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  [Illustration: DANIEL BOONE.
    From the portrait by Chester Harding made in 1819, when Boone was
    eighty-five years old. (See pp. 237-239.)]




DANIEL BOONE

by

REUBEN GOLD THWAITES

Author of "Father Marquette," "The Colonies, 1492-1750,"
"Down Historic Waterways," "Afloat on the
Ohio," etc.; Editor of "The Jesuit Relations and
Allied Documents," "Chronicles of Border
Warfare," "Wisconsin Historical
Collections," etc.

Illustrated







NEW YORK
D. Appleton & Company
1902

Copyright, 1902
By D. Appleton and Company

Published September, 1902




      TO THE MEMORY OF THE LATE

      LYMAN COPELAND DRAPER, LL.D.

      WHOSE UNPARALLELED COLLECTION OF
      MANUSCRIPT MATERIALS FOR WESTERN
      HISTORY IN THE LIBRARY OF THE
      WISCONSIN STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
      HAS MADE PRACTICABLE THE
      PREPARATION OF THIS LITTLE BOOK




PREFACE


Poets, historians, and orators have for a hundred years sung the praises
of Daniel Boone as the typical backwoodsman of the trans-Alleghany
region. Despite popular belief, he was not really the founder of
Kentucky. Other explorers and hunters had been there long before him; he
himself was piloted through Cumberland Gap by John Finley; and his was
not even the first permanent settlement in Kentucky, for Harrodsburg
preceded it by nearly a year; his services in defense of the West,
during nearly a half century of border warfare, were not comparable to
those of George Rogers Clark or Benjamin Logan; as a commonwealth
builder he was surpassed by several. Nevertheless, Boone's picturesque
career possesses a romantic and even pathetic interest that can never
fail to charm the student of history. He was great as a hunter,
explorer, surveyor, and land-pilot--probably he found few equals as a
rifleman; no man on the border knew Indians more thoroughly or fought
them more skilfully than he; his life was filled to the brim with
perilous adventures. He was not a man of affairs, he did not understand
the art of money-getting, and he lost his lands because, although a
surveyor, he was careless of legal forms of entry. He fled before the
advance of the civilization which he had ushered in: from Pennsylvania,
wandering with his parents to North Carolina in search of broader lands;
thence into Kentucky because the Carolina borders were crowded; then to
the Kanawha Valley, for the reason that Kentucky was being settled too
fast to suit his fancy; lastly to far-off Missouri, in order, as he
said, to get "elbow room." Experiences similar to his have made
misanthropes of many another man--like Clark, for instance; but the
temperament of this honest, silent, nature-loving man only mellowed with
age; his closing years were radiant with the sunshine of serene content
and the dimly appreciated consciousness of world-wide fame; and he died
full of years, in heart a simple hunter to the last--although he had
also served with credit as magistrate, soldier, and legislator. At his
death the Constitutional Convention of Missouri went into mourning for
twenty days, and the State of Kentucky claimed his bones, and has
erected over them a suitable monument.

There have been published many lives of Boone, but none of them in
recent years. Had the late Dr. Lyman Copeland Draper, of Wisconsin, ever
written the huge biography for which he gathered materials throughout a
lifetime of laborious collection, those volumes--there were to be
several--would doubtless have uttered the last possible word concerning
the famous Kentucky pioneer. Draper's manuscript, however, never
advanced beyond a few chapters; but the raw materials which he gathered
for this work, and for many others of like character, are now in the
library of the Wisconsin State Historical Society, available to all
scholars. From this almost inexhaustible treasure-house the present
writer has obtained the bulk of his information, and has had the
advantage of being able to consult numerous critical notes made by his
dear and learned friend. A book so small as this, concerning a character
every phase of whose career was replete with thrilling incident, would
doubtless not have won the approbation of Dr. Draper, whose
unaccomplished biographical plans were all drawn upon a large scale; but
we are living in a busy age, and life is brief--condensation is the
necessary order of the day. It will always be a source of regret that
Draper's projected literary monument to Boone was not completed for the
press, although its bulk would have been forbidding to any but
specialists, who would have sought its pages as a cyclopedia of Western
border history.

Through the courtesy both of Colonel Reuben T. Durrett, of Louisville,
President of the Filson Club, and of Mrs. Ranck, we are permitted to
include among our illustrations reproductions of some of the plates in
the late George W. Ranck's stately monograph upon Boonesborough. Aid in
tracing original portraits of Boone has been received from Mrs. Jennie
C. Morton and General Fayette Hewitt, of Frankfort; Miss Marjory Dawson
and Mr. W. G. Lackey, of St. Louis; Mr. William H. King, of Winnetka,
Ill.; and Mr. J. Marx Etting, of Philadelphia.

      R. G. T.
      MADISON, WIS., _1902_.




CONTENTS


   CHAPTER                                                        PAGE

         PREFACE                                                   vii

      I. ANCESTRY AND TRAINING                                       1

     II. THE NIMROD OF THE YADKIN                                   13

    III. LIFE ON THE BORDER                                         24

     IV. RED MAN AGAINST WHITE MAN                                  35

      V. KENTUCKY REACHED AT LAST                                   55

     VI. ALONE IN THE WILDERNESS                                    71

    VII. PREDECESSORS AND CONTEMPORARIES                            85

   VIII. THE HERO OF CLINCH VALLEY                                  97

     IX. THE SETTLEMENT OF KENTUCKY                                113

      X. TWO YEARS OF DARKNESS                                     129

     XI. THE SIEGE OF BOONESBOROUGH                                146

    XII. SOLDIER AND STATESMAN                                     169

   XIII. KENTUCKY'S PATH OF THORNS                                 192

   XIV. IN THE KANAWHA VALLEY                                      211

    XV. A SERENE OLD AGE                                           223

        INDEX                                                      243




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

                                                           FACING PAGE

      Portrait of Daniel Boone                          _Frontispiece_

      Boone's powder-horn and bake-kettle                           30

      A Boone tree, 1760                                            56

      A survey note by Boone                                       120

      Fort Boonesborough                                           136

      Climax of the treaty                                         162

      Site of Boonesborough to-day                                 174

      Boone's cabin in St. Charles County, Missouri                224

      Nathan Boone's house in St. Charles County, Missouri         230

      Boone's religious views (two pages)                          234

      Boone's monument at Frankfort, Ky.                           240




DANIEL BOONE




CHAPTER I

ANCESTRY AND TRAINING


The grandfather of Daniel Boone--George by name--was born in 1666 at the
peaceful little hamlet of Stoak, near the city of Exeter, in Devonshire,
England. His father had been a blacksmith; but he himself acquired the
weaver's art. In due time George married Mary Maugridge, a young woman
three years his junior, and native of the neighboring village of
Bradninch, whither he had gone to follow his trade. This worthy couple,
professed Quakers, became the parents of nine children, all born in
Bradninch--George, Sarah, Squire,[1] Mary, John, Joseph, Benjamin,
James, and Samuel. All of these, except John, married, and left
numerous descendants in America.

The elder Boones were ambitious for the welfare of their large family.
They were also fretful under the bitter intolerance encountered by
Quakers in those unrestful times. As the children grew to maturity, the
enterprising weaver sought information regarding the colony which his
coreligionist William Penn had, some thirty years previous, established
in America, where were promised cheap lands, religious freedom,
political equality, and exact justice to all men. There were then no
immigration bureaus to encourage and instruct those who proposed
settling in America; no news-letters from traveling correspondents, to
tell the people at home about the Western world; or books or pamphlets
illustrating the country. The only method which occurred to George
Boone, of Bradninch, by which he could satisfy himself regarding the
possibilities of Pennsylvania as a future home for his household, was to
send out some of his older children as prospectors.

Accordingly--somewhere about 1712-14, family tradition says--young
George (aged from twenty-two to twenty-four years), Sarah (a year and a
half younger), and Squire (born November 25, 1696) were despatched to
the promised land, and spent several months in its inspection. Leaving
Sarah and Squire in Pennsylvania, George returned to his parents with a
favorable report.

On the seventeenth of August, 1717, the Boones, parents and children,
bade a sorrowful but brave farewell to their relatives and friends in
old Bradninch, whom they were never again to see. After journeying some
eighty miles over rugged country to the port of Bristol, they there
entered a sailing vessel bound for Philadelphia, where they safely
arrived upon the tenth of October.

Philadelphia was then but a village. Laid out like a checker-board, with
architecture of severe simplicity, its best residences were surrounded
by gardens and orchards. The town was substantial, neat, and had the
appearance of prosperity; but the frontier was not far away--beyond
outlying fields the untamed forest closed in upon the little capital.
The fur trade flourished but two or three days' journey into the forest,
and Indians were frequently seen upon the streets. When, therefore, the
Boones decided to settle in what is now Abingdon, twelve or fourteen
miles north of the town, in a sparse neighborhood of Quaker farmers,
they at once became backwoodsmen, such as they remained for the rest of
their lives.

They were, however, not long in Abingdon. Soon after, we find them
domiciled a few miles to the northwest in the little frontier hamlet of
North Wales, in Gwynedd township; this was a Welsh community whose
members had, a few years before, turned Quakers.

Sarah Boone appears, about this time, to have married one Jacob Stover,
a German who settled in Oley township, now in Berks County. The elder
George Boone, now that he had become accustomed to moving, after his
long, quiet years as a Devonshire weaver, appears to have made small ado
over folding his family tent and seeking other pastures. In 1718 he took
out a warrant for four hundred acres of land in Oley, and near the
close of the following year removed to his daughter's neighborhood.
This time he settled in earnest, for here in Oley--or rather the later
subdivision thereof called Exeter--he spent the remainder of his days,
dying in his original log cabin there, in 1744, at the age of
seventy-eight. He left eight children, fifty-two grandchildren, and ten
great-grandchildren--in all, seventy descendants: Devonshire men,
Germans, Welsh, and Scotch-Irish amalgamated into a sturdy race of
American pioneers.

Among the early Welsh Quakers in the rustic neighborhood of North Wales
were the Morgans. On the twenty-third of July, 1720, at the Gwynedd
meeting-house, in accordance with the Quaker ceremony, Squire Boone
married Sarah Morgan, daughter of John. A descendant tells us that at
this time "Squire Boone was a man of rather small stature, fair
complexion, red hair, and gray eyes; while his wife was a woman
something over the common size, strong and active, with black hair and
eyes, and raised in the Quaker order."

For ten or eleven years Squire and Sarah Boone lived in Gwynedd
township, probably on rented land, the former adding to their small
income by occasional jobs of weaving, for he had learned his father's
trade. They were thrifty folk, but it took ten years under these
primitive conditions to accumulate even the small sum sufficient to
acquire a farm of their own. Toward the close of the year 1730, Squire
obtained for a modest price a grant of 250 acres of land situated in his
father's township, Oley--a level tract adapted to grazing purposes, on
Owatin Creek, some eight miles southeast of the present city of Reading,
and a mile and a half from Exeter meeting-house. Here, probably early in
1731, the Boones removed with their four children. Relatives and Quaker
neighbors assisted, after the manner of the frontier, in erecting a log
cabin for the new-comers and in clearing and fencing for them a small
patch of ground.

In this rude backwoods home, in the valley of the Schuylkill, was born,
upon the second of November (new style), 1734, Daniel Boone, fourth son
and sixth child of Squire and Sarah. It is thought that the name Daniel
was suggested by that of Daniel Boone, a well-known Dutch painter who
had died in London in 1698, "and who may have been known, or distantly
related, to the family." The other children were: Sarah (born in 1724),
Israel (1726), Samuel (1728), Jonathan (1730), Elizabeth (1732), Mary
(1736), George (1739), Edward (1744), Squire, and Hannah, all of them
natives of Oley.[2]

Born into a frontier community, Daniel Boone's entire life was spent
amid similar surroundings, varying only in degree. With the sight of
Indians he was from the first familiar. They frequently visited Oley and
Exeter, and were cordially received by the Quakers. George Boone's house
was the scene of many a friendly gathering of the tribesmen. When Daniel
was eight years of age, the celebrated Moravian missionary, Count
Zinzendorf, held a synod in a barn at Oley, a party of converted
Delaware Indians, who preached in favor of Christianity, being the
principal attractions at this meeting. Thus young Boone started in life
with an accurate knowledge of the American savage, which served him well
during his later years of adventurous exploration and settlement-building.

Squire Boone appears soon to have become a leader in his community. His
farm, to whose acres he from time to time added, was attended to as
closely as was usual among the frontiersmen of his day; and at home the
business of weaving was not neglected, for he kept in frequent
employment five or six looms, making "homespun" cloths for his neighbors
and the market. He had an excellent grazing range some five or six miles
north of the homestead, and each season sent his stock thither, as was
the custom at that time. Mrs. Boone and Daniel accompanied the cows, and
from early spring until late in autumn lived in a rustic cabin, far from
any other human beings. Hard by, over a cool spring, was a dairy-house,
in which the stout-armed mother made and kept her butter and cheese;
while her favorite boy watched the herd as, led by their bell-carriers,
they roamed at will through the woods, his duty at sunset being to drive
them to the cabin for milking, and later to lock them for the night
within the cow-pens, secure from wild animals or prowling
cattle-thieves.

While tending his cattle, a work involving abundant leisure, the young
herdsman was also occupied in acquiring the arts of the forest. For the
first two or three years--his pastoral life having commenced at the
tender age of ten--his only weapon was a slender, smoothly shaved
sapling, with a small bunch of gnarled roots at the end, in throwing
which he grew so expert as easily to kill birds and other small game.
When reaching the dignity of a dozen years, his father bought him a
rifle, with which he soon became an unerring marksman. But, although he
henceforth provided wild meat enough for the family, his passion for
hunting sometimes led him to neglect the cattle, which were allowed to
stray far from home and pass the night in the deep forest.

Soon each summer of herding came to be succeeded by a winter's hunt. In
this occupation the boy roved far and wide over the Neversink
mountain-range to the north and west of Monocacy Valley, killing and
curing game for the family, and taking the skins to Philadelphia, where
he exchanged them for articles needed in the chase--long hunting-knives,
and flints, lead, and powder for his gun.

In those days the children of the frontier grew up with but slight store
of such education as is obtainable from books. The open volume of
nature, however, they carefully conned. The ways of the wilderness they
knew full well--concerning the storms and floods, the trees and hills,
the wild animals and the Indians, they were deeply learned; well they
knew how to live alone in the forest, and to thrive happily although
surrounded by a thousand lurking dangers. This quiet, mild-mannered,
serious-faced Quaker youth, Daniel Boone, was an ardent lover of the
wild woods and their inhabitants, which he knew as did Audubon and
Thoreau; but of regular schooling he had none. When he was about
fourteen years of age, his brother Samuel, nearly seven years his
senior, married Sarah Day, an intelligent young Quakeress who had more
education than was customary in this neighborhood. Sarah taught Daniel
the elements of "the three R's." To this knowledge he added somewhat by
later self-teaching, so that as a man he could read understandingly, do
rough surveying, keep notes of his work, and write a sensible although
badly spelled letter--for our backwoods hero was, in truth, no scholar,
although as well equipped in this direction as were most of his fellows.

In time Squire Boone, a man of enterprise and vigor, added blacksmithing
to his list of occupations, and employed his young sons in this lusty
work. Thus Daniel served, for a time, as a worker in iron as well as a
hunter and herdsman; although it was noticed that his art was chiefly
developed in the line of making and mending whatever pertained to traps
and guns. He was a fearless rider of his father's horses; quick, though
bred a Quaker, to resent what he considered wrong treatment;[3] true to
his young friends; fond of long, solitary tramps through the dark
forest, or of climbing hilltops for bird's-eye views of the
far-stretching wilderness. Effective training this, for the typical
pioneer of North America.


FOOTNOTES:

[1] Not an abbreviation of "esquire," as has been supposed, but given
because of some old family connection. This name was transmitted through
several generations of Boones.

[2] Edward was killed by Indians when thirty-six years old, and Squire
died at the age of seventy-six. Their brothers and sisters lived to ages
varying from eighty-three to ninety-one.

[3] Indeed, it is a matter of record that other members also of this
stout-hearted Devonshire family were "sometimes rather too belligerent
and self-willed," and had "occasionally to be dealt with by the
meeting." Daniel's oldest sister, Sarah, married a man who was not a
Quaker, and consequently she was "disowned" by the society. His oldest
brother, Israel, also married a worldling and was similarly treated; and
their father, who countenanced Israel's disloyal act and would not
retract his error, was in 1748 likewise expelled.




CHAPTER II

THE NIMROD OF THE YADKIN


The lofty barrier of the Alleghany Mountains was of itself sufficient to
prevent the pioneers of Pennsylvania from wandering far westward.
Moreover, the Indians beyond these hills were fiercer than those with
whom the Quakers were familiar; their occasional raids to the eastward,
through the mountain passes, won for them a reputation which did not
incline the border farmers to cultivate their further acquaintance. To
the southwest, however, there were few obstacles to the spread of
settlement. For several hundred miles the Appalachians run in parallel
ranges from northeast to southwest--from Pennsylvania, through Virginia,
West Virginia, the Carolinas, and east Tennessee, until at last they
degenerate into scattered foot-hills upon the Georgia plain. Through the
long, deep troughs between these ranges--notably in the famous Valley of
Virginia between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies--Pennsylvanians
freely wandered into the south and southwest, whenever possessed by
thirst for new and broader lands. Hostile Indians sometimes penetrated
these great valleys and brought misery in their train; but the work of
pioneering along this path was less arduous than had the western
mountains been scaled at a time when the colonists were still few and
weak.

Between the years 1732 and 1750, numerous groups of
Pennsylvanians--Germans and Irish largely, with many Quakers among
them--had been wending their way through the mountain troughs, and
gradually pushing forward the line of settlement, until now it had
reached the upper waters of the Yadkin River, in the northwest corner of
North Carolina. Trials abundant fell to their lot; but the soil of the
valleys was unusually fertile, game was abundant, the climate mild, the
country beautiful, and life in general upon the new frontier, although
rough, such as to appeal to the borderers as a thing desirable. The
glowing reports of each new group attracted others. Thus was the
wilderness tamed by a steady stream of immigration from the older lands
of the northern colonies, while not a few penetrated to this Arcadia
through the passes of the Blue Ridge, from eastern Virginia and the
Carolinas.

Squire and Sarah Boone, of Oley, now possessed eleven children, some of
whom were married and settled within this neighborhood which consisted
so largely of the Boones and their relatives. The choicest lands of
eastern Pennsylvania had at last been located. The outlook for the
younger Boones, who soon would need new homesteads, did not appear
encouraging. The fame of the Yadkin Valley, five hundred miles
southwestward, had reached Oley, and thither, in the spring of 1750, the
majority of the Boones, after selling their lands and surplus stock,
bravely took up the line of march.[4]

With the women and children stowed in canvas-covered wagons, the men and
boys riding their horses at front and rear, and driving the lagging
cattle, the picturesque little caravan slowly found its way to the ford
at Harper's Ferry, thence up the beautiful valley of the Shenandoah. By
night they pitched their camps beside some gurgling spring, gathered the
animals within the circle of the wagons, and, with sentinel posted
against possible surprises by Indians, sat around the blazing fire to
discuss the experiences of the day--Daniel, as the hunter for the party,
doubtless having the most interesting adventures of them all.

Tradition has it that the Boones tarried by the way, for a year or more,
on Linnville Creek, six miles north of Harrisonburg, in Rockingham
County, Va. In any event, they appear to have resumed their journey by
the autumn of 1751. Pushing on through the Valley of Virginia--an
undulating, heavily forested table-land from three to ten miles in
width--they forded the upper waters of numerous rivers, some of which,
according to the tilt of the land, flow eastward and southeastward
toward the Atlantic, and others westward and southwestward toward the
Ohio. This is one of the fairest and most salubrious regions in America;
but they did not again stop until the promised land of the Yadkin was
reached.

The country was before them, to choose from it practically what they
would. Between the Yadkin and the Catawba there was a broad expanse of
elevated prairie, yielding a luxuriant growth of grass, while the
bottoms skirting the numerous streams were thick-grown to canebrake.
Here were abundant meadows for the cattle, fish and game and wild fruits
in quantity quite exceeding young Daniel's previous experience, a
well-tempered climate, and to the westward a mountain-range which cast
long afternoon shadows over the plain and spoke eloquently of untamed
dominions beyond. Out of this land of plenty Squire Boone chose a claim
at Buffalo Lick, where Dutchman's Creek joins with the North Fork of
Yadkin.

Daniel was now a lad of eighteen. Nominally, he helped in the working of
his father's farm and in the family smithy; actually, he was more often
in the woods with his long rifle. At first, buffaloes were so plenty
that a party of three or four men, with dogs, could kill from ten to
twenty in a day; but soon the sluggish animals receded before the
advance of white men, hiding themselves behind the mountain wall. An
ordinary hunter could slaughter four or five deer in a day; in the
autumn, he might from sunrise to sunset shoot enough bears to provide
over a ton of bear-bacon for winter use; wild turkeys were easy prey;
beavers, otters, and muskrats abounded; while wolves, panthers, and
wildcats overran the country. Overcome by his passion for the chase, our
young Nimrod soon began to spend months at a time in the woods,
especially in autumn and winter. He found also more profit in this
occupation than at either the forge or the plow; for at their nearest
market town, Salisbury, twenty miles away, good prices were paid for
skins, which were regularly shipped thence to the towns upon the
Atlantic coast.

The Catawba Indians lived about sixty miles distant, and the Cherokees
still farther. These tribesmen not infrequently visited the thinly
scattered settlement on the Yadkin, seeking trade with the whites, with
whom they were as yet on good terms. They were, however, now and then
raided by Northern Indians, particularly the Shawnese, who, collecting
in the Valley of Virginia, swept down upon them with fury; sometimes
also committing depredations upon the whites who had befriended their
tribal enemies, and who unfortunately had staked their farms in the
old-time war-path of the marauders.

In the year 1754, the entire American border, from the Yadkin to the St.
Lawrence, became deeply concerned in the Indian question. France and
England had long been rivals for the mastery of the North American
continent lying west of the Alleghanies. France had established a weak
chain of posts upon the upper Great Lakes, and down the Mississippi
River to New Orleans, thus connecting Canada with Louisiana. In the
Valley of the Ohio, however, without which the French could not long
hold the Western country, there was a protracted rivalry between French
and English fur-traders, each seeking to supplant the intruding
foreigner. This led to the outbreak of the French and Indian War, which
was waged vigorously for five years, until New France fell, and the
English obtained control of all Canada and that portion of the continent
lying between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi.

As early as 1748, backwoodsmen from Pennsylvania had made a small
settlement on New River, just west of the Alleghanies--a settlement
which the Boones must have visited, as it lay upon the road to the
Yadkin; and in the same season several adventurous Virginians hunted and
made land-claims in Kentucky and Tennessee. In the following year there
was formed for Western fur trading and colonizing purposes, the Ohio
Company, composed of wealthy Virginians, among them two brothers of
George Washington. In 1753 French soldiers built a little log fort on
French Creek, a tributary of the Alleghany; and, despite Virginia's
protest, delivered by young Major Washington, were planning to erect
another at the forks of the Ohio, where Pittsburg now is. Thither
Washington went, in the succeeding year, with a body of Virginia
militiamen, to construct an English stockade at the forks; but the
French defeated him in the Great Meadows hard by and themselves erected
the fort. It is thought by some writers that young Boone, then twenty
years of age, served in the Pennsylvania militia which protected the
frontier from the Indian forays which succeeded this episode. A year
later (1755) the inexperienced General Braddock, fresh from England, set
out, with Washington upon his staff, to teach a lesson to these
Frenchmen who had intruded upon land claimed by the colony of Virginia.

In Braddock's little army were a hundred North Carolina frontiersmen,
under Captain Hugh Waddell; their wagoner and blacksmith was Daniel
Boone. His was one of those heavily laden baggage-wagons which, history
tells us, greatly impeded the progress of the English, and contributed
not a little to the terrible disaster which overtook the column in the
ravine of Turtle Creek, only a few miles from Pittsburg. The
baggage-train was the center of a fierce attack from Indians, led by
French officers, and many drivers were killed. Young Boone, however, cut
the traces of his team, and mounting a horse, fortunately escaped by
flight. Behind him the Indian allies of the French, now unchecked, laid
waste the panic-stricken frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia. But the
Yadkin, which Boone soon reached, was as yet unscarred; the Northern
tribes were busied in the tide of intercolonial warfare, and the
Catawbas and Cherokees thus far remained steadfast to their old-time
promises of peace.

Daniel was now a man, full-grown. He had brought home with him not only
some knowledge of what war meant, but his imagination had become heated
by a new passion--the desire to explore as well as to hunt. While upon
the campaign he had fallen in with another adventurous soul, John Finley
by name, who fired his heart with strange tales of lands and game to the
west of the mountains. Finley was a Scotch-Irishman of roving
tendencies, who had emigrated to Pennsylvania and joined a colony of his
compatriots. As early as 1752 he had become a fur-trader. In the course
of his rambles many perilous adventures befell him in the Kentucky
wilds, into which he had penetrated as far as the Falls of the Ohio,
where Louisville is now built. Hurrying, with other woodsmen, to
Braddock's support, he enrolled himself under George Croghan, a famous
trader to the Indians. But the expert services of Croghan and his men,
who, well understanding the methods of savages upon the war-path,
offered to serve as scouts, were coldly rejected by Braddock, who soon
had occasion to regret that he had not taken their advice.

Finley found in the Yadkin wagoner a kindred spirit, and suggested to
him with eagerness a method of reaching Kentucky by following the trail
of the buffaloes and the Shawnese, northwestward through Cumberland Gap.
To reach this hunter's paradise, to which Finley had pointed the way,
was now Boone's daily dream.


FOOTNOTE:

[4] John and James remained, and lived and died in Oley.




CHAPTER III

LIFE ON THE BORDER


It was many years before Daniel Boone realized his dream of reaching
Kentucky. Such an expedition into the far-off wilderness could not be
lightly undertaken; its hardships and dangers were innumerable; and the
way thither from the forks of the Yadkin was not as easily found,
through this perplexing tangle of valleys and mountains, as Finley had
supposed. His own route had doubtless been over the Ohio Company's pass
from the upper waters of the Potomac to a tributary of the Monongahela.

Another reason caused Daniel long to linger near his home. A half-dozen
years before the Boones reached the Yadkin country there had located
here a group of several related families, the Bryans, originally from
Ireland. Pennsylvanians at first, they had, as neighbors crowded them,
drifted southwestward into the Valley of Virginia; and finally, keeping
well ahead of other settlers, established themselves at the forks of the
Yadkin. They took kindly to the Boones, the two groups intermarried, and
both were in due course pioneers of Kentucky. Rebecca, the daughter of
Joseph Bryan, was fifteen years of age when Daniel first read his fate
in her shining black eyes. In the spring following his return from
Braddock's slaughter-pen he led her to the altar, the ceremony being
performed by old Squire Boone--farmer, weaver, blacksmith, and now
justice of the peace for Rowan County.

An historian of the border, who had studied well the family traditions,
thus describes Daniel and Rebecca at the time when they set forth
together upon the journey of life: "Behold that young man, exhibiting
such unusual firmness and energy of character, five feet eight inches in
height, with broad chest and shoulders, his form gradually tapering
downward to his extremities; his hair moderately black; blue eyes arched
with yellowish eyebrows; his lips thin, with a mouth peculiarly wide; a
countenance fair and ruddy, with a nose a little bordering on the Roman
order. Such was Daniel Boone, now past twenty-one, presenting altogether
a noble, manly, prepossessing appearance.... Rebecca Bryan, whose brow
had now been fanned by the breezes of seventeen summers, was, like
Rebecca of old, 'very fair to look upon,' with jet-black hair and eyes,
complexion rather dark, and something over the common size of her sex;
her whole demeanor expressive of her childlike artlessness, pleasing in
her address, and unaffectedly kind in all her deportment. Never was
there a more gentle, affectionate, forbearing creature than this same
fair youthful bride of the Yadkin." In the annals of the frontier, as
elsewhere, all brides are fair and grooms are manly; but, allowing for
the natural enthusiasm of hero-worshipers, we may, from the abundance of
testimony to that effect, at least conclude that Daniel and Rebecca
Boone were a well-favored couple, fit to rear a family of sturdy
borderers.

It was neither the day nor the place for expensive trousseaus and
wedding journeys. After a hilarious wedding-feast, Boone and his wife,
with scanty equipment, immediately commenced their hard task of winning
a livelihood from the soil and the forest. At first occupying a rude log
cabin in his father's yard, they soon afterward acquired some level land
of their own, lying upon Sugar Tree, a tributary of Dutchman's Creek, in
the Bryan settlement, a few miles north of Squire Boone's. All of this
neighborhood lies within what is now Davie County, still one of the
richest farming districts in North Carolina. Save when driven out by
Indian alarms and forays, they here lived quietly for many years.

The pioneers in the then back country, along the eastern foot-hills of
the Alleghanies, led a rough, primitive life, such as is hardly possible
to-day, when there is no longer any frontier within the United States,
and but few districts are so isolated as to be more than two or three
days' journey from a railway. Most of them, however, had been bred, as
were the Boones and the Bryans, to the rude experiences of the border.
With slight knowledge of books, they were accustomed to living in the
simplest manner, and from childhood were inured to the hardships and
privations incident to great distance from the centers of settlement;
they possessed the virtues of hospitality and neighborliness, and were
hardy, rugged, honest-hearted folk, admirably suited to their
self-appointed task of forcing back the walls of savagery, in order that
civilization might cover the land. We may well honor them for the great
service that they rendered to mankind.

The dress of a backwoodsman like Daniel Boone was a combination of
Indian and civilized attire. A long hunting-shirt, of coarse cloth or of
dressed deerskins, sometimes with an ornamental collar, was his
principal garment; drawers and leggings of like material were worn; the
feet were encased in moccasins of deerskin--soft and pliant, but cold in
winter, even when stuffed with deer's hair or dry leaves, and so spongy
as to be no protection against wet feet, which made every hunter an
early victim to rheumatism. Hanging from the belt, which girt the
hunting-shirt, were the powder-horn, bullet-pouch, scalping-knife, and
tomahawk; while the breast of the shirt served as a generous pocket for
food when the hunter or warrior was upon the trail. For head-covering,
the favorite was a soft cap of coonskin, with the bushy tail dangling
behind; but Boone himself despised this gear, and always wore a hat. The
women wore huge sunbonnets and loose gowns of home-made cloth; they
generally went barefoot in summer, but wore moccasins in winter.

Daniel Boone's cabin was a simple box of logs, reared in "cob-house"
style, the chinks stuffed with moss and clay, with a door and perhaps
but a single window. Probably there was but one room below, with a low
attic under the rafters, reached by a ladder. A great outside chimney,
built either of rough stones or of small logs, coated on the inside with
clay mortar and carefully chinked with the same, was built against one
end of this rude house. In the fireplace, large enough for logs five or
six feet in length, there was a crane from which was hung the iron pot
in which the young wife cooked simple meals of corn-mush, pumpkins,
squashes, beans, potatoes, and pork, or wild meat of many kinds, fresh
and dried; in a bake-kettle, laid upon the live coals, she made the
bread and corn pone, or fried her steaks, which added variety to the
fare.

Dishes and other utensils were few--some pewter plates, forks, and
spoons; wooden bowls and trenchers, with gourds and hard-shelled
squashes for drinking-mugs. For knife, Boone doubtless used his
belt-weapon, and scorned the crock plates, now slowly creeping into the
valley, as calculated to dull its edge. Over the fireplace deer's horns
served as rests for his gun. Into the log wall were driven great wooden
pegs, hanging from which flitches of dried and smoked bacon, venison,
and bear's-meat mingled freely with the family's scanty wardrobe.

With her cooking and rude mending, her moccasin-making, her distaff and
loom for making cloths, her occasional plying of the hoe in the small
vegetable patch, and her ever-present care of the children and dairy,
Rebecca Boone was abundantly occupied.

  [Illustration: BOONE'S POWDER-HORN AND BAKE-KETTLE.
    In possession of Wisconsin State Historical Society. The horn once
    belonged to Daniel's brother Israel, and bears the initials "I B".]

In these early years of married life Daniel proved a good husbandman,
planting and garnering his crops with regularity, and pasturing a few
scrawny cattle and swine upon the wild lands adjoining his farm.
Doubtless at times he did smithy-work for the neighbors and took a
hand at the loom, as had his father and grandfather before him.
Sometimes he was engaged with his wagon in the caravans which each
autumn found their way from the Yadkin and the other mountain valleys
down to the Atlantic cities, carrying furs to market; it was as yet too
early in the history of the back country for the cattle-raisers to send
their animals to the coast. In the Valley of Virginia, hemmed in upon
the east by the Blue Ridge, packhorses were alone used in this traffic,
for the mountain paths were rough and narrow; but wagons could be
utilized in the more southern districts. The caravans brought back to
the pioneers salt, iron, cloths, and a few other manufactured goods.
This annual expedition over, Boone was free to go upon long hunts in the
forest, where he cured great stores of meat for his family and prepared
the furs for market.

The backwoodsmen of the Yadkin had few machines to assist them in their
labor, and these were of the simplest sort. Practically, every settler
was his own mechanic--although some men became, in certain lines, more
expert than their neighbors, and to them fell such work for the entire
settlement. Grinding corn into meal, or cracking it into hominy, were,
as usual with primitive peoples, tasks involving the most machinery.
Rude mortars and pestles, some of the latter ingeniously worked by means
of springy "sweeps," were commonly seen; a device something like a
nutmeg-grater was often used when the corn was soft; two circular
millstones, worked by hand, were effective, and there were some operated
by water-power.

Medicine was at a crude stage, many of the so-called cures being as old
as Egypt, while others were borrowed from the Indians. The borderers
firmly believed in the existence of witches; bad dreams, eclipses of the
sun, the howling of dogs, and the croaking of ravens, were sure to bring
disasters in their train.

Their sports laid stress on physical accomplishments--great strength,
dexterity with the rifle, hunting, imitating the calls of wild birds and
beasts, throwing the tomahawk, running, jumping, wrestling, dancing,
and horse-racing; they were also fond, as they gathered around one
another's great fireplaces in the long winter evenings, of story-telling
and dramatic recitation. Some of the wealthier members of this primitive
society owned negro slaves, to whom, sometimes, they were cruel, freely
using the whip upon both women and men. Indeed, in their own frequent
quarrels fierce brutality was sometimes used, adversaries in a
fist-fight being occasionally maimed or otherwise disfigured for life.

There was, for a long time, "neither law nor gospel" upon this far-away
frontier. Justices of the peace had small authority. Preachers were at
first unknown. Many of the borderers were Presbyterians, and others
Quakers; but under such social conditions these were little else than
names. Nevertheless, there was a sound public sentiment among these
rude, isolated people, who were a law unto themselves. They respected
and honored candor, honesty, hospitality, regular habits, and good
behavior generally; and very severe were the punishments with which
they visited offenders. If a man acted as a coward in time of war,
shirked his full measure of duty to the public, failed to care for his
family, was careless about his debts, stole from his neighbors, was
needlessly profane, or failed to treat women respectfully, he was either
shunned by his fellows or forced to leave the settlement.

Amid such surroundings and of such stuff was Daniel Boone in the days
when he was living uneventfully in the valley of the Yadkin as farmer,
blacksmith, wagoner, and hunter, before the Indian wars and his
explorations west of the long-shadowed mountain-range made of him a
popular hero.




CHAPTER IV

RED MAN AGAINST WHITE MAN


The borderers in the Valley of Virginia and on the western highlands of
the Carolinas were largely engaged in raising horses, cattle, sheep, and
hogs, which grazed at will upon the broad slopes of the eastern
foot-hills of the Alleghanies, most of them being in as wild a state as
the great roving herds now to be seen upon the semi-arid plains of the
far West. Indeed, there are some strong points of resemblance between
the life of the frontier herdsman of the middle of the eighteenth
century and that of the "cow" ranchers of our own day, although the most
primitive conditions now existing would have seemed princely to Daniel
Boone. The annual round-up, the branding of young stock, the sometimes
deadly disputes between herdsmen, and the autumnal drive to market, are
features in common.

