarence Walworth, 1868-1928. 1912  books b929173al892009 English The Arthur H. Clark Co. : Cleveland, Ohio Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Southern States --Description and travel. Ohio River Valley --Description and travel. Virginia --Description and travel. Allegheny Mountains. The first explorations of the trans-Allegheny region by the Virginians. 1650-1674 text The first explorations of the trans-Allegheny region by the Virginians. 1650-1674 1912 2009 true xt7rjd4pkn8j section xt7rjd4pkn8j 
    
    
    
    
    
    
   The First Explorations of the Trans-Allegheny Region by the Virginians 
    
    
   HfBfflBSHffiB; 
   Kplorations of ti *gheny Region Virginians ;o~i674 
    
   The First Explorations of the Trans-Allegheny Region by the Virginians 1650-1674

By

Clarence Walworth Alvord

and

Lee Bidgood

The Arthur H. Clark Company Cleveland : 191 2 
    
   Dedicated to

Frederick Jackson Turner 
    
   Contents

Preface    .        .        .        .        .        . 13

The Discovery of the Ohio Waters    . .     *3

I     Encouragement from the Assembly       . . 99

Act of the Assembly, March, 1642/3 Order of the Assembly, November, 1652 Order of the Assembly, July, 1653 Order of the Assembly [1658?] Order of the Assembly, March, 1659/60

II The Discovery of New Brittaine . .         . 105

III The Discoveries of John Lederer . .         . 131

IV Governor Berkeley as a promoter of explora-

tion         .         .         .         . . -173

Letter of Sir William Berkeley to Lord Arlington,

May 27, 1669 Letter of Thomas Ludwell to Lord Arlington, June

27, 1670

Letter of Sir William Berkeley to the Committee for Trade and Plantations, January 22, 1671/2

V The expedition of Batts and Fallam     . .181

John Clayton's transcript of the Journal of Robert Fallam

Extract from a letter of John Clayton to the Royal Society

Remarks on the Journal of Batts and Fallam

VI The journeys of Needham and Arthur . . 207

Memorandum by John Locke

Letter of Abraham Wood to John Richards, August 22, 1674

VII Coxe's account of the activities of the English

in the Mississippi Valley in the seventeenth century    ...... 229

Bibliography       ...... 251

Index       ....... 259 
    
   Illustrations

Map showing the explorations of Lederer, 1670; Batts and Fallam, 1671; Needham and Arthur, 1673; Arthur, 1673-1674       . . . Frontispiece

Map showing the explorations of Bland and Wood,

1650; Lederer, 1669, 1670      . .        facing page 64

Facsimile of the original title-page of the Discovery of New Brittaine .... 107

Facsimile of the original title-page of the Discoveries of John Lederer .... 133

Facsimile of John Lederer's map       . . . 139

Facsimile of the signature of Abraham Wood . 227 
    
   Preface

After the brilliant researches of Francis Parkman and Justin Winsor, it is remarkable that a new chapter in the history of the explorations of North America has remained so long unwritten; yet the story of the discovery of the Trans-Allegheny region by the Virginians is here first told in its entirety. Since the success of these early enterprises has been doubted and frequently denied by our best historians, the attempt to piece together the story from the scattered sources and to determine its truth needs no excuse. For the same reason, it is desirable that all the sources, whether previously printed or not, be published in order that others may test for themselves the conclusions. If the memory of these hardy English explorers be revived and given a place by the side of their better known but not more daring French contemporaries, Mr. Bidgood and myself will feel rewarded for our pains. As I read again the manuscript before sending it to the press, I cannot but feel that a great injustice has been done these Virginians by history. Although the pen of a Francis Parkman could hardly raise them to the rank of Joliet, Marquette, and La Salle, for these latter opened to the knowledge of mankind a continent, still the names of Wood, Batts, Fallam, and Needham should surely be as well known as those of the many lesser lights that surrounded these greater French explorers. 
   14 Preface

At the request of the publishers, the following expansion of abbreviations has been adopted in the reprinting of the manuscript originals: Majestie; Lordship, and, which, with; and occasionally others have been expanded. In the case of the letter "u" used for "v" and of "yt" for "that," the usual practice of making the alterations has been followed. "Ye" used for "the" has been retained in some documents.

