The earliest system adopted for the collection of petroleum appears to have consisted in Early skimming the oil from the surface of the water upon Methods which it had accumulated, and Professor Lesley states, that at Paint Creek, in Johnson county, Kentucky, a Mr George and others were in the habit of collecting oil from the sands, " by making shallow canals loo or 200 ft.
The most important unofficial contemporary works are the Histories of John Knox, Bishop John Lesley, George Buchanan, and Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie; the Diurnal of Remarkable Occurrents from the death of James IV.
After the failure of the royal cause, and whilst Mary was a captive in England, Lesley (who had gone to her at Bolton) continued to exert himself on her behalf.
It is clear to any reader of Ferrerius, Lesley and Buchanan that they all drew from a common source, now unknown, and this source may well have been a chronicle inspired by James's enemies.
The truth of this matter is obscure; our early historians of this age, Protestants like Knox and Pitscottie, with Buchanan and the Catholic Lesley, are seldom to be trusted without documentary corroboration.