With the settlement of the valleys and the steady increase in the
herds, it was necessary each season to find new pastures. Thus the
herdsmen pushed farther and farther into the wilderness to the south and
west, and actually crossed the mountains at many points. Even before the
arrival of the Boones, the Bryans had frequently, toward the end of
summer, as the lower pastures thinned, driven their stock to a distance
of sixty and seventy miles to green valleys lying between the western
buttresses of the mountain wall.

This gradual pressure upon the hunting-grounds of the Cherokees and the
Catawbas was not unnoticed by the tribesmen. There had long been heard
deep mutterings, especially by the former, who were well-disposed toward
the ever-meddling French; but until the year of Daniel Boone's wedding
the southern frontiers had not known an Indian uprising.

The year previous (1755) the Cherokees had given reluctant permission to
the whites to build two posts in their country for the protection of the
frontiers against the French, who, with their Indian allies, were
continually active against the New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia
frontiers, and were known to be attempting the corruption of the
Southern Indians. Fort Prince George was accordingly erected upon the
Savannah River, and Fort Loudon upon the Tennessee. In 1756 Fort Dobbs
was constructed a short distance south of the South Fork of the Yadkin.
These three centers of refuge were upon the extreme southwestern borders
of the English colonies.

These "forts" of the American border would have proved slight defenses
in the presence of an enemy armed with even the lightest artillery, but
were generally sufficient to withstand a foe possessing only muskets and
rifles. Fort Dobbs was an oblong space forty-three by fifty-three feet,
girt by walls about twelve feet high, consisting of double rows of logs
standing on end; earth dug from the ditch which surrounded the fort was
piled against the feet of these palisades, inside and out, to steady
them; they were fastened to one another by wooden pins, and their tops
were sharpened so as to impede those who might seek to climb over. At
the angles of the stockade were blockhouses three stories high, each
story projecting about eighteen inches beyond the one beneath; there
were openings in the floors of the two upper stories to enable the
defenders to fire down upon an enemy which sought to enter below. Along
the inside of one, or perhaps two, of the four walls of the stockade was
a range of cabins--or rather, one long cabin with log partitions--with
the slope of the roof turned inward to the square; this furnished a
platform for the garrison, who, protected by the rampart of pointed
logs, could fire into the attacking party. Other platforms were
bracketed against the walls not backed by cabins. There was a large
double gate made of thick slabs and so situated as to be guarded by the
blockhouses on either corner; this was the main entrance, but another
and smaller gate furnished a rear exit to and entrance from the spring
hard by. Blockhouses, cabins, and walls were all amply provided with
port-holes; Fort Dobbs had capacity for a hundred men-at-arms to fire at
one volley. Destructive fusillades could be maintained from within, and
everywhere the walls were bullet-proof; but good marksmen in the
attacking force could work great havoc by firing through the port-holes,
and thus quietly picking off those who chanced to be in range.
Fortunately for the whites few Indians became so expert as this.

Upon the arrival of breathless messengers bringing news of the approach
of hostile Indians, the men, women, and children of a wide district
would flock into such a fort as this. "I well remember," says Dr.
Doddridge in his Notes on Virginia, "that when a little boy the family
were sometimes waked up in the dead of night by an express with a report
that the Indians were at hand. The express came softly to the door or
back window, and by gentle tapping waked the family; this was easily
done, as an habitual fear made us ever watchful and sensible to the
slightest alarm. The whole family were instantly in motion: my father
seized his gun and other implements of war; my stepmother waked up and
dressed the children as well as she could; and being myself the oldest
of the children, I had to take my share of the burthens to be carried
to the fort. There was no possibility of getting a horse in the night to
aid us in removing to the fort; besides the little children, we caught
up what articles of clothing and provisions we could get hold of in the
dark, for we durst not light a candle or even stir the fire. All this
was done with the utmost despatch and the silence of death; the greatest
care was taken not to awaken the youngest child; to the rest it was
enough to say _Indian_, and not a whimper was heard afterwards. Thus it
often happened that the whole number of families belonging to a fort,
who were in the evening at their homes, were all in their little
fortress before the dawn of the next morning. In the course of the
succeeding day their household furniture was brought in by parties of
the men under arms."

The large public frontier forts, such as we have described, did not
house all of the backwoodsmen. There were some who, either because of
great distance or other reasons, erected their own private defenses; or,
in many cases, several isolated families united in such a structure.
Often these were but single blockhouses, with a few outlying cabins. It
was difficult to induce some of the more venturesome folk to enter the
forts unless Indians were actually in the settlement; they took great
risks in order to care for their crops and stock until the last moment;
and, soon tiring of the monotony of life within the fort cabins, would
often leave the refuge before the danger was really over. "Such
families," reports Doddridge, "gave no small amount of trouble by
creating frequent necessities of sending runners to warn them of their
danger, and sometimes parties of our men to protect them during their
removal."

For the first few years Fort Dobbs was but little used. There was,
however, much uneasiness. The year 1757 had, all along the line, been
disastrous to English arms in the North, and the Cherokees became
increasingly insolent. The next year they committed several deadly
assaults in the Valley of Virginia, but themselves suffered greatly in
return. The French, at last driven from Fort Duquesne (Pittsburg), had
retreated down the Ohio River to Fort Massac, in southern Illinois, and
sent their emissaries far and near to stir up the Indians west of the
mountains. The following April (1759) the Yadkin and Catawba Valleys
were raided by the Cherokees, with the usual results of ruined crops,
burned farm-buildings, and murdered households; not a few of the
borderers being carried off as prisoners into the Indian country, there
generally to suffer either slavery or slow death from the most horrid
forms of torture. The Catawbas, meanwhile, remained faithful to their
white friends.

Until this outbreak the Carolinas had prospered greatly. Hundreds of
settlers had poured in from the more exposed northern valleys, and the
western uplands were now rapidly being dotted over with clearings and
log cabins. The Indian forays at once created a general panic throughout
this region, heretofore considered safe. Most of the Yadkin families,
together with English fur-traders who hurried in from the woods, huddled
within the walls either of Fort Dobbs or of small neighborhood forts
hastily constructed; but many others, in their fright, fled with all
their possessions to settlements on or near the Atlantic coast.

Among the latter were old Squire Boone and his wife, Daniel and Rebecca,
with their two sons,[5] and several other families of Bryans and Boones,
although some of both names preferred to remain at Fort Dobbs. The
fugitives scattered to various parts of Virginia and Maryland--Squire
going to Georgetown, now in the District of Columbia, where he lived for
three years and then returned to the Yadkin; while Daniel's family went
in their two-horse wagon to Culpeper County, in eastern Virginia. The
settlers there employed him with his wagon in hauling tobacco to
Fredericksburg, the nearest market-town.

The April forays created almost as much consternation at Charleston as
on the Yadkin. Governor Lyttleton, of South Carolina, sent out fifteen
hundred men to overcome the Cherokees, who now pretended to be grieved
at the acts of their young hot-bloods and patched up a peace.
Fur-traders, eager to renew their profitable barter, hastened back into
the western forests. But very soon their confidence was shattered, for
the Indians again dug up the tomahawk. Their war-parties infested every
road and trail; most of the traders, with trains of packhorses to carry
their goods and furs, fell an easy prey to their forest customers; and
Forts Loudon, Dobbs, and Prince George were besieged. By January (1760)
the entire southwest border was once more a scene of carnage.

Captain Waddell, our old friend of Braddock's campaign, commanded at
Fort Dobbs, with several Bryans and Boones in his little garrison. Here
the Cherokees were repulsed with great loss. At Fort Prince George the
country round about was sadly harried by the enemy, who finally
withdrew. Fort Loudon, however, had one of the saddest experiences in
the thrilling annals of the frontier.

In April General Amherst, of the British Army, sent Colonel Montgomery
against the Cherokees with a formidable column composed of twelve
hundred regular troops--among them six hundred kilted Highlanders--to
whom were attached seven hundred Carolina backwoods rangers under
Waddell, with some Catawba allies. They laid waste with fire and sword
all the Cherokee villages on the Keowee and Tennessee Rivers, including
the growing crops and magazines of corn. The soldiers killed seventy
Indians, captured forty prisoners, and reduced the greater part of the
tribe to the verge of starvation.

The Cherokees were good fighters, and soon had their revenge. On the
morning of the twenty-seventh of June the army was proceeding along a
rough road on the southern bank of the Little Tennessee, where on one
side is a sheer descent to the stream, on the other a lofty cliff. Here
it was ambuscaded by over six hundred savage warriors under the noted
chief Silouee. In the course of an engagement lasting several hours the
whites lost twenty killed and sixty wounded, and the Cherokee casualties
were perhaps greater. Montgomery desperately beat his way to a level
tract, but in the night hastily withdrew, and did not stop until he
reached Charleston. Despite the entreaties of the Assembly, he at once
retired to the North with his little army, and left the frontiers of
Carolina open to the assaults of the merciless foe.

The siege of Fort Loudon was now pushed by the Cherokees with vigor. It
had already withstood several desperate and protracted assaults. But the
garrison contrived to exist for several months, almost wholly upon the
active sympathy of several Indian women who were married to frontiersmen
shut up within the walls. The dusky wives frequently contrived to
smuggle food into the fort despite the protests of the Indian leaders.
Women, however, despite popular notions to the contrary, have a powerful
influence in Indian camps; and they but laughed the chiefs to scorn,
saying that they would suffer death rather than refuse assistance to
their white husbands.

This relief, however, furnished but a precarious existence. Receiving no
help from the settlements, which were cut off from communication with
them, and weak from irregular food, the garrison finally surrendered on
promise of a safe-conduct to their fellows in the East. Early in the
morning of August ninth they marched out--men, women, and children to
the number of several hundred--leaving behind them their cannon,
ammunition, and spare arms. The next day, upon their sorry march, they
were set upon by a bloodthirsty mob of seven hundred Cherokees. Many
were killed outright, others surrendered merely to meet torture and
death. Finally, after several hours of horror, a friendly chief
succeeded, by browbeating his people and by subterfuge, in saving the
lives of about two hundred persons, who in due time and after great
suffering, reached the relief party which had for several months been
making its way thither from Virginia; but it had been delayed by storms
and high water in the mountain streams, and was now seeking needed rest
in a camp at the head of the Holston. It is recorded that during the
heartrending mêlée several other Indians risked their lives for white
friends, performing deeds of heroism which deserve to be remembered.

Although New France was now tottering to its fall, the French officers
at Fort Massac still continued, with their limited resources, to keep
alive the Cherokee war spirit. French outrages occurred throughout the
autumn and early winter of 1760. At nearly all of the forts, large and
small, skirmishes took place, some of these giving occasion for
exhibitions of rare enterprise and courage on the part of the garrisons,
women and men alike.

During the winter, the governors of Virginia, North Carolina, and South
Carolina agreed upon a joint campaign against the hostiles. The southern
column, comprising twenty-six hundred men, chiefly Highlanders, was
under Lieutenant-Colonel James Grant. Starting early in June, they
carried with them seven hundred packhorses, four hundred head of cattle,
and a large train of baggage and supplies. Their route from Fort Prince
George to the lower and middle Cherokee towns on the Little Tennessee
lay through a rough, mountainous country; high water, storms, intensely
warm weather, the lack of tents, and bruises from rocks and briers,
caused the troops to suffer greatly. After heavy losses from ambuscades
in narrow defiles, they finally reached their destination, and spent a
month in burning and ravaging fifteen or more large villages and
fourteen hundred acres of growing corn, and in driving five thousand
men, women, and children into the hills to starve. Wrote one of the
pious participators in this terrible work of devastation: "Heaven has
blest us with the greatest success; we have finished our business as
completely as the most sanguine of us could have wished." The Cherokees,
completely crushed, humbly begged for peace, which was granted upon
liberal terms and proved to be permanent.

The northern column was composed of backwoodsmen from Virginia and North
Carolina, under Colonel William Byrd, an experienced campaigner. Byrd
was much hampered for both men and supplies, and accomplished little. He
appears to have largely spent his time in making roads and building
blockhouses--laborious methods ill-fitted for Indian warfare, and loudly
criticized by Waddell, who joined him with a regiment of five hundred
North Carolinians, among whom was Daniel Boone, now returned to the
Yadkin. Waddell and Boone had experienced the folly of this sort of
thing in Braddock's ill-fated campaign. As a result of dissatisfaction,
Byrd resigned, and Colonel Stephen succeeded him. The force, now
composed of about twelve hundred men, pushed on to the Long Island of
Holston River, where they were met by four hundred Cherokees, who,
brought to their knees by Grant, likewise sought peace from Stephen.
Articles were accordingly signed on the nineteenth of November. The
North Carolina men returned home; but a portion of the Virginia regiment
remained as a winter garrison for Fort Robinson, as the new fort at Long
Island was called.

Now that the Yadkin region has, after its sad experience, been blessed
with a promise of peace, we may well pause, briefly to consider the
ethics of border warfare. This life-history will, to its close, have
much to do with Indian forays and white reprisals, and it is well that
we should consider them dispassionately.

The Cherokees were conducting a warfare in defense of their villages,
fields, and hunting-grounds, which were being rapidly destroyed by the
inrush of white settlers, who seemed to think that the Indians had no
rights worth consideration. Encouraged by the French, who deemed the
English intruders on lands which they had first explored, the American
aborigines seriously thought that they might stem the tide of English
settlement. It was impossible that they should win, for civilization has
in such cases ever triumphed over savagery; but that they should make
the attempt was to be expected from a high-spirited race trained to war.
We can but sympathize with and honor them for making their several stout
stands against the European wave which was ultimately to sweep them from
their native land.[6] King Philip, Opecancano, Pontiac, Tecumseh, Red
Jacket, Sitting Bull, Captain Jack, were types of successive leaders
who, at various stages of our growth westward, have stood as bravely as
any Spartan hero to contest our all-conquering advance.

It is the time-honored custom of historians of the frontier to consider
Indians as all wrong and whites as all right; and that, of course, was
the opinion of the borderers themselves--of Daniel Boone and all the men
of his day. But we are now far enough removed from these events, and the
fierce passions they engendered, to see them more clearly. The Indian
was a savage and fought like a savage--cruel, bloodthirsty, unrelenting,
treacherous, seldom a respecter of childhood, of age, or of women. But
one can not read closely the chronicles of border warfare without
discovering that civilized men at times could, in fighting savages,
descend quite as low in the scale as they, in bloodthirstiness and
treachery. Some of the most atrocious acts in the pioneer history of
Kentucky and the Middle West were performed by whites; and some of the
most Christianlike deeds--there were many such on both sides--were
those of painted savages.

It is needless to blame either of the contending races; their conflict
was inevitable. The frontiersman was generally unlettered, and used,
without ceremony, to overcoming the obstacles which nature set in his
path; one more patient could not have tamed the wilderness as quickly as
he. His children often rose to high positions as scholars, statesmen,
and diplomats. But he himself was a diamond in the rough, and not
accustomed to nice ethical distinctions. To his mind the Indian was an
inferior being, if not a child of Satan; he was not making the best use
of the soil; his customs and habits of thought were such as to repel the
British mind, however much they may have attracted the French. The
tribesmen, whom the pioneer could not and would not understand, stood in
his way, hence must be made to go or to die in his tracks. When the
savage, quick to resentment, struck back, the turbulent passions of the
overbearing white were aroused, and with compound interest he repaid
the blow. Upon the theory that the devil must be fought with fire, the
borderer not seldom adopted methods of reprisal that outdid the savage
in brutality.

The red man fighting, after his own wild standards, for all that he held
most dear, and the white man, who brooks no opposition from an inferior
race, hitting back with a fury sometimes increased by fear--such, in
brief, is the blood-stained history of the American border.


FOOTNOTES:

[5] The children of Daniel Boone were as follows: James (born in 1757),
Israel (1759), Susannah (1760), Jemima (1762), Lavinia (1766), Rebecca
(1768), Daniel Morgan (1769), John B. (1773), and Nathan (1780). The
four daughters all married and died in Kentucky. The two eldest sons
were killed by Indians, the three younger emigrated to Missouri.

[6] "I had rather receive the blessing of one poor Cherokee, as he casts
his last look back upon his country, for having, though in vain,
attempted to prevent his banishment, than to sleep beneath the marble of
all the Cæsars."--_Extract from a speech of Theodore Frelinghuysen, of
New Jersey, delivered in the United States Senate, April 7, 1830._

"I am not aware that any community has a right to force another to be
civilized."--_John Stuart Mill._




CHAPTER V

KENTUCKY REACHED AT LAST


When Daniel Boone returned from tidewater Virginia to the Yadkin region
is not now known. It is probable that the monotony of hauling tobacco to
market at a time when his old neighbors were living in a state of panic
palled upon a man who loved excitement and had had a taste of Indian
warfare. It has been surmised that he served with the Rowan rangers upon
Lyttleton's campaign, alluded to in the previous chapter, and possibly
aided in defending Fort Dobbs, or served with Waddell under Montgomery.
That he was, some time in 1760, in the mountains west of the Yadkin upon
either a hunt or a scout, or both, appears to be well established; for
up to a few years ago there was still standing upon the banks of Boone's
Creek, a small tributary of the Watauga in eastern Tennessee, a tree
upon whose smooth bark had been rudely carved this characteristic
legend, undoubtedly by the great hunter himself: "D Boon cilled A BAR on
this tree year 1760."[7]

We have already seen that he accompanied Waddell in 1761, when that
popular frontier leader reenforced Colonel Byrd's expedition against the
Cherokees. Upon Waddell's return to North Carolina his leather-shirted
followers dispersed to their homes, and Boone was again enabled to
undertake a protracted hunt, no longer disturbed by fear that in his
absence Indians might raid the settlement; for hunting was now his chief
occupation, his wife and children conducting the farm, which held second
place in his affections. Thus we see how close the borderers came to the
savage life wherein men are the warriors and hunters and women the
crop-gatherers and housekeepers. Organizing a party of kindred
spirits--a goodly portion of the Yadkin settlers were more hunters than
farmers--Boone crossed the mountains and roamed through the valleys of
southwest Virginia and eastern Tennessee, being especially delighted
with the Valley of the Holston, where game was found to be unusually
abundant. At about the same time another party of nineteen hunters went
upon a similar expedition into the hills and valleys westward of the
Yadkin, penetrating well into Tennessee, and being absent for eighteen
months.

  [Illustration: A BOONE TREE.
    Tree on Boone's Creek, Tenn., bearing Daniel Boone's autograph. (See
    pp. 55, 56.)]

We must not conclude, from the passionate devotion to hunting exhibited
by these backwoodsmen of the eighteenth century, that they led the same
shiftless, aimless lives as are followed by the "poor whites" found in
some of the river-bottom communities of our own day, who are in turn
farmers, fishermen, or hunters, as fancy or the seasons dictate. It must
be remembered that farming upon the Virginia and Carolina uplands was,
in the pioneer period, crude as to methods and insignificant as to
crops. The principal wealth of the well-to-do was in herds of horses and
cattle which grazed in wild meadows, and in droves of long-nosed swine
feeding upon the roots and acorns of the hillside forests. Among the
outlying settlers much of the family food came from the woods, and
often months would pass without bread being seen inside the cabin walls.
Besides the live stock of the richer folk, whose herds were driven to
market, annual caravans to tidewater towns carried furs and skins won by
the real backwoodsmen, who lived on the fringe of the wilderness. For
lack of money accounts were kept in pelts, and with these were purchased
rifles, ammunition, iron, and salt. It was, then, to the forests that
the borderers largely looked for their sustenance. Hence those long
hunts, from which the men of the Yadkin, unerring marksmen, would come
back laden with great packs of pelts for the markets, and dried venison,
bear's meat, and bear's oil for their family larders. Naturally, this
wandering, adventurous life, spiced with excitement in many forms,
strongly appealed to the rough, hardy borderers, and unfitted them for
other occupations. Under such conditions farming methods were not likely
to improve, nor the arts of civilization to prosper; for the hunter not
only best loved the wilderness, but settlement narrowed his
hunting-grounds. Thus it was that the frontiersman of the Daniel Boone
type, Indian hater as he was, had at heart much the same interests as
the savage whom he was seeking to supplant. It was simply a question as
to which hunter, red or white, should occupy the forest; to neither was
settlement welcome.

With the opening of 1762 the southwest border began to be reoccupied.
The abandoned log cabins once more had fires lighted upon their hearths,
at the base of the great outside chimneys of stones and mud-plastered
boughs; the deserted clearings, which had become choked with weeds and
underbrush in the five years of Indian warfare, were again cultivated by
their reassured owners. Among the returned refugees were Daniel's
parents, Squire and Sarah Boone, who had ridden on horseback overland
all the way from Maryland. Three years later Squire Boone died, one of
the most highly esteemed men in the valley.

The Yadkin country was more favored than some other portions of the
backwoods of North Carolina. Pontiac's uprising (1763) against the
English, who had now supplanted the French in Canada and in the
wilderness between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi, led some of the
Southern tribes again to attack the frontiers of the Southwest; but they
were defeated before the Yadkin was affected by this fresh panic.

The Indian wars had lasted so long that the entire border had become
demoralized. Of course not all the people in the backwoods were of good
character. Not a few of them had been driven out from the more thickly
settled parts of the country because of crimes or of bad reputation; and
some of the fur-traders who lived upon the edge of the settlement were
sorry rogues. When the panic-stricken people were crowded within the
narrow walls of the forts they could not work. Many of them found this
life of enforced idleness to their liking, and fell into the habit of
making secret expeditions to plunder abandoned houses and to steal
uncared-for live stock. When peace came these marauders had acquired a
distaste for honest labor; leaving the forts, they pillaged right and
left, and horse-stealing became an especially prevalent frontier vice.

Justice on the border was as yet insufficiently organized. Some of the
Virginia and Carolina magistrates were themselves rascals, whose
decisions could be purchased by criminals. Many of the best citizens,
therefore, formed associations whose members were called "regulators."
They bound themselves to pursue, arrest, and try criminals, and to
punish them by whipping, also by expulsion from the neighborhood. The
law-breakers, on the other hand, organized in defense, and popular
opinion was divided between the two elements; for there were some good
people who did not like the arbitrary methods of the regulators, and
insisted upon every man being given a regular trial by jury. In South
Carolina, particularly, the settlers were much exercised on this
question, and arrayed themselves into opposing bands, armed to carry out
their respective views. For a time civil war was feared; but finally,
after five years of disturbance, an agreement was reached, efficient
courts were established, and justice triumphed.

Affairs did not reach so serious a stage in North Carolina. Nevertheless
there were several bands of vicious and indolent men, who, entrenched
in the hills, long defied the regulators. One of these parties built a
rude stockaded fort beneath an overhanging cliff in the mountains back
of the Yadkin settlements. They stole horses, cattle, farming utensils;
in fact, anything that they could lay their hands upon. One day they
grew so bold as to kidnap a girl. The settlers, now roused to action,
organized attacking companies, one of them headed by Daniel Boone, and
carried the log fortress of the bandits by storm. The culprits were
taken to Salisbury jail and the clan broken up.

The rapid growth of the country soon made game scarce in Boone's
neighborhood. Not only did the ever-widening area of cleared fields
destroy the cover, but there were, of course, more hunters than before.
Thus our Nimrod, who in his early manhood cared for nothing smaller than
deer, was compelled to take extended trips in his search for
less-frequented places. It was not long before he had explored all the
mountains and valleys within easy reach, and become familiar with the
views from every peak in the region, many of them five and six thousand
feet in height.

As early as 1764-65 Boone was in the habit of taking with him, upon
these trips near home, his little son James, then seven or eight years
of age. This was partly for company, but mainly for the lad's education
as a hunter. Frequently they would spend several days together in the
woods during the autumn and early winter--the deer-hunting season--and
often, when in "open" camps, were overtaken by snow-storms. On such
occasions the father would keep the boy warm by clasping him to his
bosom as they lay with feet toward the glowing camp-fire. As the
well-taught lad grew into early manhood these two companions would be
absent from home for two and three months together, always returning
well laden with the spoils of the chase.

Hunters in Boone's day had two kinds of camp--"open" when upon the move,
which meant sleeping in their blankets upon the ground wherever darkness
or weariness overtook them; "closed" where remaining for some time in a
locality. A closed camp consisted of a rude hut of logs or poles, the
front entirely open, the sides closely chinked with moss, and the roof
covered with blankets, boughs, or bark, sloping down to a back-log. In
times when the Indians were not feared a fire was kept up throughout the
night, in front, in order to warm the enclosure. Upon a bed of hemlock
boughs or of dried leaves the hunters lay with heads to the back-log and
stockinged feet to the blaze, for their spongy moccasins were hung to
dry.[8] Such a camp, often called a "half-faced cabin," was carefully
placed so that it might be sheltered by neighboring hills from the cold
north and west winds. It was fairly successful as a protection from rain
and snow, and sometimes served a party of hunters throughout several
successive seasons; but it was ill-fitted for the coldest weather. Boone
frequently occupied a shelter of this kind in the woods of Kentucky.

During the last four months of 1765 Boone and seven companions went on
horseback to the new colony of Florida with a view to moving thither if
they found it suited to their tastes. Wherever possible, they stopped
overnight at borderers' cabins upon the frontiers of the Carolinas and
Georgia. But such opportunities did not always occur; they often
suffered from hunger, and once they might have died from starvation but
for the timely succor of a roving band of Seminole Indians. They
explored Florida all the way from St. Augustine to Pensacola, and appear
to have had a rather wretched time of it. The trails were miry from
frequent rains, the number and extent of the swamps appalled them, and
there was not game enough to satisfy a man like Boone, who scorned
alligators. Pensacola, however, so pleased him that he determined to
settle there, and purchased a house and lot which he might in due time
occupy. Upon their return Boone told his wife of his Pensacola venture,
but this sturdy woman of the frontier spurned the idea of moving to a
gameless land. So the town lot was left to take care of itself, and
henceforth the dutiful husband looked only to the West as his model of a
perfect country.

At the close of the French and Indian War there arrived in the Boone
settlement a Scotch-Irishman named Benjamin Cutbirth, aged about
twenty-three years. He was a man of good character and a fine hunter.
Marrying Elizabeth Wilcoxen, a niece of Daniel Boone, he and Boone went
upon long hunts together, and attained that degree of comradeship which
joint life in a wilderness camp is almost certain to produce.

In 1766 several families from North Carolina went to Louisiana,
apparently by sea to New Orleans, and founded an English settlement
above Baton Rouge on the Mississippi River. The news of this event gave
rise to a general desire for exploring the country between the mountains
and the great river. The year following, Cutbirth, John Stuart, John
Baker, and John Ward, all of them young married men on the Yadkin, and
excellent hunters, resolved to perform this feat, and if possible to
discover a region superior to their own valley. They crossed the
mountain range and eventually saw the Mississippi, being, so far as we
know from contemporary documents, the first party of white men to
succeed in this overland enterprise. Possibly fur-traders may have done
so before them, but they left no record to prove it.

Cutbirth and his friends spent a year or two upon the river. In the
autumn they ascended the stream for a considerable distance, also one of
its tributaries, made a stationary camp for the winter, and in the
spring descended to New Orleans, where they sold at good prices their
skins, furs, bear-bacon, bear's oil, buffalo "jerk" (dried meat),
tallow, and dried venison hams. Their expedition down the river was
performed at great risks, for they had many hairbreadth escapes from
snags, river banks shelving in, whirlpools, wind-storms, and Indians.
Their reward, says a chronicler of the day, was "quite a respectable
property;" but while upon their return homeward, overland, they were set
upon by Choctaws, who robbed them of their all.

Meanwhile, Daniel Boone was slow in making up his mind to leave home and
the wife and family whom he dearly loved for so long and perilous a trip
as a journey into the now much-talked-of land of Kentucky. Perhaps,
despite his longings, he might never have gone had affairs upon the
Yadkin remained satisfactory to him. But game, his chief reliance, was
year by year becoming harder to obtain. And the rascally agents of Earl
Granville, the principal landholder of the region, from whom the Boones
had purchased, were pretending to find flaws in the land-titles and
insisting upon the necessity for new deeds, for which large fees were
exacted.

This gave rise to great popular discontent. Boone's protest consisted in
leaving the Sugar Tree settlement and moving northwest for sixty-five
miles toward the head of the Yadkin. His new cabin, a primitive shell of
logs, could still be seen, a few years ago, at the foot of a range of
hills some seven and a half miles above Wilkesboro, in Wilkes County.
After a time, dissatisfied with this location, he moved five miles
farther up the river and about half a mile up Beaver Creek. Again he
changed his mind, choosing his final home on the upper Yadkin, just
above the mouth of Beaver. It was from this beautiful region among the
Alleghany foot-hills, where game and fish were plenty and his swine and
cattle had good range, that Boone, crowded out by advancing
civilization, eventually moved to Kentucky.

In the spring and early summer of 1767 there were fresh outbreaks on the
part of the Indians. Governor Tryon had run a boundary-line between the
back settlements of the Carolinas and the Cherokee hunting-grounds. But
hunters and traders would persist in wandering to the west of this line,
and sometimes they were killed.

In the autumn of that year Daniel Boone and a warm friend, William Hill,
and possibly Squire Boone, determined to seek Kentucky, of which Finley
had told him twelve years before. They crossed the mountain wall, were
in the valleys of the Holston and the Clinch, and reached the head
waters of the West Fork of the Big Sandy. Following down this river for
a hundred miles, determined to find the Ohio, they appear to have struck
a buffalo-path, along which they traveled as far as a salt-lick ten
miles west of the present town of Prestonburg, on a tributary of the
West (or Louisa) Fork of the Sandy, within Floyd County, in the extreme
eastern part of Kentucky.

Caught in a severe snow-storm, they were compelled to camp at this lick
for the entire winter. It proved to be the most profitable station that
they could have selected, for buffaloes and other animals came in large
numbers to lick the brackish soil, and all the hunters had to do was to
"rise, kill, and eat."

Although now considerably west of the Cumberland Mountains, the
explorers were not aware that they were within the famed Kentucky; and
as the country was very hilly, covered with briers which annoyed them
greatly, and altogether forbidding, they despaired of reaching the
promised land by this path, and in the spring returned to the Yadkin.


FOOTNOTES:

[7] Boone had a strong fancy for carving his name and hunting feats upon
trees. His wanderings have very largely been traced by this means.

[8] When Indians were about, moccasins were always tied to the guns so
as to be ready to slip on in case of a night alarm.




CHAPTER VI

ALONE IN THE WILDERNESS


In the winter of 1768-69 a pedler with horse and wagon wandered into the
valley of the upper Yadkin, offering small wares to the settlers' wives.
This was thrifty John Finley, former fur-trader and Indian fighter, who,
thirteen years before, had, as we have seen, fraternized with Boone in
Braddock's ill-fated army on the Monongahela. Finley had, in 1752, in
his trade with the Indians, descended the Ohio in a canoe to the site of
Louisville, accompanied by three or four voyageurs, and, with some of
his dusky customers, traveled widely through the interior of Kentucky.
His glowing descriptions of this beautiful land had inspired Boone to
try to find it. The latter was still sorrowing over his unpromising
expedition by way of the Big Sandy when, by the merest chance, the man
who had fired his imagination knocked at his very door.

Throughout the winter that Finley was Daniel's guest, he and his brother
Squire were ready listeners to the pedler's stories of the over-mountain
country--tales of countless water-fowl, turkeys, deer, elk, and
buffaloes, which doubtless lost nothing in the telling. The two Boones
resolved to try Finley's proposed route by way of Cumberland Gap, and
the fur-trader promised to lead the way.

After the spring crops were in, Finley, Daniel Boone, and the latter's
brother-in-law, John Stuart, started from Daniel's house upon the first
of May. In their employ, as hunters and camp-keepers, were three
neighbors--Joseph Holden, James Mooney, and William Cooley. Each man was
fully armed, clad in the usual deerskin costume of the frontier, and
mounted upon a good horse; blanket or bearskin was strapped on behind
the saddle, together with camp-kettle, a store of salt, and a small
supply of provisions, although their chief food was to be game. Squire
remained to care for the crops of the two families, and agreed to
reenforce the hunters late in the autumn.

Scaling the lofty Blue Ridge, the explorers passed over Stone and Iron
Mountains and reached Holston Valley, whence they proceeded through
Moccasin Gap of Clinch Mountain, and crossed over intervening rivers and
densely wooded hills until they came to Powell's Valley, then the
farthest limit of white settlement. Here they found a hunter's trail
which led them through Cumberland Gap. The "warriors' path"--trodden by
Indian war-parties from across the mountains--was now discovered, and
this they followed by easy stages until at last they reached what is now
called Station Camp Creek, a tributary of the Kentucky River, in Estill
County, Ky.--so named because here was built their principal, or
"station" camp, the center of their operations for many months to come.

While Boone, Finley, and Stuart made frequent explorations, and Boone in
particular ascended numerous lofty hills in order to view the country,
the chief occupation of the party was hunting. Throughout the summer and
autumn deerskins were in their best condition. Other animals were
occasionally killed to afford variety of food, but fur-bearers as a
rule only furnish fine pelts in the winter season. Even in the days of
abundant game the hunter was required to exercise much skill, patience,
and endurance. It was no holiday task to follow this calling. Deer,
especially, were difficult to obtain. The habits of this excessively
cautious animal were carefully studied; the hunter must know how to
imitate its various calls, to take advantage of wind and weather, and to
practise all the arts of strategy.

Deerskins were, all things considered, the most remunerative of all.
When roughly dressed and dried they were worth about a dollar each; as
they were numerous, and a horse could carry for a long distance about a
hundred such skins, the trade was considered profitable in those
primitive times, when dollars were hard to obtain. Pelts of beavers,
found in good condition only in the winter, were worth about two dollars
and a half each, and of otters from three to five dollars. Thus, a
horse-load of beaver furs, when obtainable, was worth about five times
that of a load of deerskins; and if a few otters could be thrown in, the
value was still greater. The skins of buffaloes, bears, and elks were
too bulky to carry for long distances, and were not readily marketable.
A few elk-hides were needed, however, to cut up into harness and straps,
and bear- and buffalo-robes were useful for bedding.

When an animal was killed the hunter skinned it on the spot, and packed
on his back the hide and the best portion of the meat. At night the meat
was smoked or prepared for "jerking," and the skins were scraped and
cured. When collected at the camps, the bales of skins, protected from
the weather by strips of bark, were placed upon high scaffolds, secure
from bears and wolves.

Our Yadkin hunters were in the habit, each day, of dividing themselves
into pairs for company and mutual aid in times of danger, usually
leaving one pair behind as camp-keepers. Boone and Stuart frequently
were companions upon such trips; for the former, being a man of few
words, enjoyed by contrast the talkative, happy disposition of his
friend. Occasionally the entire party, when the game grew timid, moved
for some distance, where they would establish a new camp; but their
headquarters remained at Station Camp, where were kept their principal
skins, furs, and stores. In this way the time passed from June to
December. Boone used to assert, in after years, that these months were
the happiest of his life. The genial climate, the beauty of the country,
and the entire freedom of this wild life, strongly appealed to him. Here
this taciturn but good-natured man, who loved solitary adventure, was
now in his element. Large packs of skins had been obtained by the little
company and stored at Station Camp and their outlying shelters; and
there was now a generous supply of buffalo, bear, and elk meat, venison,
and turkeys, all properly jerked for the winter which was before them,
with buffalo tallow and bear's oil to serve as cooking grease.

Finley and Boone were both aware that Kentucky lay between the warring
tribes of the North and the South; that through it warriors' paths
crossed in several directions; and that this, probably the finest
hunting-field in North America, was a debatable land, frequently fought
over by contending savages--a "dark and bloody ground" indeed. Yet thus
far there had been no signs of Indians, and the Carolina hunters had
almost ceased to think of them.