For assistance in the preparation of this volume our thanks are due first to Miss Agnes Laut who kindly loaned us her manuscript and notes. We wish to make acknowledgments to Dr. J. Franklin Jameson, Dr. Solon J. Buck, Mr. J ames Mooney, Mr. Earl G. Swem, and Professor Frederick J. Turner for valuable assistance and suggestions; and also to Miss Margaret L. Kingsbury for cooperation on the bibliography. Clarence W. Alvord. University of Illinois. 
   The Discovery of the Ohio Waters 
    
   The Discovery of the Ohio Waters

The Indies are discovered and vast treasures brought from thence every day. Let us, therefore, bend our endeavors thitherwards, and if the Spaniards or Portuguese suffer us not to join with them, there will be yet region enough for all to enjoy. - Lord Herbert.

On the fourteenth of June, in the year 1671, there was gathered on a hill overlooking the rapids at that picturesque centre of the Great Lake system of North America, Sault Ste. Marie, a crowd of Indians, inhabitants of the shores of these inland seas. To this spot there had come in canoes representatives of the Potawatomi, the Sauk, the Winnebago, the Cree, the Ottawa and their neighbors, to the number of fourteen tribes to listen to the message of their "great father" from across the water. This message had been brought to them by Daumont de Saint-Lusson, who, arrayed in all the gorgeous coloring of silk and velvet, such as might be seen in the court of Louis XIV, was the centre of a little group of Frenchmen, dressed like 'himself in colors to impress the savage mind or else in the raiment of the Jesuit fathers, no less impressive if more somber. With the accompaniment of religious ceremony and amidst the silence of men and nature, a huge cross of wood was reared and planted in the ground. The Frenchmen, with heads bared to the breeze, sang the Vexilla Regis. Beside the cross was then raised a cedar post carrying a metal 
   r8

Trans-Allegheny Region

plate engraven with the royal arms, and the Europeans broke out again in the chant of the Exaudiat. After this, one of the Jesuits lifted up his voice in prayer to Heaven that God might bless this enterprise of the "most Christian monarch."

Advancing with drawn sword in one hand and in the other a clod of earth, Saint-Lusson read in a loud voice the following proclamation to the nations of the world :

In the name of the Most High, Mighty, and Redoubted Monarch, Louis, Fourteenth of that name, Most Christian King of France and of Navarre, I take possession of this place, Sainte Marie du Saut, as also of Lakes Huron and Superior, the Island of Manitoulin, and all countries, rivers, lakes, and streams contiguous and adjacent there unto, both those which have been discovered and those which may be discovered hereafter, in all their length and breadth, bounded on the one side by the seas of the North and of the West, and on the other by the South Sea: declaring to the nations thereof that from this time forth they are vassals of his Majesty, bound to obey his laws and follow his customs; promising them on his part all succor and protection against the incursions and invasions of their enemies; declaring to all potentates, princes, sovereigns, states, and republics, to them and to their subjects, that they cannot and are not to seize or settle upon any parts of the aforesaid countries, save only under the good pleasure of His Most Christian Majesty, and of him who will govern in his behalf; and this on pain of incurring his resentment and the efforts of his arms. Vive Le Roi.1

With such impressive ceremonies and presumptuous language was inaugurated the period of active discovery and occupation of the great American inland valley by the French.

1Parkman, Francis.   La Salle and the discovery of the Great West, 51. 
   The Discovery of the Ohio Waters 19

Three months after Daumont de Saint-Lusson proclaimed the dominion of the grand monarque over land, lakes, and rivers of the West, three Englishmen of the colony of Virginia crossed the Appalachian divide and pitched camp by the side of a stream whose waters, after joining the Ohio flowed to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. Footsore and weary after the hard journey over the mountains where they had experienced the perils of cold and hunger, with their homely clothing torn to shreds by the brambles, there was no possibility of equaling the grand ceremony which, a few weeks before, had been performed far to the north on the banks of the lakes, nor has such display been characteristic of the English advance westward. In the simplicity of their actions these first British Americans in the western valley foreshadowed the great migrations of the future. First of all, as good and loyal subjects, they cried out: "Long live Charles the Second, by the grace of God King of England, Scotland, France, Ireland and Virginia and of all the Territories thereunto belonging." They then proceeded to set their marks upon their discovery: four trees were barked; on one was branded the royal insignia; on two others the initials of Governor Berkeley and of the man who had sent them forth, Abraham Wood; and on the fourth, those of the two leaders of the party, Thomas Batts and Robert Fallam.2

Thus almost at the same moment, the two great rivals, France and England, set up their claims to the immense interior valley. The struggle for its mastery, perhaps the most portentous in the annals of history,

2 See pages 191-192. 
   20

Trans-Allegheny Region

which was to last almost a century, was inaugurated. The subject of this volume is the history of the first act played by men of English speech in this century long drama. It is one of the ironies of history that an event which redounds so much to the credit of Englishmen, and substantiates so completely the claims of the mother country to that particular territory for which she made war on her rival at such a cost of blood and money, is practically unknown and has even been frequently denied by historians. The names of Frontenac, Joliet, Marquette, and La Salle are familiar to every school-boy, while those of their English competitors in exploration, who were in every respect their equals in daring and enterprise, have remained till this day in obscurity, almost in oblivion.

