To add to their discomfiture King George III had, in October 1763, issued an edict forbidding private persons from purchasing lands from the Indians. Soon after the line had been established, the British Indian agent, Alexander Cameron, visited the settlement, informed the whites that they were trespassers on the Cherokees and that they must vacate or they would be removed by British troops. In the meantime the little colony had been joined by John Sevier and the Shelbys, Evan and Isaac, father and son. Robertson had come to be by common consent the leader of the colony, but upon the arrival of Sevier the honors were divided between them. Cameron took Sevier and Robertson to one side and intimated in rather broad terms that on payment of a certain sum to him they would be allowed to remain unmolested, Both scorned the idea of a bribe, and the agent departed. Then the settlers decided to evade the king's order by leasing the lands from the Indians. A council was accordingly called and an agreement made by which the whites were to have undisputed possession of the Watauga Old Fields for a term of eight years, in consideration of goods amounting to about $5,000. [Source - Notable Men of Tennessee]
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