Ask these Pilgrims what they expect when they git to Kentuckey the answeris Land. have you any. No, but I expect I can git it. have you any thing to pay for land, No. did you ever see the Country. No but Every Body says its good land...Here is hundreds Travelling hundreds of Miles, they Know not for what Nor Whither, except its to Kentuckey, passing land almost as good and easy obttained, the Proprietors of which would gladly give on any terms but it will not do...its not the Promised Land its not the goodly inheritance the Land of Milk and Honey.
---Moses Austin, founder of Texas, 1796, writing of a journey from Wythe county, Virginia to Louisiana territory.