More than any other colony, Virginia looked to the west for its future. After the French and Indian War, the Royal Proclamation of 1754 declared that officers and soldiers would be paid with parcels of western land, vaguely extending about eighty miles in all directions from Lexington. By 1768 most of the area had been explored by the Long Hunters, including Daniel and Squire Boone, James Knox, Hasker Mansker, and the Skagg Brothers. These brave, enterprising men battled both with nature and with the Indians, bringing their families to settle this rough frontier. Virginia's Western War traces the little-known period of colonial history.