John Stewart and three others, took their departure amid the lamentations of their families and neighbors, who looked on them as men going to certain destruction. They kept a northwesterly direction, subsisting on the abundant game which they found in the woods, and ever on the alert against a surprise by the savages. At last, after many a weary day of travel, from the summit of Cumberland mountain, they gained their first view of that beautiful region, the destined inheritance of their children. They descended the western slope, and entered on a green and fertile plain. A vast drove of buffaloes soon delighted their eyes, and, with no ordinary exultation, they sat down to their first supper of this noble game. By the 7th of June, they reached Red River, where Finley had traded with the Indians, and there, constructing a substantial log-cabin, they made a permanent encampment. Boone was in ecstasy at the noble variety and plenty of the chase. "We found every where," he says,* "abundance of wild beasts of all sorts, through this vast forest. The buffalo were more frequent than I have seen cattle in the settlements, browsing on the leaves of the cane, or cropping the herbage of those extensive plains, fearless, because ignorant of the violence of man. In this forest, the habitation of beasts of every kind natural to America, we practised hunting with great success until the 22d day of December following." On that day, Boone and Stewart started on an exploring excursion, and, just as night came on, stood on a hill by the Kentucky river, surveying the country. As they descended, a party of Indians, ambushed in a cane-brake, sprang on them with such suddenness, that flight or resistance was impossible. They were taken prisoners, and for seven days were marched with their savage captors, uncertain of their fate. At the end of that time, by * A brief narrative of his early adventures exists, said to have been written by himself, not long after the settlement of Kentucky, but more probably at his dictation, by the pen of another. The style is occasionally too high-flown and bookish, to have come direct from the simple mind of an unlettered hunter and backwoodsman. extraordinary artifice and caution, they contrived to escape, and betook themselves to their camp; but it was stripped and deserted. To their great joy, that very evening two men, Squire Boone (a brother of Daniel) and another, arrived at the cabin from Carolina. The four companions, in this solitary region, continued their hunting until Stewart was slain by the Indians. The other man then returned to North Carolina, and the two Boones were left together in the wilderness. They continued their old sports, with little apprehension, not seeing an Indian through the entire winter. On the 1st of May, 1770, Squire Boone started for the settlements, to bring back horses and a supply of ammunition, and left Daniel at the little dwelling, in perfect loneliness. Even the dog followed his brother at his departure. For the sake of security from the Indians, he now changed his encampment every night, never sleeping twice in the same place. They often, as he supposed, made visits to his cabin, but fortunately always in his absence. Despite the loneliness and the deadly peril of his situation, he appears to have been cheerful and free from the anxiety of fear. "It was my happiness," he says, "to be destitute of this afflicting passion, with which I had the greatest reason to be affected. The prowling wolves diverted my nocturnal hours with perpetual howlings; and the various species of animals, in this vast forest, in the day-time, were continually in my view." He was once pursued for a long time by a party of savages, but finally, by his speed and adroitness, threw them off the trail. In this manner, encountering a variety of strange adventures, he lived in the woods and cane-brakes for three months, until the return of his brother, who brought with him two horses, heavily laden with ammunition and supplies. During the succeeding autumn and winter, they busied themselves in surveying the country; and at last, in March, 1771, started on their return. Boone, after an almost solitary residence of two years in the wilder ness, had finally selected a site for his home on the Kentucky |