It was in commemoration of this famous expedition that Governor Spotswood sought to establish the order of "Knights of the Golden Horseshoe" But the Governor's account of the expedition, as far as we have it, is very tame and disappointing. He was thinking chiefly of protecting the English settlements from the encroachments of the French, and apparently cared little for anything else. He also either misunderstood the Indians whom he encountered, or was grossly deceived by them in regard to the geography of the country. In his letter to the Board of Trade, under date of August 14, 1718, he said:
"The chief aim of my expedition over the great mountains, in 1716, was to satisfye myself whether it was practicable to come at the lakes. Having on that occasion found an easy passage over that great ridge of mountains w'ch before were judged unpassable, I also discovered, by the relation of Indians who frequent those parts, that from the pass where I was it is but three days' march to a great nation of Indians living on a river w'ch discharges itself in the Lake Erie; that from ye western side of one of the small mountains w'ch I saw, that lake is very visible, and cannot, therefore, be above five days' march from the pass afore-mentioned, and that the way thither is also very practicable, the mountainsto the westward of the great ridge being smaller than those I passed on the eastern side, w'ch shews howeasy a matter it is to gain possession of those lakes."—[Spotswood Letters, Vol. II, pp. 295-6.]
The country thus discovered by Governor Spotswood, and claimed by him for the British crown, became a part of the county of Essex, the western boundary being undefined. Spotsylvania was formed from Essex and other counties in 1720, and Orange from Spotsylvania, in 1734.
The expedition of the "Knights of the Golden Horseshoe," trivial as it may now appear, was at the time regarded as very hazardous; and it no doubt led to important results. The glowing accounts given by Spotswood's followers, if not by himself of the beauty and fertility of the Valley, attracted immediate attention, and induced hunters and other enterprising men to visit the country. Of such transient excursions, however, we have no authentic account; and at least sixteen years were to pass before any extensive settlements were made by Europeans in this region.
At length John and Isaac Vanmeter, of Pennsylvania, in 1730,