Toward the close of day on the twenty-second of December, while Boone
and Stuart were ascending a low hill near the Kentucky River, in one of
the most beautiful districts they had seen, they were suddenly
surrounded and captured by a large party of Shawnese horsemen returning
from an autumn hunt on Green River to their homes north of the Ohio. The
two captives were forced to lead the savages to their camps, which were
deliberately plundered, one after the other, of everything in them. The
Shawnese, releasing their prisoners, considerately left with each hunter
just enough supplies to enable him to support himself on the way back to
the settlements. The white men were told what was a fact under existing
treaties with the tribes--treaties, however, of which Boone and his
companions probably knew nothing--that they were trespassing upon Indian
hunting-grounds, and must not come again, or "the wasps and
yellow-jackets will sting you severely."

The others proposed to leave for home at once; but Boone and Stuart,
enraged at having lost their year's work and all that they had brought
into the wilderness, and having no sympathy for Indian treaty rights,
started out to recover their property. After two days they came up with
the Shawnese, and secreting themselves in the bushes until dark,
contrived to regain four or five horses and make off with them. But
they, in turn, were overtaken in two days by the Indians and again made
prisoners. After a week of captivity, in which they were kindly treated,
they effected their escape in the dark and returned to Station Camp.

Their companions, giving them up for lost, had departed toward home, but
were overtaken by the two adventurers. Boone was gratified to find with
them his brother Squire, who, having gathered the fall crops, had come
out with a fresh supply of horses, traps, and ammunition. He had
followed the trail of his predecessors, and in the New River region was
joined by Alexander Neely. Not finding Daniel and Stuart at Station
Camp, and grief-stricken at the report concerning them, he was traveling
homeward with the party.

Daniel, however, who had staked upon this venture almost all that he
owned, did not relish the thought of returning empty-handed, now that
reenforcements had arrived, and determined to stay and seek to regain
his lost fortunes. Squire, Stuart, and Neely concluded also to remain,
and the four were now left behind in the wilderness. On reaching the
Holston Valley, Finley turned northward to seek his relatives in
Pennsylvania; while Holden, Mooney, and Cooley proceeded southeastward
to their Yadkin homes, carrying dismal news of the events attending this
notable exploration of Kentucky.

The quartette promptly abandoned Station Camp as being dangerously near
the warriors' path, and, tradition says, built another on or near the
northern bank of Kentucky River, not far from the mouth of the Red. The
deer season was now over, but beavers and otters were in their prime,
and soon the hunters were enjoying a profitable season. A small canoe
which they built added greatly to their equipment, and they were now
enabled to set their traps throughout a wide region.

Hunting in pairs, Daniel was generally accompanied by Stuart, while
Neely and Squire were partners. In their wanderings the two pairs were
sometimes several days without seeing each other; and frequently
partners would be separated throughout the day, but at night met at some
appointed spot. One day, toward the close of January or early in
February (1770), Stuart did not return to the rendezvous, much to
Boone's alarm. The following day the latter discovered the embers of a
fire, doubtless built by the lost man; but that was all, for Stuart was
seen no more. Five years later Boone came across the bones of his
light-hearted comrade in a hollow sycamore tree upon Rockcastle
River--he recognized them by Stuart's name cut upon his powder-horn.
What caused Stuart's death is a mystery to the present day; possibly he
was wounded and chased by Indians to this distant spot, and died while
in hiding.

Stuart's mysterious disappearance frightened Neely, who at once left for
home, thus leaving Daniel and Squire to pass the remainder of the winter
in the wilderness by themselves. Dejected, but not discouraged, the
brothers built a comfortable hut and continued their work. With the
close of the trapping season the ammunition was nearly exhausted. Upon
the first of May, a year after Daniel had left his cabin upon the upper
Yadkin, Squire started out upon the return, their horses well laden with
furs, skins, and jerked meat. Both men had, in their enterprise,
contracted debts of considerable extent for frontier hunters, hence they
were anxious to square themselves with the world, as well as to obtain
more horses, ammunition, and miscellaneous supplies.

Daniel was now left alone in Kentucky, "without bread, salt, or sugar,
without company of his fellow-creatures, or even a horse or dog." In
after years he acknowledged that he was at times homesick during the
three months which followed, and felt deeply his absence from the wife
and family to whom he was so warmly attached. But possessing a
cheerful, hopeful nature, he forgot his loneliness in untrammeled
enjoyment of the far-stretching wilderness.

Almost without ammunition, he could not hunt, save to obtain sufficient
food, and largely spent his time in exploration. Fearing Indians, he
frequently changed his location, sometimes living in shelters of bark
and boughs, and again in caves; but seldom venturing to sleep in these
temporary homes, preferring the thickets and the dense cane-brakes as
less liable to be sought by savage prowlers.

Kentucky has a remarkably diversified landscape of densely wooded hills
and valleys and broad prairie expanses. The genial climate admirably
suited the philosophical wanderer. He enjoyed the exquisite beauty and
stateliness of the trees--the sycamores, tulip-trees, sugar-trees,
honey-locusts, coffee-trees, pawpaws, cucumber-trees, and black
mulberries--and found flowers in surprising variety and loveliness. The
mineral springs interested him--Big Lick, the Blue Licks, and Big Bone
Lick, with its fossil remains of mastodons which had become mired when
coming to lick the brackish soil. He traveled far and wide in his search
for the beautiful and curious, being chiefly in the valleys of the
Licking and the Kentucky, and upon the banks of the Ohio as far down as
the site of Louisville, where, at the foot of the falls, he inspected
the remains of an old fur trade stockade concerning which Finley had
told him.

Once he saw some Indians walking upon the northern bank of the Ohio, but
managed himself to keep out of sight. At another time, when on the
Kentucky, he saw a savage calmly fishing from the trunk of a fallen
tree. In mentioning this incident to his family, in later days, he would
declare with gravity: "While I was looking at the fellow he tumbled into
the river, and I saw him no more." Probably the man of the Yadkin shot
him, fearing that the fisherman might carry the news of the former's
whereabouts to a possible camp near by. On another occasion, when
exploring Dick's River, he was suddenly surrounded by Indians. Having
either to surrender or to leap down the precipitous height to a bank
sixty feet below, he chose to leap. Landing in the top of a small
sugar-maple, he slid down the tree, and was able to escape by running
under the overhanging bank and then swimming the stream. Adventures such
as this gave abundant spice to the joys of solitude.

In the latter part of July Squire arrived from the settlements, having
paid all their debts and with the surplus purchased sufficient supplies
for another summer and fall campaign against the deer. This was highly
successful. They did not lack some interesting experiences, but Indians
were not again encountered; so that, when winter approached, Squire was
enabled once more to leave with well-laden horses for the markets of the
East. Another two months of loneliness were suffered by Daniel; but in
December Squire rejoined him with horses, ammunition, and other
necessaries, and the pair joyously settled down for still another winter
together in the dark and lonely forests of Kentucky.




CHAPTER VII

PREDECESSORS AND CONTEMPORARIES


The reader of this narrative has, of course, already discovered that
Daniel Boone was neither the original white explorer of Kentucky nor the
first white hunter within its limits. Many others had been there before
him. It will be worth our while at this point to take a hasty review of
some of the previous expeditions which had made the "dark and bloody
ground" known to the world.

Probably none of the several Spanish explorations of the sixteenth
century along the Mississippi River and through the Gulf States had
touched Kentucky. But during the seventeenth century both the French in
Canada and the English on the Atlantic tidewater came to have fairly
accurate notions of the country lying immediately to the south of the
Ohio River. As early as 1650 Governor Berkeley, of Virginia, made a vain
attempt to cross the Alleghany barrier in search of the Mississippi,
concerning which he had heard from Indians; and we know that at the same
time the French, especially the Jesuit missionaries, were looking
eagerly in that direction. A few years later Colonel Abraham Wood, of
Virginia, discovered streams which poured into the Ohio and the
Mississippi. Just a century before Boone's great hunt, John Lederer,
also of Virginia, explored for a considerable distance beyond the
mountains. The following year Thomas Batts and his party proclaimed King
Charles II upon New River, the upper waters of the Great Kanawha--twelve
months before La Salle took possession of all Western waters for the
French king, and nineteen before Marquette and Joliet discovered the
Mississippi.

There is a tradition that in 1678, only five years after the voyage of
Marquette and Joliet, a party of New Englanders ventured into the
Western wilderness as far as New Mexico. The later French expeditions of
La Salle, Hennepin, and D'Iberville are well known. Several Englishmen
traded with Indians upon the Mississippi before the close of the
seventeenth century; by 1719 the English were so numerous that Governor
Keith, of Pennsylvania, suggested that four forts be built for their
protection in the Wabash and Illinois countries. We hear of a French
expedition investigating Big Bone Lick, in Kentucky, in 1735; and other
visits were successively made by bands of their compatriots until the
downfall of New France, over a quarter of a century later. In 1742 John
Howard and Peter Salling, of Virginia, were exploring in Kentucky; six
years after them Dr. Thomas Walker made a notable expedition through the
same country; and two years after that Washington's backwoods friend,
Christopher Gist, was on the site of Louisville selecting lands for the
Ohio Company, which had a large grant upon the Ohio River.

Henceforward, border chronicles abound with reports of the adventures of
English fur-traders, hunters, and land-viewers, all along the Ohio River
and tributary waters above Louisville. Among these early adventurers was
our friend Finley, whose experiences in Kentucky dated from 1752, and
who piloted Boone to the promised land through the gateway of Cumberland
Gap. The subsequent Indian wars, with the expeditions into the upper
Ohio Valley by Generals Braddock, Forbes, and Bouquet, made the country
still better known; and settlers were soon rushing in by scores,
although as yet none of them appear to have made clearings within
Kentucky itself.

Officers and soldiers who had served in the French and Indian War were
given liberal grants of land in the West. Washington had not only his
own grant, as the principal officer upon the southwest frontier, but was
agent for a number of fellow-soldiers, and in 1767 went to the Ohio
River to select and survey claims. At the very time when Boone was
engaged upon his fruitless expedition down the Big Sandy, Washington was
making the first surveys in Kentucky on both the Little and Big Sandy.
Again, in 1770, when Boone was exploring the Kentucky wilderness,
Washington was surveying extensive tracts along the Ohio and the Great
Kanawha, and planning for a large colony upon his own lands. The
outbreak of the Revolution caused the great man to turn his attention
from the over-mountain region to the defense of his country. Had he been
left to carry out his plans, he would doubtless have won fame as the
most energetic of Western pioneers.

It will be remembered that when Boone and his companions passed through
Cumberland Gap in the early summer of 1769, they found the well-worn
trail of other hunters who had preceded them from the settlements. The
men of the Yadkin Valley were not the only persons seeking game in
Kentucky that year. At about the time when Boone was bidding farewell to
his family, Hancock and Richard Taylor, Abraham Hempinstall, and one
Barbour, frontiersmen of the same type, started from their homes in
Orange County, Va., to explore the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi.
They descended from Pittsburg in a boat, explored Kentucky, and
proceeded into Arkansas, where they camped and hunted during the
following winter. The next year two of them traveled eastward to
Florida, and thence northwardly to their homes; the others stayed in
Arkansas for another year, and returned by sea from New Orleans to New
York.

Simultaneously with the expeditions of Boone and the Taylors, a party of
twenty or more adventurous hunters and explorers was formed in the New
River region, in the Valley of Virginia. They set out in June (1769),
piloted by Uriah Stone, who had been in Kentucky three years before.
Entering by way of the now familiar Cumberland Gap, these men had
experiences quite similar to those of Boone and his comrades. At some of
the Kentucky salt-licks they found herds of buffaloes numbering up in
the thousands--at one lick a hundred acres were densely massed with
these bulky animals, who exhibited no fear until the wind blew from the
hunters toward them, and then they would "dash wildly away in large
droves and disappear." Like Boone's party, they also were the victims of
Cherokees, who plundered their camps, and after leaving them some guns
and a little ammunition, ordered them out of the country. The New River
party being large, however, some of their number were deputed to go to
the settlements and bring back fresh supplies, so that they could finish
their hunt. After further adventures with Indians half of the hunters
returned home; while the others wandered into Tennessee and as far as
the Ozark Mountains, finally reaching New River through Georgia and the
Carolinas. Another Virginian, named John McCulloch, who courted the
perils of exploration, was in Kentucky in the summer of 1769 with a
white man-servant and a negro. He visited the site of Terre Haute, Ind.,
and went by canoe to Natchez and New Orleans, and at length reached
Philadelphia by sea.

But the most famous of all the expeditions of the period was that of the
"Long Hunters," as they have come to be known in Western history.
Inspired by the favorable reports of Stone and others, about forty of
the most noted and successful hunters of New River and Holston Valleys
formed, in the summer of 1770, a company for hunting and trapping to the
west of Cumberland Mountains. Under the leadership of two of the best
woodsmen of the region, Joseph Drake and Henry Skaggs, and including
several of Stone's party, they set out in early autumn fully prepared
for meeting Indians and living on game. Each man took with him three
packhorses, rifles, ammunition, traps, dogs, blankets, and salt, and was
dressed in the deerskin costume of the times.

Pushing on through Cumberland Gap, the adventurers were soon in the
heart of Kentucky. In accordance with custom, they visited some of the
best licks--a few of which were probably first seen by them--for here
wild beasts were always to be found in profusion. At Knob Licks they
beheld from an eminence which overlooked the springs "what they
estimated at largely over a thousand animals, including buffaloe, elk,
bear, and deer, with many wild turkies scattered among them--all quite
restless, some playing, and others busily employed in licking the earth;
but at length they took flight and bounded away all in one direction, so
that in the brief space of a couple of minutes not an animal was to be
seen." Within an area of many acres, the animals had eaten the salty
earth to a depth of several feet.

Successful in a high degree, the party ceased operations in February,
and had completed preparations for sending a large shipment of skins,
furs, and "jerk" to the settlements, when, in their temporary absence,
roving Cherokees robbed them of much of their stores and spoiled the
greater part of the remainder. "Fifteen hundred skins gone to
ruination!" was the legend which one of them carved upon the bark of a
neighboring tree, a record to which were appended the initials of each
member of the party. A series of disasters followed, in the course of
which two men were carried off by Indians and never again seen, and
others fled for home. Those remaining, having still much ammunition and
the horses, continued their hunt, chiefly upon the Green and Cumberland
Rivers, and in due time brought together another store of peltries,
almost as extensive as that despoiled by the savages.

Not long after the robbery, when the Long Hunters were upon Green River,
one of the parties into which the band was divided were going into camp
for the night, when a singular noise was heard proceeding from a
considerable distance in the forest. The leader, Caspar Mausker,
commanded silence on the part of his comrades, and himself crept
cautiously from tree to tree in the direction of the sound. Imagine his
surprise and amusement to find "a man bare-headed, stretched flat upon
his back on a deerskin spread on the ground, singing merrily at the top
of his voice!" The singer was our hero, Daniel Boone, who, regardless of
possible Indian neighbors, was thus enjoying himself while awaiting
Squire's belated return to camp. Like most woodsmen of his day and ours,
Boone was fond of singing, in his rude way, as well as of relating tales
of stirring adventure. In such manner were many hours whiled away around
the camp-fires of wilderness hunters.

The Boones at once joined and spent some time with the Long Hunters, no
doubt delighted at this opportunity of once more mingling with men of
their kind. Among their amusements was that of naming rivers, creeks,
and hills after members of the party; many of these names are still
preserved upon the map of Kentucky. At one time they discovered that
some French hunters from the Illinois country had recently visited a
lick to kill buffaloes for their tongues and tallow, which they had
loaded into a keel-boat and taken down the Cumberland. In after years
one of the Long Hunters declared that this wholesale slaughter was so
great "that one could walk for several hundred yards in and around the
lick on buffaloes' skulls and bones, with which the whole flat around
the lick was bleached."

It was not until August that the Long Hunters returned to their homes,
after a profitable absence of eleven months. But the Boone brothers left
their comrades in March and headed for the Yadkin, with horses now well
laden with spoils of the chase. They were deeply in debt for their
latest supplies, but were returning in light heart, cheered with the
prospect of settling their accounts and being able to revisit Kentucky
in good condition. But in Powell's Valley, near Cumberland Gap, where
they might well have supposed that small chance of danger remained, they
were suddenly set upon by a war party of Northern Indians who had been
raiding the white settlers as well as their Southern foes, the Cherokees
and Catawbas. Roughly handled and robbed of their packs, the unfortunate
hunters reached the Yadkin in no happy frame of mind. Daniel had been
absent for two years, and was now poorer than when he left home. He used
to say, however, in after years, that having at last seen Kentucky, his
ideal of an earthly paradise, that served as solace for his woes.




CHAPTER VIII

THE HERO OF CLINCH VALLEY


While Daniel Boone had been hunting and exploring amid the deep forests
and waving greenswards of Kentucky, important events had been taking
place in the settlements. The colonists along the Atlantic tidewater had
become so crowded that there were no longer any free lands in that
region; and settlers' cabins in the western uplands of Pennsylvania,
Maryland, the Carolinas, and Georgia had so multiplied that now much of
the best land there had also been taken up. The far-outlying frontier
upon which the Boones and Bryans had reared their rude log huts nearly a
quarter of a century before, no longer abounded in game and in free
pastures for roving herds; indeed, the frontier was now pushed forward
to the west-flowing streams--to the head waters of the Watauga, Clinch,
Powell, French Broad, Holston, and Nolichucky, all of them affluents of
the Tennessee, and to the Monongahela and other tributaries of the
upper Ohio.

The rising tide of population demanded more room to the westward. The
forbidding mountain-ranges had long hemmed in the restless borderers;
but the dark-skinned wilderness tribes had formed a still more serious
barrier, as, with rifles and tomahawks purchased from white traders,
they terrorized the slowly advancing outposts of civilization. With the
French government no longer in control of Canada and the region east of
the Mississippi--although French-Canadian woodsmen were freely employed
by the British Indian Department--with the consequent quieting of Indian
forays, with increased knowledge of the over-mountain passes, and with
the strong push of population from behind, there had arisen a general
desire to scale the hills, and beyond them to seek exemption from
tax-gatherers, free lands, and the abundant game concerning which the
Kentucky hunters had brought glowing reports.

Upon the defeat of the French, the English king had issued a
proclamation (1763) forbidding his "loving subjects" to settle to the
west of the mountains. The home government was no doubt actuated in this
by two motives: first, a desire to preserve the wilderness for the
benefit of the growing fur trade, which brought wealth to many London
merchants; second, a fear that borderers who pushed beyond the mountains
might not only be beyond the reach of English trade, but also beyond
English political control. But the frontiersmen were already too far
distant to have much regard for royal proclamations. The king's command
appears to have had no more effect than had he, like one of his
predecessors, bade the ocean tide rise no higher.

In 1768, at Fort Stanwix, N.Y., the Iroquois of that province, whose war
parties had raided much of the country between the Hudson and the
Mississippi, surrendered what shadowy rights they might be supposed to
have over all lands lying between the Ohio and the Tennessee. Meanwhile,
at the South, the Cherokees had agreed to a frontier which opened to
settlement eastern Kentucky and Tennessee.

But, without waiting for these treaties, numerous schemes had been
proposed in England and the Atlantic coast colonies for the settlement
of Kentucky and the lands of the upper Ohio. Most of these projects
failed, even the more promising of them being checked by the opening of
the Revolutionary War; but their existence showed how general was the
desire of English colonists to occupy those fertile Western lands which
explorers like Gist, Washington, the Boones, and the Long Hunters had
now made familiar to the world. The new treaties strengthened this
desire, so that when Daniel and Squire Boone reached their homes upon
the Yadkin the subject of Western settlement was uppermost in the minds
of the people.

The land excitement was, however, less intense in North Carolina than in
the Valley of Virginia and other mountain troughs to the north and
northeast. At Boone's home there was unrest of a more serious character.
The tax-gatherers were arousing great popular discontent because of
unlawful and extortionate demands, and in some cases Governor Tryon had
come to blows with the regulators who stood for the people's rights.

For two and a half years after his return Boone quietly conducted his
little farm, and, as of old, made long hunting trips in autumn and
winter, occasionally venturing--sometimes alone, sometimes with one or
two companions--far west into Kentucky, once visiting French Lick, on
the Cumberland, where he found several French hunters. There is reason
to believe that in 1772 he moved to the Watauga Valley, but after living
there for a time went back to the Yadkin. Early in the following year he
accompanied Benjamin Cutbirth and others as far as the present Jessamine
County, Ky., and from this trip returned fired with quickened zeal for
making a settlement in the new country.

The spring and summer were spent in active preparations. He enlisted the
cooperation of Captain William Russell, the principal pioneer in the
Clinch Valley; several of the Bryans, whose settlement was now
sixty-five miles distant, also agreed to join him; and five other
families in his own neighborhood engaged to join the expedition. The
Bryan party, numbering forty men, some of them from the Valley of
Virginia and Powell's Valley, were not to be accompanied by their
families, as they preferred to go in advance and prepare homes before
making a final move. But Boone and the other men of the upper Yadkin
took with them their wives and children; most of them sold their farms,
as did Boone, thus burning their bridges behind them. Arranging to meet
the Bryan contingent in Powell's Valley, Boone's party left for the West
upon the twenty-fifth of September, 1773--fifty-six years after old
George Boone had departed from England for the Pennsylvania frontier
near Philadelphia, and twenty-three after the family had set out for the
new southwest frontier on the Yadkin.

Reaching Powell's, Boone went into camp to await the rear party, his
riding and packhorses hoppled and belled, after the custom of such
caravans, and their small herd of cattle properly guarded in a meadow.
His eldest son, James, now a boy of sixteen years, was sent with two
men, with pack-animals, across country to notify Russell and to secure
some flour and farming tools. They were returning laden, in company with
Russell's son Henry, a year older than James, two of Russell's negro
slaves, and two or three white workpeople, when, missing their path,
they went into camp for the night only three miles from Boone's
quarters. At daybreak they were attacked by a Shawnese war party and all
killed except a white laborer and a negro. This pathetic tragedy created
such consternation among the movers that, despite Boone's entreaties to
go forward, all of them returned to Virginia and Carolina. Daniel and
his family, no longer having a home on the Yadkin, would not retreat,
and took up their quarters in an empty cabin upon the farm of Captain
David Gass, seven or eight miles from Russell's, upon Clinch River.
Throughout this sorrowful winter the Boones were supported from their
stock of cattle and by means of Daniel's unerring rifle.

It was long before the intrepid pioneers could again take up their line
of march. Ever since the Bouquet treaty of 1764 there had been more or
less disturbance upon the frontiers. During all these years, although
there was no open warfare between whites and reds, many scores of lives
had been lost. Indians had wantonly plundered and murdered white men,
and the latter had been quite as merciless toward the savages. Whenever
a member of one race met a man of the other the rifle was apt to be at
once brought into play. Meanwhile, armed parties of surveyors and land
speculators were swarming into Kentucky, notching the trees for
landmarks, and giving evidence to apprehensive tribesmen that the hordes
of civilization were upon them. In 1773 George Rogers Clark, afterward
the most famous of border leaders, had staked a claim at the mouth of
Fishing Creek, on the Ohio; Washington had, this summer, descended the
river to the same point; while at the Falls of the Ohio, and upon
interior waters of the Kentucky wilderness, other parties were laying
ambitious plans for the capitals of new colonies.

In the following spring the Cherokees and Shawnese, now wrought to a
high pitch of ill temper, combined for onslaughts on the advancing
frontiersmen. The wanton murder by border ruffians of Chief John Logan's
family, near Mingo Junction, on the Ohio, was the match which, in early
summer, fired the tinder. The Mingos, ablaze with the fire of vengeance,
carried the war-pipe through the neighboring villages; runners were sent
in every direction to rouse the tribes; tomahawks were unearthed,
war-posts were planted; messages of defiance were sent to the
"Virginians," as all frontiersmen were generally called by the Western
Indians; and in a few days the border war to which history has given the
name of Lord Dunmore, then governor of Virginia, was in full swing from
Cumberland Gap to Fort Pitt, from the Alleghanies to the Wabash.

Its isolation at first protected the Valley of the Clinch. The
commandant of the southwest militia--which comprised every boy or man
capable of bearing arms--was Colonel William Preston; under him was
Major Arthur Campbell; the principal man in the Clinch Valley was
Boone's friend, Russell. When, in June, the border captains were
notified by Lord Dunmore that the war was now on, forts were erected in
each of the mountain valleys, and scouts sent out along the trails and
streams to ascertain the whereabouts of the enemy.

There were in Kentucky, at this time, several surveying parties which
could not obtain news by way of the Ohio because of the blockade
maintained by the Shawnese. It became necessary to notify them overland,
and advise their retreat to the settlements by way of Cumberland Gap.
Russell having been ordered by Preston to employ "two faithful woodsmen"
for this purpose, chose Daniel Boone and Michael Stoner. "If they are
alive," wrote Russell to his colonel, "it is indisputable but Boone must
find them." Leaving the Clinch on June twenty-seventh, the two envoys
were at Harrodsburg before July eighth. There they found James Harrod
and thirty-four other men laying off a large town,[9] in which they
proposed to give each inhabitant a half-acre in-lot and a ten-acre
out-lot. Boone, who had small capacity for business, but in land was
something of a speculator, registered as a settler, and in company with
a neighbor put up a cabin for his future occupancy. This done, he and
Stoner hurried on down the Kentucky River to its mouth, and thence to
the Falls of the Ohio (site of Louisville), notifying several bands of
surveyors and town-builders of their danger. After an absence of
sixty-one days they were back again upon the Clinch, having traveled
eight hundred miles through a practically unbroken forest, experienced
many dangers from Indians, and overcome natural difficulties almost
without number.

Meanwhile Lord Dunmore, personally unpopular but an energetic and
competent military manager, had sent out an army of nearly three
thousand backwoodsmen against the Shawnese north of the Ohio. One wing
of this army, led by the governor himself, went by way of Fort Pitt and
descended the Ohio; among its members was George Rogers Clark. The other
wing, commanded by General Andrew Lewis, included the men of the
Southwest, eleven hundred strong; they were to descend the Great
Kanawha and rendezvous with the northern wing at Point Pleasant, at the
junction of the Kanawha and the Ohio.

When Boone arrived upon the Clinch he found that Russell and most of the
other militiamen of the district had departed upon the campaign. With a
party of recruits, the great hunter started out to overtake the
expedition, but was met by orders to return and aid in defending his own
valley; for the drawing off of the militia by Dunmore had left the
southwest frontiers in weak condition. During September the settlers
upon the Clinch suffered much apprehension; the depredations of the
tribesmen were not numerous, but several men were either wounded or
captured.

In a letter written upon the sixth of October, Major Campbell gives a
list of forts upon the Clinch: "Blackmore's, sixteen men, Sergeant Moore
commanding; Moore's, twenty miles above, twenty men, Lieutenant Boone
commanding; Russell's, four miles above, twenty men, Sergeant W. Poage
commanding; Glade Hollow, twelve miles above, fifteen men, Sergeant
John Dunkin commanding; Elk Garden, fourteen miles above, eighteen men,
Sergeant John Kinkead commanding; Maiden Spring, twenty-three miles
above, five men, Sergeant John Crane commanding; Whitton's Big Crab
Orchard, twelve miles above, three men, Ensign John Campbell, of Rich
Valley, commanding." During this month Boone and his little garrison
made frequent sallies against the enemy, and now and then fought brief
but desperate skirmishes. He appears to have been by far the most active
commander in the valley, and when neighboring forts were attacked his
party of well-trained riflemen generally furnished the relief necessary
to raise the siege. "Mr. Boone," writes Campbell to Preston, "is very
diligent at Castle's-woods, and keeps up good order." His conduct is
frequently alluded to in the military correspondence of that summer;
Campbell and other leaders exhibited in their references to our hero a
respectful and even deferential tone. An eye-witness of some of these
stirring scenes has left us a description of Daniel Boone, now forty
years of age, in which it is stated that his was then a familiar figure
throughout the valley as he hurried to and fro upon his military duties
"dressed in deerskin colored black, and his hair plaited and clubbed
up."

Upon the tenth of October, Cornstalk, a famous Shawnese chief, taking
advantage of Dunmore's failure to join the southern wing, led against
Lewis's little army encamped at Point Pleasant a thousand picked
warriors gathered from all parts of the Northwest. Here, upon the wooded
eminence at the junction of the two rivers, was waged from dawn until
dusk one of the most bloody and stubborn hand-to-hand battles ever
fought between Indians and whites. It is hard to say who displayed the
best generalship, Cornstalk or Lewis. The American savage was a splendid
fighter; although weak in discipline he could competently plan a battle.
The tactics of surprise were his chief resource, and these are
legitimate even in civilized warfare; but he could also make a
determined contest in the open, and when, as at Point Pleasant, the
opposing numbers were nearly equal, the result was often slow of
determination. Desperately courageous, pertinacious, with a natural
aptitude for war combined with consummate treachery, cruelty, and
cunning, it is small wonder that the Indian long offered a formidable
barrier to the advance of civilization. In early Virginia, John Smith
noticed that in Indian warfare the whites won at the expense of losses
far beyond those suffered by the tribesmen; and here at Point Pleasant,
while the "Long Knives"[10] gained the day, the number of their dead and
wounded was double that of the casualties sustained by Cornstalk's
painted band.

The victory at Point Pleasant practically closed the war upon the
border. Boone had been made a captain in response to a popular petition
that the hero of Clinch Valley be thus honored, and was given charge of
the three lower forts; but there followed only a few alarms, and upon
the twentieth of November he and his brother militiamen of the region
received their discharge. The war had cost Virginia £10,000 sterling,
many valuable lives had been sacrificed, and an incalculable amount of
suffering and privation had been occasioned all along the three hundred
and fifty miles of American frontier. But the Shawnese had been humbled,
the Cherokees had retired behind the new border line, and a lasting
peace appeared to be assured.

In the following January Captain Boone, true son of the wilderness, was
celebrating his freedom from duties incident to war's alarms by a
solitary hunt upon the banks of Kentucky River.


FOOTNOTES:

[9] Previous to this there had been built in Kentucky many hunters'
camps, also a few isolated cabins by "improvers"; but Harrodsburg (at
first called "Harrodstown") was the first permanent settlement, thus
having nearly a year's start of Boonesborough. June 16, 1774, is the
date given by Collins and other chroniclers for the actual settlement by
Harrod.

[10] The Indians had called the Americans "Knifemen," "Long Knives," or
"Big Knives," from the earliest historic times; but it was not until
about the middle of the eighteenth century that the Virginia colonists
began to make record of the use of this epithet by the Indians with whom
they came in contact. It was then commonly supposed that it grew out of
the use of swords by the frontier militiamen, and this is the meaning
still given in dictionaries; but it has been made apparent by Albert
Matthews, writing in the New York Nation, March 14, 1901, that the
epithet originated in the fact that Englishmen used knives as
distinguished from the early stone tools of the Indians. The French
introduced knives into America previous to the English, but apparently
the term was used only by Indians within the English sphere of
influence.




CHAPTER IX

THE SETTLEMENT OF KENTUCKY


Kentucky had so long been spasmodically occupied and battled over by
Shawnese, Iroquois, and Cherokees, that it can not be said that any of
them had well-defined rights over its soil. Not until white men appeared
anxious to settle there did the tribes begin to assert their respective
claims, in the hope of gaining presents at the treaties whereat they
were asked to make cessions. The whites, on their part, when negotiating
for purchases, were well aware of the shadowy character of these claims;
but, when armed with a signed deed of cession, they had something
tangible upon which thenceforth to base their own claims of
proprietorship. There was therefore much insincerity upon both sides. It
is well to understand this situation in studying the history of Kentucky
settlement.

Colonel Richard Henderson was one of the principal judges in North
Carolina, a scholarly, talented man, eminent in the legal profession;
although but thirty-nine years of age, he wielded much influence.
Knowing and respecting Daniel Boone, Henderson was much impressed by the
former's enthusiastic reports concerning the soil, climate, and scenery
of Kentucky; and, acting solely upon this information, resolved to
establish a colony in that attractive country. He associated with
himself three brothers, Nathaniel, David, and Thomas Hart, the
last-named of whom in later life wrote that he "had known Boone of old,
when poverty and distress held him fast by the hand; and in those
wretched circumstances he had ever found him a noble and generous soul,
despising everything mean." Their proposed colony was styled
Transylvania, and the association of proprietors the Transylvania
Company.

It will be remembered that in the treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768) the
Iroquois of New York had ceded to the English crown their pretensions to
lands lying between the Ohio and the Tennessee. The Transylvania
Company, however, applied to the Cherokees, because this was the tribe
commanding the path from Virginia and the Carolinas to Kentucky. In
March, 1775, a great council was held at Sycamore Shoals, on the Watauga
River, between the company and twelve hundred Cherokees who had been
brought in for the purpose by Boone. For $50,000 worth of cloths,
clothing, utensils, ornaments, and firearms, the Indians ceded to
Henderson and his partners an immense grant including all the country
lying between the Kentucky and Cumberland Rivers, also a path of
approach from the east, through Powell's Valley. At this council were
some of the most prominent Cherokee chiefs and southwestern
frontiersmen.

When the goods came to be distributed among the Indians it was found
that, although they filled a large cabin and looked very tempting in
bulk, there was but little for each warrior, and great dissatisfaction
arose. One Cherokee, whose portion was a shirt, declared that in one
day, upon this land, he could have killed deer enough to buy such a
garment; to surrender his hunting-ground for this trifle naturally
seemed to him a bad bargain. For the safety of the pioneers the chiefs
could give no guarantee; they warned Boone, who appears to have acted as
spokesman for the company, that "a black cloud hung over this land,"
warpaths crossed it from north to south, and settlers would surely get
killed; for such results the Cherokees must not be held responsible.

This was not promising. Neither was the news, now received, that
Governors Martin of North Carolina, and Dunmore of Virginia had both of
them issued proclamations against the great purchase. The former had
called Henderson and his partners an "infamous Company of Land Pyrates";
and they were notified that this movement was in violation of the king's
proclamation of 1763, forbidding Western settlements.

The company, relying upon popular sympathy and their great distance from
tidewater seats of government, proceeded without regard to these
proclamations. Boone, at the head of a party of about thirty enlisted
men, some of them the best backwoodsmen in the country,[11] was sent
ahead to mark a path through the forest to Kentucky River, and there
establish a capital for the new colony. They encountered many
difficulties, especially when traveling through cane-brakes and brush;
and once, while asleep, were attacked by Indians, who killed a negro
servant and wounded two of the party. Boone won hearty commendation for
his skill and courage throughout the expedition, which finally arrived
at its destination on the sixth of April. This was Big Lick, on Kentucky
River, just below the mouth of Otter Creek. Here it was decided to build
a town to be called Boonesborough, to serve as the capital of
Transylvania. The site was "a plain on the south side of the river,
wherein was a lick with sulphur springs strongly impregnated."

To Felix Walker, one of the pioneers, we are indebted for the details of
this notable colonizing expedition, set forth in a narrative which is
still preserved. "On entering the plain," he writes, "we were permitted
to view a very interesting and romantic sight. A number of buffaloes, of
all sizes, supposed to be between two and three hundred, made off from
the lick in every direction: some running, some walking, others loping
slowly and carelessly, with young calves playing, skipping, and bounding
through the plain. Such a sight some of us never saw before, nor perhaps
ever may again." A fort was commenced, and a few cabins "strung along
the river-bank;" but it was long before the stronghold was completed,
for, now that the journey was at an end, Boone's men had become callous
to danger.

Meanwhile Henderson was proceeding slowly from the settlements with
thirty men and several wagons loaded with goods and tools. Delayed from
many causes, they at last felt obliged to leave the encumbering wagons
in Powell's Valley. Pushing forward, they were almost daily met by
parties of men and boys returning home from Kentucky bearing vague
reports of Indian forays. This resulted in Henderson losing many of his
own followers from desertion. Arriving at Boonesborough on the twentieth
of April, the relief party was "saluted by a running fire of about
twenty-five guns." Some of Boone's men had, in the general uneasiness,
also deserted, and others had scattered throughout the woods, hunting,
exploring, or surveying on their own account.

