He and the Virginian commissioner Walker, had surveyed the boundary line and found that the Cumberland settlements were well to the south of it.

He then claimed the soil as his under the Cherokee deed; and disposed of it to the settlers who contracted to pay ten dollars a thousand acres.

This was but a fraction of the State price, so the settlers were all eager to hold under Henderson's deed; one of the causes of their coming out had been the chance of getting land so cheap.
But Henderson's claim was annulled by the legislature, and the satisfaction-piece of 200,000 acres allotted him was laid off elsewhere; so his contracts with the settlers came to nothing, and they eventually got title in the usual way from North Carolina.

They suffered no loss in the matter, for they had merely given Henderson promises to pay when his title was made good.
The settlers, by their representatives, met together at Nashborough, and on May 1, 1780, entered into articles of agreement or a compact of government.

It was doubtless drawn up by Robertson, with perhaps the help of Henderson, and was modelled upon what may be called the "constitution" of Watauga, with some hints from that of Transylvania.
[Footnote: Phelan, the first historian who really grasped what this movement meant, and to what it was due, gives rather too much weight to the part Henderson played.