Chapter 5
HE MOUNTAIN RIVER RAN TO THE NORTH and confused the young explorer. Of all the many rivers he had encountered on his journey from Virginia into the western frontier, they, to the one, had flowed westerly towards the Mississippi. This was a wide stream of clear, sparkling water, too powerful to alter its course for miles, and appeared to cut right through the mountains, defying their gravity.
Henry Timberlake had begun his adventure on foot in the spring of 1758 and then canoed down the Cherokee River to Mulberry Grove, a plateau west of the Apallachee mountains. From there he followed the Tanasi river south westerly. Trading with South Carolinians at a new fort on a tributary he called the "Little Tennessee," he secured food and supplies for his long trek home. Crossing the river to Chota, Timberlake traded rum for some ginseng, and his canoe for a horse with the Cherokee. He rode through the Chilhowee Mountains easterly for several days until he came to an Indian village at the confluence of Soco Creek and the Oconaluftee, and living with the natives that summer arranged future trades and learned their language.
When the days became shorter, scouts led him to Soco Gap where he entered a great valley to the south of the Apallachee range. As a tribute he gave them his horse, and on foot followed the valley to the east. Encountering a great mountain range he turned north and passed through the valley the Cherokee called Gadalutsi. Following the north star, Timberlake forded many small streams until he came upon a large river, 40 meters wide, that he hoped would lead him through the mountains looming ahead.
He moved slowly on the overgrown buffalo path, hampered by the thick, gnarly mountain laurel. As the river narrowed and the terrain became more precipitous, he became more confused, worried that his northerly direction was made in error. He was well beyond the Middle Towns and hadn’t seen people for days. His isolation from civilization was pronounced by the large number of black bear he encountered. His ammunition was running low, and these bears could climb trees, causing many restless nights. Some miles back he had narrowly escaped a large male foraging in the woods for berries and insects for the winter hibernation. He had considered shooting it, but resisted. The Indians from Sagwahi that he had stayed with that summer had honoured the bear, and when killed, used it entirely, bones and all.
Henry encountered a female one morning directly across the river from where he had slept. Fishing for trout upwind, she was preoccupied and did not catch his scent. He marveled at her size and beauty. She moved along the rocks in the stream with surprising dexterity. Playfully she made thrashes at the white water with her massive paws and then leapt into a small eddy, surfacing with a small brook trout in her mouth. What freedom, he mused, marvelling at the beauty that surrounded them.
The nights were becoming longer and cooler, and he was anxious to get home to the piedmonts of Virginia and arrange an overseas broker for the trading agreements he had made with the Cherokee. Not knowing whether there would be a colonial fort or indian village nearby, Timberlake concerned himself about the encroaching winter.
The area was heavily wooded. The fall colors helped him identify the species as oak, chestnut, buckeye, pawpaw, linden, maple, poplar, sumac and ash. In the higher elevations he saw majestic stands of conifers which he identified as fir and spruce. Turkey and grouse were plentiful, as were deer, fox and beaver. Henry foraged in the woods for food, gathering mast dropped from the tall and majestic nut bearing trees and berries from smaller shrubs and vines. A turtle he fished from the river was roasted along with chestnuts and made a magnificent meal. The ripe persimmons he had for dessert, saving others for travelling. He drank from the crystal clear river as he marched northward, completely surround by tall mountains. Each morning, smoky clouds hovered just above the tops of the trees, dissipating to wispy tracks across blue skies by midday.
The river suddenly turned west and Timberlake blindly followed it. He passed five streams cascading from the mountainside from the far bank of his river and soon came upon a big creek where he made camp. When he arose that morning there was snow on the upper reaches of the mountains facing him.
That afternoon a group of Cherokee that had spotted his evening fires from their lookout point at White Rock approached him by the river and led him to their town at Wayi, a day’s journey south. There, they told him of the bounties for their scalps that were offered by the Governor of South Carolina.The MacGwyres ancestry had emigrated from Scotland after the defeat of the Coventers by the Stuart King Charles II in 1679. Crossing the strait from lowland Scotland to northern Ireland they worked as tenant farmers for Scottish lairds. The defeat of the Roman Catholic James II and Tyrconnel's Irish army by William of Orange brought peace and religious freedom to the Protestant Scots living in northern Ireland and the counties of Ulster were recognized as British and Protestant, gone from the Irish forever.
Jake met his red-haired, blue-eyed wife when he was 15 and she only 13. She bore him three sons and took care of all the household chores, and the boys and her would help in the fields at the critical planting and harvest times. He had begun as a tenant farmer, "inheriting" the leased lands and was able to acquire some acreage in addition to that he leased. Jake had grown to count on Kathryn and provided her with linens and bedding for the small one room, windowless hut.
Good news from the Americas kept pouring in. Not only was land plentiful and cheap, there was plenty of wild game to provide a settler with food until he was established. Nearly every Ulster family had received word from friends or relatives, urging them to join them in the colonies. Agents from the Carolinas had spoken to several in the community, promising cheap land and homesteading assistance if they would move.
Most of the MacGwyre’s farm land was leased and the evictions of tenant farmers from the large estate of the Marquis of Donegal caused rents to double, so when the opportunity arose, Jake quickly agreed to sell his holdings for passage to the new land. He sent word to his uncle in North Carolina that his family would embark from Donegal on the ship Avalon on the 1st of March in the year 1775 to arrive in Boston in late May. From there they would sail to the Carolina coast.
The Governor’s agent would meet them at Charles Town in the southern province of the colony with the promised horse and wagon for the trip inland. Jake figured that even after the expensive trip he would have enough funds to purchase 300 acres of land, much more than his small family needed he told Kathyrn, plenty to rent to other settlers, helping make ends meet.
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