The method of surveying then in vogue upon the Western frontier was of
the crudest, although it must be acknowledged that any system more
formal might, at that stage of our country's growth, have prevented
rapid settlement. Each settler or land speculator was practically his
own surveyor. With a compass and a chain, a few hours' work would
suffice to mark the boundaries of a thousand-acre tract. There were as
yet no adequate maps of the country, and claims overlapped each other
in the most bewildering manner. A speculator who "ran out" a hundred
thousand acres might, without knowing it, include in his domain a
half-dozen claims previously surveyed by modest settlers who wanted but
a hundred acres each. A man who paid the land-office fees might "patent"
any land he pleased and have it recorded, the colony, and later the
State, only guaranteeing such entries as covered land not already
patented. This overlapping, conscious or unconscious, at last became so
perplexing that thousands of vexatious lawsuits followed, some of which
are still unsettled; and even to-day in Kentucky there are lands whose
ownership is actually unknown, which pay no taxes and support only
squatters who can not be turned out--possibly some of it, lying between
patented tracts, by chance has never been entered at all. Nobody can now
say. Thus it was that we find our friend Daniel Boone quickly
transformed from a wilderness hunter into a frontier surveyor. Before
Henderson's arrival he had laid off the town site into lots of two
acres each. These were now drawn at a public lottery; while those who
wished larger tracts within the neighborhood were able to obtain them by
promising to plant a crop of corn and pay to the Transylvania Company a
quit-rent of two English shillings for each hundred acres.

  [Illustration: A SURVEY NOTE BY BOONE.
    Reduced facsimile from his field-books in possession of Wisconsin
    State Historical Society.]

There were now four settlements in the Transylvania grant:
Boonesborough; Harrodsburg, fifty miles west, with about a hundred men;
Boiling Spring, some six or seven miles from Harrodsburg; and St. Asaph.
The crown lands to the north and east of the Kentucky, obtained by the
Fort Stanwix treaty, contained two small settlements; forty miles north
of Boonesborough was Hinkson's, later known as Ruddell's Station, where
were about nineteen persons; lower down the Kentucky, also on the north
side, was Willis Lee's settlement, near the present Frankfort; and
ranging at will through the crown lands were several small parties of
"land-jobbers," surveyors, and explorers, laying off the claims of
militia officers who had fought in the Indian wars, and here and there
building cabins to indicate possession.

Henderson had no sooner arrived than he prepared for a convention, at
which the people should adopt a form of government for the colony and
elect officers. This was held at Boonesborough, in the open air, under a
gigantic elm, during the week commencing Tuesday, the twenty-third of
May. There were eighteen delegates, representing each of the four
settlements south of the Kentucky. Among them were Daniel and Squire
Boone, the former of whom proposed laws for the preservation of game and
for improving the breed of horses; to the latter fell the presentation
of rules for preserving the cattle-ranges. The compact finally agreed
upon between the colonists and the proprietors declared "the powers of
the one and the liberties of the others," and was "the earliest form of
government in the region west of the Alleghanies." It provided for
"perfect religious freedom and general toleration," militia and judicial
systems, and complete liberty on the part of the settlers to conduct
colonial affairs according to their needs. This liberal and
well-digested plan appeared to please both Henderson and the settlers.
But the opposition of the governors, the objections raised by the
Assembly of Virginia, of which Kentucky was then a part,[12] and
finally, the outbreak of the Revolution, which put an end to proprietary
governments in America, caused the downfall of the Transylvania Company.
The Boonesborough legislative convention met but once more--in December,
to elect a surveyor-general.

The May meeting had no sooner adjourned than Transylvania began again to
lose its population. Few of the pioneers who had come out with Boone and
Henderson, or had since wandered into the district, were genuine
home-seekers. Many appear to have been mere adventurers, out for the
excitement of the expedition and to satisfy their curiosity, who either
returned home or wandered farther into the woods to seek fresh
experiences of wild life; others had deliberately intended first to
stake out claims in the neighborhood of the new settlements and then
return home to look after their crops, and perhaps move to Kentucky in
the autumn; others there were who, far removed from their families,
proved restless; while many became uneasy because of Indian outrages,
reports of which soon began to be circulated. Henderson wrote cheerful
letters to his partners at home, describing the country as a paradise;
but by the end of June, when Boone returned to the East for salt,
Harrodsburg and Boiling Spring were almost deserted, while Boonesborough
could muster but ten or twelve "guns," as men or boys capable of
fighting Indians were called in the militia rolls.

The infant colony of Kentucky had certainly reached a crisis in its
career. Game was rapidly becoming more scarce, largely because of
careless, inexperienced hunters who wounded more than they killed, and
killed more than was needed for food; the frightened buffaloes had now
receded so far west that they were several days' journey from
Boonesborough. Yet game was still the staff of life. Captain Floyd, the
surveyor-general, wrote to Colonel Preston: "I must hunt or starve."

As the summer wore away and crops in the Eastern settlements were
gathered, there was a considerable increase in the population. Many men
who, in later days, were to exert a powerful influence in Kentucky now
arrived--George Rogers Clark, the principal Western hero of the
Revolution; Simon Kenton, famous throughout the border as hunter, scout,
and Indian fighter; Benjamin Logan, William Whitley, the Lewises,
Campbells, Christians, Prestons, MacDowells, McAfees, Hite, Bowman,
Randolph, Todd, McClellan, Benton, Patterson--all of them names familiar
in Western history.

In the first week of September Boone arrived with his wife and family
and twenty young men--"twenty-one guns," the report reads; Squire and
his family soon followed; four Bryans, their brothers-in-law, came at
the head of thirty men from the Yadkin; and, at the same time,
Harrodsburg was reached by several other families who had, like the
Boones, come on horseback through Cumberland Gap and Powell's Valley.
This powerful reenforcement of pioneers, most of whom proposed to stay,
had largely been attracted by Henderson's advertisements in Virginia
newspapers offering terms of settlement on Transylvania lands. "Any
person," said the announcement, "who will settle on and inhabit the same
before the first day of June, 1776, shall have the privilege of taking
up and surveying for himself five hundred acres, and for each tithable
person he may carry with him and settle there, two hundred and fifty
acres, on the payment of fifty shillings sterling per hundred, subject
to a yearly quit-rent of two shillings, like money, to commence in the
year 1780." Toward the end of November Henderson himself, who had gone
on a visit to Carolina, returned with forty men, one of whom was Colonel
Arthur Campbell, a prominent settler in the Holston Valley.

This increase of population, which had been noticeable throughout the
autumn and early winter, received a sudden check, however, two days
before Christmas, when the Indians, who had been friendly for several
months past, began again to annoy settlers, several being either killed
or carried into captivity. This gave rise to a fresh panic, in the
course of which many fled to the east of the mountains.

During the year about five hundred persons from the frontiers of
Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina had visited and explored
Kentucky; but now, at the close of December, the population of all the
settlements did not aggregate over two hundred. The recent outbreak had
much to do with this situation of affairs; but there were other causes
conspiring to disturb the minds of the people and postpone the growth of
settlement--the clashing of interests between the Transylvania Company
and the governors of Virginia and North Carolina, uncertainty as to the
possibilities of a general Indian war, the threatened rupture between
the colonies and the English crown, and the alarming scarcity of
provisions and ammunition throughout Kentucky.

Nevertheless, over nine hundred entries had been made in the
Transylvania land-office at Boonesborough, embracing 560,000 acres, and
most of these tracts were waiting to be surveyed; two hundred and thirty
acres of corn had been successfully raised; horses, hogs, and poultry
had been introduced, and apple- and peach-trees had been started at
several settlements. The germ of a colony was firmly planted, laws had
been made, the militia had been organized, civil and military officers
had been commissioned, and in the face of several slight Indian attacks
the savages had been repelled and the country maintained. Most promising
of all, there were now twelve women in the country, all of them heads of
families.

The principal pioneers were nearly all of sturdy Scotch-Irish blood, men
of sterling merit, intensely devoted to the cause of American liberty,
and destined to contribute powerfully to its aid in the great war which
had now begun, and concerning which messengers from over the mountains
had during the year brought them scanty information.


FOOTNOTES:

[11] The names of this party of Kentucky pioneers, as preserved by
tradition, are worth presenting in our record, for many of them
afterward became prominent in the annals of the West: Squire Boone,
Edward Bradley, James Bridges, William Bush, Samuel Coburn, Colonel
Richard Calloway, Captain Crabtree, Benjamin Cutbirth, David Gass, John
Hart, William Hays (son-in-law of Daniel Boone), William Hicks, Edmund
Jennings, Thomas Johnson, John Kennedy, John King, William Miller,
William Moore, James Nall, James Peeke, Bartlet Searcy, Reuben Searcy,
Michael Stoner, Samuel Tate, Oswell Towns, Captain William Twitty
(wounded at Rockcastle), John Vardeman, and Felix Walker (also wounded
at Rockcastle). Mrs. Hays, Boone's daughter, traveled with her husband;
a negro woman accompanied Calloway, and a negro man (killed at
Rockcastle) was with Twitty.

[12] It was then within the far-stretching boundaries of Fincastle
County. Kentucky was set apart as a county, December 31, 1776.




CHAPTER X

TWO YEARS OF DARKNESS


With the opening of the year 1776 Daniel and Squire Boone were employed
for several weeks as hunters or assistants to a party of surveyors sent
by the Transylvania Company to the Falls of the Ohio, in the vicinity of
which Henderson and his friends had taken up seventy thousand acres of
land. They met no Indians and saw plenty of game; but returned to find
that the settlers were indignant because of this wholesale preemption by
the proprietors of the colony in a neighborhood where it was now felt
the chief city in Kentucky was sure to be planted. In response to this
clamor Henderson promised that hereafter, in that locality, only small
tracts should be granted to individuals, and that a town should at once
be laid out at the Falls; but the scanty supply of powder and
provisions, and the company's growing troubles with the Virginia
Assembly, prevented the execution of this project.

In the spring newcomers everywhere appeared. In order to please the
people of Harrodsburg, now the largest settlement, who were disposed to
be critical, the company's land-office was moved thither, and it at once
entered upon a flourishing business. Not only did many Virginians and
Carolinians come in on horseback over the "Wilderness Road," as the
route through Cumberland Gap was now styled, but hundreds also descended
the Ohio in boats from the new settlements on the Monongahela, and from
those farther east in Pennsylvania.

While the horsemen of the Wilderness Road generally settled in
Transylvania, those journeying by boat were chiefly interested in the
crown lands north of the Kentucky; through these they ranged at will,
building rude pens, half-faced cabins, and log huts, as convenience
dictated, and planting small crops of corn in order to preempt their
claims. The majority, however, after making sometimes as many as twenty
such claims each, often upon land already surveyed on militia officers'
warrants, returned home at the close of the season, seeking to sell
their fictitious holdings to actual settlers. Of course the unscrupulous
conduct of these "claim-jumping" speculators led to numerous quarrels.
John Todd, of Harrodsburg, wrote to a friend: "I am afraid to lose sight
of my house lest some invader should take possession."

It was difficult, even for those who came to settle, to get down to hard
work during those earliest years. Never was there a more beautiful
region than the Kentucky wilderness. Both old and new settlers were fond
of roaming through this wonderland of forests and glades and winding
rivers, where the nights were cool and refreshing and the days filled
with harmonies of sound and sight and smell. Hill and valley, timberland
and thicket, meadow and prairie, grasslands and cane-brake--these
abounded on every hand, in happy distribution of light and shadow. The
soil was extremely fertile; there were many open spots fitted for
immediate cultivation; the cattle-ranges were of the best, for nowhere
was cane more abundant; game was more plentiful than men's hopes had
ever before conceived--of turkeys, bears, deer, and buffaloes it seemed,
for a time, as if the supply must always far excelled any possible
demand. It is small wonder that the imaginations of the pioneers were
fired with dreams of the future, that they saw in fancy great cities
springing up in this new world of the West, and wealth pouring into the
laps of those who could first obtain a foothold. Thus, in that beautiful
spring of 1776, did Kentuckians revel in the pleasures of hope, and cast
to the winds all thought of the peril and toil by which alone can man
conquer a savage-haunted wilderness.

But the "dark cloud" foretold at the Watauga treaty soon settled upon
the land. Incited by British agents--for the Revolution was now on--the
Cherokees on the south and the Shawnese and Mingos on the north declared
war upon the American borderers. The Kentuckians were promptly warned by
messengers from the East. The "cabiners," as claim speculators were
called by actual settlers; the wandering fur-traders, most of whom were
shabby rascals, whose example corrupted the savages, and whose conduct
often led to outbreaks of race hostility; and the irresponsible hunters,
who were recklessly killing or frightening off the herds of game--all of
these classes began, with the mutterings of conflict, to draw closer to
the settlements; while many hurried back to their old homes, carrying
exaggerated reports of the situation.

Meanwhile, opposition to the Transylvania proprietors was fast
developing. The settlers in the Harrodsburg neighborhood held a
convention in June and sent Colonel George Rogers Clark and Captain John
Gabriel Jones as delegates to the Virginia Convention with a petition to
that body to make Kentucky a county of Virginia. This project was
bitterly opposed by Henderson; but upon the adoption by Congress, in
July, of the Declaration of Independence, there was small chance left
for the recognition of any proprietary government. When the new Virginia
legislature met in the autumn, the petition of the "inhabitants of
Kentuckie" was granted, and a county government organized.[13] David
Robinson was appointed county lieutenant, John Bowman colonel, Anthony
Bledsoe and George Rogers Clark majors, and Daniel Boone, James Harrod,
John Todd, and Benjamin Logan captains.

It was not until July that the Kentuckians fully realized the existence
of an Indian war. During that month several hunters, surveyors, and
travelers were killed in various parts of the district. The situation
promised so badly that Colonel William Russell, of the Holston Valley,
commandant of the southwestern Virginia militia, advised the immediate
abandonment of Kentucky. Such advice fell upon unheeding ears in the
case of men like Boone and his companions, although many of the less
valorous were quick to retire beyond the mountains.

On Sunday, the seventeenth of July, an incident occurred at
Boonesborough which created wide-spread consternation. Jemima, the
second daughter of Daniel Boone, aged fourteen years, together with two
girl friends, Betsey and Fanny Calloway, sixteen and fourteen
respectively, were paddling in a canoe upon the Kentucky. Losing control
of their craft in the swift current, not over a quarter of a mile from
the settlement, they were swept near the north bank, when five Shawnese
braves, hiding in the bushes, waded out and captured them. The screams
of the girls alarmed the settlers, who sallied forth in hot pursuit of
the kidnappers.

The mounted men, under Colonel Calloway, father of two of the captives,
pushed forward to Lower Blue Licks, hoping to cut off the Indians as
they crossed the Licking River on their way to the Shawnese towns in
Ohio, whither it was correctly supposed they were fleeing. Boone headed
the footmen, who followed closely on the trail of the fugitives, which
had been carefully marked by the girls, who, with the self-possession of
true borderers, furtively scattered broken twigs and scraps of clothing
as they were hurried along through the forest by their grim captors.
After a two days' chase, Boone's party caught up with the unsuspecting
savages some thirty-five miles from Boonesborough, and by dint of a
skilful dash recaptured the young women, unharmed. Two of the Shawnese
were killed and the others fled into the woods. Calloway's horsemen met
no foe.

Although few other attacks were reported during the summer or autumn,
the people were in a continual state of apprehension, neglected their
crops, and either huddled in the neighborhood of the settlements, or
"stations" as they were called, or abandoned the country altogether. In
the midst of this uneasiness Floyd wrote to his friend Preston, in
Virginia, urging that help be sent to the distressed colony: "They all
seem deaf to anything we can say to dissuade them.... I think more than
three hundred men have left the country since I came out, and not one
has arrived, except a few _cabiners_ down the Ohio. I want to return as
much as any man can do; but if I leave the country now there is scarcely
one single man who will not follow the example. When I think of the
deplorable condition a few helpless families are likely to be in, I
conclude to sell my life as dearly as I can in their defense rather
than make an ignominious escape."

  [Illustration: FORT BOONESBOROUGH.
    Drawn from Henderson's plans and other historical data by George W.
    Ranck; reduced from the latter's "Boonesborough" (Filson Club
    Publications, No. 16).]

Seven stations had now been abandoned--Huston's, on the present site of
Paris; Hinkson's, on the Licking; Bryan's, on the Elkhorn; Lee's, on the
Kentucky; Harrod's, or the Boiling Spring settlement; Whitley's, and
Logan's. But three remained occupied--McClellan's, Harrodsburg, and
Boonesborough. Up to this time none of the Kentucky stations had been
fortified; there had been some unfinished work at Boonesborough, but it
was soon allowed to fall into decay. Work was now resumed at all three
of the occupied settlements; this consisted simply of connecting the
cabins, which faced an open square, by lines of palisades. It was only
at McClellan's, however, that even this slender protection was promptly
completed; at Boonesborough and Harrodsburg the work, although but a
task of a few days, dragged slowly, and was not finished for several
months. It was next to impossible for Boone and the other militia
captains to induce men to labor at the common defenses in time of
peace.

Great popular interest was taken by the people of the Carolinas,
Virginia, and Pennsylvania in the fate of the Kentucky settlements,
whither so many prominent borderers from those States had moved. The
frantic appeals for help sent out by Floyd, Logan, and McGary, and
expressed in person by George Rogers Clark, awakened keen sympathy; but
the demands of Washington's army were now so great, in battles for
national liberty upon the Atlantic coast, that little could be spared
for the Western settlers. During the summer a small supply of powder was
sent out by Virginia to Captain Boone; in the autumn Harrod and Logan
rode to the Holston and obtained from the military authorities a
packhorse-load of lead; and in the closing days of the year Clark
arrived at Limestone (now Maysville), on the Ohio, with a boat-load of
powder and other stores, voted to the service of Kentucky by the
Virginia Assembly. He had experienced a long and exciting voyage from
Pittsburg with this precious consignment, and about thirty of the
settlers aided him in the perilous enterprise of transporting it
overland to the stations on the Kentucky. While the ammunition was
supposed to be used for defense, the greater part of it was necessarily
spent in obtaining food. Without the great profusion of game the
inhabitants must have starved; although several large crops of corn were
raised, and some wheat, these were as yet insufficient for all.

Early in 1777 Indian "signs" began to multiply. McClellan's was now
abandoned, leaving Boonesborough and Harrodsburg the only settlements
maintained--except, perhaps, Price's, on the Cumberland, although
Logan's Station was reoccupied in February. The number of men now in the
country fit for duty did not exceed a hundred and fifty. In March the
fighting men met at their respective stations and organized under
commissioned officers; hitherto all military operations in Kentucky had
been voluntary, headed by such temporary leaders as the men chose from
their own number.

During the greater part of the year the palisaded stations were
frequently attacked by the savages--Shawnese, Cherokees, and Mingos, in
turn or in company. Some of these sieges lasted through several days,
taxing the skill and bravery of the inhabitants to their utmost. Indian
methods of attacking forts were far different from those that would be
practised by white men. Being practically without military organization,
each warrior acted largely on his own behalf. His object was to secrete
himself, to kill his enemy, and if possible to bear away his scalp as a
trophy. Every species of cover was taken advantage of--trees, stumps,
bushes, hillocks, stones, furnished hiding-places. Feints were made to
draw the attention of the garrison to one side, while the main body of
the besiegers hurled themselves against the other. Having neither
artillery nor scaling-ladders, they frequently succeeded in effecting a
breach by setting fire to the walls. Pretending to retreat, they would
lull the defenders into carelessness, when they would again appear from
ambush, picking off those who came out for water, to attend to crops and
cattle, or to hunt for food; often they exhibited a remarkable spirit of
daring, especially when making a dash to secure scalps. Destroying
crops, cattle, hogs, and poultry, stealing the horses for their own
use, burning the outlying cabins, and guarding the trails against
possible relief, they sought to reduce the settlers to starvation, and
thus make them an easy prey. Every artifice known to besiegers was
skilfully practised by these crafty, keen-eyed, quick-witted wilderness
fighters, who seldom showed mercy. Only when white men aggressively
fought them in their own manner could they be overcome.

In the last week of April, while Boone and Kenton were heading a sortie
against a party of Shawnese besieging Boonesborough, the whites stumbled
into an ambuscade, and Boone was shot in an ankle, the bone being
shattered. Kenton, with that cool bravery for which this tall, vigorous
backwoodsman was known throughout the border, rushed up, and killing a
warrior whose tomahawk was lifted above the fallen man, picked his
comrade up in his arms, and desperately fought his way back into the
enclosure. It was several months before the captain recovered from this
painful wound; but from his room he directed many a day-and-night
defense, and laid plans for the scouting expeditions which were
frequently undertaken throughout the region in order to discover signs
of the lurking foe.

Being the larger settlement, Harrodsburg was more often attacked than
Boonesborough, although simultaneous sieges were sometimes in progress,
thus preventing the little garrisons from helping each other. At both
stations the women soon became the equal of the men, fearlessly taking
turns at the port-holes, from which little puffs of white smoke would
follow the sharp rifle-cracks whenever a savage head revealed itself
from behind bush or tree. When not on duty as marksmen, women were
melting their pewter plates into bullets, loading the rifles and handing
them to the men, caring for the wounded, and cooking whatever food might
be obtainable. During a siege food was gained only by stealth and at
great peril. Some brave volunteer would escape into the woods by night,
and after a day spent in hunting, far away from hostile camps, return,
if possible under cover of darkness, with what game he could find. It
was a time to make heroes or cowards of either men or women--there was
no middle course.

Amid this spasmodic hurly-burly there was no lack of marrying and giving
in marriage. One day in early August, 1776, Betsey Calloway, the eldest
of the captive girls, was married at Boonesborough to Samuel Henderson,
one of the rescuing party--the first wedding in Kentucky. Daniel Boone,
as justice of the peace, tied the knot. A diarist of the time has this
record of a similar Harrodsburg event: "July 9, 1777.--Lieutenant Linn
married--great merriment."

At each garrison, whenever not under actual siege, half of the men were
acting as guards and scouts while the others cultivated small patches of
corn within sight of the walls. But even this precaution sometimes
failed of its purpose. For instance, one day in May two hundred Indians
suddenly surrounded the corn-field at Boonesborough, and there was a
lively skirmish before the planters could reach the fort.

Thus the summer wore away. In August Colonel Bowman arrived with a
hundred militiamen from the Virginia frontier. A little later
forty-eight horsemen came from the Yadkin country to Boone's relief,
making so brave a display as they emerged from the tangled woods and in
open order filed through the gates of the palisade, that some Shawnese
watching the procession from a neighboring hill fled into Ohio with the
startling report that two hundred Long Knife warriors had arrived from
Virginia. In October other Virginians came, to the extent of a hundred
expert riflemen; and late in the autumn the valiant Logan brought in
from the Holston as much powder and lead as four packhorses could carry,
guarded by a dozen sharpshooters, thus insuring a better prospect for
food.

With these important supplies and reenforcements at hand the settlers
were inspired by new hope. Instead of waiting for the savages to attack
them, they thenceforth went in search of the savages, killing them
wherever seen, thus seeking to outgeneral the enemy. These tactics quite
disheartened the astonished tribesmen, and the year closed with a
brighter outlook for the weary Kentuckians. It had been a time of
constant anxiety and watchfulness. The settlers were a handful in
comparison with their vigilant enemies. But little corn had been raised;
the cattle were practically gone; few horses were now left; and on the
twelfth of December Bowman sent word to Virginia that he had only two
months' supply of bread for two hundred women and children, many of whom
were widows and orphans. As for clothing, there was little to be had,
although from the fiber of nettles a rude cloth was made, and deerskins
were commonly worn.


FOOTNOTE:

[13] It was, however, not until November, 1778, that the legislature
formally declared the Transylvania Company's claims null and void.




CHAPTER XI

THE SIEGE OF BOONESBOROUGH


We have seen that Kentucky's numerous salt-springs lured wild animals
thither in astonishing numbers; but for lack of suitable boiling-kettles
the pioneers were at first dependent upon the older settlements for the
salt needed in curing their meat. The Indian outbreak now rendered the
Wilderness Road an uncertain path, and the Kentuckians were beginning to
suffer from lack of salt--a serious deprivation for a people largely
dependent upon a diet of game.

Late in the year 1777 the Virginia government sent out several large
salt-boiling kettles for the use of the Western settlers. Both residents
and visiting militiamen were allotted into companies, which were to
relieve each other at salt-making until sufficient was manufactured to
last the several stations for a year. It was Boone's duty to head the
first party, thirty strong, which, with the kettles packed on horses,
went to Lower Blue Licks early in January. A month passed, during which
a considerable quantity of salt was made; several horse-loads had been
sent to Boonesborough, but most of it was still at the camp awaiting
shipment.

The men were daily expecting relief by the second company, when visitors
of a different character appeared. While half of the men worked at the
boiling, the others engaged in the double service of watching for
Indians and obtaining food; of these was Boone. Toward evening of the
seventh of February he was returning home from a wide circuit with his
packhorse laden with buffalo-meat and some beaver-skins, for he had many
traps in the neighborhood. A blinding snow-storm was in progress, which
caused him to neglect his usual precautions, when suddenly he was
confronted by four burly Shawnese, who sprang from an ambush. Keen of
foot, he thought to outrun them, but soon had to surrender, for they
shot so accurately that it was evident that they could kill him if they
would.

The prisoner was conducted to the Shawnese camp, a few miles distant.
There he found a hundred and twenty warriors under Chief Black Fish. Two
Frenchmen, in English employ, were of the party; also two American
renegades from the Pittsburg region, James and George Girty. These
latter, with their brother Simon, had joined the Indians and, dressed
and painted like savages, were assisting the tribesmen of the Northwest
in raids against their fellow-borderers of Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Boone was well known by reputation to all these men of the wilderness,
reds and whites alike; indeed, he noticed that among the party were his
captors of eight years before, who laughed heartily at again having him
in their clutches.

He was loudly welcomed to camp, the Indians shaking his hands, patting
him on the back, and calling him "brother"--for they always greatly
enjoyed such exhibitions of mock civility and friendship--and the hunter
himself pretended to be equally pleased at the meeting. They told him
that they were on their way to attack Boonesborough, and wished him to
lead them, but insisted that he first induce his fellow salt-makers to
surrender. Boone thoroughly understood Indians; he had learned the arts
of forest diplomacy, and although generally a silent man of action,
appears to have been a plausible talker when dealing with red men.
Knowing that only one side of the Boonesborough palisade had been
completed, and that the war-party was five times as strong as the
population of the hamlet, he thought to delay operations by strategy. He
promised to persuade the salt-makers to surrender, in view of the
overwhelming force and the promise of good treatment, and to go
peacefully with their captors to the Shawnese towns north of the Ohio;
and suggested that in the spring, when the weather was warmer, they
could all go together to Boonesborough, and by means of horses
comfortably remove the women and children. These would, under his
persuasion, Boone assured his captors, be content to move to the North,
and thenceforth either lived with the Shawnese as their adopted children
or place themselves under British protection at Detroit, where Governor
Hamilton offered £20 apiece for American prisoners delivered to him
alive and well.

The proposition appeared reasonable to the Indians, and they readily
agreed to it. What would be the outcome Boone could not foretell. He
realized, however, that his station was unprepared, that delay meant
everything, in view of possible reenforcements from Virginia, and was
willing that he and his comrades should stand, if need be, as a
sacrifice--indeed, no other course seemed open. Going with his captors
to the salt camp, his convincing words caused the men to stack their
arms and accompany the savages, hoping thereby at least to save their
families at Boonesborough from immediate attack.

The captives were but twenty-seven in number, some of the hunters not
having returned to camp. Not all of the captors were, despite their
promise, in favor of lenient treatment of the prisoners. A council was
held, at which Black Fish, a chieftain of fine qualities, had much
difficulty, through a session of two hours, in securing a favorable
verdict. Boone was permitted to address the savage throng in
explanation of his plan, his words being interpreted by a negro named
Pompey, a fellow of some consequence among the Shawnese. The vote was
close--fifty-nine for at once killing the prisoners, except Boone, and
sixty-one for mercy; but it was accepted as decisive, and the store of
salt being destroyed, and kettles, guns, axes, and other plunder packed
on horses, the march northward promptly commenced.

Each night the captives were made fast and closely watched. The weather
was unusually severe; there was much suffering from hunger, for the snow
was deep, game scarce, and slippery-elm bark sometimes the only food
obtainable. Descending the Licking, the band crossed the Ohio in a large
boat made of buffalo-hides, which were stretched on a rude frame holding
twenty persons; they then entered the trail leading to the Shawnese
towns on the Little Miami, where they arrived upon the tenth day.

The prisoners were taken to the chief town of the Shawnese, Little
Chillicothe, about three miles north of the present Xenia, Ohio. There
was great popular rejoicing, for not since Braddock's defeat had so many
prisoners been brought into Ohio. Boone and sixteen of his companions,
presumably selected for their good qualities and their apparent capacity
as warriors, were now formally adopted into the tribe. Boone himself had
the good fortune to be accepted as the son of Black Fish, and received
the name Sheltowee (Big Turtle)--perhaps because he was strong and
compactly built.

Adoption was a favorite method of recruiting the ranks of American
tribes. The most tractable captives were often taken into the families
of the captors to supply the place of warriors killed in battle. They
were thereafter treated with the utmost affection, apparently no
difference being made between them and actual relatives, save that,
until it was believed that they were no longer disposed to run away,
they were watched with care to prevent escape. Such was now Boone's
experience. Black Fish and his squaw appeared to regard their new son
with abundant love, and everything was done for his comfort, so far as
was possible in an Indian camp, save that he found himself carefully
observed by day and night, and flight long seemed impracticable.

Boone was a shrewd philosopher. In his so-called "autobiography" written
by Filson, he tells us that the food and lodging were "not so good as I
could desire, but necessity made everything acceptable." Such as he
obtained was, however, the lot of all. In the crowded, slightly built
wigwams it was impossible to avoid drafts; they were filthy to the last
degree; when in the home villages, there was generally an abundance of
food--corn, hominy, pumpkins, beans, and game, sometimes all boiled
together in the same kettle--although it was prepared in so slovenly a
manner as to disgust even so hardy a man of the forest as our hero; the
lack of privacy, the ever-present insects, the blinding smoke of the
lodge-fire, the continual yelping of dogs, and the shrill, querulous
tones of old women, as they haggled and bickered through the livelong
day--all these and many other discomforts were intensely irritating to
most white men. In order to disarm suspicion, Boone appeared to be
happy. He whistled cheerfully at his tasks, learning what little there
was left for him to learn of the arts of the warrior, sharing his game
with his "father," and pretending not to see that he was being watched.
At the frequent shooting-matches he performed just well enough to win
the applause of his fellow braves, although, for fear of arousing
jealousy, careful not to outdo the best of them. His fellow prisoners,
less tactful, marveled at the ease with which their old leader adapted
himself to the new life, and his apparent enjoyment of it. Yet never did
he miss an opportunity to ascertain particulars of the intended attack
on Boonesborough, and secretly planned for escape when the proper moment
should arrive.

March was a third gone, when Black Fish and a large party of his braves
and squaws went to Detroit to secure Governor Hamilton's bounty on those
of the salt-makers who, from having acted in an ugly manner, had not
been adopted into the tribe. Boone accompanied his "father," and
frequently witnessed, unable to interfere, the whipping and
"gauntlet-running" to which his unhappy fellow Kentuckians were
subjected in punishment for their fractious behavior. He himself, early
in his captivity, had been forced to undergo this often deadly ordeal;
but by taking a dodging, zigzag course, and freely using his head as a
battering-ram to topple over some of the warriors in the lines, had
emerged with few bruises.[14]

Upon the arrival of the party at Detroit Governor Hamilton at once sent
for the now famous Kentucky hunter and paid him many attentions. With
the view of securing his liberty, the wily forest diplomat used the same
sort of duplicity with the governor that had proved so effective with
Black Fish. It was his habit to carry a leather bag fastened about his
neck, containing his old commission as captain in the British colonial
forces, signed by Lord Dunmore. This was for the purpose of convincing
Indians, into whose hands he might fall, that he was a friend of the
king; which accounts in a large measure for the tender manner in which
they treated him. Showing the document to Hamilton as proof of his
devotion to the British cause, he appears to have repeated his promise
that he would surrender the people of Boonesborough and conduct them to
Detroit, to live under British jurisdiction and protection. This greatly
pleased the governor, who sought to ransom him from Black Fish for £100.
But to this his "father" would not agree, stating that he loved him too
strongly to let him go--as a matter of fact, he wished his services as
guide for the Boonesborough expedition. Upon leaving for home, Hamilton
presented Boone with a pony, saddle, bridle, and blanket, and a supply
of silver trinkets to be used as currency among the Indians, and bade
him remember his duty to the king.

Returning to Chillicothe with Black Fish, the hunter saw that
preparations for the spring invasion of Kentucky were at last under way.
Delawares, Mingos, and Shawnese were slowly assembling, and runners
were carrying the war-pipe from village to village throughout Ohio. But
while they had been absent at Detroit an event occurred which gave Black
Fish great concern: one of the adopted men, Andrew Johnson--who had
pretended among the Indians to be a simpleton, in order to throw off
suspicion, but who in reality was one of the most astute of
woodsmen--had escaped, carrying warning to Kentucky, and the earliest
knowledge that reached the settlers of the location of the Shawnese
towns. In May, Johnson and five comrades went upon a raid against one of
these villages, capturing several horses and bringing home a bunch of
Indian scalps, for scalping was now almost as freely practised by the
frontiersmen as the savages; such is the degeneracy wrought by warlike
contact with an inferior race. In June there was a similar raid by
Boonesborough men, resulting to the tribesmen in large losses of lives
and horses.

Upon the sixteenth of June, while Black Fish's party were boiling salt
at the saline springs of the Scioto--about a dozen miles south of the
present Chillicothe--Boone managed, by exercise of rare sagacity and
enterprise, to escape the watchful eyes of his keepers, their attention
having been arrested by the appearance of a huge flock of wild turkeys.
He reached Boonesborough four days later after a perilous journey of a
hundred and sixty miles through the forest, during which he had eaten
but one meal--from a buffalo which he shot at Blue Licks. He had been
absent for four and a half months, and Mrs. Boone, giving him up for
dead, had returned with their family to her childhood home upon the
Yadkin. His brother Squire, and his daughter Jemima--now married to
Flanders Calloway--were the only kinsfolk to greet the returned captive,
who appeared out of the woods as one suddenly delivered from a tomb.

During the absence of Daniel Boone there had been the usual Indian
troubles in Kentucky. Colonel Bowman had just written to Colonel George
Rogers Clark, "The Indians have pushed us hard this summer." But Clark
himself at this time was gaining an important advantage over the enemy
in his daring expedition against the British posts of Kaskaskia,
Cahokia, and Vincennes, in the Illinois country. Realizing that there
would be no end to Kentucky's trouble so long as the British, aided by
their French-Canadian agents, were free to organize Indian armies north
of the Ohio for the purpose of harrying the southern settlements, Clark
"carried the war into Africa." With about a hundred and fifty men
gathered from the frontiers of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky, he
descended the Ohio River, built a fort at Louisville, and by an heroic
forced march across the country captured Kaskaskia, while Cahokia and
Vincennes at once surrendered to the valorous Kentuckian.

Meanwhile there was business at hand for the people of Boonesborough.
Amid all these alarms they had still neglected to complete their
defenses; but now, under the energetic administration of Boone, the
palisades were finished, gates and fortresses strengthened, and all four
of the corner blockhouses put in order. In ten days they were ready for
the slowly advancing host.