The brilliant pen of Francis Parkman, which has made the name of La Salle a household word, wherever is found the love of adventure and of history, wrote:

It has been affirmed that one Colonel Wood, of Virginia, reached a branch of the Mississippi as early as the year 1654, and that about 1670 a certain Captain Bolton penetrated to the river itself. Neither statement is sustained by sufficient evidence.3

What the most brilliant and at the same time most careful historian of America wrote has been followed without investigation by his successors. Justin Win-sor, after investigating the sources, arrived at the same conclusion. In one of his well-known volumes on western history, he wrote:

There is much less certainty that at about the same time, as is claimed, some Englishmen pushed west from the head-8 Parkman, Francis.   La Salle, 5. 
   The Discovery of the Ohio Waters 21

waters of the James River in Virginia, and passed the mountains. The story is told in Coxe's Carolana as coming from a memorial presented to the English monarch in 1699, and the exploit is ascribed to a Colonel Abraham Wood, who had been ordered to open trade with the western Indians, which he did in several successive journeys. No satisfactory confirmation of the tale has ever been produced.4

Within these pages are printed the sources of information concerning the western explorations of the Virginians and they leave no doubt about the event. Unquestionably, Englishmen were among the first to see the waters that flow westward and southward. They camped by the side of a branch of the Ohio two years before Joliet and Marquette made their famous expedition which disclosed the great Mississippi to the world. They knew the region of the upper Ohio years before the French had any record of the river's course.5 If priority of discovery is the proof of dominion, then the territory in dispute between France and England, that caused the French and Indian War, belonged by right to the latter, as she claimed; and contemporary pamphleteers, like Dr. John Mitchell were absolutely correct in the mustering of their proof, although they were misled concerning some of the facts and the actual date of the events.0

Before recounting the story of these hardy Virginians, who first crossed the great divide, it is necessary to remind ourselves of the environment of which they were a product, for their actions were not isolated

*Winsor, Justin. Carlier to Fronlenac, 183. See also his Mississippi Basin, 452, for a similar statement.

5 See pages 24-25 for the so-called La Salle discovery.

0 The Contest in America between Great Britain and France (London, 1757), 176- 
   22

Trans-Allegheny Region

phenomena, nor were their discoveries wholly disassociated with the event in the far north, an account of which opens this introduction.

Historians have generally interpreted the seventeenth century as one of the pivotal eras in the world's history. It saw the end of the religious wars, the organization of the modern state, and the rise of new world powers. No less than in the world of politics, the century was the turning point from the old to the new in the world of business. The former supremacy of the city merchant-barons in Italy and Germany had passed away. With the opening of new and broader fields of enterprise in Asia and America, business had become nationalized; and finally by the seventeenth century there were developed the great stock companies for trading and colonizing. This change brought with it tremendous business expansion. Enterprises were started that foreshadowed the Mississippi plans of John Law and the South Sea Bubble. The European population was educated in get-rich-quick schemes of every variety; and rapidly the market for the sale of shares in such undertakings was developed. Men were looking everywhere for rapid financial returns. In the history of business as of politics, the close of the century marks the beginning of the present day world.

This desire for quick profits was the most powerful motive of discovery in the new world. It was the hope of gain that lured men to undertake the long, wearisome, and dangerous voyage across the Atlantic and incited explorer, warrior, and trader to plunge into the interior through the unknown dangers of the

Itlillltffif 
   The Discovery of the Ohio Waters 23

almost impenetrable forests. The hope of profits moved the statesmen at home to urge these adventurers to renewed efforts and to play their own cards craftily in the diplomatic game. The great nations of Europe were all seeking to acquire dominion in America that they might share in the treasures of the "Indies." Spain had been first, then came Portugal; and after a hundred years, the two great rivals, France and England, reached out for North America. Their stake in the game of profits was the great interior valley, long before discovered by Spanish adventurers, but never exploited and so almost forgotten.

