I am Dr Sir your
Hble Servt
Richd. Henderson
Mr Joseph Martin in the Valley”[10]
On July 20 he wrote again:
“Am sorry to hear that the People in the valey are distressed for provisions and ammunition have given some directions to my brother to assist you a little with Powder.
Standly, I suppose has before now delivered your Inglish mare, and the other you’l receive by my brother—when we meet will render an acct. for my behaviour in Keeping them so long—We did not forget you at the time of making Laws, your part of the Country is too remote from ours to attend our Convention you must have Laws made by an Assembly of your own, I have prepared a plan which I hope you’l approve but more of that when we meet which I hope will be soon, tho ’til Col. Boone comes cant say when—Am extreamly sorry for the affair with the Indians on the 23d of last month. I wish it may not have a bad effect, but will use my endeavors to find out who they were & have the matter settled—your spirited conduct gives me great Pleasure—Keep your men in heart if possible, now is our time, the Indians must not drive us—depend upon it that the Chief men and warriors of the Cherokees will not countenance what there men attempted and will punish them—Pray my Dear Sir dont let any person settle Lower down the valey I am affraid they are now too low & must come away I did not want any person to settle yet below Cumberland gap—My Brother will [tell] you of the news of these parts—in haste Dr Sir....”
In December, John Williams wrote Captain Martin from Boonesborough and his letter gives us a closer insight into affairs along Boone’s Road:
“... With respect to the complaints of the inhabitants of Powells Valley with regard to cattle being lodged there, I should think it altogether unjust than [that] non-inhabitants should bring in cattle to destroy and eat up the range of the inhabitants’ stock; Yet, Sir, I cannot conceive that Col. Hart’s stopping his stock there, when on their way here, to recruit them for their journey, can be the least infringement. Col. Hart is a proprietor, & [has] as great a right in the country as any one man. In the Valley are many lands yet unentered; and certainly if there be a right in letting stock into the range, he has a right equal to any man alive. I therefore hope you will endeavor to convince the inhabitants thereof, and that it is no indulgence to Col. Hart, but a right he claims, and what I think him justly entitled to.
I hope to have the pleasure of seeing you at Boonesborough the 21st instant—in the meantime making not the least doubt but that you will use every justifiable Method in Keeping up peace and harmony in the Valley”[11]
As indicated in the former letter, the emigrants from the colonies were encroaching upon the Cherokee lands beyond the Henderson purchase. Joseph Martin was under the necessity of protesting to the Assembly of North Carolina against settlers from that state pressing beyond the Henderson lands and settling in the Cherokee country.[12] It is seen by Colonel Henderson’s letter that Boone’s Road marked the most westerly limit to which pioneers could go with safety. Irresponsible Cherokees invaded the Henderson purchase, and equally irresponsible (or ignorant) whites invaded the Cherokee country. The difficulty probably lay in not having a definite, plain boundary line that he who ran might recognize.
The settlement here in Powell’s Valley meant everything to the pioneers of Kentucky. This is made additionally plain by the attempt of interested parties to have Captain Martin’s Indian Agency removed from Long Island to a point on Boone’s Road near Cumberland Gap. In December 1782 William Christian wrote Governor Harrison from “Great [Long] Island,” explaining the dependence of the inhabitants (undoubtedly both red and white) upon Martin in time of need. “I find,” he wrote, “that the party here, consisting of fifty odd, are living on Col. Martin’s corn. Whenever a family begins to be in a starving condition, it is very probable they will push for this place & throw themselves upon him for bread.”[13]