Of course there was much jealousy and rivalry in the effort to get the best sites.

Robertson, being farthest on the frontier, where there was most wild land, had peculiar advantages.

Very soon after he settled in the Cumberland district at the close of the Revolutionary War, Blount had entered into an agreement with him for a joint land speculation.

Blount was to purchase land claims from both officers and soldiers amounting in all to fifty thousand acres and enter them for the Western Territory, while Robertson was to survey and locate the claims, receiving one fourth of the whole for his reward.

[Footnote: Blount MSS., Agreement between William Blount and James Robertson, Oct.