Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 6).djvu/65

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THE FIRST EXPLORERS
65

"I rub'd the wounds with Bear's oil, and gave him a drench of the same and another of the decoction of Rattle Snake root some time after." On the same day "Colby Chew and his Horse fell down the Bank. I Bled and gave him Volatile drops, & he soon recovered." On the first of May they reached Powell's River. This was named from Ambrose Powell. During the journey Dr. Walker gave the name of each of his companions to rivers he discovered; none were given his name, though a mountain range to the north of Fort Chiswell still bears the name of Walker's Mountain. On Powell's River the party this day again struck the Indian path which later became the great highway to Kentucky. Again he was on the route that would have taken him to the famous meadows below the foothills of the mountains, and again he left it as he did when he chose to explore on the south side of Cumberland Mountain, instead of crossing at Pineville and following the trail northward. He did not cross Rockcastle River. J. Stoddard Johnson says: "This was the farthest western point reached by Doctor Walker. He did not