It was in 1780 that the whites first made the attempt to travel over the Cumberland Mountains, and to settle in the environs of Nasheville; but the emigrants were not very numerous there till the year 1789. They had to support, for several years, a bloody war against the Indian Cherokees, and till 1795 the settlements at Holston and Kentucky communicated with those in Cumberland by caravans, for the sake of travelling in safety over so extensive a tract of uninhabited country that separated them; but for these five or six years past, since peace has been made with the natives, the communications formed between the countries are perfectly established; and although not much frequented, they travel there with as much safety as in any other part of the Atlantic states.
{235} This country having been populated after that of Kentucky, every measure was taken at the commencement to avoid the great confusion that exists concerning the right of property in the latter state; at the same time the titles are looked upon as more valid, and not so subject to dispute. This reason, the extraordinary fertility of the soil, and a more healthy climate, are such great inducements to the emigrants of the Atlantic states, that most of them prefer settling in West Tennessea than in Kentucky. They reckon there, at present, thirty thousand inhabitants, and five or six thousand negro slaves.
With a few exceptions the various species of trees and shrubs that form the mass of the forests are the same as those that I observed in the most fertile parts of Kentucky. The gleditsia triacanthos is still more common there.[57] Of this wood the Indians made their bows, before they adopted the use of fire-arms.
