through the wilderness.  He did not attempt to make light of the perils that confronted them if they remained, but he asked them to ponder well if the beauty and fertility of the land did not warrant some risk being run to hold it, now that it was won.  They were at last in a fair country fitted for the homes of their children.  Now was the time to keep it.  If they abandoned it, they would lose all the advantages they had gained, and would be forced to suffer the like losses and privations if they ever wished to retake possession of it or of any similar tract of land.  He, at least, would not turn back, but would stay to the bitter end.

His words and his steadfast bearing gave heart to the settlers, and they no longer thought of flight.  As their corn had failed them they got their food from the woods.  Some gathered quantities of walnuts, hickory-nuts, and shelbarks, and the hunters wrought havoc among the vast herds of game.  During the early winter one party of twenty men that went up Caney Fork on a short trip, killed one hundred and five bears, seventy-five buffaloes, and eighty-seven deer, and brought the flesh and hides back to the stockades in canoes; so that through the winter there was no lack of jerked and smoke-dried meat.

The hunters were very accurate marksmen; game was plenty, and not shy, and so they got up close and rarely wasted a shot.  Moreover, their smallbore rifles took very little powder—­in fact the need of excessive economy in the use of ammunition when on their long hunting-trips was one of the chief reasons for the use of small bores.  They therefore used comparatively little ammunition.  Nevertheless, by the beginning of winter both powder and bullets began to fail.  In this emergency Robertson again came to the front to rescue the settlement he had founded and preserved.  He was accustomed to making long, solitary journeys through the forest, unmindful of the Indians; he had been one of the first to come from North Carolina to Watauga; he had repeatedly been on perilous missions to the Cherokees; he had the previous year gone north to the Illinois country to meet Clark.  He now announced that he would himself go to Kentucky and bring back the needed ammunition; and at once set forth on his journey, across the long stretches of snow-powdered barrens, and desolate, Indian-haunted woodland.

CHAPTER XII.

THE CUMBERLAND SETTLEMENTS TO THE CLOSE OF THE REVOLUTION, 1781-1783.

Robertson passed unharmed through the wilderness to Kentucky.  There he procured plenty of powder, and without delay set out on his return journey to the Cumberland.  As before, he travelled alone through the frozen woods, trusting solely to his own sharp senses for his safety.

    Attack on Freeland’s.

In the evening of January 15, 1781, he reached Freeland’s station, and was joyfully received by the inmates.  They supped late, and then sat up for some time, talking over many matters.  When they went to bed all were tired, and neglected to take the usual precautions against surprise; moreover, at that season they did not fear molestation.  They slept heavily, none keeping watch.  Robertson alone was wakeful and suspicious; and even during his light slumbers his keen and long-trained senses were on the alert.