Unless fleeing, Indians are never in a hurry; they spend much time in
noisy preparation. Hunters and scouts came into Boonesborough from time
to time, and occasionally a retaliatory expedition would return with
horses and scalps from the Little Miami and the Scioto, all of them
reporting delays on the part of the enemy; nevertheless all agreed that
a large force was forming. Toward the close of August Boone, wearied of
being cooped up in the fort, went forth at the head of thirty woodsmen
to scout in the neighborhood of the Scioto towns. With him were Kenton
and Alexander Montgomery, who remained behind in Ohio to capture horses
and probably prisoners, while Boone and the others returned after a
week's absence. On their way home they discovered that the enemy was now
at Lower Blue Licks, but a short distance from Boonesborough.

At about ten o'clock the following morning (September 7th) the Indian
army appeared before the fort. It numbered fully four hundred warriors,
mostly Shawnese, but with some Wyandots, Cherokees, Delawares, Mingos,
and other tribesmen. Accompanying them were some forty French-Canadians,
all under the command of Boone's "father," the redoubtable Black Fish.
Pompey served as chief interpreter.

Much time was spent in parleys, Boone in this manner delaying operations
as long as possible, vainly hoping that promised reenforcements might
meanwhile arrive from the Holston. Black Fish wept freely, after the
Indian fashion, over the ingratitude of his runaway "son," and his
present stubborn attitude; for the latter now told the forest chief that
he and his people proposed to fight to the last man. Black Fish
presented letters and proclamations from Hamilton, again offering pardon
to all who would take the oath of allegiance to the king, and military
offices for Boone and the other leaders. When these were rejected, the
Indians attempted treachery, seeking to overpower and kill the white
commissioners to a treaty being held in front of the fort. From this
final council, ending in a wild uproar, in which bullets flew and knives
and tomahawks clashed, the whites escaped with difficulty, the two
Boones and another commissioner receiving painful wounds.

A siege of ten days now ensued (September 8th to 17th), one of the most
remarkable in the history of savage warfare. The site of the fort, a
parallelogram embracing three-quarters of an acre, had been unwisely
chosen. There was abundant cover for the enemy under the high river
bank, also beneath an encircling clay bank rising from the salt-lick
branch; from hills upon either side spies could see what was happening
within the walls, and occasionally drop a ball into the small herd of
cattle and horses sheltered behind the palisades; while to these natural
disadvantages were added the failure of the garrison to clear from the
neighborhood of the walls the numerous trees, stumps, bushes, and rocks,
each of which furnished the best of cover for a lurking foe.

  [Illustration: CLIMAX OF THE TREATY.
    Indians and British agents treacherously attack treaty commissioners.
    (See pp. 161, 162.) Reduced from Ranck's "Boonesborough."]

Such, however, was the stubbornness of the defense, in which the women
were, in their way, quite as efficient as the men, that the forces under
Black Fish could make but small impression upon the valiant little
garrison. Every artifice known to savages, or that could be suggested
by the French, was without avail. Almost nightly rains and the energy of
the riflemen frustrated the numerous attempts to set fire to the cabins
by throwing torches and lighted fagots upon their roofs; a tunnel,
intended to be used for blowing up the walls, was well under way from
the river bank when rain caused it to cave in; attempts at scaling were
invariably repelled, and in sharpshooting the whites as usual proved the
superiors.

But the result often hung in the balance. Sometimes the attack lasted
throughout the night, the scene being constantly lighted by the flash of
the rifles and the glare of hurling fagots. Besiegers and garrison
frequently exchanged fierce cries of threat and defiance, mingled with
many a keen shaft of wit and epithet; at times the yells and whoops of
the savages, the answering shouts and huzzahs of the defenders, the
screams of women and girls, the howling of dogs, the snorting and
bellowing of the plunging live stock, together with the sharp rattle of
firearms, created a deafening hubbub well calculated to test the nerves
of the strongest.

At last, on the morning of Friday, the eighteenth, the Indians, now
thoroughly disheartened, suddenly disappeared into the forest as
silently as they had come. Again Boonesborough was free, having passed
through the longest and severest ordeal of attack ever known in
Kentucky; indeed, it proved to be the last effort against this station.
Within the walls sixty persons had been capable of bearing arms, but
only forty were effective, some of these being negroes; Logan's Fort had
sent a reenforcement of fifteen men, and Harrodsburg a few others. Of
the garrison but two were killed and four wounded, while Boone estimated
that the enemy lost thirty-seven killed and a large number wounded. The
casualties within the fort were astonishingly small, when the large
amount of ammunition expended by the besiegers is taken into account.
After they had retired, Boone's men picked up a hundred and twenty-five
pounds of flattened bullets that had been fired at the log stronghold,
handfuls being scooped up beneath the port-holes of the bastions; this
salvage made no account of the balls thickly studding the walls, it
being estimated that a hundred pounds of lead were buried in the logs of
one of the bastions.

A week later a small company of militiamen arrived from Virginia, and
several minor expeditions were now made against the Shawnese upon their
own soil. These raids were chiefly piloted by Boone's salt-makers, many
of whom had now returned from captivity. Boone is credited with saying
in his later years, although no doubt in ruder language than this:
"Never did the Indians pursue so disastrous a policy as when they
captured me and my salt-boilers, and taught us, what we did not know
before, the way to their towns and the geography of their country; for
though at first our captivity was considered a great calamity to
Kentucky, it resulted in the most signal benefits to the country."

Captain Boone was not without his critics. Soon after the siege he was
arraigned before a court-martial at Logan's Fort upon the following
charges preferred by Colonel Calloway, who thought that the great hunter
was in favor of the British Government and had sought opportunity to
play into its hands, therefore should be deprived of his commission in
the Kentucky County militia:

"1. That Boone had taken out twenty-six men[15] to make salt at the Blue
Licks, and the Indians had caught him trapping for beaver ten miles
below on Licking, and he voluntarily surrendered his men at the Licks to
the enemy.

"2. That when a prisoner, he engaged with Gov. Hamilton to surrender the
people of Boonesborough to be removed to Detroit, and live under British
protection and jurisdiction.

"3. That returning from captivity, he encouraged a party of men to
accompany him to the Paint Lick Town, weakening the garrison at a time
when the arrival of an Indian army was daily expected to attack the
fort.

"4. That preceding the attack on Boonesborough, he was willing to take
the officers of the fort, on pretense of making peace, to the Indian
camp, beyond the protection of the guns of the garrison."

Boone defended himself at length, maintaining that he aimed only at the
interests of the country; that while hunting at the licks he was engaged
in the necessary service of the camp; that he had used duplicity to win
the confidence of the enemy, and it resulted favorably, as he was
thereby enabled to escape in time to warn his people and put them in a
state of defense; that his Scioto expedition was a legitimate scouting
trip, and turned out well; and that in the negotiations before the fort
he was simply "playing" the Indians in order to gain time for expected
reenforcements. He was not only honorably acquitted, but at once
advanced to the rank of major, and received evidences of the
unhesitating loyalty of all classes of his fellow borderers, the
majority of whom appear to have always confided in his sagacity and
patriotism.

Personally vindicated, the enemy departed, and several companies of
militia now arriving to garrison the stations for the winter, Major
Boone once more turned his face to the Yadkin and sought his family. He
found them at the Bryan settlement, living comfortably in a small log
cabin, but until then unconscious of his return from the wilderness in
which they had supposed he found his grave.


FOOTNOTES:

[14] Two lines of Indians were formed, five or six feet apart, on either
side of a marked path. The prisoner was obliged to run between these
lines, while there were showered upon him lusty blows from whatever
weapons the tormentors chose to adopt--switches, sticks, clubs, and
tomahawks. It required great agility, speed in running, and some
aggressive strategy to arrive at the goal unharmed. Many white captives
were seriously crippled in this thrilling experience, and not a few lost
their lives.

[15] Account is only taken, in these charges, of the twenty-seven
captives.




CHAPTER XII

SOLDIER AND STATESMAN


In Daniel Boone's "autobiography," he dismisses his year of absence from
Kentucky with few words: "I went into the settlement, and nothing worthy
of notice passed for some time." No doubt he hunted in some of his old
haunts upon the Yadkin; and there is reason for believing that he made a
trip upon business of some character to Charleston, S.C.

Meanwhile, his fellow settlers of Kentucky had not been inactive. In
February (1779) Clark repossessed himself of Vincennes after one of the
most brilliant forced marches of the Revolution; and having there
captured Governor Hamilton--the "hair-buying general," as the
frontiersmen called him, because they thought he paid bounties on
American scalps--had sent him a prisoner to Virginia. The long siege of
Boonesborough and the other attacks of the preceding year, together
with more recent assaults upon flatboats descending the Ohio, had
strongly disposed the Kentuckians to retaliate on the Shawnese. Two
hundred and thirty riflemen under Colonel Bowman rendezvoused in July at
the mouth of the Licking, where is now the city of Covington. Nearly a
third of the force were left to guard the boats in which they crossed
the Ohio, the rest marching against Old Chillicothe, the chief Shawnese
town on the Little Miami. They surprised the Indians, and a hotly
contested battle ensued, lasting from dawn until ten o'clock in the
morning; but the overpowering numbers of the savages caused Bowman to
return crestfallen to Kentucky with a loss of nearly a dozen men. This
was the forerunner of many defeats of Americans, both bordermen and
regulars, at the hands of the fierce tribesmen of Ohio.

Readers of Revolutionary history as related from the Eastern standpoint
are led to suppose that the prolonged struggle with the mother country
everywhere strained the resources of the young nation, and was the chief
thought of the people. This high tension was, however, principally in
the tidewater region. In the "back country," as the Western frontiers
were called, there was no lack of patriotism, and bordermen were
numerous in the colonial armies; yet the development of the
trans-Alleghany region was to them of more immediate concern, and went
forward vigorously, especially during the last half of the war. This did
not mean that the backwoodsmen of the foot-hills were escaping from the
conflict by crossing westward beyond the mountains; they were instead
planting themselves upon the left flank, for French and Indian scalping
parties were continually harrying the Western settlements, and the
Eastern forces were too busily engaged to give succor. Kentuckians were
left practically alone to defend the backdoor of the young Republic.

In this year (1779) the Virginia legislature adopted laws for the
preemption of land in Kentucky, which promised a more secure tenure than
had hitherto prevailed, and thus gave great impetus to over-mountain
emigration. Hitherto those going out to Kentucky were largely hunters,
explorers, surveyors, and land speculators; comparatively few families
were established in the wilderness stations. But henceforth the
emigration was chiefly by households, some by boats down the Ohio River,
and others overland by the Wilderness Road--for the first official
improvement of which Virginia made a small appropriation at this time.
Says Chief Justice Robinson,[16] whose parents settled in Kentucky in
December:

"This beneficent enactment brought to the country during the fall and
winter of that year an unexampled tide of emigrants, who, exchanging all
the comforts of their native society and homes for settlements for
themselves and their children here, came like pilgrims to a wilderness
to be made secure by their arms and habitable by the toil of their
lives. Through privations incredible and perils thick, thousands of men,
women, and children came in successive caravans, forming continuous
streams of human beings, horses, cattle, and other domestic animals, all
moving onward along a lonely and houseless path to a wild and cheerless
land. Cast your eyes back on that long procession of missionaries in the
cause of civilization; behold the men on foot with their trusty guns on
their shoulders, driving stock and leading packhorses; and the women,
some walking with pails on their heads, others riding, with children in
their laps, and other children swung in baskets on horses, fastened to
the tails of others going before; see them encamped at night expecting
to be massacred by Indians; behold them in the month of December, in
that ever-memorable season of unprecedented cold called the 'hard
winter,' traveling two or three miles a day, frequently in danger of
being frozen, or killed by the falling of horses on the icy and almost
impassable trace, and subsisting on stinted allowances of stale bread
and meat; but now, lastly, look at them at the destined fort, perhaps on
the eve of merry Christmas, when met by the hearty welcome of friends
who had come before, and cheered by fresh buffalo-meat and parched corn,
they rejoice at their deliverance, and resolve to be contented with
their lot."

In October, as a part of this great throng, Daniel Boone and his family
returned to Kentucky by his old route through Cumberland Gap, being two
weeks upon the journey. The great hunter was at the head of a company of
Rowan County folk, and carried with him two small cannon, the first
artillery sent by Virginia to protect the Western forts. Either as one
of his party, or later in the season, there came to Kentucky Abraham
Lincoln, of Rockingham County, Va., grandfather of the martyred
president. The Lincolns and the Boones had been neighbors and warm
friends in Pennsylvania, and ever since had maintained pleasant
relations--indeed, had frequently intermarried. It was by Boone's advice
and encouragement that Lincoln migrated with his family to the "dark and
bloody ground" and took up a forest claim in the heart of Jefferson
County. Daniel's younger brother Edward, killed by Indians a year later,
was of the same company.

  [Illustration: SITE OF BOONESBOROUGH TO-DAY.
    Fort site, to which roadway leads, is hidden by foliage on the left;
    the ridge in the background faced and overlooked the fort. Reduced
    from Ranck's "Boonesborough."]

Boone also brought news that the legislature had incorporated "the town
of Boonesborough in the County of Kentuckey," of which he was named a
trustee, which office he eventually declined. The town, although now
laid out into building lots, and anticipating a prosperous growth, never
rose to importance and at last passed away. Nothing now remains upon the
deserted site, which Boone could have known, save a decrepit
sycamore-tree and a tumble-down ferry established in the year of the
incorporation.

As indicated in Robinson's address, quoted above, the winter of 1779-80
was a season of unwonted severity. After an exceptionally mild autumn,
cold weather set in by the middle of November and lasted without thaw
for two months, with deep snow and zero temperature. The rivers were
frozen as far south as Nashville; emigrant wagons were stalled in the
drifts while crossing the mountains, and everywhere was reported
unexampled hardship. It will be remembered that the Revolutionary Army
in the East suffered intensely from the same cause. The Indians had, the
preceding summer, destroyed most of the corn throughout Kentucky; the
game was rapidly decreasing, deer and buffaloes having receded before
the advance of settlement, and a temporary famine ensued. Hunters were
employed to obtain meat for the newcomers; and in this occupation Boone
and Harrod, in particular, were actively engaged throughout the winter,
making long trips into the forest, both north and south of Kentucky
River.

The land titles granted by the Transylvania Company having been declared
void, it became necessary for Boone and the other settlers under that
grant to purchase from the State government of Virginia new warrants.
For this purpose Boone set out for Richmond in the spring. Nathaniel and
Thomas Hart and others of his friends commissioned him to act as their
agent in this matter. With his own small means and that which was
entrusted to him for the purpose, he carried $20,000 in depreciated
paper money--probably worth but half that amount in silver. It appears
that of this entire sum he was robbed upon his way--where, or under what
circumstances, we are unable to discover. His petition to the Kentucky
legislature, in his old age, simply states the fact of the robbery,
adding that he "was left destitute." A large part of the money was the
property of his old friends, the Harts, but many others also suffered
greatly. There was some disposition on the part of a few to attribute
dishonorable action to Boone; but the Harts, although the chief losers,
came promptly to the rescue and sharply censured his critics, declaring
him to be a "just and upright" man, beyond suspicion--a verdict which
soon became unanimous. Sympathy for the honest but unbusinesslike
pioneer was so general, that late in June, soon after the robbery,
Virginia granted him a preemption of a thousand acres of land in what is
now Bourbon County.

A tradition exists that while in Virginia that summer Boone called upon
his former host at Detroit, then a prisoner of war, and expressed
sympathy for the sad plight into which the English governor had fallen;
also some indignation at the harsh treatment accorded him, and of which
Hamilton bitterly complained.

The founder of Boonesborough was soon back at his station, for he served
as a juryman there on the first of July. During his absence immigration
into Kentucky had been greater than ever; three hundred well-laden
family boats had arrived in the spring from the Pennsylvania and New
York frontiers, while many caravans had come from Virginia and the
Carolinas over the Wilderness Road. Attacks by Indian scalping parties
had been numerous along both routes, but particularly upon the Ohio. As
a reprisal for Bowman's expedition of the previous year, and intending
to interrupt settlement, Colonel Byrd, of the British Army, descended in
June upon Ruddle's and Martin's Stations, at the forks of the Licking,
with six hundred Indians and French-Canadians, and bringing six small
cannon with which to batter the Kentucky palisades. Both garrisons were
compelled to surrender, and the victors returned to Detroit with a train
of three hundred prisoners--men, women, and children--upon whom the
savages practised cruelties of a particularly atrocious character.

This inhuman treatment of prisoners of war created wide-spread
indignation upon the American border. In retaliation, George Rogers
Clark at once organized an expedition to destroy Pickaway, one of the
principal Shawnese towns on the Great Miami. The place was reduced to
ashes and a large number of Indians killed, the Americans losing
seventeen men. Clark had previously built Fort Jefferson, upon the first
bluff on the eastern side of the Mississippi below the mouth of the
Ohio, in order to accentuate the claim of the United States that it
extended to the Mississippi on the west; but as this was upon the
territory of friendly Chickasaws, the invasion aroused their ire, and it
was deemed prudent temporarily to abandon the post.

Another important event of the year (November, 1780) was the division of
Kentucky by the Virginia legislature into three counties--Jefferson,
with its seat at Louisville, now the chief town in the Western country;
Lincoln, governed from Harrodsburg; and Fayette, with Lexington as its
seat. Of these, Fayette, embracing the country between the Kentucky and
the Ohio, was the least populated; and, being the most northern and
traversed by the Licking River, now the chief war-path of the Shawnese,
was most exposed to attack. After his return Boone soon tired of
Boonesborough, for in his absence the population had greatly changed by
the removal or death of many of his old friends; and, moreover, game had
quite deserted the neighborhood. With his family, his laden packhorses,
and his dogs, he therefore moved to a new location across Kentucky
River, about five miles northwest of his first settlement. Here, at the
crossing of several buffalo-trails, and on the banks of Boone's Creek,
he built a palisaded log house called Boone's Station. Upon the division
of Kentucky this new stronghold fell within the borders of Fayette
County.

In the primitive stage of frontier settlement, when the common weal
demanded from every man or boy able to carry a rifle active militia
service whenever called upon, the military organization was quite equal
in importance to the civil. The new wilderness counties were therefore
equipped with a full roll of officers, Fayette County's colonel being
John Todd, while Daniel Boone was lieutenant-colonel; Floyd, Pope,
Logan, and Trigg served the sister counties in like manner. The
three county regiments were formed into a brigade, with Clark as
brigadier-general, his headquarters being at Louisville (Fort Nelson).
Each county had also a court to try civil and criminal cases, but
capital offenses could only be tried at Richmond. There was likewise a
surveyor for each county, Colonel Thomas Marshall serving for Fayette;
Boone was his deputy for several years (1782-85).

In October, 1780, Edward Boone, then but thirty-six years of age,
accompanied Daniel to Grassy Lick, in the northeast part of the present
Bourbon County, to boil salt. Being attacked by a large band of Indians,
Edward was killed in the first volley, and fell at the feet of his
brother, who at once shot the savage whom he thought to be the slayer.
Daniel then fled, stopping once to load and kill another foe. Closely
pursued, he had recourse to all the arts of evasion at his
command--wading streams to break the trail, swinging from tree to tree
by aid of wild grape-vines, and frequently zigzagging. A hound used in
the chase kept closely to him, however, and revealed his whereabouts by
baying, until the hunter killed the wily beast, and finally reached his
station in safety. Heading an avenging party of sixty men, Boone at once
went in pursuit of the enemy, and followed them into Ohio, but the
expedition returned without result.

The following April Boone went to Richmond as one of the first
representatives of Fayette County in the State legislature. With the
approach of Cornwallis, La Fayette, whose corps was then protecting
Virginia, abandoned Richmond, and the Assembly adjourned to
Charlottesville. Colonel Tarleton, at the head of a body of light horse,
made a dash upon the town, hoping to capture the law-makers, and
particularly Governor Jefferson, whose term was just then expiring.
Jefferson and the entire Assembly had been warned, but had a narrow
escape (June 4th), for while they were riding out of one end of town
Tarleton was galloping in at the other. The raider succeeded in
capturing three or four of the legislators, Boone among them, and after
destroying a quantity of military stores took his prisoners to
Cornwallis's camp. The members were paroled after a few days'
detention. The Assembly fled to Staunton, thirty-five miles distant,
where it resumed the session. The released members are reported to have
again taken their seats, although, after his capture, Boone's name does
not appear in the printed journals. Possibly the conditions of the
parole did not permit him again to serve at the current session, which
closed the twenty-third of June. He seems to have spent the summer in
Kentucky, and late in September went up the Ohio to Pittsburg, thence
journeying to the home of his boyhood in eastern Pennsylvania, where he
visited friends and relatives for a month, and then returned to Richmond
to resume his legislative duties.

Of all the dark years which Kentucky experienced, 1782 was the
bloodiest. The British authorities at Detroit exerted their utmost
endeavors to stem the rising tide of settlement and to crush the
aggressive military operations of Clark and his fellow-borderers. With
presents and smooth words they enlisted the cooperation of the most
distant tribes, the hope being held out that success would surely
follow persistent attack and a policy of "no quarter." It would be
wearisome to cite all the forays made by savages during this fateful
year, upon flatboats descending the Ohio, upon parties of immigrants
following the Wilderness Road, upon outlying forest settlers, and in the
neighborhood of fortified stations. The border annals of the time abound
in details of robbery, burning, murder, captivities, and of
heart-rending tortures worse than death. A few only which have won
prominence in history must here suffice.

In March, some Wyandots had been operating in the neighborhood of
Boonesborough and then departed for Estill's Station, fifteen miles
away, near the present town of Richmond. Captain Estill and his garrison
of twenty-five men were at the time absent on a scout, and thus unable
to prevent the killing and scalping of a young woman and the capture of
a negro slave. According to custom, the Indians retreated rapidly after
this adventure, but were pursued by Estill. A stubborn fight ensued,
there being now eighteen whites and twenty-five savages. Each man stood
behind a tree, and through nearly two hours fought with uncommon
tenacity. The Indians lost seventeen killed and two wounded, while the
whites were reduced to three survivors, Estill himself being among the
slain. The survivors then withdrew by mutual consent.

In May, his station having been attacked with some loss, Captain Ashton
followed the retreating party of besiegers, much larger than his own
squad, and had a fierce engagement with them lasting two hours. He and
eleven of his comrades lost their lives, and the remainder fled in
dismay. A similar tragedy occurred in August, when Captain Holden,
chasing a band of scalpers, was defeated with a loss of four killed and
one wounded.

The month of August marked the height of the onslaught. Horses were
carried off, cattle killed, men at work in the fields mercilessly
slaughtered, and several of the more recent and feeble stations were
abandoned. Bryan's Station, consisting of forty cabins enclosed by a
stout palisade, was the largest and northernmost of a group of Fayette
County settlements in the rich country of which Lexington is the center.
An army of nearly a thousand Indians--the largest of either race that
had thus far been mustered in the West--was gathered under Captains
Caldwell and McKee, of the British Army, who were accompanied by the
renegade Simon Girty and a small party of rangers. Scouts had given a
brief warning to the little garrison of fifty riflemen, but when the
invaders appeared during the night of August 15th the defenders were
still lacking a supply of water.

The Indians at first sought to conceal their presence by hiding in the
weeds and bushes which, as at Boonesborough, had carelessly been left
standing. Although aware of the extent of the attacking force, the
garrison affected to be without suspicion. In the morning the women and
girls, confident that if no fear were exhibited they would not be shot
by the hiding savages, volunteered to go to the spring outside the
walls, and by means of buckets bring in enough water to fill the
reservoir. This daring feat was successfully accomplished. Although
painted faces and gleaming rifles could readily be seen in the
underbrush all about the pool, this bucket-line of brave frontiers-women
laughed and talked as gaily as if unconscious of danger, and were
unmolested.

Immediately after their return within the gates, some young men went to
the spring to draw the enemy's fire, and met a fusillade from which they
barely escaped with their lives. The assault now began in earnest.
Runners were soon spreading the news of the invasion among the
neighboring garrisons. A relief party of forty-six hurrying in from
Lexington fell into an ambush and lost a few of their number in killed
and wounded, but the majority reached the fort through a storm of
bullets. The besiegers adopted the usual methods of savage attack--quick
rushes, shooting from cover, fire-arrows, and the customary uproar of
whoops and yells--but without serious effect. The following morning,
fearful of a general outpouring of settlers, the enemy withdrew
hurriedly and in sullen mood.

Colonel Boone was soon marching through the forest toward Bryan's, as
were similar companies from Lexington, McConnell's, and McGee's, the
other members of the Fayette County group; and men from the counties of
Jefferson and Lincoln were also upon the way, under their military
leaders. The neighboring contingents promptly arrived at Bryan's in the
course of the afternoon.

The next morning a hundred and eighty-two of the best riflemen in
Kentucky, under Colonel Todd as ranking officer, started in pursuit of
the foe, who had followed a buffalo-trail to Blue Licks, and were
crossing the Licking when the pursuers arrived on the scene. A council
of war was held, at which Boone, the most experienced man in the party,
advised delay until the expected reenforcements could arrive. The bulk
of the Indians had by this time escaped, leaving only about three
hundred behind, who were plainly luring the whites to an attack. Todd,
Trigg, and most of the other leaders sided with Boone; but Major Hugh
McGary, an ardent, hot-headed man, with slight military training, dared
the younger men to follow him, and spurred his horse into the river,
whither, in the rash enthusiasm of the moment, the hot-bloods followed
him, leaving the chief officers no choice but to accompany them.

Rushing up a rocky slope on the other side, where a few Indians could be
seen, the column soon fell into an ambush. A mad panic resulted, in
which the Kentuckians for the most part acted bravely and caused many of
the enemy to fall; but they were overpowered and forced to flee in hot
haste, leaving seventy of their number dead on the field and seven
captured. Among the killed were Todd and Trigg, fighting gallantly to
the last. Boone lost his son Israel, battling by his side, and himself
escaped only by swimming the river amid a shower of lead. A day or two
later Logan arrived with four hundred men, among whom was Simon Kenton,
to reenforce Todd; to him was left only the melancholy duty of burying
the dead, now sadly disfigured by Indians, vultures, and wolves.

The greater part of the savage victors, laden with scalps and spoils,
returned exultantly to their northern homes, although small bands still
remained south of the Ohio, carrying wide-spread devastation through the
settlements, especially in the neighborhood of Salt River, where, at one
station, thirty-seven prisoners were taken.

While all these tragedies were being enacted, General Clark, at the
Falls of the Ohio, had offered only slight aid. But indignant protests
sent in to the Virginia authorities by the Kentucky settlers, who were
now in a state of great alarm, roused the hero of Kaskaskia and
Vincennes to a sense of his duty. A vigorous call to arms was now issued
throughout the three counties. Early in November over a thousand mounted
riflemen met their brigadier at the mouth of the Licking, and from the
site of Cincinnati marched through the Ohio forests to the Indian towns
on the Little Miami. The savages fled in consternation, leaving the
Kentuckians to burn their cabins and the warehouses of several British
traders, besides large stores of grain and dried meats, thus entailing
great suffering among the Shawnese during the winter now close at hand.

The triumphant return of this expedition gave fresh heart to the people
of Kentucky; and the sequel proved that, although the tribesmen of the
north frequently raided the over-mountain settlers throughout the decade
to come, no such important invasions as those of 1782 were again
undertaken.


FOOTNOTE:

[16] Address at Camp Madison, Franklin County, Ky., in 1843.




CHAPTER XIII

KENTUCKY'S PATH OF THORNS


The preliminary articles of peace between the United States and Great
Britain had been signed on the thirtieth of November, 1782; but it was
not until the following spring that the news reached Kentucky. The
northern tribes had information of the peace quite as early; and
discouraged at apparently losing their British allies, who had fed,
clothed, armed, and paid them from headquarters in Detroit, for a time
suspended their organized raids into Kentucky. This welcome respite
caused immigration to increase rapidly.

We have seen how the old system of making preemptions and surveys led to
the overlapping of claims, the commission of many acts of injustice, and
wide-spread confusion in titles. Late in 1782, Colonel Thomas Marshall,
the surveyor of Fayette County, arrived from Virginia, and began to
attempt a straightening of the land conflict. Boone was now not only
the surveyor's deputy, but both sheriff and county lieutenant of
Fayette, a combination of offices which he held until his departure from
Kentucky. It was his duty as commandant to provide an escort for
Marshall through the woods to the Falls of the Ohio, where was now the
land-office. The following order which he issued for this guard has been
preserved; it is a characteristic sample of the many scores of letters
and other documents which have come down to us from the old hero, who
fought better than he spelled:

       "Orders to Capt. Hazelrigg--your are amedetly to order on
       Duty 3 of your Company as goude [guard] to scorte Col
       Marshshall to the falls of ohigho you will call on those
       who was Exicused from the Shone [Shawnese] Expedistion and
       those who Come into the County after the army Marched they
       are to meet at Lexinton on Sunday next with out fale given
       under my hand this 6 Day of Janury 1783.

      "DNL BOONE"

Another specimen document of the time has reference to the scouting
which it was necessary to maintain throughout much of the year; for
small straggling bands of the enemy were still lurking about, eager to
capture occasional scalps, the proudest trophies which a warrior could
obtain. It also is apparently addressed to Hazelrigg:

       "orders the 15th feberry 1783

       "Sir you are amedetly to Call on Duty one thurd of our
       melitia as will mounted on horse as poseble and Eight Days
       purvistion to take a touere as follows Commanded by Leut
       Col patison and Rendevues at Strod [Strode's Station] on
       thusday the 20th from there to March to Colkes [Calk's]
       Cabin thence an Este Corse till the gat 10 miles above the
       uper Blew Licks then Down to Lickes thence to Limestown
       and if no Sine [is] found a stright Corse to Eagel Crick
       10 miles from the head from then home if Sine be found the
       Commander to act as he thinks most prudent as you will be
       the Best Judge when on the Spot. You will first Call on
       all who [were] Excused from the Expedistion Except those
       that went to the falls with Col. Marshall and then Call
       them off as they Stand on the List here in faile not.
       given und my hand

      "DANIEL BOONE C Lt."

In March the Virginia legislature united the three counties into the
District of Kentucky, with complete legal and military machinery; in the
latter, Benjamin Logan ranked as senior colonel and district lieutenant.
It will be remembered that when the over-mountain country was detached
from Fincastle, it was styled the County of Kentucky; then the name of
Kentucky was obliterated by its division into three counties; and now
the name was revived by the creation of the district, which in due time
was to become a State. The log-built town of Danville was named as the
capital.

It is estimated that during the few years immediately following the
close of the Revolutionary War several thousand persons came each year
to Kentucky from the seaboard States, although many of these returned to
their homes either disillusioned or because of Indian scares. In
addition to the actual settlers, who cared for no more land than they
could use, there were merchants who saw great profits in taking
boat-loads of goods down the Ohio or by pack-trains over the mountains;
lawyers and other young professional men who wished to make a start in
new communities; and speculators who hoped to make fortunes in obtaining
for a song extensive tracts of fertile wild land, which they vainly
imagined would soon be salable at large prices for farms and town sites.
Many of the towns, although ill-kept and far from prosperous in
appearance, were fast extending beyond their lines of palisade and
boasting of stores, law-offices, market-places, and regular streets;
Louisville had now grown to a village of three hundred inhabitants, of
whom over a third were fighting-men. Besides Americans, there were among
the newcomers many Germans, Scotch, and Irish, thrifty in the order
named.

At last Kentucky was raising produce more than sufficient to feed her
own people, and an export trade had sprung up. Crops were being
diversified: Indian corn still remained the staple, but there were also
melons, pumpkins, tobacco, and orchards; besides, great droves of
horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs, branded or otherwise marked, ranged at
large over the country, as in old days on the Virginia and Carolina
foot-hills. Away from the settlements buffaloes still yielded much beef,
bacon was made from bears, and venison was a staple commodity.

The fur trade was chiefly carried on by French trappers; but American
hunters, like the Boones and Kenton, still gathered peltries from the
streams and forests, and took or sent them to the East, either up the
Ohio in bateaux or on packhorses over the mountains--paths still
continually beset by savage assailants. Large quantities of ginseng were
also shipped to the towns on the seaboard. Of late there had likewise
developed a considerable trade with New Orleans and other Spanish towns
down the Mississippi River. Traders with flatboats laden with Kentucky
produce--bacon, beef, salt, and tobacco--would descend the great
waterway, both of whose banks were audaciously claimed by Spain as far
up as the mouth of the Ohio, and take great risks from Indian attack or
from corrupt Spanish custom-house officials, whom it was necessary to
bribe freely that they might not confiscate boat and cargo. This
commerce was always uncertain, often ending in disaster, but immensely
profitable to the unprincipled men who managed to ingratiate themselves
with the Spanish authorities.

Boone was now in frequent demand as a pilot and surveyor by capitalists
who relied upon his unrivaled knowledge of the country to help them find
desirable tracts of land; often he was engaged to meet incoming parties
of immigrants over the Wilderness Road, with a band of riflemen to guard
them against Indians, to furnish them with wild meat--for the newcomers
at first were inexpert in killing buffaloes--and to show them the way to
their claims. He was prominent as a pioneer; as county lieutenant he
summoned his faithful men-at-arms to repel or avenge savage attacks; and
his fame as hunter and explorer had by this time not only become general
throughout the United States but had even reached Europe.

His reputation was largely increased by the appearance in 1784 of the
so-called "autobiography." We have seen that, although capable of
roughly expressing himself on paper, and of making records of his rude
surveys, he was in no sense a scholar. Yet this autobiography, although
signed by himself, is pedantic in form, and deals in words as large and
sonorous as though uttered by the great Doctor Samuel Johnson. As a
matter of fact, it is the production of John Filson, the first historian
of Kentucky and one of the pioneers of Cincinnati. Filson was a
schoolmaster, quite devoid of humor, and with a strong penchant for
learned phrases. In setting down the story of Boone's life, as related
to him by the great hunter, he made the latter talk in the first person,
in a stilted manner quite foreign to the hardy but unlettered folk of
whom Boone was a type. Wherever Boone's memory failed, Filson appears to
have filled in the gaps from tradition and his own imagination; thus the
autobiography is often wrong as to facts, and possesses but minor value
as historical material. The little book was, however, widely circulated
both at home and abroad, and gave Boone a notoriety excelled by few men
of his day. Some years later Byron wrote some indifferent lines upon
"General Boone of Kentucky;" the public journals of the time had
accounts of his prowess, often grossly exaggerated; and English
travelers into the interior of America eagerly sought the hero and told
of him in their books.

Yet it must be confessed that he had now ceased to be a real leader in
the affairs of Kentucky. A kindly, simple-hearted, modest, silent man,
he had lived so long by himself alone in the woods that he was ill
fitted to cope with the horde of speculators and other self-seekers who
were now despoiling the old hunting-grounds to which Finley had piloted
him only fifteen years before. Of great use to the frontier settlements
as explorer, hunter, pilot, land-seeker, surveyor, Indian fighter, and
sheriff--and, indeed, as magistrate and legislator so long as Kentucky
was a community of riflemen--he had small capacity for the economic and
political sides of commonwealth-building. For this reason we find him
hereafter, although still in middle life, taking but slight part in the
making of Kentucky; none the less did his career continue to be
adventurous, picturesque, and in a measure typical of the rapidly
expanding West.

Probably in the early spring of 1786 Boone left the neighborhood of the
Kentucky River, and for some three years dwelt at Maysville (Limestone),
still the chief gateway to Kentucky for the crowds of immigrants who
came by water. He was there a tavern-keeper--probably Mrs. Boone was the
actual hostess--and small river merchant. He still frequently worked at
surveying, of course hunted and trapped as of old, and traded up and
down the Ohio River between Maysville and Point Pleasant--the last-named
occupation a far from peaceful one, for in those troublous times
navigation of the Ohio was akin to running the gauntlet; savages haunted
the banks, and by dint of both strategy and open attack wrought a heavy
mortality among luckless travelers and tradesmen. The goods which he
bartered to the Kentuckians for furs, skins, and ginseng were obtained
in Maryland, whither he and his sons went with laden pack-animals, often
driving before them loose horses for sale in the Eastern markets.
Sometimes they followed some familiar mountain road, at others struck
out over new paths, for no longer was the Wilderness Road the only
overland highway to the West.