In both countries associations of moneyed men were formed for the exploitation of this world that was being opened up. Their first thought had been to rival Spain in the finding of the precious metals, and Portugal in the discovery of a new route to Asia. When these twin expectations seemed less attainable, they laid their plans for the development of the fur-trade, which in the course of time became an effective force in the discovery and colonization of America. In this enterprise, France had an advantage from her position on the St. Lawrence River with its direct water communication into the interior; and soon French traders and priests were roaming over the Great Lakes, where they heard of the "great water" beyond. Before the first Virginians reached the headwaters of the Ohio, it is probable that more than one wandering Frenchman had crossed the narrow divide that separates the Lakes from the Mississippi system, but there is only one recorded instance that is not open 
   24

Trans-Allegheny Region

to dispute.7 At the time when the first successful English exploration was being executed, the French were making plans for the expedition of Joliet and Marquette which has brought them so much renown.

The success of the fur traders of Quebec and Montreal who, with their supporters in France, had secured the monopoly of the rich territory around the interior lakes, acted only as a spur to the ambition of other Frenchmen, who sought eagerly for similar fields. In La Salle, these rivals of the Jesuits and their trading friends found a worthy leader. The southern shore of the lakes offered a promising opportunity. La Salle's exploratory expedition into this region, in 1668, was a failure on account of ill health, for he did not reach the Ohio as was claimed for him later by his friends.8 From his talks with the Sene-cas, however, he was persuaded of the possibility of his plans and soon found many supporters in France who were ready to advance money in the enterprise.

7 We shall not enter into the discussion of who first reached the branches of the Mississippi. Historians seem inclined to deny that Jean Nicollet visited the Wisconsin in 1734. The question of the two French traders of 1754 and of the wanderings of Grosseilliers and Radisson is Very complex. There seems to be no doubt about Father Allouez's visit to the Wisconsin River in 1670. If he was the first white man to cross the divide, the French discovery preceded the English by a little over a year. Shea, John G. Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley, xx-xxv; for bibliography of discussion of Jean Nicollet's expedition, see Wisconsin Historical Collections, vol. xi, 1, footnote 1.

8 Although many have suspected the accounts of La Salle's discovery of the Ohio, the majority of historians have accepted it upon very slender evidence. Mr. Frank E. Melvin of the University of Illinois has finally proved, in our opinion, by the use of new evidence, its falsity. His essay on this subject will soon be published. The latest writer concerning this region, Mr. Hanna, in his Wilderness Trail, vol. ii, 87 et seq. is also prepared to reject the tale as a fabrication, and writes that it is "only a question of time when that evidence will be declared to be wholly false." 
   The Discovery of the Ohio Waters 2$

It was La Salle's fortune to open up the Illinois and Mississippi region and there to organize the fur-trade; but his activities fall after the period narrated in this volume, and therefore belong to a later period of the rivalry between his country and England.

The contrast offered by the rapid western advance of the French with the slower movement of the English is one of the commonplaces of American history. The founder of Quebec saw the Great Lakes; and before his death, one of his followers, Jean Nicollet, had reached the western shore of Lake Michigan. La Salle, a gentleman of France, who became familiar with court life, plunged into the wilderness shortly after his arrival in Canada, and fifteen years later had reached the Illinois River. The rapidity and boldness of this westward advance arouses the imagination. In the actions of its leaders there is typified the eternal conflict of man with nature. The Frenchman alone in the wilderness, a thousand miles from his connections, is a Prometheus confident in his strength hurling defiance at Zeus. Undoubtedly this is one of the reasons why the heroes of French exploration are so well known; their exploits have all the elements that appeal to the romantic aspirations of our nature.

The English advance, on the other hand, has been slower and more secure. They have not reached out into the unknown, until the settlements at their back have offered them a safe base for their operations; and in all periods of our history, the men of adventure have generally been reared in a society particularly well fitted to train them for the life of exploration. These conditions have been found on what is known 
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Trans-Allegheny Region

as the frontier, that line between civilization and savagery, ever slowly, irresistibly, and inexorably advancing westward.9 The Englishmen, who were to become the rivals of the French explorers, were members of the first real American frontier; and, therefore, a few words of explanation of this unique society is necessary for a complete understanding of their careers.

