The Population of America. — We cannot state just
how many people there were in America at that time,
but there were more than two millions, possibly two
and a half millions. This was a small population for
a country of such size, extending fifteen hundred miles
along the sea-coast and a considerable distance back
into the interior. But this territory was very thinly
settled. Even near the sea-coast the greater part of
it was a wilderness, mostly covered with forest trees.
The towns were small and far apart, and the largest
cities had not more than twenty thousand inhabitants.
The people in those days thought New York and
Philadelphia were important cities, but now we would
look on them as only good-sized country towns.
The State of the Interior. — Few of the settlements
extended far back from the sea-coast, or from the
great rivers. In New York most of the settlers kept
near to the Hudson; in Pennsylvania they did not
go far from the Delaware. The back country was yet
in great part covered by forests, and was the home of
the Indians and of white hunters, though in places
there were a good many pioneer settlers. In Virginia
and the Carolinas the people had gone much farther
back from the coast. Daniel Boone, a bold and daring
hunter, had led a party over the mountains into Ken-
tucky. Some others had gone to Tennessee. But these
men had to live with rifle in hand, for their lives were
every minute in danger. Daniel Boone had many
adventures with the Indians, but he escaped all peril
and lived to be an old man.