Kentucky was now pursuing a path strewn with thorns. Northward, the
British still held the military posts on the upper lakes, owing to the
non-fulfilment of certain stipulations in the treaty of peace. Between
these and the settlements south of the Ohio lay a wide area populated by
powerful and hostile tribes of Indians, late allies of the British,
deadly enemies of Kentucky, and still aided and abetted by military
agents of the king. To the South, Spain controlled the Mississippi, the
commercial highway of the West; jealous of American growth, she harshly
denied to Kentuckians the freedom of the river, and was accused of
turning against them and their neighbors of Tennessee the fierce
warriors of the Creek and Cherokee tribes. On their part, the
Kentuckians looked with hungry eyes upon the rich lands held by Spain.

Not least of Kentucky's trials was the political discontent among her
own people, which for many years lay like a blight upon her happiness
and prosperity. Virginia's home necessities had prevented that
commonwealth from giving much aid to the West during the Revolution, and
at its conclusion her policy toward the Indians lacked the aggressive
vigor for which Kentuckians pleaded. This was sufficient cause for
dissatisfaction; but to this was added another of still greater
importance. To gain the free navigation of the Mississippi, and thus to
have an outlet to the sea, long appeared to be essential to Western
progress. At first the Eastern men in Congress failed to realize this
need, thereby greatly exasperating the over-mountain men. All manner of
schemes were in the air, varying with men's temperaments and ambitions.
Some, like Clark--who, by this time had, under the influence of
intemperance, greatly fallen in popular esteem, although not without
followers--favored a filibustering expedition against the Spanish; and
later (1788), when this did not appear practicable, were willing to join
hands with Spain herself in the development of the continental interior;
and later still (1793-94), to help France oust Spain from Louisiana.
Others wished Kentucky to be an independent State, free to conduct her
own affairs and make such foreign alliances as were needful; but
Virginia and Congress did not release her.

Interwoven with this more or less secret agitation for separating the
West from the East were the corrupt intrigues of Spain, which might have
been more successful had she pursued a persistent policy. Her
agents--among whom were some Western pioneers who later found difficulty
in explaining their conduct--craftily fanned the embers of discontent,
spread reports that Congress intended to sacrifice to Spain the
navigation rights of the West, distributed bribes, and were even accused
of advising Spain to arm the Southern Indians in order to increase
popular uneasiness over existing conditions. Spain also offered large
land grants to prominent American borderers who should lead colonies to
settle beyond the Mississippi and become her subjects--a proposition
which Clark once offered to accept, but did not; but of which we shall
see that Daniel Boone, in his days of discontent, took advantage, as did
also a few other Kentucky pioneers. Ultimately Congress resolved never
to abandon its claim to the Mississippi (1787); and when the United
States became strong, and the advantages of union were more clearly seen
in the West, Kentucky became a member of the sisterhood of States
(1792).

It is estimated that, between 1783 and 1790, fully fifteen hundred
Kentuckians were massacred by Indians or taken captive to the savage
towns; and the frontiers of Virginia and Pennsylvania furnished their
full quota to the long roll of victims. It is impossible in so small a
volume as this to mention all of even the principal incidents in the
catalogue of assaults, heroic defenses, murders, burnings, torturings,
escapes, reprisals, and ambushes which constitute the lurid annals of
this protracted border warfare. The reader who has followed thus far
this story of a strenuous life, will understand what these meant; to
what deeds of daring they gave rise on the part of the men and women of
the border; what privation and anguish they entailed. But let us not
forget that neither race could claim, in this titanic struggle for the
mastery of the hunting-grounds, a monopoly of courage or of cowardice,
of brutality or of mercy. The Indians suffered quite as keenly as the
whites in the burning of their villages, crops, and supplies, and by the
loss of life either in battle, by stealthy attack, or by treachery. The
frontiersmen learned from the red men the lessons of forest warfare, and
often outdid their tutors in ferocity. The contest between civilization
and savagery is, in the nature of things, unavoidable; the result also
is foreordained. It is well for our peace of mind that, in the dark
story of the Juggernaut car, we do not inquire too closely into details.

In 1785, goaded by numerous attacks on settlers and immigrants, Clark
led a thousand men against the tribes on the Wabash; but by this time he
had lost control of the situation, and cowardice on the part of his
troops, combined with lack of provisions, led to the practical failure
of the expedition, although the Indians were much frightened.

At the same time, Logan was more successful in an attack on the Shawnese
of the Scioto Valley, who lost heavily in killed and prisoners. In
neither of these expeditions does Boone appear to have taken part.

The year 1787 was chiefly notable, in the history of the West, for the
adoption by Congress of the Ordinance for the government of the
Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, wherein there dwelt perhaps seven
thousand whites, mostly unprogressive French-Canadians, in small
settlements flanking the Mississippi and the Great Lakes, and in the
Wabash Valley. Along the Ohio were scattered a few American hamlets,
chiefly in Kentucky. In the same year the Indian war reached a height of
fury which produced a panic throughout the border, and frantic appeals
to Virginia, which brought insufficient aid. Boone, now a town trustee
of Maysville, was sent to the legislature that autumn, and occupied his
seat at Richmond from October until January. While there, we find him
strongly complaining that the arms sent out to Kentucky by the State
during the year were unfit for use, the swords being without scabbards,
and the rifles without cartridge-boxes or flints.

A child of the wilderness, Boone was law-abiding and loved peace, but he
chafed at legal forms. He had, in various parts of Kentucky, preempted
much land in the crude fashion of his day, both under the Transylvania
Company and the later statutes of Virginia--how much, it would now be
difficult to ascertain. In his old survey-books, still preserved in the
Wisconsin State Historical Library, one finds numerous claim entries for
himself, ranging from four hundred to ten thousand acres each--a tract
which he called "Stockfield," near Boonesborough; on Cartwright's Creek,
a branch of Beech Fork of Salt River; on the Licking, Elkhorn, Boone's
Creek, and elsewhere. The following is a specimen entry, dated "Aperel
the 22 1785," recording a claim made "on the Bank of Cantuckey"; it
illustrates the loose surveying methods of the time: "Survayd for Dal
Boone 5000 acres begin at Robert Camels N E Corner at 2 White ashes
and Buckeyes S 1200 p[oles] to 3 Shuger trees Ealm and walnut E 666 p to
6 Shuger trees and ash N 1200 p to a poplar and beech W 666 p to the
begining."

It did not occur to our easy-going hero that any one would question his
right to as much land as he cared to hold in a wilderness which he had
done so much to bring to the attention of the world. But claim-jumpers
were no respecters of persons. It was discovered that Boone had
carelessly failed to make any of his preemptions according to the letter
of the law, leaving it open for any adventurer to reenter the choice
claims which he had selected with the care of an expert, and to treat
him as an interloper. Suits of ejectment followed one by one (1785-98),
until in the end his acres were taken from him by the courts, and the
good-hearted, simple fellow was sent adrift in the world absolutely
landless.

At first, when his broad acres began to melt away, the great hunter,
careless of his possessions, appeared to exhibit no concern; but the
accumulation of his disasters, together with the rapid growth of
settlement upon the hunting-grounds, and doubtless some domestic
nagging, developed within him an intensity of depression which led him
to abandon his long-beloved Kentucky and vow never again to dwell within
her limits. In the autumn of 1788, before his disasters were quite
complete, this resolution was carried into effect; with wife and family,
and what few worldly goods he possessed, he removed to Point Pleasant,
at the junction of the Great Kanawha and the Ohio--in our day a quaint
little court-house town in West Virginia.




CHAPTER XIV

IN THE KANAWHA VALLEY


During his early years on the Kanawha, Boone kept a small store at Point
Pleasant. Later, he moved to the neighborhood of Charleston, where he
was engaged in the usual variety of occupations--piloting immigrants; as
deputy surveyor of Kanawha County, surveying lands for settlers and
speculators; taking small contracts for victualing the militia, who were
frequently called out to protect the country from Indian forays; and in
hunting. Some of his expeditions took him to the north of the Ohio,
where he had several narrow escapes from capture and death at the hands
of the enemy, and even into his old haunts on the Big Sandy, the
Licking, and the Kentucky.

He traveled much, for a frontiersman. In 1788 he went with his wife and
their son Nathan by horseback to the old Pennsylvania home in Berks
County, where they spent a month with kinsfolk and friends. We find him
in Maysville, on a business trip, during the year; indeed, there are
evidences of numerous subsequent visits to that port. In May of the
following year he was on the Monongahela River with a drove of horses
for sale, Brownsville then being an important market for ginseng,
horses, and cattle; and in the succeeding July he writes to a client,
for whom he had done some surveying, that he would be in Philadelphia
during the coming winter.

In October, 1789, there came to him, as the result of a popular
petition, the appointment of lieutenant-colonel of Kanawha County--the
first military organization in the valley; and in other ways he was
treated with marked distinction by the primitive border folk of the
valley, both because of his brilliant career in Kentucky and the fact
that he was a surveyor and could write letters. One who knew him
intimately at this time has left a pleasing description of the man,
which will assist us in picturing him as he appeared to his new
neighbors: "His large head, full chest, square shoulders, and stout
form are still impressed upon my mind. He was (I think) about five feet
ten inches in height, and his weight say 175. He was solid in mind as
well as in body, never frivolous, thoughtless, or agitated; but was
always quiet, meditative, and impressive, unpretentious, kind, and
friendly in his manner. He came very much up to the idea we have of the
old Grecian philosophers--particularly Diogenes."

By the summer of 1790, Indian raids again became almost unbearable.
Fresh robberies and murders were daily reported in Kentucky, and along
the Ohio and the Wabash. The expedition of Major J. F. Hamtramck, of the
Federal Army, against the tribesmen on the Wabash, resulted in the
burning of a few villages and the destruction of much corn; but Colonel
Josiah Harmar's expedition in October against the towns on the Scioto
and the St. Joseph, at the head of nearly 1,500 men, ended in failure
and a crushing defeat, although the Indian losses were so great that the
army was allowed to return to Cincinnati unmolested. Boone does not
appear to have taken part in these operations, his militiamen probably
being needed for home protection.

The following year the General Government for the first time took the
field against the Indians in earnest. For seven years it had attempted
to bring the tribesmen to terms by means of treaties, but without avail.
Roused to fury by the steady increase of settlement north as well as
south of the Ohio, the savages were making life a torment to the
borderers. War seemed alone the remedy. In June, General Charles Scott,
of Kentucky, raided the Miami and Wabash Indians. Two months later
General James Wilkinson, with five hundred Kentuckians, laid waste a
Miami village and captured many prisoners. These were intended but to
open the road for an expedition of far greater proportions. In October,
Governor Arthur St. Clair, of the Northwest Territory, a broken-down man
unequal to such a task, was despatched against the Miami towns with an
ill-organized army of two thousand raw troops. Upon the fourth of
November they were surprised near the principal Miami village; hundreds
of the men fled at the first alarm, and of those who remained over six
hundred fell during the engagement, while nearly three hundred were
wounded. This disastrous termination of the campaign demoralized the
West and left the entire border again open to attack--an advantage which
the scalping parties did not neglect.

While this disaster was occurring, Boone was again sitting in the
legislature at Richmond, where he represented Kanawha County from
October 17th to December 20th. The journals of the Assembly show him to
have been a silent member, giving voice only in yea and nay; but he was
placed upon two then important committees--religion, and propositions
and licenses. It was voted to send ammunition for the militia on the
Monongahela and the Kanawha, who were to be called out for the defense
of the frontier. Before leaving Richmond, Boone wrote as follows to the
governor:

       "Monday 13th Dec 1791

       "Sir as sum purson Must Carry out the armantstion
       [ammunition] to Red Stone [Brownsville, Pa.,] if your
       Exclency should have thought me a proper purson I would
       undertake it on conditions I have the apintment to vitel
       the company at Kanhowway [Kanawha] so that I Could take
       Down the flowre as I paste that place I am your
       Excelenceys most obedent omble servant

      "DAL BOONE."

Five days later the contract was awarded to him; and we find among his
papers receipts, obtained at several places on his way home, for the
lead and flints which he was to deliver to the various military centers.
But the following May, Colonel George Clendennin sharply complains to
the governor that the ammunition and rations which Boone was to have
supplied to Captain Caperton's rangers had not yet been delivered, and
that Clendennin was forced to purchase these supplies from others. It
does not appear from the records how this matter was settled; but as
there seems to have been no official inquiry, the non-delivery was
probably the result of a misunderstanding.

At last, after a quarter of a century of bloodshed, the United States
Government was prepared to act in an effective manner. General Anthony
Wayne--"Mad Anthony," of Stony Point--after spending a year and a half
in reorganizing the Western army, established himself, in the winter of
1793-94, in a log fort at Greenville, eighty miles north of Cincinnati,
and built a strong outpost at Fort Recovery, on the scene of St. Clair's
defeat. After resisting an attack on Fort Recovery made on the last day
of June by over two thousand painted warriors from the Upper Lakes, he
advanced with his legion of about three thousand well-disciplined troops
to the Maumee Valley and built Fort Defiance. Final battle was given to
the tribesmen on the twentieth of August at Fallen Timbers. As the
result of superb charges by infantry and cavalry, in forty minutes the
Indian army was defeated and scattered. The backbone of savage
opposition to Northwestern settlement was broken, and at the treaty of
Greenville in the following summer (1795) a peace was secured which
remained unbroken for fifteen years.

Wayne's great victory over the men of the wilderness gave new heart to
Kentucky and the Northwest. The pioneers were exuberant in the
expression of their joy. The long war, which had lasted practically
since the mountains were first crossed by Boone and Finley, had been an
almost constant strain upon the resources of the country. Now no longer
pent up within palisades, and expecting nightly to be awakened by the
whoops of savages to meet either slaughter or still more dreaded
captivity, men could go forth without fear to open up forests, to
cultivate fields, and peaceably to pursue the chase.

To hunters like Boone, in particular, this great change in their lives
was a matter for rejoicing. The Kanawha Valley was not as rich in game
as he had hoped; but in Kentucky and Ohio were still large herds of
buffaloes and deer feeding on the cane-brake and the rank vegetation of
the woods, and resorting to the numerous salt-licks which had as yet
been uncontaminated by settlement.

After the peace, Boone for several seasons devoted himself almost
exclusively to hunting; in beaver-trapping he was especially
successful, his favorite haunt for these animals being the neighboring
Valley of the Gauley. His game he shared freely with neighbors, now fast
increasing in numbers, and the skins and furs were shipped to market,
overland or by river, as of old.

Upon removing to the Kanawha, he still had a few claims left in
Kentucky, but suits for ejectment were pending over most of these. They
were all decided against him, and the remaining lands were sold by the
sheriff for taxes, the last of them going in 1798. His failure to secure
anything for his children to inherit, was to the last a source of sorrow
to Boone.

The Kanawha in time came to be distasteful to him. Settlements above and
below were driving away the game, and sometimes his bag was slight; the
crowding of population disturbed the serenity which he sought in deep
forests; the nervous energy of these newcomers, and the avarice of some
of them, annoyed his quiet, hospitable soul; and he fretted to be again
free, thinking that civilization cost too much in wear and tear of
spirit.

Boone had long looked kindly toward the broad, practically unoccupied
lands of forest and plain west of the Mississippi. Adventurous hunters
brought him glowing tales of buffaloes, grizzly bears, and beavers to be
found there without number. Spain, fearing an assault upon her
possessions from Canada, was just now making flattering offers to those
American pioneers who should colonize her territory, and by casting
their fortunes with her people strengthen them. This opportunity
attracted the disappointed man; he thought the time ripe for making a
move which should leave the crowd far behind, and comfortably establish
him in a country wherein a hunter might, for many years to come, breathe
fresh air and follow the chase untrammeled.

In 1796, Daniel Morgan Boone, his oldest son, traveled with other
adventurers in boats to St. Charles County, in eastern Missouri, where
they took lands under certificates of cession from Charles Dehault
Delassus, the Spanish lieutenant-governor of Upper Louisiana, resident
at St. Louis. There were four families, all settling upon Femme Osage
Creek, six miles above its junction with the Missouri, some twenty-five
miles above the town of St. Charles, and forty-five by water from St.
Louis.

Thither they were followed, apparently in the spring of 1799, by Daniel
Boone and wife and their younger children. The departure of the great
hunter, now in his sixty-fifth year, was the occasion for a general
gathering of Kanawha pioneers at the home near Charleston. They came on
foot, by horseback, and in canoe, from far and near, and bade him a
farewell as solemnly affectionate as though he were departing for
another world; indeed, Missouri then seemed almost as far away to the
West Virginians as the Klondike is to dwellers in the Mississippi basin
to-day--a long journey by packhorse or by flatboat into foreign wilds,
beyond the great waterway concerning which the imaginations of
untraveled men often ran riot.

The hegira of the Boones, from the junction of the Elk and the Kanawha,
was accomplished by boats, into which were crowded such of their scant
herd of live stock as could be accommodated. Upon the way they stopped
at Kentucky towns along the Ohio, either to visit friends or to obtain
provisions, and attracted marked attention, for throughout the West
Boone was, of course, one of the best-known men of his day. In
Cincinnati he was asked why, at his time of life, he left the comforts
of an established home again to subject himself to the privations of the
frontier. "Too crowded!" he replied with feeling. "I want more
elbow-room!"

Arriving at the little Kentucky colony on Femme Osage Creek, where the
Spanish authorities had granted him a thousand arpents[17] of land
abutting his son's estate upon the north, he settled down in a little
log cabin erected largely by his own hands, for the fourth and last time
as a pioneer. He was never again in the Kanawha Valley, and but twice in
Kentucky--once to testify as to some old survey-marks made by him, and
again to pay the debts which he had left when removing to Point
Pleasant.


FOOTNOTE:

[17] Equivalent to about 845 English acres.




CHAPTER XV

A SERENE OLD AGE


Missouri's sparse population at that time consisted largely of
Frenchmen, who had taken easily to the yoke of Spain. For a people of
easy-going disposition, theirs was an ideal existence. They led a
patriarchal life, with their flocks and herds grazing upon a common
pasture, and practised a crude agriculture whose returns were eked out
by hunting in the limitless forests hard by. For companionship, the
crude log cabins in the little settlements were assembled by the banks
of the waterways, and there was small disposition to increase tillage
beyond domestic necessities. There were practically no taxes to pay;
military burdens sat lightly; the local syndic (or magistrate), the only
government servant to be met outside of St. Louis, was sheriff, judge,
jury, and commandant combined; there were no elections, for
representative government was unknown; the fur and lead trade with St.
Louis was the sole commerce, and their vocabulary did not contain the
words enterprise and speculation.

Here was a paradise for a man of Boone's temperament, and through
several years to come he was wont to declare that, next to his first
long hunt in Kentucky, this was the happiest period of his life. On the
eleventh of July, 1800, Delassus--a well-educated French gentleman, and
a good judge of character--appointed him syndic for the Femme Osage
district, a position which the old man held until the cession of
Louisiana to the United States. This selection was not only because of
his prominence among the settlers and his recognized honesty and
fearlessness, but for the reason that he was one of the few among these
unsophisticated folk who could make records. In a primitive community
like the Femme Osage, Boone may well have ranked as a man of some
education; and certainly he wrote a bold, free hand, showing much
practise with the pen, although we have seen that his spelling and
grammar might have been improved. When the government was turned over to
President Jefferson's commissioner, Delassus delivered to that
officer, by request, a detailed report upon the personality of his
subordinates, and this is one of the entries in the list of syndics:
"Mr. Boone, a respectable old man, just and impartial, he has already,
since I appointed him, offered his resignation owing to his
infirmities--believing I know his probity, I have induced him to remain,
in view of my confidence in him, for the public good."

  [Illustration: BOONE'S CABIN IN ST. CHARLES COUNTY, MISSOURI.
    From photograph in possession of Wisconsin State Historical Society.]

Boone's knowledge did not extend to law-books, but he had a strong sense
of justice; and during his four years of office passed upon the petty
disputes of his neighbors with such absolute fairness as to win popular
approbation. His methods were as primitive and arbitrary as those of an
Oriental pasha; his penalties frequently consisted of lashes on the bare
back "well laid on;" he would observe no rules of evidence, saying he
wished only to know the truth; and sometimes both parties to a suit were
compelled to divide the costs and begone. The French settlers had a
fondness for taking their quarrels to court; but the decisions of the
good-hearted syndic of Femme Osage, based solely upon common sense in
the rough, were respected as if coming from a supreme bench. His
contemporaries said that in no other office ever held by the great
rifleman did he give such evidence of undisguised satisfaction, or
display so great dignity as in this rôle of magistrate. Showing newly
arrived American immigrants to desirable tracts of land was one of his
most agreeable duties; when thus tendering the hospitalities of the
country to strangers, it was remarked that our patriarch played the
Spanish "don" to perfection.

In October, 1800, Spain agreed to deliver Louisiana to France; but the
latter found it impracticable at that time to take possession of the
territory. By the treaty of April 30, 1803, the United States, long
eager to secure for the West the open navigation of the Mississippi,
purchased the rights of France. It was necessary to go through the form,
both in New Orleans and in St. Louis, of transfer by Spain to France,
and then by France to the United States. The former ceremony took place
in St. Louis, the capital of Upper Louisiana, upon the ninth of March,
1804, and the latter upon the following day. Daniel Boone's authority as
a Spanish magistrate ended when the flag of his adopted country was
hauled down for the last time in the Valley of the Mississippi.

The coming of the Americans into power was welcomed by few of the people
of Louisiana. The French had slight patience with the land-grabbing
temper of the "Yankees," who were eager to cut down the forests, to open
up farms, to build towns, to extend commerce, to erect factories--to
inaugurate a reign of noise and bustle and avarice. Neither did men of
the Boone type--who had become Spanish subjects in order to avoid the
crowds, to get and to keep cheap lands, to avoid taxes, to hunt big
game, and to live a simple Arcadian life--at all enjoy this sudden
crossing of the Mississippi River, which they had vainly hoped to
maintain as a perpetual barrier to so-called progress.

Our hero soon had still greater reason for lamenting the advent of the
new _régime_. His sad experience with lands in Kentucky had not taught
him prudence. When the United States commission came to examine the
titles of Louisiana settlers to the claims which they held, it was
discovered that Boone had failed properly to enter the tract which had
been ceded to him by Delassus. The signature of the lieutenant-governor
was sufficient to insure a temporary holding, but a permanent cession
required the approval of the governor at New Orleans; this Boone failed
to obtain, being misled, he afterward stated, by the assertion of
Delassus that so important an officer as a syndic need not take such
precautions, for he would never be disturbed. The commissioners, while
highly respecting him, were regretfully obliged under the terms of the
treaty to dispossess the old pioneer, who again found himself landless.
Six years later (1810) Congress tardily hearkened to his pathetic
appeal, backed by the resolutions of the Kentucky legislature, and
confirmed his Spanish grant in words of praise for "the man who has
opened the way to millions of his fellow men."

By the time he was seventy years old, Boone's skill as a hunter had
somewhat lessened. His eyes had lost their phenomenal strength; he could
no longer perform those nice feats of marksmanship for which in his
prime he had attained wide celebrity, and rheumatism made him less
agile. But as a trapper he was still unexcelled, and for many years made
long trips into the Western wilderness, even into far-off Kansas, and at
least once (1814, when eighty years old) to the great game fields of the
Yellowstone. Upon such expeditions, often lasting several months, he was
accompanied by one or more of his sons, by his son-in-law Flanders
Calloway, or by an old Indian servant who was sworn to bring his master
back to the Femme Osage dead or alive--for, curiously enough, this
wandering son of the wilderness ever yearned for a burial near home.

Beaver-skins, which were his chief desire, were then worth nine dollars
each in the St. Louis market. He appears to have amassed a considerable
sum from this source, and from the sale of his land grant to his sons,
and in 1810 we find him in Kentucky paying his debts. This accomplished,
tradition says that he had remaining only fifty cents; but he gloried in
the fact that he was at last "square with the world," and returned to
Missouri exultant.

The War of 1812-15 brought Indian troubles to this new frontier, and
some of the farm property of the younger Boones was destroyed in one of
the savage forays. The old man fretted at his inability to assist in the
militia organization, of which his sons Daniel Morgan and Nathan were
conspicuous leaders; and the state of the border did not permit of
peaceful hunting. In the midst of the war he deeply mourned the death of
his wife (1813)--a woman of meek, generous, heroic nature, who had
journeyed over the mountains with him from North Carolina, and upon his
subsequent pilgrimages, sharing all his hardships and perils, a proper
helpmeet in storm and calm.

Penniless, and a widower, he now went to live with his sons, chiefly
with Nathan, then forty-three years of age. After being first a hunter
and explorer, and then an industrious and successful farmer, Nathan had
won distinction in the war just closed and entered the regular army,
where he reached the rank of lieutenant-colonel and had a wide and
thrilling experience in Indian fighting. Daniel Morgan is thought to
have been the first settler in Kansas (1827); A. G. Boone, a
grandson, was one of the early settlers of Colorado, and prominently
connected with Western Indian treaties and Rocky Mountain exploration;
and another grandson of the great Kentuckian was Kit Carson, the famous
scout for Frémont's transcontinental expedition.

  [Illustration: NATHAN BOONE'S HOUSE IN ST. CHARLES COUNTY, MISSOURI.
    Herein Daniel Boone died.]

It was not long before the Yankee _régime_ confirmed Boone's fears. The
tide of immigration crossed the river, and rolling westward again passed
the door of the great Kentuckian, driving off the game and monopolizing
the hunting-grounds. Laws, courts, politics, speculation, and
improvements were being talked about, to the bewilderment of the French
and the unconcealed disgust of the former syndic. Despite his great age,
he talked strongly of moving still farther West, hoping to get beyond
the reach of settlement; but his sons and neighbors persuaded him
against it, and he was obliged to accommodate himself as best he might
to the new conditions. In summer he would work on the now substantial
and prosperous farms of his children, chopping trees for the winter's
wood. But at the advent of autumn the spirit of restlessness seized him,
when he would take his canoe, with some relative or his Indian servant,
and disappear up the Missouri and its branches for weeks together. In
1816, we hear of him as being at Fort Osage, on his way to the Platte,
"in the dress of the roughest, poorest hunter." Two years later, he
writes to his son Daniel M.: "I intend by next autumn to take two or
three whites and a party of Osage Indians to visit the salt mountains,
lakes, and ponds and see these natural curiosities. They are about five
or six hundred miles west of here"--presumably the rock salt in Indian
Territory; it is not known whether this trip was taken. He was greatly
interested in Rocky Mountain exploration, then much talked of, and
eagerly sought information regarding California; and was the cause of
several young men migrating thither. A tale of new lands ever found in
him a delighted listener.

In these his declining years, although he had suffered much at the hands
of the world, Boone's temperament, always kindly, mellowed in tone.
Decay came gradually, without palsy or pain; and, amid kind friends and
an admiring public, his days passed in tranquillity. The following
letter written by him at this period to his sister-in-law Sarah (Day)
Boone, wife of his brother Samuel, is characteristic of the man, and
gives to us, moreover, probably the only reliable account we possess of
his religious views:

       "october the 19th 1816

       "Deer Sister

       "With pleasuer I Rad a Later from your sun Samuel Boone
       who informs me that you are yett Liveing and in good
       health Considing your age I wright to you to Latt you know
       I have Not forgot you and to inform you of my own
       Situation sence the Death of your Sister Rabacah I Leve
       with flanders Calaway But am at present at my sun Nathans
       and in tolarabel halth you Can gass at my feilings by your
       own as we are So Near one age I Need Not write you of our
       satuation as Samuel Bradley or James grimes Can inform you
       of Every Surcomstance Relating to our famaly and how we
       Leve in this World and what Chance we shall have in the
       next we know Not for my part I am as ignerant as a Child
       all the Relegan I have to Love and fear god beleve in
       Jeses Christ Don all the good to my Nighbour and my self
       that I Can and Do as Little harm as I Can help and trust
       on gods marcy for the Rest and I Beleve god neve made a
       man of my prisepel to be Lost and I flater my self Deer
       sister that you are well on your way in Cristeanaty gave
       my Love to all your Childran and all my frends fearwell my
       Deer sister

      "DANIEL BOONE

      "Mrs. Sarah Boone

       "N B I Red a Later yesterday from sister Hanah peninton by
       hir grand sun Dal Ringe she and all hir Childran are Well
       at present

      "D B"

  [Illustration: BOONE'S RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
    Reduced facsimile from original MS. in possession of Wisconsin State
    Historical Society.]

Many strangers of distinction visited him at Nathan's home near the
banks of the Missouri, and the public journals of the day always
welcomed an anecdote of the great hunter's prowess--although most of the
stories which found their way into print were either deliberate
inventions or unconsciously exaggerated traditions. From published
descriptions of the man by those who could discriminate, we may gain
some idea of his appearance and manner. The great naturalist Audubon
once passed a night under a West Virginia roof in the same room with
Boone, whose "extraordinary skill in the management of a rifle" is
alluded to. He says: "The stature and general appearance of this
wanderer of the Western forests approached the gigantic. His chest was
broad and prominent; his muscular powers displayed themselves in every
limb; his countenance gave indication of his great courage, enterprise,
and perseverance; and when he spoke the very motion of his lips brought
the impression that whatever he uttered could not be otherwise than
strictly true. I undressed, whilst he merely took off his hunting-shirt
and arranged a few folds of blankets on the floor, choosing rather to
lie there, as he observed, than on the softest bed."

Timothy Flint, one of his early biographers, knew the "grand old man" in
Missouri, and thus pictures him: "He was five feet ten inches in
height, of a very erect, clean-limbed, and athletic form--admirably
fitted in structure, muscle, temperament, and habit for the endurance of
the labors, changes, and sufferings he underwent. He had what
phrenologists would have considered a model head--with a forehead
peculiarly high, noble, and bold--thin and compressed lips--a mild,
clear, blue eye--a large and prominent chin, and a general expression of
countenance in which fearlessness and courage sat enthroned, and which
told the beholder at a glance what he had been and was formed to be."
Flint declares that the busts, paintings, and engravings of Boone bear
little resemblance to him. "They want the high port and noble daring of
his countenance.... Never was old age more green, or gray hairs more
graceful. His high, calm, bold forehead seemed converted by years into
iron."

Rev. James E. Welch, a revivalist, thus tells of Boone as he saw him at
his meetings in 1818: "He was rather low of stature, broad shoulders,
high cheek-bones, very mild countenance, fair complexion, soft and
quiet in his manner, but little to say unless spoken to, amiable and
kind in his feelings, very fond of quiet retirement, of cool
self-possession and indomitable perseverance. He never made a profession
of religion, but still was what the world calls a very moral man."

In 1819, the year before the death of Boone, Chester Harding, an
American portrait-painter of some note, went out from St. Louis to make
a life study of the aged Kentuckian. He found him at the time "living
alone in a cabin, a part of an old blockhouse," evidently having escaped
for a time from the conventionalities of home life, which palled upon
him. The great man was roasting a steak of venison on the end of his
ramrod. He had a marvelous memory of the incidents of early days,
although forgetful of passing events. "I asked him," says Harding, "if
he never got lost in his long wanderings after game? He said 'No, I was
never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.'" The portrait is
now in the possession of the painter's grandson, Mr. William H. King, of
Winnetka, Ill. Harding says that he "never finished the drapery of the
original picture, but copied the head, I think, at three different
times." It is from this portrait (our frontispiece), made when Boone was
an octogenarian, emaciated and feeble--although not appearing older than
seventy years--that most others have been taken; thus giving us, as
Flint says, but a shadowy notion of how the famous explorer looked in
his prime. There is in existence, however, a portrait made by Audubon,
from memory--a charming picture, representing Boone in middle life.[18]

Serene and unworldly to the last, and with slight premonition of the
end, Daniel Boone passed from this life upon the twenty-sixth of
September, 1820, in the eighty-sixth year of his age. The event took
place in the home of his son Nathan, said to be the first stone house
built in Missouri. The convention for drafting the first constitution of
the new State was then in session in St. Louis. Upon learning the news,
the commonwealth-builders adjourned for the day in respect to his
memory; and as a further mark of regard wore crape on their left arms
for twenty days. The St. Louis Gazette, in formally announcing his
death, said: "Colonel Boone was a man of common stature, of great
enterprise, strong intellect, amiable disposition, and inviolable
integrity--he died universally regretted by all who knew him.... Such is
the veneration for his name and character."

Pursuant to his oft-repeated request, he was buried by the side of his
wife, upon the bank of Teugue Creek, about a mile from the Missouri.
There, in sight of the great river of the new West, the two founders of
Boonesborough rested peacefully. Their graves were, however, neglected
until 1845, when the legislature of Kentucky made a strong appeal to the
people of Missouri to allow the bones to be removed to Frankfort, where,
it was promised, they should be surmounted by a fitting monument. The
eloquence of Kentucky's commissioners succeeded in overcoming the strong
reluctance of the Missourians, and such fragments as had not been
resolved into dust were removed amid much display. But in their new
abiding-place they were again the victims of indifference; it was not
until 1880, thirty-five years later, that the present monument was
erected.

  [Illustration: BOONE'S MONUMENT AT FRANKFORT, KENTUCKY.]

We have seen that Daniel Boone was neither the first explorer nor the
first settler of Kentucky. The trans-Alleghany wilds had been trodden by
many before him; even he was piloted through Cumberland Gap by Finley,
and Harrodsburg has nearly a year's priority over Boonesborough. He had
not the intellect of Clark or of Logan, and his services in the defense
of the country were of less importance than theirs. He was not a
constructive agent of civilization. But in the minds of most Americans
there is a pathetic, romantic interest attaching to Boone that is
associated with few if any others of the early Kentuckians. His
migrations in the vanguard of settlement into North Carolina, Kentucky,
West Virginia, and Missouri, each in their turn; his heroic wanderings
in search of game and fresh lands; his activity and numerous thrilling
adventures during nearly a half-century of border warfare; his
successive failures to acquire a legal foothold in the wilderness to
which he had piloted others; his persistent efforts to escape the
civilization of which he had been the forerunner; his sunny temper amid
trials of the sort that made of Clark a plotter and a misanthrope; his
sterling integrity; his serene old age--all these have conspired to make
for Daniel Boone a place in American history as one of the most lovable
and picturesque of our popular heroes; indeed, the typical backwoodsman
of the trans-Alleghany region.


FOOTNOTE:

[18] The story of the original Harding portrait, as gathered from
statements to the present writer by members of the painter's family,
supplemented by letters of Harding himself to the late Lyman C. Draper,
is an interesting one. The artist used for his portrait a piece of
ordinary table oil-cloth. For many years the painting was in the capitol
at Frankfort, Ky., "from the fact that it was hoped the State would buy
it." But the State had meanwhile become possessed of another oil
portrait painted about 1839 or 1840 by a Mr. Allen, of Harrodsburg,
Ky.--an ideal sketch, of no special merit. Harding's portrait,
apparently the only one of Boone painted from life, was not purchased,
for the State did not wish to be at the expense of two paintings. Being
upon a Western trip, in 1861, Harding, then an old man and a resident of
Springfield, Mass., rescued his portrait, which was in bad condition,
and carried it home. The process of restoration was necessarily a
vigorous one. The artist writes (October 6, 1861): "The picture had been
banged about until the greater part of it was broken to pieces.... The
head is as perfect as when it was painted, in color, though there are
some small, almost imperceptible, cracks in it." The head and neck, down
to the shirt-collar, were cut out and pasted upon a full-sized canvas;
on this, Harding had "a very skilful artist" repaint the bust, drapery,
and background, under the former's immediate direction. The picture in
the present state is, therefore, a composite. The joining shows plainly
in most lights. Upon the completion of the work, Harding offered to sell
it to Draper, but the negotiation fell through. The restored portrait
was then presented by the artist to his son-in-law, John L. King, of
Springfield, Mass., and in due course it came into the possession of the
latter's son, the present owner.




INDEX


      Abingdon (Pa.), Boones in, 4.