From 1607 to 1645 the English frontier was the American shore line, and the newcomer in stepping from his ship to terra firma abandoned security and civilization for the dangers and barbarisms of the border land and entered upon the work of adjusting himself to the new environment. All Virginia was in 1644 still exposed to the Indian menace, and a large proportion of its settlers actually perished in the rising of that year. Nothing more than a pioneer life, economic and social, existed in any or all the groups of settlements that constituted the colony. The next year, as a direct result of Opechancanough's massacre, forts were established along the first inland frontier, the fall line of the rivers. These were destined to be successfully maintained and strengthened from time to time; and no serious Indian raid broke through this line of defense. Henceforth savage warfare was transferred from the tidewater territory to the country between the falls and the mountains.

To this region there gradually drifted the characteristically pioneer and border elements of the

"See Turner's brilliant essay, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History," in American Historical Association, Report, 1893, p. 199. 
   The Discovery of the Ohio Waters 27

population; and in the next generation, there was evolved the first truly American backwoods society with all its familiar activities: Indian trade, exploration, hunting, trapping; raising of hogs, cattle, and horses, which were branded and ran loose on the wild lands; pioneer farming, capitalistic engrossment, and exploitation of the wilderness. The American frontiersman, a new type in history, was developed before 1700. He was not inferior in any respect save numbers to his descendants of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The military posts at the falls of the James, the Appomattox, the Pamunkey, and later, the Rappahannock, the Blackwater, and the Nansemond, at once became, and for a century remained, the foci of this new society, the points of departure of western adventure and exploitation, centers of trade and traffic with settlers and savages far and near. They were the Leavenworths and Laramies of our first inland frontier; and in the course of time cities have developed on some of these sites, as has so frequently been the case during the American westward march. In the protected region between the fall line and the ocean, economic and social development proceeded rapidly; and, though frontier conditions lingered for many years between the rivers and about the edges of the great swamps, pioneer life had in the main been transferred before the end of the century to the second frontier belt, pushed out by a new and distinct civilization, the famous society of tidewater Virginia, with which, however, we are not here concerned, except to remember that the pioneer community was never completely separated from the better populated 
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Trans-Allegheny Region

settlement of the coast, whose relation to it was that of a parent.

The period of exploration actually began with the first settlement. Tidewater Virginia is everywhere easy of access by ships and boats, and was promptly mapped by John Smith and his companions. The earliest settlers, also, soon obtained from the Indians some vague notions of the principal features of the interior, such as the Appalachian mountains.10 Smith and Newport in the spring of 1607 and again in the autumn of 1608 passed beyond the falls of the James, and on the second trip reached the Monacan [Mana-kin] town, some thirty miles above the falls.11 Other adventurers may in very early times have made their way some little distance above the head of tide on the rivers.

The first serious project to explore and exploit the country beyond the reach of navigation seems to have been formed in 1641. In June of that year, four prominent men of the colony petitioned the Assembly for "leave and encouragement" to undertake discoveries to the southwest of Appomattox River. The legislators complied in March, 1643, with a law which assured the adventurers any and all profits which they could make out of their undertaking, for a term of fourteen years, reserving only the royal fifth from any mines that might be discovered.12  It does

10 "Mountaynes Apalatsi:" Capt. Newport's Discoveries, 1607 Public Record Office, London; also American Antiquarian Society, Transactions, vol. iv, 40, 46-48; and Brown, A. First Republic in America, 34.

11 American Antiquarian Society, Transactions, vol. iv, 40 et seq.; Smith, John. Generall historie of Virginia, vol. i, 195-197.

12 See pages 101-102; also footnote 114 for discussion of the date of the law in question. 
   The Discovery of the Ohio Waters 29

not appear that the projectors carried out their enterprise, for prior to 1652, when the next similar grant was made, their concession had been annulled.13 None of them reappear in the subsequent history of western exploration.

The importance of the act of 1643 lies in the fact that it served later as a precedent, often specifically cited, for similar legislation applying to the southern as well as to the western frontier.14 The usual duration of the grant was, as in the first instance, fourteen years, and the monopoly of trade was always absolute for that time; but in 1652 the important qualification was made, and subsequently followed, that of the lands discovered the favored parties should have first choice, but that later comers were not to be excluded from patenting the remainder.15

Perhaps the Indian outbreak of 1644 had interfered with the plans of these first adventurers. That disaster, on the other hand, prepared the way for new operations, for its suppression was followed, in February, 1645, by an act establishing forts at the falls of the James, at Pamunkey, and on the ridge of Chicka-hominy, all north of the James.10

In March of the year following the Assembly provided for a fourth post, at the falls of the Appomattox, to protect southside Virginia and from which expeditions might be led against the Indians. "Fort

13 See page 102.

14 See pages 102, 104, 112; Hening, W. W. Statutes at Large, vol. i, 380-381, vol. iii, 468; Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, America and IVest Indies, 1699, no. 399.

