river, and now, to bring his family, took his way back to the Yadkin. His vivid accounts of the beauty and fertility of the new country proved so attractive, that five families agreed to join him in founding a settlement. In September, 1773, the little caravan took its departure from the Yadkin, and at Powell's Valley was reinforced by forty more adventurous emigrants, making in all between seventy and eighty people. Their journey had a prosperous commencement, but while descending the second range of the Alleghanies, a party of hostile savages assailed them from an ambush. The foe was easily defeated, but six of the travellers, among them the oldest son of Daniel Boone, had fallen by their deadly arrows; the flocks and herds they had brought, were scattered and lost; and so great was the discouragement, that, in spite of the remonstrances of the Boones, the majority decided to give up the enterprise, and retrace their steps to Clinch river. His grand enterprise thus foiled for the present, Boone, for some years, found employment in surveying, and in negotiation and fighting with the Indians. Early in 1775, at the instance of a Carolina company, under Colonel Henderson, he undertook to lay out a road through the wilderness to the Kentucky river. Five of his men were killed by the savages, and as many wounded, yet he reached the river, and by the 14th of June, completed a small fort on its southern bank. He then returned to Clinch river, and brought his family safely through the forest to the new settlement, the first in Kentucky, which, in honor of its founder, was called Boonesborough. "My wife and daughter," he says, with honest exultation, "were the first white women that ever stood on the banks of Kentucky river." In the ensuing spring, (1776,) Colonel Calloway, an old friend of Boone, moved to the new settlement. An alarming incident soon befell the little community. His two daughters, in company with the daughter of Boone, had gone out for some distance from the fort to gather flowers, when they were seized by a party of savages, lying in ambush, and were hurried into the forest. The distracted parents, with seven companions, hastened in pursuit, and having found the trail, were assisted by shreds of clothing which the girls had contrived to drop on the way. After two days' chase, they came up with the spoilers, twenty in number, and the two parents undertook to rescue their daughters in the darkness, by a surprise. The attempt failed; both were captured, and on the following day were tied to trees by the exultant savages for execution. From this apparently hopeless fate, they were rescued by the sudden arrival of their companions, whose rifles proved fatal to several of the Indians, and dispersed the rest. The captives were recovered, and the whole party returned merrily to Boonesborough. CHAPTER II. THE SETTLEMENT OF KENTUCKY-INDIAN WAR-ATTACKS ON BOONES- CLARKE DISASTROUS CAMPAIGN OF GENERAL HARMAR-DE- IN MISSOURI-HIS OLD AGE AND DEATH. THE daring example of Boone and his companions was soon followed by numbers of resolute men, who erected their fortified cabins, and made their clearings in various parts of Kentucky. But that fertile and beautiful region was not to be rescued from its savage possessors without a fresh and terrible revival of its ancient title: "The dark and bloody ground." Moved by jealousy at the repeated intrusion of the whites, and stimulated by English influence, (for the war of Independence had commenced,) the Indians hovered around these feeble settlements, ever on the alert to surprise stragglers, and to destroy the cattle of the planters. Harrodsburg and Boonesborough were the principal objects of attack. In April, 1777, a party of an hundred savages, armed to the teeth, appeared before the latter settlement, but met such a warm reception from the rifles of its dauntless little garrison, that they retreated with much loss. In July, they came again, two hundred strong, but after two days fighting, were again beaten off, taking their dead, as usual, with them. Repeated attacks of this kind were made upon the various stations, and so active was Boone in this frontier warfare, that the savages, respecting his prowess, gave him, in commemoration of his terrible hunting-blade, the title. of "The Great Long-Knife." On one occasion, beset in the wood by two Indian warriors, he contrived to draw their fire without receiving an injury, and then slew them both, one with his rifle, and the other, in mortal struggle, with his deadly hunting-knife. This scene is represented (none too well) in a bas-relief in the Capitol, at Washington. In February, 1778, while hunting alone in the woods, he fell in with a hundred Shawanese warriors, secretly bound to attack his own fortification. After a desperate chase, he was overtaken and secured; and twenty-seven others, who had been making salt at the Licks, were also captured. Boone was taken to Detroit, where his captors, fully appreciating the value of their prize, refused a great sum offered by the British governor for his liberation. They took him to old Chilicothe, the chief Indian town on the Little Miami, and held a grand council concerning the fate of so illustrious a prisoner. It was finally decided by an old woman, who, having lost a son in battle, adopted the captive, according to her lawful right, in his place, and he was received with the utmost kindness and affection by the whole tribe. In this savage manner he lived a long time, affecting the utmost content, that the Indians might in time. be off their guard. They greatly admired his skill in all manly exercises and in the use of arms; but, he says, "I was careful not to exceed many of them in shooting; for no people are more envious than they in this sport." As yet, he had found no opportunity to make his escape, so closely was he watched; but in the month of June, he was summoned, with the whole tribe, to the council lodge. Here, to his surprise, he found four hundred and fifty warriors, "painted and armed in a fearful manner;" and was informed, with true Indian coolness, that the object of attack was Boonesborough, the residence of his family and friends. He now resolved, at all hazards, to escape or die. For three days, with the rest, he drank the bitter "war-drink," and kept the customary fast. They then set forth, marching stealthily to the devoted settlement. After several days of travel, Boone, taking advantage of the flight of a deer, dashed after it, and was soon lost in the forest. He reached Boonesborough in four days, after travelling in that time near two hundred miles, with hardly a morsel of food, through the wilderness. His wife, he learned, to his great grief, had given him up for lost, and returned to Carolina. The Indians, well knowing that a surprise was now impossible, deferred their attack, and Boone, sallying forth with a small force, made an active demonstration against them. Hardly had he returned, when nearly five hundred warriors appeared before the fort and demanded its surrender. They barely failed in a treacherous scheme to surprise the garrison, under pretence of negotiation; and finding themselves foiled, commenced a furious attack, lasting for nine days, in which every resource of courage, strategy, and savage artifice was exhausted. After losing thirty-seven of their number, they finally gave a yell and departed. "After they were gone," says the old pioneer, "we picked up one hundred and twenty-five pounds weight of bullets, besides what stuck in the logs of our fort, which certainly is a great proof of their industry." The enemy thus repulsed, Boone betook himself to the Yadkin, in search of his wife. During his absence, several important battles took place; and when, in 1780, he returned with his family, to the settlement, all the horrors of an Indian war were raging throughout the frontier. Boone, as a matter of |