      Alleghany Mountains, bound French claims, 19, 60;
        border Valley of Virginia, 14;
        pioneers on eastern foot-hills, 27, 35, 69;
        barrier to Western advance, 13;
        Berkeley's exploration, 85, 86;
        crossed by Americans, 20;
        in Dunmore's War, 105;
        first government west of, 122, 123.

      Allen, ----, paints Boone's portrait, 238.

      Amherst, Gen. Jeffrey, of British Army, 44.

      Appalachian Mountains, troughs of, 13-15.
        See also Alleghany Mountains.

      Arkansas, Virginia hunters in, 89, 90.

      Ashton, Captain, killed by Indians, 185.

      Audubon, John James, knew Boone, 10, 235, 238.


      Baker, John, explores Kentucky, 66.

      Barbour, ----, hunts in Kentucky, 89, 90.

      Baton Rouge (La.), North Carolinians near, 66.

      Batts, Thomas, on New River, 86.

      Bears, 18, 56, 58, 67, 75, 76, 92, 133, 197.

      Beaver Creek, Boone on, 68.

      Beavers, 18, 74, 229.

      Benton, ----, Kentucky pioneer, 125.

      Berkeley, Gov. William, in Alleghanies, 85, 86.

      Berks County (Pa.), Boones in, 4-15, 211, 212.

      Black Fish, Shawnese chief, 148-157, 161-167.

      Bledsoe, Maj. Anthony, militia leader, 134.

      Blue Ridge, borders Valley of Virginia, 14, 15;
        crossed by Boone, 72.

      Boiling Spring (Ky.), founded, 121.
        See also Fort Boiling Spring.

      Boone, A. G., grandson of Daniel, 231.

      --, Benjamin, son of George{1}, 1.

      --, Daniel, Dutch painter, 7.

      --, Daniel, born, 6;
        youth, 7-15;
        training, 10-12;
        education, 199, 224;
        moves to Yadkin, 16, 17;
        explores Yadkin region, 62, 63;
        in French and Indian War, 21-23;
        marriage, 25-27, 36;
        list of children, 43;
        life on the Yadkin, 17-20, 28-36;
        flees to Virginia, 43, 55;
        returns to Yadkin, 50, 55;
        visits Florida, 64, 65;
        early Kentucky explorations, 24, 69, 70;
        trains James, 63;
        discontented in North Carolina, 67-69;
        hunts in Tennessee, 55, 56;
        in Cherokee War, 50, 55, 56;
        carves name on trees, 56;
        captures criminals, 62;
        opinion of Indians, 52, 59;
        piloted by Finley, 218, 241;
        crosses Cumberland Gap, ix, 89, 200, 218;
        long hunt in Kentucky, 72-84, 86, 94-97, 100, 224;
        starts for Kentucky, 101-103;
        on Clinch, 103;
        in Dunmore's War, 105-112;
        pioneer for Transylvania Company, 114-117;
        settles Boonesborough, 117-119, 124, 125;
        defends Boonesborough, 137, 138, 141, 142;
        capture of daughter, 134-136;
        captured by Shawnese, 146-158;
        returns to Kentucky, 174-178;
        hunts for settlers, 176;
        robbed of money, 176, 177;
        militia leader, 112, 134, 180, 212, 213;
        Indian expeditions, 181, 182, 187-189;
        pilot for immigrants, 198, 211, 226;
        leaves Boonesborough, 180;
        justice of peace, 143;
        surveyor, 120, 121, 129, 181, 193, 198, 208, 209, 211, 212;
        member of legislature, 182, 183, 215;
        revisits Pennsylvania, 211, 212;
        loses Kentucky lands, 208-210, 219;
        at Maysville, 201, 202, 207-210;
        river trader, 201, 202;
        life on Kanawha, 210-222;
        "autobiography," 153, 169, 199;
        ships furs to East, 197, 201, 202;
        moves to Missouri, 205, 219-222;
        Spanish syndic, 224-227;
        hunts in Missouri, 220, 229-232;
        laments growth of settlement, 227, 231;
        loses Spanish grant, 227, 228;
        pays debts, 229;
        old age, 228-241;
        death and burial, 239, 240;
        character, vii-ix, 200, 232, 233, 241, 242;
        religious views, 233, 234;
        specimen letters, 193-195, 233-235;
        descriptions of, 109, 110, 212-214, 225, 235-237, 239, 240;
        not first in Kentucky, 85;
        Byron's verses, 200;
        nature of services, 200;
        extent of fame, 198, 199, 222, 233-235;
        portraits, 237-239;
        Draper's proposed biography, ix, x.

      Boone, Mrs. Daniel, marriage, 25-27, 36;
        life on Yadkin, 29, 30;
        flees to Virginia, 43;
        scorns Florida, 65;
        in Kentucky, 125, 158, 168, 201;
        death and burial, 230, 240.

      --, Daniel Morgan, son of Daniel, 43;
        in Missouri, 220, 230, 232;
        in Kansas, 230, 231.

      --, Edward, brother of Daniel, 7;
        killed by Indians, 7, 174, 181.

      --, Elizabeth, sister of Daniel, 7.

      --, George{1}, grandfather of Daniel, early life, 1-3;
        moves to Pennsylvania, 3, 4, 102;
        death, 5.

      --, George{2}, son of foregoing, born, 1;
        in Pennsylvania, 2-5.

      --, George{3}, brother of Daniel, 7.

      --, Hannah, sister of Daniel, 7.

      --, Israel{1}, brother of Daniel, 7, 12.

      --, Israel{2}, son of Daniel, 43;
        killed by Indians, 189.

      --, James{1}, son of George{1}, 1, 15.

      --, James{2}, son of Daniel, 43;
        trained as hunter, 63;
        killed by Indians, 102, 103.

      --, Jemima, daughter of Daniel, 43;
        captured by Indians, 134-136;
        marries Flanders Calloway, 158.

      --, John, son of George{1}, 1, 2, 15.

      --, John B., son of Daniel, 43.

      --, Jonathan, brother of Daniel, 7.

      --, Joseph, son of George{1}, 1.

      --, Lavinia, daughter of Daniel, 43.

      --, Mary{1}, daughter of George{1}, 1.

      --, Mary{2}, sister of Daniel, 7.

      --, Nathan, son of Daniel, 43;
        visits Pennsylvania, 211, 212;
        in Missouri, 230, 233, 239.

      --, Rebecca, daughter of Daniel, 43.

      --, Samuel{1}, son of George{1}, 1.

      Boone, Samuel{2}, brother of Daniel, 7, 10;
        marries Sarah Day, 233.

      --, Samuel{3}, son of foregoing, 233.

      --, Sarah{1}, daughter of George{1}, born, 1;
        moves to Pennsylvania, 2, 3;
        marries Jacob Stover, 4, 5.

      --, Sarah{2}, sister of Daniel, 7, 12.

      --, Sarah Day, letter from Daniel, 233.
        See also Sarah Day.

      --, Squire{1}, father of Daniel, born, 1;
        moves to Pennsylvania, 2, 3;
        marriage, 5;
        life in Pennsylvania, 5-15;
        expelled by Quakers, 12;
        moves to Yadkin, 15-17;
        flees to Virginia, 43;
        returns to Yadkin, 59;
        life on Yadkin, 25, 27;
        death, 59.

      --, Squire{2}, brother of Daniel, 7;
        on Big Sandy, 69;
        visits Kentucky, 72, 78-81, 84, 94-97, 100;
        at Boonesborough, 117, 122, 125, 129, 158, 162.

      --, Susannah, daughter of Daniel, 43.

      -- family, in Cherokee War, 43, 44;
        in Kentucky, 43;
        in Missouri, 44, 220-241.

      Boone's Creek (Ky.), Boone on, 180, 208.

      -- Creek (Tenn.), Boone on, 55, 56.

      -- Station. See Fort Boone.

      Boonesborough (Ky.), 118, 119, 121, 124-128, 240, 241;
        Transylvania convention at, 122, 123;
        capture of girls, 134-136;
        in Revolutionary War, 137, 139, 141-143, 148, 149, 154,
          156-158, 184;
        besieged by Indians, 159-167, 169, 186;
        Boone's return to, 174-180, 208, 209;
        incorporated, 174, 175;
        left by Boone, 180;
        present condition, 175;
        Ranck's monograph, x.

      Bouquet, Gen. Henry, campaign of, 88;
        treats with Indians, 103, 104.

      Bourbon County (Ky.), Boone in, 177, 181.

      Bowman, Col. John, Kentucky pioneer, 125;
        militia leader, 134;
        in Revolutionary War, 143-145, 158, 170, 178.

      Braddock, Gen. Edward, defeated by French, 21-23, 25, 50, 71, 81,
          152.

      Bradley, Edward, Kentucky pioneer, 117.

      --, Samuel, mentioned by Boone, 233.

      Bradninch (Eng.), early home of Boones, 1-3.

      Bridges, James, Kentucky pioneer, 117.

      Brownsville (Pa.), Boone at, 212, 215, 216.

      Bryan, Joseph, father-in-law of Boone, 25.

      --, Rebecca. See Mrs. Daniel Boone.

      -- family, Yadkin pioneers, 24-27, 36, 168;
        in Cherokee War, 43, 44;
        in Kentucky, 101, 102, 125.

      Buffaloes, 17, 18, 23, 67, 69, 70, 72, 75, 76, 90, 92, 95, 118,
          133, 158, 197.

      Bush, William, Kentucky pioneer, 117.

      Byrd, Colonel, of British Army, 178.

      --, Col. William, raids Cherokees, 49, 50, 56.

      Byron, George Noel Gordon, Lord, lines on Boone, 200.


      Cahokia (Ill.), won by Clark, 159.

      Caldwell, Capt. William, raids Kentucky, 186.

      California, Boone interested in, 232.

      Calk, William, Kentucky pioneer, 194.

      Calloway, Betsey, captured by Indians, 135, 136;
        marries Samuel Henderson, 143.

      Calloway, Fanny, captured by Indians, 135, 136.

      --, Flanders, marries Jemima Boone, 158;
        in Missouri, 229, 233.

      --, Col. Richard, Kentucky pioneer, 117;
        daughters captured, 135, 136;
        accuses Boone, 165-167.

      Campbell, Maj. Arthur, in Dunmore's War, 105, 108, 109;
        in Kentucky, 126.

      --, Ensign John, in Dunmore's War, 109.

      -- (Camel), Robert, Kentucky pioneer, 209.

      -- family, Kentucky pioneers, 125.

      Camp Madison (Ky.), 172.

      Caperton, Captain, militia leader, 216.

      Captain Jack, Indian hero, 52.

      Carson, Kit, grandson of Boone, 231.

      Cartwright's Creek, Boone on, 208.

      Castle's-woods, Boone at, 109.

      Catawba Indians, relations with Yadkin settlers, 18, 19, 22, 36,
          42;
        allies of whites, 45;
        raided by Northern Indians, 96.

      Cattle-raising, on frontier, 8, 9, 15, 16, 30, 31, 35, 36, 57,
          58, 62, 69, 102, 122, 127, 128, 131, 132, 140, 162, 163, 173,
          197, 223.

      Charleston (S.C.), in Cherokee War, 43, 46;
        Boone at, 169.

      -- (W. Va.), Boone near, 211, 221.

      Charlottesville (Va.), Boone at, 182.

      Cherokee Indians, raided by Northern tribes, 96;
        relations with Yadkin settlers, 18, 19, 22;
        war with whites, 36-56, 60, 69;
        plunder Kentucky hunters, 90, 91, 93;
        treaty with settlers, 99;
        in Dunmore's War, 104, 105, 112, 113;
        in Transylvania cession, 113-116;
        in Revolutionary War, 132, 139-144, 160-167;
        inflamed by Spain, 202, 204.

      Chickasaw Indians, in Revolutionary War, 179.

      Chillicothe (Ohio), Boone near, 158.

      --, Little, Shawnese town, 151, 152, 156, 166.

      --, Old, Shawnese town, 170.

      Choctaw Indians, rob hunters, 67.

      Christian family, Kentucky pioneers, 125.

      Cincinnati, founded, 199;
        Clark at, 190;
        Harmar, 213;
        Boone, 222;
        Wayne, 218.

      Clark, George Rogers, arrival in Kentucky, 104, 125;
        delegate to Virginia, 133;
        in Dunmore's War, 107;
        in Revolutionary War, 125, 134, 138, 139, 158, 159, 169, 178,
          179, 181, 183, 190;
        Wabash expedition, 206, 207;
        separatist intrigues, 203-205, 242;
        misanthropic, vii;
        character of services, vii, 241.

      Clendennin, Col. George, militia leader, 216.

      Clinch Mountain, crossed by Boone, 73.

      Coburn, Samuel, Kentucky pioneer, 117.

      Colorado, A. G. Boone in, 231.

      Cooley, William, accompanies Boone, 72-79.

      Cornstalk, Shawnese chief, 110, 111.

      Cornwallis, Lord, imprisons Boone, 182, 183.

      Covington (Ky.), Bowman at, 170.

      Crabtree, Capt. Jacob, Kentucky pioneer, 117.

      Crane, Sergt. John, in Dunmore's War, 109.

      Creek Indians, inflamed by Spain, 202, 204.

      Crime, on frontier, 33, 34, 60-62.

      Croghan, George, fur-trader, 23.

      Culpeper County (Va.), Boone in, 43.

      Cumberland Gap, crossed by Virginia hunters, 90, 92;
        Finley, 23, 88;
        Boone, vii, 72, 73, 88, 89, 95, 125, 230, 241;
        in Dunmore's War, 105.
        See also Wilderness Road.

      -- Mountains, bound Kentucky, 70, 91.

      Cutbirth, Benjamin, friend of Boone, 66;
        in Kentucky, 66, 67, 101.


      Danville (Ky.), district capital, 195.

      Davie County (N.C.), Boones in, 27.

      Dawson, Miss Marjory, aid acknowledged, xi.

      Day, Rebecca, 233.

      --, Sarah, marries Samuel Boone, 10;
        teaches Daniel, 10, 11.

      Deer, 18, 58, 63, 67, 72-74, 76, 92, 133, 197.

      Delassus, Charles Dehault, lieutenant-governor of Upper Louisiana,
          220, 224, 225, 228.

      Delaware Indians, Christian converts, 7, 8;
        in Revolutionary War, 156, 157, 160-167.

      Detroit, Boone at, 154-157, 166, 177;
        British headquarters, 178, 183, 192.

      District of Columbia, Squire Boone in, 43.

      Doddridge, Joseph, _Notes on Virginia_, 39-41.

      Drake, Joseph, heads Long Hunters, 91, 92.

      Draper, Lyman Copeland, gathers Boone manuscripts, ix, x;
        letters from Harding, 238, 239.

      Dress, of pioneers, 28, 29.

      Dunkin, Sergt. John, in Dunmore's War, 109.

      Dunmore, Lord, commissions Boone, 155, 156;
        raids Indians, 105-112;
        opposes Henderson, 116.

      Durrett, Col. Reuben T., aid acknowledged, x.

      Dutchman's Creek, Boones on, 17.


      Eagle Creek, in Indian campaign, 194.

      Education, on frontier, 10, 11, 27, 53, 224.

      Elk, 72, 75, 76, 92.

      English, in French and Indian War, 19-23;
        defeat French, 59, 60;
        employ French woodsmen, 98;
        fur trade of, 42;
        oppose American settlement, 98, 99, 202;
        in Revolutionary War, 132, 149, 154-156, 159, 165-167, 171,
          178, 186, 190, 192;
        designs on Louisiana, 220.

      Estill, Capt. James, killed by Indians, 184, 185.

      -- County (Ky.), Boone in, 73.

      Etting, J. Marx, aid acknowledged, xi.

      Exeter township (Pa.), Boones in, 5-7.


      Fayette County (Ky.), organized, 179-182;
        raided by Indians, 186;
        surveying, 181, 192, 193.

      Fallen Timbers, battle of, 217, 218.

      Falls of Ohio. See Louisville.

      Femme Osage Creek, Boone on, 220-222, 224, 225, 229.

      Filson, John, writes Boone's "autobiography," 153, 199, 200.

      Fincastle County (Va.), includes Kentucky, 123, 195.

      Finley, John, early exploration of Kentucky, 22, 23, 87, 88;
        tells Boone thereof, 22-24, 69, 71;
        pilots Boone thither, vii, 71-79, 88, 200, 218, 241.

      Fishing Creek, Clark on, 104.

      Flint, Timothy, describes Boone, 235, 236, 238.

      Florida, Virginia hunters in, 89;
        Boone, 64, 65.

      Floyd, Capt. John, on state of frontier, 136, 137;
        in Revolutionary War, 138, 180.

      Forbes, Gen. John, campaign of, 88.

      Fort Blackmore, in Dunmore's War, 108.

      -- Boiling Spring, in Revolutionary War, 137.

      -- Boone (Boone's Station), built, 180.

      -- Bryan (Ky.), in Revolutionary War, 137, 185-188.

      -- Defiance, Wayne at, 217.

      -- Dobbs, erected, 37-39;
        in Cherokee War, 41-44, 55.

      -- Duquesne. See Pittsburg.

      -- Elk Garden, in Dunmore's War, 109.

      -- Estill, attacked by Indians, 184.

      -- Glade Hollow, in Dunmore's War, 109.

      -- Harrod. See Fort Boiling Spring.

      -- Hinkson, in Revolutionary War, 137.

      -- Huston (Ky.), in Revolutionary War, 137.

      -- Jefferson, built by Clark, 179.

      -- Logan, in Revolutionary War, 137, 139, 164, 165.

      -- Loudon, erected, 37;
        in Cherokee War, 44, 46, 47.

      -- McClellan, in Revolutionary War, 137, 139.

      -- McConnell, in Revolutionary War, 188.

      -- McGee, in Revolutionary War, 188.

      -- Maiden Spring, in Dunmore's War, 109.

      -- Martin, besieged, 178.

      -- Massac, French at, 41, 42, 48.

      -- Moore, in Dunmore's War, 108.

      -- Nelson. See Louisville.

      -- Osage, Boone at, 232.

      -- Pitt. See Pittsburg.

      -- Price (Ky.), in Revolutionary War, 139.

      -- Prince George, in Cherokee War, 37, 44, 48.

      -- Recovery, Wayne at, 217.

      -- Robinson, erected, 50.

      -- Ruddell, founded, 121;
        besieged, 178.

      -- Russell, in Dunmore's War, 108.

      -- Stanwix, treaty of, 99, 114, 121.

      -- Strode, militia rendezvous, 194.

      -- Whitley, in Revolutionary War, 137.

      -- Whitton (Big Crab Orchard), in Dunmore's War, 109.

      Forts on frontier, described, 37-41;
        methods of defense, 142, 143.

      Frankfort (Ky.), 121;
        Boone portrait at, 238;
        Boone's grave, 240.

      Fredericksburg (Va.), Boone in, 43.

      Frelinghuysen, Theodore, on Cherokee bravery, 51.

      Frémont, Gen. John C., explorer, 231.

      French, introduce knives, 111;
        early knowledge of Kentucky, 85-87;
        in French and Indian War, 19-23, 66;
        inflame Southern Indians, 36, 37, 41, 42, 48, 51, 98;
        fall of New France, 48, 60;
        hunting in Kentucky, 95, 101, 197;
        employed by English, 98, 148, 159, 161, 171, 178;
        in Northwest Territory, 207;
        in Missouri, 223-226, 231;
        intrigue against Spain, 204;
        cede Louisiana to United States, 226, 227.

      -- Creek, French on, 20.

      Fur trade, near Philadelphia, 4, 10;
        French and English rivalry, 19, 20;
        Ohio Company, 20, 24, 87;
        Finley, 22, 23, 71, 83, 87, 88;
        Croghan, 23;
        with Southern Indians, 18, 42, 44, 58, 60, 132, 133;
        roving of traders, 67, 69;
        English operations, 87, 99, 190;
        character of traders, 60, 132, 133;
        autumnal caravans, 31, 58, 197;
        Boone's operations, 201, 202, 219.


      Gass, Capt. David, on Clinch, 103;
        Kentucky pioneer, 117.

      Gauntlet-running, described, 154, 155.

      Georgetown (D.C.), Squire Boone in, 43.

      Georgia, Virginia hunters in, 91;
        Boone, 65;
        increase of settlement, 97.

      Germans, among frontiersmen, 4, 5, 14, 196.

      Girty, George, met by Boone, 148.

      --, James, met by Boone, 148.

      --, Simon, American renegade, 148, 186.

      Gist, Christopher, explores Kentucky, 87, 100.

      Grant, Lieut.-Col. James, raids Cherokees, 48-50.

      Granville, Earl, North Carolina landholder, 68.

      Great Lakes, French posts on, 19.

      -- Meadows, defeat of Washington, 20.

      Greenville (Ohio), treaty of, 217.

      Grimes, James, mentioned by Boone, 233.

      Gwynedd township (Pa.), Boones in, 4-6.


      Hamilton, Gov. Henry, 149, 150;
        relations with Boone, 154-156, 161, 166;
        imprisoned, 169, 177.

      Hamtramck, Maj. J. F., raids Indians, 213.

      Harding, Chester, paints Boone's portrait, 237-239.

      Harmar, Col. Josiah, raids Indians, 213.

      Harper's Ferry (Va.), Boones at, 16.

      Harrisonburg (Va.), Boones near, 16.

      Harrod, Capt. James, in Revolutionary War, 134, 138, 176.

      Harrodsburg, founded, vii, 121, 131, 238, 241;
        convention at, 133;
        in Revolutionary War, 137, 139, 142, 143, 164;
        seat of Lincoln County, 179.

      Hart, David, of Transylvania Company, 114.

      --, John, Kentucky pioneer, 117.

      --, Nathaniel, of Transylvania Company, 114, 176, 177.

      --, Thomas, of Transylvania Company, 114, 176, 177.

      Hays, William, Boone's son-in-law, 117.

      --, Mrs. William, daughter of Boone, 117.

      Hazelrigg, Captain, letters from Boone, 193-195.

      Hempinstall, Abraham, hunts in Kentucky, 89, 90.

      Henderson, Col. Richard, settles Kentucky, 113-115, 118-120,
          122-124, 126, 129, 133.

      --, Samuel, marries Betsey Calloway, 143.

      Hennepin, Father Louis, explorations of, 86.

      Hewett, Gen. Fayette, aid acknowledged, xi.

      Hicks, William, Kentucky pioneer, 117.

      Hill, William, accompanies Boone, 69, 70.

      Hinkson, Maj. John, Kentucky pioneer, 121.

      Hite, Isaac, Kentucky pioneer, 125.

      Holden, Capt. Joseph, accompanies Boone, 72-77;
        defeated by Indians, 185.

      Howard, John, in Kentucky, 87.

      Hunting, early practised by Boone, 9-12, 16;
        in Yadkin country, 17, 18, 28-34, 55, 58, 62, 63;
        early trail through Cumberland Gap, 73, 89;
        in Tennessee, 55-57;
        abundant in Kentucky, 76, 98, 132, 218;
        Long Hunters, 91-95;
        Boone's long Kentucky hunt, 72-84, 86, 94-97;
        Boone's contemporaries, 87-91;
        after Revolution, in Kentucky, 197, 211, 218;
        in Kanawha Valley, 218, 219;
        in Missouri, 220, 229-232;
        profits of, 57-59, 73-75, 229;
        methods employed, 75, 76;
        camps described, 63, 64;
        game decreasing, 62, 97, 124, 219.
        See also the several animals.


      Iberville, Lemoyne d', explorations of, 86.

      Illinois, French in, 42;
        English, 87.

      Indian Territory, mentioned by Boone, 232.

      Indians, understood by Boone, viii, 7, 8, 10;
        influence of women, 46;
        lodge life, 153;
        adopt captives, 152, 153;
        affected by fur trade, 133;
        barrier to settlement, 98;
        in eastern Pennsylvania, 4, 7, 8, 10, 13;
        infest mountain valleys, 14, 16;
        in French and Indian War, 19-23, 36-56;
        raid Yadkin region, 27, 36-56;
        raid Kentucky, 126, 127;
        warrior's paths, 73, 76, 79, 180;
        gauntlet-running, 154, 155;
        methods of warfare, 39-41, 52-54, 111, 140, 141, 160-167,
          186-189, 205;
        ethics of border warfare, 50-54, 206;
        finally quieted in Northwest, 216-218.
        See also the several tribes.

      Irish, among frontiersmen, 14, 24, 196.

      Iron Mountain, crossed by Boone, 73.

      Iroquois, in Kentucky, 99, 113, 114.


      Jefferson, Thomas, governor of Virginia, 182;
        President, 224.

      Jefferson County (Ky.), organized, 179-181;
        in Revolutionary War, 188;
        Lincolns in, 174.

      Jennings, Edmund, Kentucky pioneer, 117.

      Jessamine County (Ky.), Bone in, 101.

      Jesuits, seek Mississippi River, 86.

      Johnson, Andrew, escapes from Indians, 157.

      --, Thomas, Kentucky pioneer, 117.

      Joliet, Louis, discovers Mississippi, 86.

      Jones, Capt. John Gabriel, delegate to Virginia, 133.

      Justice, on frontier, 61, 223, 225, 226.


      Kanawha County (W. Va.), Boone in, 210-222.

      Kansas, Boone in, 229.

      Kaskaskia (Ill.), won by Clark, 159, 190.

      Keith, Sir William, governor of Pennsylvania, 87.

      Kennedy, John, Kentucky pioneer, 117.

      Kenton, Simon, scout, 125;
        in Revolutionary War, 141, 160, 189.

      Kentucky, described, 82, 131, 132;
        debatable land between tribes, 76, 77;
        early explorations, vii, 85-87, 89-91;
        Virginia hunters, 20;
        Finley, 22, 23, 71, 87, 88;
        Boone's early explorations, 24, 64, 68-70, 88, 89, 101;
        Boone's long hunt, 72-84, 86, 94-97;
        Long Hunters in, 91-95;
        Washington, 88, 89;
        Cutbirth, 66, 67;
        Boone family, 25, 43, 241;
        game abundant, 98, 129, 218;
        Cherokee lands settled, 99;
        early colonial projects, 100;
        Transylvania Company, 113-176;
        first settled, vii, viii;
        rush of settlers, 104, 178, 195-198, 207;
        in Dunmore's War, 106, 107, 113;
        during Revolutionary War, 132-192;
        losses in Indian wars, 205;
        Indians finally quelled, 213-218;
        established as Virginia County, 123, 133, 134;
        divided into three counties, 179-181;
        made a district, 195;
        becomes a State, 205;
        sends Boone to legislature, 182, 183;
        separatist agitation, 202-205;
        first wedding, 143;
        first artillery, 174;
        hard winter, 173, 175, 176;
        early commerce, 196, 197;
        Boone pays debts, 229;
        Boone's services to, 200, 201;
        petitions Congress for Boone, 176, 177, 228;
        obtains Boone's remains, ix, 240;
        declines to buy Harding's portrait, 238;
        Filson's _History_, 199.

      King, John, Kentucky pioneer, 117.

      --, John L., owns Boone portrait, 239.

      --, William H., owns Boone portrait, 237-239;
        aid acknowledged, xi.

      King Philip, Indian hero, 51, 52.

      Kinkead, Sergt. John, in Dunmore's War, 109.


      Lackey, W. G., aid acknowledged, xi.

      La Fayette, Gen. Marquis de, in Virginia, 182.

      Land grants, to French and Indian War veterans, 88, 121, 131;
        by Iroquois to whites, 114;
        by Cherokees to whites, 113-116;
        Boone from Virginia, 177;
        Boone from Spain, 222, 227, 228.
        See also Transylvania Company.

      La Salle, Robert Cavelier, sieur de, on Western waters, 86.

      Law, on frontier, 33, 34, 224-227.

      Lederer, John, on Western waters, 86.

      Lee, William, Kentucky pioneer, 121, 137.

      Lewis, Gen. Andrew, in Dunmore's War, 107, 110, 111.

      -- family, Kentucky pioneers. 125.

      Lexington (Ky.), seat of Fayette County, 179, 193;
        in Revolutionary War, 186-188.

      Limestone. See Maysville.

      Lincoln, Abraham, Kentucky pioneer, 174.

      -- County (Ky.), organized, 179-181;
        in Revolutionary War, 188.

      Linn, Lieutenant, marries, 143.

      Linnville Creek, Boones on, 16.

      Logan, Benjamin, arrives in Kentucky, 125;
        raids Indians, vii, 134, 207;
        in Revolutionary War, 138, 144, 164, 165, 180, 181, 189;
        character of services, 241.

      Logan, Chief John, attacks whites, 105.

      Long Hunters, in Kentucky, 91-95.

      Long Island, of Holston, 50.

      Long Knives, use of term, 11, 144.

      Louisiana, North Carolinians in, 66;
        French, 19;
        owned by Spain, 220;
        French intrigue against, 204;
        ceded to United States, 224, 226-228.

      Louisville (Ky.), Gist at site of, 87;
        Finley, 22, 23, 71;
        Washington, 104;
        Clark, 159;
        Boone, 83, 129, 193;
        in Revolutionary War, 181, 190;
        seat of Jefferson County, 179;
        early growth, 196.

      Lyttleton, William Henry, governor of South Carolina, 43, 55.


      McAfee family, Kentucky pioneers, 125.

      McClellan, Alexander, Kentucky pioneer, 125.

      McCulloch, John, explores Kentucky, 91.

      MacDowell family, Kentucky pioneers, 125.

      McGary, Maj. Hugh, in Revolutionary War, 138, 188, 189.

      McKee, Capt. Alexander, raids Kentucky, 186.

      Marquette, Father Jacques, discovers Mississippi, 86.

      Marshall, Col. Thomas, surveyor, 181, 192, 193, 195.

      Martin, Josiah, governor of North Carolina, 116.

      Maryland, Boones in, 43, 59;
        increase of settlement, 97;
        commerce with Kentucky, 202.

      Matthews, Albert, on "Long Knives," 111.

      Maugridge, Mary, marries George Boone{1}, 1.

      Mausker, Caspar, of Long Hunters, 94.

      Maysville (Ky.), 194;
        in Revolutionary War, 138;
        Boone at, 201, 202, 207-210, 212.

      Medicine, on frontier, 32.

      Mill, John Stuart, on forcing civilization, 51.

      Miller, William, Kentucky pioneer, 117.

      Mingo Indians, in Dunmore's War, 105;
        in Revolutionary War, 132, 139-144, 156, 157, 161-167.

      Mingo Junction (Ohio), Logan tragedy near, 105.

      Missouri, Boone family in, viii, 43, 220-241;
        life previous to cession, 223-226;
        first stone house, 239;
        Constitutional Convention, viii, 239;
        releases Boone's remains, 240.

      Moccasin Gap, followed by Boone, 73.

      Monocacy Valley, Boone in, 10.

      Montgomery, Alexander, scout, 160.

      --, Col. John, raids Cherokees, 44-46, 55.

      Mooney, James, accompanies Boone, 72-79.

      Moore, Sergeant, in Dunmore's War, 108.

      --, William, Kentucky pioneer, 117.

      Moravian Indian missions, 7, 8.

      Morgan, John, grandfather of Daniel Boone, 5.

      --, Sarah, marries Squire Boone{1}, 5, 59;
        life in Oley, 5-15.

      -- family, Welsh settlers, 5.

      Morton, Mrs. Jennie C., aid acknowledged, x.

      Muskrats, 18.


      Nall, James, Kentucky pioneer, 117.

      Nashville (Tenn.), hard winter at, 175.

      Neely, Alexander, joins Boone, 78-81.

      Neversink Mountains, Boone in, 10.

      New France, fall of, 48, 60, 87, 98.
        See also French.

      New Mexico, New Englanders in, 86.

      New Orleans, French at, 19;
        Spanish, 228;
        North Carolinians, 66, 67;
        Virginians, 90, 91;
        early commerce with, 197.

      New York (State), Indian uprising, 37;
        sends emigrants to Kentucky, 178.

      North Carolina, pioneers of, 13-15;
        sends colony to Louisiana, 66;
        Boones in, viii, 17-102, 241;
        in French and Indian War, 21-23, 48-50, 56;
        interest in Western settlement, 100, 138, 178;
        Henderson's colony, 113-176;
        opposition to Henderson, 116, 123, 127;
        regulators, 61, 62;
        rapid settlement, 42.

      North Wales (Pa.), Boones in, 4, 5.

      Northwest Territory, organized, 207.


      Ohio, Shawnese in, 135, 144, 149-160, 170, 182, 190;
        Boone hunts in, 211, 218.

      -- Company, founded, 20;
        operations of, 24;
        land grants on Ohio River, 87.

      Oley township (Pa.), Boones in, 4-15.

      Opecancano, Indian hero, 52.

      Orange County (Va.), settlers hunt in Kentucky, 89, 90.

      Ordinance of 1787, 205.

      Osage Indians, mentioned by Boone, 232.

      Otter Creek, Boone on, 117.

      Otters, 18, 74.

      Owatin Creek (Pa.), Boones on, 6.

      Ozark Mountains, Virginians in, 91.


      Paint Lick Town. See Chillicothe, Little.

      Panthers, 18.

      Paris (Ky.), fort on site of, 137.

      Patterson, Col. Robert, Kentucky pioneer, 125, 194.

      Peeke, James, Kentucky pioneer, 117.

      Penn, William, founds Pennsylvania, 2.

      Pennington (Peninton), Hannah, mentioned by Boone, 234.

      Pennsylvania, founded by Penn, 2;
        Boones in, viii, 2-14, 102, 174, 183, 211, 212;
        Finley, 79;
        sends settlers to southwest, 13-15, 20, 24:
        interest in Western settlement, 138, 178;
        increase of settlement, 97, 130;
        in French and Indian War, 20-23, 37;
        in Revolutionary War, 148, 159;
        losses in Indian wars, 205.

      Pensacola (Fla.), Boone in, 65.

      Philadelphia, in time of Boones, 3, 4, 10, 102, 212.

      Pickaway, Shawnese town, 179.

      Pittsburg, French at, 20, 21, 41;
        Virginia hunters, 89;
        in Dunmore's War, 105, 107;
        in Revolutionary War, 138, 148, 183.

      Poage, Sergt. W., in Dunmore's War, 108.

      Point Pleasant (W. Va.), battle at, 108, 110-112;
        Boone, 201, 210-222.

      Pompey, negro interpreter, 151, 161.

      Pontiac, Indian hero, 52, 59, 60.

      Pope, Col. William, militia leader, 180, 181.

      Presbyterians, among frontiersmen, 33.

      Preston, Col. William, in Dunmore's War, 105, 109;
        in Revolutionary War, 136.

      -- family, Kentucky pioneers, 125.

      Prestonburg (Ky.), Boone near, 69, 70.


      Quakers, Boones of this persuasion, 1, 2, 4-7, 10-12;
        expel Boones, 12;
        familiar with Indians, 13;
        among frontiersmen, 14, 33.


      Ranck, George W., _Boonesborough_, x.

      --, Mrs. George W., aid acknowledged, x.

      Randolph, Nathaniel, Kentucky pioneer, 125.

      Reading (Pa.), Boones near, 6.

      Red Jacket, Indian hero, 52.

      -- Stone. See Brownsville, Pa.

      Regulators, in Carolinas, 61, 101.

      Religion, on frontier, 33.
        See also the several denominations.

      Revolutionary War, 175;
        effect on proprietary governments, 123;
        causes Washington to turn from West, 89;
        checks Western colonies, 100;
        Western interest in, 128, 170, 171;
        G. R. Clark, 125, 138, 139, 158, 159, 169;
        Kentucky in, 132-192.

      Richmond (Va.), seat of government, 181, 182, 207, 208, 215.

      Ringe, Daniel, 234.

      River Alleghany, French on, 20.

      -- Big Sandy, Boone on, 69-71, 211;
        Washington, 88.

      -- Catawba, early settlements on, 17;
        Indian hostilities, 42.

      -- Clinch, Boone on, 69, 101, 103-112;
        early settlement, 97.