15 See pages 102, 104.

10 Hening, W. W.   Statutes at Large, vol. i, 293-294. 
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Henry," as it was called, had a garrison of forty-five men.17 Its commander, Captain Abraham Wood, was to play an important part in the subsequent explorations.

Regular military establishments are always too expensive for rude and thinly settled communities to maintain. The salaries of the four commanders -each receiving six thousand pounds of tobacco annually-were probably the heaviest expenditure, but constituted in themselves a grave tax on the community. We find the Burgesses ingenuously reasoning in the preamble of an act of the October session of that very year (1646) that the forts are very necessary, but if maintained at public cost, a great burden; hence it will be best to have them kept up by individual "undertakers," who will in compensation receive land and privileges. Acting on this principle, the posts were transferred to persons named in the act, with suitable arrangements in each case. Fort Henry passed to Abraham Wood. That portion of the act which provided for the transfer to him is worth reading, for it is not only representative of the remaining cessions, but it also clearly illustrates the dependence of institutions on conditions and the revival of discarded systems, such as feudalism, whenever in new times and places the conditions from which they first sprang are reproduced.

Be it therefore enacted that Capt. Abraham Wood whose service hath been employed at Forte Henery, be the undertaker for the said Forte, unto whome is granted sixe hundred acres of land for him and his heires for ever; with all houses and edifices belonging to the said Forte, with all boats and 17 Hening, W. W.   Statutes at Large, vol. i, 315. 
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amunition att present belonging to the said Forte, Provided that he the said Capt. Wood do maintayne and keepe ten men constantly upon the said place for the terme of three yeares, duringe which time he, the said Capt. Wood, is exempted from all publique taxes for himself and the said tenn persons.18

This fortified post remained the property and the home of Abraham Wood for at least thirty years; and there, doubtless, he died, leaving it as an inheritance to his children. He himself always called it "Fort Henry," but the station or the settlement that grew up about it was long known as Wood.19 Only when the town was incorporated, in 1748, does the name "Petersburg" seem to have become attached to it.20 Under Wood and his successors, this establishment was the most important and interesting of the stations that dotted the fall line in Virginia. On the other important rivers were similar posts, centers like it of all the varied activity of the frontier. That one which grew into the city of Richmond is particularly well known through the activities and writings of the Byrds. Cadwallader Jones, at the head of tide on the Rappahannock, in 1682, had a considerable trade with the Indians four hundred miles to the south-southwest, and wrote to the Proprietor of Maryland for permission to secure in that province shell money for carrying it on.21  The military his-

18 Hening, W. W.   Statutes at Large, vol. i, 326.

19 Augustine Herman's Map of Virginia and Maryland (London, 1670), in Virginia and Maryland Boundary Report (1873) ; A New Map of Virginia, Mary-land, and the improved parts of Pennsylvania, and Neiu Jar-sey (1719).

20 Hening, W. W. Statutes at Large, vol. vi, 211.

21 Public Record Office, Colonial Papers, vol. xlviii, no. 22, Cadwallader Jones to Lord Baltimore, February 6, 1681/2. 
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Trans-Allegheny Region

tory of all the posts can be followed in the laws and the state papers of the colony; but Fort Henry is entirely typical of all, and we know more about it than about any of the others. From it went out the Occo-neechee or Trading Path southward to the Catawbas and beyond, and also the trail leading westward to the headwaters of the Roanoke and over the mountains to the New River - the two great roads of early trade and settlement, both of them first explored by Abraham Wood and his associates.

Fort Henry in Wood's time was a place like Augusta, Georgia, in the middle of the eighteenth century or Chicago in the early nineteenth, or any one of a dozen others that come to mind as examples of the western frontier town and military and trading center. In it were conducted all the familiar activities of similar settlements of a later period, and with proper geographic changes we may without serious error project back upon it our clearer picture of the life of the far western posts whose romantic and picturesque qualities have won so large a place in literature. Although the contemporary documents are relatively scanty, yet they enable us to describe directly the old Virginia post, and to show it as the prototype of western towns of all times, even of Athabasca Landing in our own day.

Garrisons were from time to time provided by the Assembly. Later, in t