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sessed quite a different taste, and plumed themselves on different pursuits. A tow cloth hunting-shirt, buck-skin breeches, leggins and moccasons of the same material, with a cap manufactured out of the skin of an otter, beaver, fox or raccoon, was good enough raiment for them; and, as for music, the hooting of an owl, the bellowings of the buffalo, the screaking of a gourd fiddle or a good jolly song, was all the music they desired; provided they enjoyed the company and assistance of a cheerful, stout and hearty help-mate, who could grub cane or hoe corn all day, and at night dance a North Carolina reel or Virginia jig, upon a dirt or puncheon floor, to the music of a banjo. The pride of the man was to be active, persevering and expert in the pursuit and slaughter of the wild beasts of the forest, to procure food for his family; and brave and fearless in meeting the savage foe, to protect his wife and children from danger; and the glory of the woman was to labor by day and by night, both in the house and out of doors, to aid her husband in feeding, clothing and maintaining the family. Not that our ancestors were a savage, vulgar and vicious people: by no means. They were a hardy, free-born race, who loved and practiced virtue for virtue's sake, and not for gaudy show or an empty name. But the circumstances that surrounded them were entirely different from those that encompass us, at the present day; and therefore, their pursuits, manners, customs and habits were different from ours; for what is man in action but a creature moulded into being by the force of circumstances, and driven onward by the current of fashion?

Such were the first inhabitants of the State of Tennessee. But time rolled on and produced a change of circumstances, and, consequently, a change of pursuits, manners, habits and dress. The tide of emigration con

tinued to flow in-the country became more and more densely populated; the settlers being strengthened in numbers, felt more secure from danger, and turned their attention more to the cultivation of the soil and less to the pursuits of the chase. Extensive plantations were opened, wide fields of luxuriant corn shook their green foliage in the summer's blast; comfortable dwellings were reared, mills erected, school-houses built, and log churches, in which to worship the King of Heaven, put up; the man of God came amongst the inhabitants, to dispense the gospel and minister in holy things; the education of the rising generation was, in some measure, attended to; social and civilized habits cultivated, and many improvements made both in manners and dress. The roughness and rudeness of their manners and customs were gradually thrown off, and, by degrees, a change came over the spirit of the times. But the reader is not to understand that, in the lapse of a few years, our territorial predecessors became polished, fashionable people, according to the ordinary acceptation of these terms at the present day: not at all. If the first settlers in the then wilds of Tennessee, had met with one of our modern dandies, with his superfine cloth pantaloons, strapped on at both extremities of his person-his shirt manufactured in four or five different parcels, and fastened around his delicate and sickly looking frame with tape, ribbons and gold buttons-a superfine cloth coat upon his back, cut and made after our fashion-a dandy silk hat with a rim three quarters of an inch wide upon his head, and right and left calf-skin boots upon his feet, they would have caught and caged him, and carried him about as a natural curiosity. And if the old ladies of that day had met with one of our slender, pale-faced, fashionable belles, rattling in silks and satin-her clothing drawn over her delicate

limbs as tight as the skin upon a lean weasel-her waist belted up in buckram until compressed within the circumference of six inches-her snow white bosom peeping over the top of her outer garments, protected only by the slight covering of gauze, ribbons and lace-a monstrous staked and ridered bonnet upon her head, streaming with flounces and furbelows-a green veil, half as long as her whole person, hanging over her face and fluttering its ample folds in the winds as she journeyed onward—a bunch of jewelry, as large as a wagoner's horse bells, suspended from each ear, and dangling upon her shoulders-her dress cut and made according to the fashions of the present day-her delicate ancles covered only by a pair of thin, flesh colored hose, at that day called stockings, and her tender little trampers encompassed within a pair of prunella slippers, they would have set all the bear dogs upon her, and ran off and reported that some nondescript monster or unknown wild. beast was running at large in the forest.

The plain, old-fashioned sons and daughters of this country at that day, had no knowledge of such gaudy trappings and ostentatious flummery as bedeck our bucks and belles of the present age. They were content with the plain substantials of life; cultivated social and friendly habits; lived economical; enjoyed health and happiness, and died in old age at peace with each other and their God. Though they had troubles to encounter and difficulties to overcome, they met and encountered them like men. When the frightful war-whoop of the savage saluted their ears they did not become panic-stricken and fly from the country, but seized their weapons and rushed to the field of bloody strife; from which they never retreated until the barbarous and hostile foe was driven far from their dwellings. In the administration of pub

lic affairs, they selected the most competent and trustworthy individuals, without regard to the solicitations of aspirants; for, electioneering was wholly unknown amongst them; and the citizens made choice of public functionaries with no other view than that of promoting the public weal.

These were the days of primeval simplicity, happiness and delight; when virtue stood erect in the land, and walked with majestic stride through the public sanctua ries of the country-while gorgon vice fled from the public gaze and concealed its hellish deformity in the secret dwellings of the solitary villain. But, as days and years passed by, the vices of other times and of other communities crept into the country; and, unfortunately, finding in the rising and succeeding generations, a soil adapted to their nourishment, growth and propagation, have continued to increase, until now, they threaten to deluge the land with a flood more noxious than that of a sea of black and putrid waters.

LIFE AS IT IS.

CHAPTER I.

EXPLORATION OF THE TERRITORY NOW CONSTITUTING THE STATE OF TENNESSEE.

At a very early day, perhaps as early as 1690, or sooner, some straggling hunters, and individuals engaged in trading with the Indians, penetrated and traveled through the Cherokee country. These traders and hunters gave glowing descriptions of the country-the minerals, game, &c. which tempted others to visit the country, many of whom made handsome profits upon the furs and skins they procured in these unexplored wilds. Regular hunting and exploring companies were therefore formed, who traversed the country now constituting East Tennessee, with the hope of reaping rich rewards for the perils they should encounter. Judge Haywood, in his history of Tennessee, mentions a Mr. Vaughn, who lived in Amelia county, Virginia, as late as 1801, who had been employed as early as 1740, as a pack man to some Indian traders, and who gave a description of a great portion of what is now East Tennessee-the trader's path, fords of the rivers, &c. At that date there was not a hunter's cabin South-West of Otter River, a branch of the Staunton, in Bedford county, Virginia. He engaged in trading with the Indians, which he continued until the breaking out of the war between the French and English in 1754. These hunting excursions continued to be made until the

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