      -- Cumberland, Long Hunters on, 93, 95;
        Boone, 101;
        in Transylvania cession, 115;
        in Revolutionary War, 139.

      -- Dick's, Boone on, 83.

      -- Elk, Boone on, 221.

      -- Elkhorn, Boone on, 208;
        in Revolutionary War, 137.

      -- French Broad, early settlement on, 97.

      -- Gauley, Boone on, 219.

      -- Green, Long Hunters on, 93, 94;
        Boone, 77.

      -- Great Miami, Shawnese on, 179.

      -- Holston, Finley on, 79;
        Boone, 57, 69, 73;
        Long Hunters, 91;
        in Cherokee War, 47, 50;
        in Revolutionary War, 134, 138, 144, 161;
        early settlements, 97, 126.

      -- Hudson, Iroquois on, 99.

      -- Kanawha (Great Kanawha), explored, 86;
        in Dunmore's War, 108;
        Boone on, viii, 210-222;
        hunting, 218, 219.

      -- Kentucky, Boone on, 73, 79, 83, 112, 180, 211;
        Transylvania settlement, 115-119, 121;
        crown lands abutting, 121, 130;
        capture of girls, 134-136;
        in Revolutionary War, 137, 139, 176;
        bounds Fayette County, 179;
        Boone leaves, 201.

      -- Keowee, Cherokees on, 45.

      -- Licking, Shawnese on, 135, 137, 151, 166, 170, 178-180, 188,
          190;
        Boone, 83, 208, 211.

      -- Little Miami, Shawnese on, 151, 190;
        in Revolutionary War, 160, 170.

      -- Little Sandy, Washington on, 88.

      -- Little Tennessee, Cherokees on, 45, 48, 49.

      -- Maumee, Wayne on, 217.

      -- Miami, Indians raided on, 214.

      -- Mississippi, Iroquois on, 99;
        French, 19, 60, 85-87, 207;
        early English explorations, 20, 85-87, 89-91;
        North Carolinians, 66, 67;
        in Revolutionary War, 179;
        Spanish, 85, 197, 198, 202-205;
        free navigation sought by West, 203-205, 226;
        early commerce on, 197, 198.

      -- Missouri, Boone on, 221, 232, 234, 240.

      -- Monongahela, fur trade route, 24;
        Braddock on, 71;
        early settlements, 98, 130;
        Boone, 212, 215, 216.

      -- New, Batts on, 86;
        Squire Boone, 78;
        settlers explore Kentucky, 90, 91.

      -- Nolichucky, early settlement on, 97.

      -- Ohio, drains Virginia, 16;
        French on, 19, 20, 41, 42;
        early explorations, 22;
        Virginia hunters, 89-91;
        Gist, 87;
        Finley, 22, 23, 71;
        in Dunmore's War, 105;
        Iroquois land sale, 99;
        Boone on, 69, 70, 83, 183, 201, 202, 210, 222;
        in Transylvania cession, 114, 129;
        in Revolutionary War, 138, 151, 159, 170;
        Indian wars on, 88, 107, 108;
        early settlements, 98, 100, 104, 207, 214;
        highway for emigrants, 130, 172, 178, 184, 196, 201;
        early commerce, 197, 198;
        last of Indian raids, 213-218.

      River Platte, Boone on, 232.

      -- Potomac, fur trade route, 24.

      -- Powell, Boone on, 73, 95, 96, 125;
        early settlements, 97, 102, 115, 119.

      -- Red, Boone on, 79.

      -- Rich, in Dunmore's War, 109.

      -- Rockcastle, Indians on, 80, 117.

      -- St. Joseph, Indians raided on, 213.

      -- St. Lawrence, Indians on, 19.

      -- Salt, Indians near, 190.

      -- --, Beech Fork of, 208.

      -- Sandy, West Fork of, Boone on, 70.

      -- Savannah, Indians on, 37.

      -- Schuylkill, Boones on, 6-15.

      -- Scioto, Shawnese on, 157, 158, 160, 167, 207;
        Indians raided, 213.

      -- Shenandoah, Boones on, 16.

      -- Tennessee, Indian uprising, 37, 45;
        Iroquois land sale, 99, 114;
        in Transylvania cession, 114.

      -- Wabash, Shawnese on, 206, 207;
        French, 207;
        English, 87;
        in Dunmore's War, 105;
        Indians raided on, 213, 214.

      -- Watauga, Boone on, 55, 56, 101, 115;
        Cherokee council, 115, 116, 133;
        early settlement, 97.

      -- Yadkin, early known to Pennsylvanians, 14;
        Bryan family on, 25-27, 43;
        Boone family, 16-20, 24-27, 34, 43, 55-57, 68-70, 81, 89, 95,
          96, 100, 102, 103, 125, 158, 168, 169, 208, 209;
        Indians on, 18, 19, 22, 37-56, 59, 60;
        hunting, 17, 18, 28-34, 55, 58;
        trading caravans, 31, 58;
        crime, 60-62;
        Finley's arrival, 71, 72.

      -- Yellowstone, Boone on, 229.

      Robinson, Chief Justice, on Wilderness Road, 172, 173, 175.

      --, David, militia leader, 134.

      Rockingham County (Va.), Boones in, 16;
        Lincolns, 174.

      Rocky Mountains, explorations of, 231, 232.

      Rowan County (N.C.), Boones in, 25, 55, 174.

      Russell, Henry, killed by Indians, 103.

      --, Col. William, starts for Kentucky, 101-103;
        in Dunmore's War, 105, 108;
        in Revolutionary War, 134.


      St. Asaph (Ky.), founded, 121.

      St. Augustine (Fla.), Boone in, 65.

      St. Charles County (Mo.), Boones in, 220-241.

      St. Clair, Gov. Arthur, raids Indians, 214, 215, 217.

      St. Louis, Spanish seat, 220, 221, 223;
        fur market, 229;
        Harding at, 237;
        _Gazette_, 239, 240.

      Salisbury (N.C.), Boone near, 18, 62.

      Salling, Peter, in Kentucky, 87.

      Salt Licks, in Kentucky, 90, 92, 118, 146, 151;
        near Prestonburg, 69, 70;
        Big, 82, 117;
        Big Bone, 82, 83, 87;
        Blue, 82, 158, 166, 188, 189, 194;
        Buffalo, 17;
        French, 101;
        Grassy, 181;
        Knob, 92;
        Lower Blue, 135, 147-151, 160.

      Scotch-Irish, among frontiersmen, 5, 14, 22, 66, 128, 196.

      Scott, Gen. Charles, raids Indians, 214.

      Searcy, Bartlet, Kentucky pioneer, 117.

      --, Reuben, Kentucky pioneer, 117.

      Shawnese Indians, raid Southern tribes, 19;
        in Kentucky, 23;
        in Dunmore's War, 104, 105, 107, 108, 110-113;
        capture Boone, 77, 78, 146-158;
        capture girls, 134-136;
        attack Boone, 103;
        in Revolutionary War, 132, 139-144, 156, 157, 160-167, 170, 179,
          180, 183-191, 193;
        raided by Kentuckians, 206, 207.

      Sheltowee (Big Turtle), Boone's Indian name, 152.

      Silouee, Cherokee chief, 45.

      Sitting Bull, Indian hero, 52.

      Skaggs, Henry, heads Long Hunters, 92.

      Slavery, among Indians, 42;
        negro, 33, 103, 184.

      Smith, John, on Indian warfare, 111.

      South Carolina, pioneers of, 13-15;
        in Cherokee War, 43, 44, 48;
        regulators, 61;
        interest in Western settlement, 138, 178.

      Southern Indians, attack whites, 60, 202, 204.
        See also Cherokee Indians.

      Spanish, extent of explorations, 85;
        control Mississippi River, 202-205;
        relations with Kentuckians, 197, 198, 202-205;
        entice American colonists, 204, 205, 220, 222.

      Sports, of pioneers, 32, 33.

      Station Camp Creek, Boone on, 73-79.

      Staunton (Va.), Boone at, 183.

      Stephen, Col. Adam, raids Cherokees, 50.

      Stockfield, owned by Boone, 208.

      Stone, Uriah, in Kentucky, 90-92.

      Stone Mountain, crossed by Boone, 73.

      Stoner, Michael, Kentucky pioneer, 117.

      Stuart, John, early exploration of Kentucky, 66, 67;
        accompanies Boone, 72-80;
        death, 80.

      Sugar Tree Creek, Boones on, 27, 68.

      Surveying, on frontier, 88, 104, 107, 119-121, 127, 131, 171, 172,
          181, 192, 193, 198, 200, 208, 209, 211, 212.

      Sycamore Shoals, treaty at, 115, 116.


      Tarleton, Col. Banastre, captures Boone, 182.

      Tate, Samuel, Kentucky pioneer, 117.

      Taylor, Hancock, hunts in Kentucky, 89, 90.

      --, Richard, hunts in Kentucky, 89, 90.

      Tecumseh, Indian hero, 52.

      Tennessee, Virginia hunters in, 20, 91;
        Boone, 55-57;
        Cherokee lands settled, 99;
        attacked by Southern Indians, 202, 204.

      Terre Haute (Ind.), Virginians at, 91.

      Teugue Creek, Boone buried on, 240.

      Thoreau, Henry David, likened to Boone, 10.

      Todd, Capt. John, Kentucky pioneer, 125, 131;
       militia leader, 134, 180;
       killed by  Indians, 188, 189.

      Towns, Oswell, Kentucky pioneer, 117.

      Transylvania Company, settles Kentucky, 113-176, 208;
        nullified by Virginia, 134, 176.

      Trigg, Col. Stephen, militia leader, 181;
        killed by Indians, 188, 189.

      Tryon, Gov. William, conflict with regulators, 101;
        runs boundary line, 69.

      Turkeys, 18, 72, 76, 92, 133.

      Turtle Creek, Braddock's defeat on, 21.

      Twitty, Capt. William, Kentucky pioneer, 117.


      Vardeman, John, Kentucky pioneer, 117.

      Vincennes (Ind.), won by Clark, 159, 169, 190.

      Virginia, early Indian hostilities, 111;
        early explorations from, 85-87, 89-91;
        pioneer advance through, 13-15, 20;
        Boones in, 16, 43, 57;
        path to Kentucky, 115;
        in French and Indian War, 20-23, 37, 41, 47-49;
        in Dunmore's War, 105-112;
        losses in Indian wars, 205;
        sends settlers to Kentucky, 178, 192;
        opposition to Henderson, 116, 123, 127, 130, 133, 134, 176;
        interest in Western settlement, 138;
        regulators, 61;
        organizes Kentucky County, 123, 133, 134, 174;
        in Revolutionary War, 148, 169, 171, 203;
        aids Kentucky, 138, 139, 143, 146, 150, 159, 165, 172, 174, 190,
          207, 208;
        erects district of Kentucky, 195;
        Boone in Assembly, 182, 183, 215;
        grants land to Boone, 177;
        fails to release Kentucky, 204.

      --, Valley of, its pioneers, 13-16, 19, 20, 24, 31, 35, 100, 102.


      Waddell, Capt. Hugh, in French and Indian War, 21;
        in Cherokee War, 44, 45, 49, 50, 55, 56.

      Walker, Felix, Kentucky pioneer, 117, 118.

      --, Dr. Thomas, in Kentucky, 87.

      War of 1812-15, effect on Missouri, 230.

      Ward, John, explores Kentucky, 66.

      Warriors' paths, 73, 76, 79, 180.

      Washington, George, in French and Indian War, 20, 21;
        in Kentucky, 87-89, 100, 104;
        in Revolutionary War, 138.

      Wayne, Gen. Anthony, conquers Indians, 217, 218.

      Welch, Rev. James E., describes Boone, 236, 237.

      Welsh, among frontiersmen, 4, 5.

      West Virginia, pioneer advance through, 13-15;
        Boone in, 210-222, 235.

      Whitley, William, arrives in Kentucky, 125.

      Wilcoxen, Elizabeth, marries Benjamin Cutbirth, 66.

      Wildcats, 18.

      Wilderness Road, 130, 146, 172-174, 178, 184, 198, 202.
        See also Cumberland Gap.

      Wilkes County (N.C.), Boone in, 68.

      Wilkesboro (N.C.), Boone near, 68.

      Wilkinson, Gen. James, raids Indians, 214.

      Wisconsin State Historical Society, possesses Boone's records, ix,
          x, 208.

      Wolves, 18.

      Wood, Col. Abraham, on Western waters, 86.

      Wyandot Indians, in Revolutionary War, 184.


      Xenia (O.), Boone near, 151, 152.


      Zinzendorf und Pottendorf, Nikolaus Ludwig, Count von, Moravian
          missionary, 7, 8.




AN IMPORTANT HISTORICAL BOOK.

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McMASTER'S FIFTH VOLUME.

History of the People of the United States.

By Prof. JOHN BACH MCMASTER. Vols. I, II, III, IV, and V now ready. 8vo.
Cloth, with Maps, $2.50 per volume.


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       It is hard to realize thoroughly the amount of detailed
       work necessary to produce these books, which contain the
       best history of our country that has yet been
       published."--_Philadelphia Telegraph._

       "The first installment of the history came as a pleasant
       surprise, and the later volumes have maintained a high
       standard in regard to research and style of
       treatment."--_New York Critic._

       "A monumental work.... Professor McMaster gives on every
       page ample evidence of exhaustive research for his
       facts."--_Rochester Herald._

       "The reader can not fail to be impressed by the wealth of
       material out of which the author has weighed and condensed
       and arranged his matter."--_Detroit Free Press._

       "Professor McMaster is our most popular historian.... He
       never wearies, even when dealing with subjects that would
       be most wearisome under clumsier handling. This fifth
       volume is the most triumphant evidence of his art."--_New
       York Herald._




By EDGAR STANTON MACLAY, A. M.

=A History of the United States Navy.= (=1775 to 1902.=)--New and
revised edition.


In three volumes, the new volume containing an Account of the Navy since
the Civil War, with a history of the Spanish-American War revised to the
date of this edition, and an Account of naval operations in the
Philippines, etc. Technical Revision of the first two volumes by
Lieutenant ROY C. SMITH, U. S. N. Illustrated. 8vo. Cloth, $3.00 net per
volume; postage, 26 cents per volume additional.

In the new edition of Vol. III, which is now ready for publication, the
author brings his History of the Navy down to the present time. In the
prefaces of the volumes of this history the author has expressed and
emphasized his desire for suggestions, new information, and corrections
which might be utilized in perfecting his work. He has, therefore,
carefully studied the evidence brought out at the recent Schley Court of
Inquiry, and while the findings of that Court were for the most part in
accordance with the results of his own historical investigations, he has
modified certain portions of his narrative. Whatever opinions may be
held regarding any phases of our recent naval history, the fact remains
that the industry, care, and thoroughness, which were unanimously
praised by newspaper reviewers and experts in the case of the first two
volumes, have been sedulously applied to the preparation of this new
edition of the third volume.


A History of American Privateers.

Uniform with "A History of the United States Navy." One volume.
Illustrated. 8vo. Cloth, $3.00 net; postage, 24 cents additional.

After several years of research the distinguished historian of American
sea power presents the first comprehensive account of one of the most
picturesque and absorbing phases of our maritime warfare. The importance
of the theme is indicated by the fact that the value of prizes and
cargoes taken by privateers in the Revolution was three times that of
the prizes and cargoes taken by naval vessels, while in the War of 1812
we had 517 privateers and only 23 vessels in our navy. Mr. Maclay's
romantic tale is accompanied by reproductions of contemporary pictures,
portraits, and documents, and also by illustrations by Mr. George Gibbs.


The Private Journal of William Maclay,

United States Senator from Pennsylvania, 1789-1791. With Portrait from
Original Miniature. Edited by EDGAR STANTON MACLAY, A. M. Large 8vo.
Cloth, $2.25.

During his two years in the Senate William Maclay kept a journal of his
own in which he minutely recorded the transactions of each day. This
record throws a flood of light on the doings of our first legislators.




APPLETONS' WORLD SERIES.


A New Geographical Library.

Edited by H. J. MACKINDER, M. A., Student of Christ Church, Reader in
Geography in the University of Oxford, Principal of Reading College.
Each, 8vo. Cloth.

The series will consist of twelve volumes, each being an essay
descriptive of a great natural region, its marked physical features, and
the life of the people. Together, the volumes will give a complete
account of the world, more especially as the field of human activity.


_NOW READY._

=Britain and the British Seas.= By the EDITOR. With numerous Maps and
Diagrams. $2.00 net; postage, 19 cents additional.

=The Nearer East.= By D. G. HOGARTH, M. A., Fellow of Magdalen College,
Oxford; Director of the British School at Athens; Author of "A Wandering
Scholar in the Levant." $2.00 net; postage, 17 cents additional.


_IN PREPARATION._

CENTRAL EUROPE. By Dr. JOSEPH PARTSCH, Professor of Geography in the
University of Breslau.

INDIA. By Sir T. HUNGERFORD HOLDICH, K. C. I. E., C. B., R. E.,
Superintendent of Indian Frontier Surveys; author of numerous papers on
Military Surveying and Geographical subjects.

SCANDINAVIA AND THE ARCTIC OCEAN. By Sir CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, K. C. B.,
F. R. S., President of the Royal Geographical Society.

THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE. By Prince KROPOTKIN, author of the articles "Russia"
and "Siberia" in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_.

AFRICA. By J. SCOTT KELTIE, Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society;
Editor of _The Statesman's Year-Book_; Author of "The Partition of
Africa."

THE FARTHER EAST. By ARCHIBALD LITTLE.

WESTERN EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN. By ELISÉE RECLUS, author of the
"Nouvelle Géographie Universelle."

AUSTRALASIA AND ANTARCTICA. By Dr. H. O. FORBES, Curator of the
Liverpool Museum, late Curator of the Christ Church Museum, N. Z.;
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NORTH AMERICA. By Prof. ISRAEL COOK RUSSELL, M. S., C. E., LL. D.,
Professor of Geology in the University of Michigan; author of numerous
works on geological and physiographical subjects.

SOUTH AMERICA. By JOHN CASPER BRANNER, Ph.D., LL. D., Professor of
Geology, and sometime Vice-President Leland Stanford Junior University;
author of many publications on Brazil, Geology, and Physical Geography.

      Maps by J. G. BARTHOLOMEW.




THE GREAT PEOPLES SERIES.

Edited by DR. YORK POWELL, Regius Professor of Modern History in the
University of Oxford. Each 12mo. Cloth, $1.50 net; postage, 14 cents
additional.

The aim of this series is to give in well-printed, clearly written, and
readable volumes a view of the process by which the leading peoples of
the world have become great and earned their title to greatness, to
describe the share each has contributed to the common stock of
civilization. It is not so much a set of political or military or even
social histories, as a sequence of readable studies on the tendencies
and potencies of the chief peoples of the world, that this series will
strive to present.


_NOW READY:_

=THE SPANISH PEOPLE.=

By Dr. MARTIN A. S. HUME.

       "The reader quickly perceives that the riches promised by
       Dr. Powell are amply found, at least in this first volume.
       The history is written with a new object and from a new
       standpoint; there is not a dull page in it. Mr. Hume
       writes with all the advantages of the modern historical
       specialist, and his picture of the development of the
       Spaniard is an important history of a people whose
       picturesque career is one of unfailing interest."--_Boston
       Daily Advertiser_.

=THE FRENCH PEOPLE.=

By ARTHUR HASSALL, M. A., Student of Christ Church, Oxford; Author of
"The Balance of Power," etc.

In accordance with the general plan of the series, this important work
presents the evolution of a people. The method is modern, and although
the sources, development, and transitions of a great race are fully
indicated in a comparatively small compass, the author's aims and
results differ widely from the set record of political, dynastic, and
military facts which are chronicled in the dry language of the usual
hand-book. The part that France has played in the world's history has
been frequently so picturesque and dramatic, as well as great, that a
vital analysis of her history like this possesses a profound interest.
The author is one of the ablest of the rising English historians and a
lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford.


_IN PREPARATION:_

=THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE.=

By J. FITZMAURICE-KELLY.




THE STANDARD AUTHORITY.

=The Presidents of the United States.=

By JOHN FISKE, CARL SCHURZ, ROBERT C. WINTHROP, DANIEL G. GILMAN,
WILLIAM WALTER PHELPS, GEORGE TICKNOR CURTIS, GEORGE BANCROFT, JOHN HAY
and others. Edited by General JAMES GRANT WILSON. New and revised
edition with complete life of William McKinley and sketch of Theodore
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This book has been the standard authority for many years and justly so.
Its list of contributors lifts it far above the commonplace, and
infinitely removes it from the possibility of political coloring or
sectionalism. The article on President McKinley gives a brief and
accurate résumé of the Spanish war while the book as a whole is a
composite review of the constitutional history of the United States with
the White House as the keynote.

       "A book well worth owning, for reading and for
       reference."--_The Outlook._

       "Such a work as this can not fail to appeal to the pride
       of patriotic Americans."--_Chicago Dial._

       "A monumental volume, which no American who cares for the
       memory of the public men of his country can afford to be
       without."--_New York Mail and Express._

       "A valuable addition to both our biographical and
       historical literature, and meets a want long
       recognized."--_Boston Advertiser._

       "A book which every one should read over and over
       again.... We have carefully run through it, and laid it
       down with the feeling that some such book ought to find
       its way into every household."--_New York Herald._

       "General Wilson has performed a public service in
       presenting this volume to the public in so attractive a
       shape. It is full of incentive to ambitious youth; it
       abounds in encouragement to every patriotic
       heart."--_Charleston News and Courier._

       "It is precisely the book which ought to have a very wide
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       than to read and lay aside. No common-school library or
       collection of books for young readers should be without
       it."--_The Churchman._

       "These names are in themselves sufficient to guarantee
       adequacy of treatment and interest in the presentation,
       and it is safe to say that such succinct biographies of
       the complete portrait gallery of our Presidents, written
       with such unquestioned ability, have never before been
       published."--_Hartford Courant._

       "Just the sort of book that the American who wishes to fix
       in his mind the varying phases of his country's history as
       it is woven on the warp of the administrations will find
       most useful. Everything is presented in a clear-cut way,
       and no pleasanter excursions into history can be found
       than a study of 'The Presidents of the United
       States.'"--_Philadelphia Press._




=The United States of America.=

_A Study of the American Commonwealth, its Natural Resources, People,
Industries, Manufactures, Commerce, and its Work in Literature, Science,
Education, and Self-Government._

Edited by NATHANIEL S. SHALER, S. D.,

PROFESSOR OF GEOLOGY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY.

=In two volumes, royal 8vo. Maps, and 150 full-page Illustrations.
Cloth, $10.00.=

Every subject in this comprehensive work is timely, because it is of
immediate interest to every American. Special attention, however, may be
called to the account of "American Productive Industry," by the Hon.
Edward Atkinson, with its array of immensely informing diagrams and
tables; and also to "Industry and Finance," a succinct and logical
presentation of the subject by Professor F. W. Taussig, of Harvard
University. Both these eminent authorities deal with questions which are
uppermost to-day.


LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS.

      HON. WILLIAM L. WILSON, Chairman of the Ways and Means
        Committee, Fifty-third Congress.
      HON. J. R. SOLEY, formerly Assistant Secretary of the Navy.
      EDWARD ATKINSON, LL. D., PH. D.
      COL. T. A. DODGE, U. S. A.
      COL. GEORGE E. WARING, JR.
      J. B. McMASTER, Professor of History in the University of
        Pennsylvania.
      CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER, LL. D.
      MAJOR J. W. POWELL, Director of the United States Geological
        Survey and the Bureau of Ethnology.
      WILLIAM T. HARRIS, LL. D., U. S. Commissioner of Education.
      LYMAN ABBOTT, D. D.
      H. H. BANCROFT, author of "Native Races of the Pacific Coast."
      HARRY PRATT JUDSON, Head Dean of the Colleges, Univ. of Chicago.
      JUDGE THOMAS M. COOLEY, formerly Chairman of the Interstate
        Commerce Commission.
      CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.
      D. A. SARGENT, M. D., Director Hemenway Gymnasium, Harvard Univ.
      CHARLES HORTON COOLEY.
      A. E. KENNELLY, Assistant to Thomas A. Edison.
      D. C. GILMAN, LL. D., President of Johns Hopkins University.
      H. G. PROUT, Editor of the Railroad Gazette.
      F. D. MILLET, formerly Vice-Pres. of the National Academy of
        Design.
      F. W. TAUSSIG, Professor of Political Economy in Harvard
        University.
      HENRY VAN BRUNT.
      H. P. FAIRFIELD.
      SAMUEL W. ABBOTT, M. D., Sec. State Board of Health, Massachusetts.
      N. S. SHALER.


       Sold only by subscription. Prospectus, giving detailed
       chapter titles and specimen illustrations, mailed free on
       request.




=THE CONCISE KNOWLEDGE LIBRARY.=

Each, small 8vo, half leather, $2.00.

=The History of the World,=

From the Earliest Historical Time to the Year 1898. By EDGAR SANDERSON,
M. A., author of "A History of the British Empire," etc.


=The Historical Reference-Book.=

Comprising a Chronological Table of Universal History, a Chronological
Dictionary of Universal History, and a Biographical Dictionary. With
Geographical Notes. For the use of Students, Teachers, and Readers. By
LOUIS HEILPRIN. Fifth edition, revised to 1898.


=Natural History.=

By R. LYDEKKER, B. A.; W. F. KIRBY, F. L. S.; B. B. WOODWARD, F. L. S.;
R. KIRKPATRICK; R. I. POCOCK; R. BOWDLER SHARPE, LL. D.; W. GARSTANG, M.
A.; F. A. BATHER, M. A., and H. M. BERNARD, M. A. Nearly 800 pages, and
500 Illustrations drawn especially for this work.


=Astronomy.=

Fully illustrated. By AGNES M. CLERKE, A. FOWLER, F. R. A. S.,
Demonstrator of Astronomical Physics of the Royal College of Science,
and J. ELLARD GORE, F. R. A. S.




THE ROMANCE OF HISTORY.

Peter the Great.

By K. WALISZEWSKI. Translated by Lady Mary Loyd. With Portrait. Small
8vo. Cloth, $2.00.


The Romance of an Empress. Catharine II of Russia.

By K. WALISZEWSKI. Uniform with "Peter the Great." With Portrait. Small
8vo. Cloth, $2.00.


New Letters of Napoleon I.

Omitted from the Collection published under the auspices of Napoleon
III. Edited by M. LÉON LECESTRE, Curator of the French Archives.
Translated by Lady Mary Loyd. With Portrait. Small 8vo. Cloth, $2.00.


       Uniform with the "New Letters."

Memoirs illustrating the History of Napoleon I,

from 1802 to 1815. By Baron CLAUDE FRANÇOIS DE MÉNEVAL, Private
Secretary of Napoleon. Edited by his Grandson, Baron Napoleon Joseph de
Méneval. With Portraits and Autograph Letters. In three volumes. Small
8vo. Cloth, $6.00.


An Aide-de-Camp of Napoleon.

Memoirs of General Count de Ségur, of the French Academy, 1800-1812.
Revised by his Grandson, Count LOUIS DE SÉGUR. With Portrait. Small 8vo.
Cloth, $2.00.


Memoirs of Marshal Oudinot,

Duc de Reggio. Compiled from the Hitherto Unpublished Souvenirs of the
Duchesse de Reggio, by GASTON STIEGLER, and now first translated into
English by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos. With Two Portraits. Small 8vo.
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A Friend of the Queen.

(Marie Antoinette--Count de Fersen.) By PAUL GAULOT. With Two Portraits.
12mo. Cloth, $2.00.




THE LIVES OF ROYALTIES.

The Private Life of the Sultan.

By GEORGES DORYS, son of the late Prince of Samos, a former minister of
the Sultan, and formerly Governor of Crete. Translated by Arthur
Hornblow. Uniform with "The Private Life of King Edward VII."
Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth, $1.20 net; postage, 10 cents additional.

      The high position which the writer's father held at
      Constantinople gave the son a close insight into the
      personality of one of the least known of modern rulers, so
      far as personality is concerned. It is unnecessary to say
      that the author has long since left the domain of the
      Sultan of Turkey, and he is now a member of the Young Turk
      party and a resident of Paris. It is announced that he has
      been recently condemned to death by the Sultan on account
      of this book.


The Private Life of King Edward VII.

By a Member of the Royal Household. Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.

       "While the book gives a narrative that is intimate and
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       interest."--_Brooklyn Eagle._


The Private Life of the Queen.

By a Member of the Royal Household. Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.

       "A singularly attractive picture of Queen Victoria.... The
       interests and occupations that make up the Queen's day,
       and the functions of many of the members of her household,
       are described in a manner calculated to gratify the
       natural desire to know what goes on behind closed doors
       that very few of the world's dignitaries are privileged to
       pass."--_Boston Herald._


The Sovereigns and Courts of Europe.

The Home and Court Life and Characteristics of the Reigning Families. By
"POLITIKOS." With many Portraits. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.

       "The anonymous author of these sketches of the reigning
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       furnishes views of the kings and queens concerned, far
       fuller and more intimate than can be found
       elsewhere."--_New York Tribune._


The Life of his Royal Highness the Prince Consort.

By Sir THEODORE MARTIN. In five volumes, each with Portrait. 12mo.
Cloth, $10.00.

       "A full and impartial biography of a noble and enlightened
       prince.... Mr. Martin's work is not gossipy, not light,
       nor yet dull, guarded in its details of the domestic lives
       of Albert and Victoria, but sufficiently full and familiar
       to contribute much interesting information."--_Chicago
       Tribune._




THE STORY OF THE WEST SERIES.

Edited by RIPLEY HITCHCOCK.

Each, illustrated, 12mo, cloth, $1.50.


The Story of the Soldier.

       By General G. A. FORSYTH, U. S. Army (retired).
       Illustrated by R. F. Zogbaum.

       "A very complete and vivid picture of the development of
       the West from a military point of view, with side lights
       on the civil war."--_The Churchman._


The Story of the Railroad.

       By CY WARMAN, author of "The Express Messenger," etc. With
       Maps and many Illustrations by B. West Clinedinst and from
       photographs.

       "In Mr. Warman's book we are kept constantly reminded of
       the fortitude, the suffering, the enterprise, and the
       endurance of the pioneers."--_The Railroad Gazette._

The Story of the Cowboy.

       By E. HOUGH, author of "The Singing Mouse Stories," etc.
       Illustrated by William L. Wells and C. M. Russell.

       "Mr. Hough is to be thanked for having written so
       excellent a book. The cowboy story, as this author has
       told it, will be the cowboy's fitting eulogy. This volume
       will be consulted in years to come as an authority on past
       conditions of the far West. For fine literary work the
       author is to be highly complimented. Here, certainly, we
       have a choice piece of writing."--_New York Times._

The Story of the Mine.

       As illustrated by the Great Comstock Lode of Nevada. By
       CHARLES HOWARD SHINN.

       "The author has written a book not alone full of
       information, but replete with the true romance of the
       American mine."--_New York Times._


The Story of the Indian.

       By GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL, author of "Pawnee Hero Stories,"
       "Blackfoot Lodge Tales," etc.

       "Only an author qualified by personal experience could
       offer us a profitable study of a race so alien from our
       own as is the Indian in thought, feeling, and culture.
       Only long association with Indians can enable a white man
       measurably to comprehend their thoughts and enter into
       their feelings. Such association has been _Mr.
       Grinnell's."--New York Sun._




STANDARD HISTORICAL WORKS.


The American Revolution, 1763-1783.

Being the Chapters and Passages relating to America, from the Author's
"History of England in the Eighteenth Century." By WILLIAM EDWARD
HARTPOLE LECKY, M. P. Arranged and edited, with Historical and
Biographical Notes, by James Albert Woodburn, Professor of American
History and Politics in Indiana University. 12mo. Cloth, $1.25.


The Rise and Growth of the English Nation.

With Special Reference to Epochs and Crises. A History of and for the
People. By W. H. S. Aubrey, LL. D. In three volumes. 12mo. Cloth, $4.50.

       This work is written in no partisan or sectarian spirit,
       and is not designed to advocate any particular theory of
       politics, of philosophy, or of religion; but it claims to
       be thoroughly patriotic, and is inspired by a love of the
       freedom that springs out of righteousness and justice.


A History of Germany, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day.

By BAYARD TAYLOR. With an additional Chapter by MRS. BAYARD TAYLOR. With
Portrait and Maps. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.

       "When one considers the confused, complicated, and
       sporadic elements of German history, it seems scarcely
       possible to present a clear, continuous narrative. Yet
       this is what Bayard Taylor did. He omitted no episode of
       importance, and yet managed to preserve a main line of
       connection from century to century throughout the
       narrative."--_Philadelphia Ledger._


A French Volunteer of the War of Independence.

By the Chevalier DE PONTGIBAUD. Translated and edited by Robert B.
Douglas. With Introduction and Frontispiece. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.




STANDARD HISTORICAL WORKS.


History of the People of the United States,

From the Revolution to the Civil War. By JOHN BACH MCMASTER. To be
completed in Six Volumes. Vols. I, II, III, IV, and V now ready. 8vo.
Cloth, gilt top, $2.50 each.


The Beginners of a Nation.

By EDWARD EGGLESTON. A History of the Source and Rise of the Earliest
English Settlements in America, with Special Reference to the Life and
Character of the People. The first volume in a History of Life in the
United States. Small 8vo. Gilt top, uncut, with Maps. Cloth, $1.50.


The Transit of Civilization.

From England to America in the Seventeenth Century. By EDWARD EGGLESTON.
Uniform with "The Beginners of a Nation." Small 8vo. Gilt top, uncut.
Cloth, $1.50.


The Household History of the United States and its People.

By EDWARD EGGLESTON. For Young Americans. Richly illustrated with 350
Drawings, 75 Maps, etc. Square 8vo. Cloth, $2.50.


Bancroft's History of the United States,

From the Discovery of the Continent to the Establishment of the
Constitution in 1789. (Also _Edition de Luxe_, on large paper, limited
to one hundred sets, numbered.) Complete in six volumes, with a Portrait
of the Author. 8vo. Cloth, uncut, gilt top, $15.00; half calf or half
morocco, $27.00; tree calf, $50.00.




GREAT COMMANDERS.

Edited by General JAMES GRANT WILSON.

This series forms one of the most notable collections of books that has
been published for many years. The success it has met with since the
first volume was issued, and the widespread attention it has attracted,
indicate that it has satisfactorily fulfilled its purpose, viz., to
provide in a popular form and moderate compass the records of the lives
of men who have been conspicuously eminent in the great conflicts that
established American independence and maintained our national integrity
and unity. Each biography has been written by an author especially well
qualified for the task, and the result is not only a series of
fascinating stories of the lives and deeds of great men, but a rich mine
of valuable information for the student of American history and
biography.

      Each, 12mo, cloth, gilt top, $1.50 net.
      Postage, 11 cents additional,


      NOW READY.

      Admiral Farragut           By Captain A. T. MAHAN, U. S. N.
      General Taylor            By General O. O. HOWARD, U. S. A.
      General Jackson                            By JAMES PARTON.
      General Greene                By General FRANCIS V. GREENE.
      General J. E. Johnston    By ROBERT M. HUGHES, of Virginia.
      General Thomas                      By HENRY COPPEE, LL. D.
      General Scott                  By General MARCUS J. WRIGHT.
      General Washington           By General BRADLEY T. JOHNSON.
      General Lee                        By General FITZHUGH LEE.
      General Hancock               By General FRANCIS A. WALKER.
      General Sheridan                By General HENRY E. DAVIES.
      General Grant                By General JAMES GRANT WILSON.
      General Sherman                By General MANNING F. FORCE.
      Commodore Paul Jones               By CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY.
      General Meade                      By ISAAC R. PENNYPACKER.
      General McClellan               By General PETER S. MICHIE.
      General Forrest                By Captain J. HARVEY MATHES.


      IN PREPARATION.

      Admiral Porter   By JAMES R. SOLEY, late Ass't Sec'y U. S. Navy.
      General Schofield                              An Autobiography.