CHAPTER IXDANIEL BOONE, THE PIONEER
Atthe time this story opens, Daniel Boone, known to history as the famous hero and pioneer of Kentucky, was about forty years of age. He was tall and well-formed, and had an eye that was as sharp as it was true. He could hit a bird on the wing, or a speeding deer with ease, and there was an old saying that if Boone drew bead on an animal the game was as good as dead.
Daniel Boone was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in 1735. His boyhood days were spent on the farm, and in hunting and fishing, pastimes of which he was passionately fond. He also had a strong “fever” for roaming, and more than once was missing at night, having gone on a tramp miles and miles from home.
When Boone was about thirteen years of age, his family moved to a place called Holman’s Ford, on the Yadkin River, in North Carolina. Here the youth grew to manhood and married the daughter of a neighbor, a sweet and courageousgirl by the name of Rebecca Bryan. It is well to remember that name, for, as Daniel Boone was the pioneer of Kentucky, Mrs. Boone—Rebecca Bryan—was the pioneer woman of that great commonwealth. It took courage on the part of a man to penetrate the wilderness, but it took even more courage on the part of a woman with children to do the same thing.
When Daniel Boone married he still made his home on the Yadkin, but further westward than where his father was located. At first he had a wide range of territory to himself, which was just to his liking, but presently other settlers discovered the richness of this land and came to settle near him.
“We are going to be crowded out, wife,” said he to Mrs. Boone. “From our doorstep I can see the smoke of five other cabins in the valley.” This great hunter loved solitude, and he thought he was being “crowded” even when he could but see his neighbors.
Boone’s thought had often turned to the West—to that vast, mysterious land which lay beyond the Cumberland Mountains—that land which to-day forms the State of Kentucky with its many cities and towns, but which only a hundred and twenty-five years ago was an unbroken wilderness, inhabited by wandering red men and vast herdsof buffalo, deer, and other wild animals. A hundred and twenty-five years! Reader, how quickly our great country has grown to be what it is!
A well-known hunter of that time, John Finley by name, had made a short tour westward, and he brought back with him a wonderful account of what he had seen—the great forests, fertile fields, streams rich with fish, and the large quantities of game. Daniel Boone met this man and talked with him, and from that hour determined to move westward on his own account at the first opportunity.
It was on the first day of May, 1769, that Boone bade farewell to his wife and children, and started out on his explorations. He had with him five companions, all hunters and pioneers like himself, and including the John Finley already mentioned. The party traveled through the mountains and valleys for five weeks, often stopping to hunt and fish on the way, and then reached the Red River, and from a tall cliff looked for the first time on the beautiful plains and woodlands of Kentucky.
“What a grand, what a glorious prospect!” exclaimed Boone.
“It will prove a paradise on earth,” answered one of his companions.
A shelter was erected close to the river, and the whole party went into camp until late in the year,making many tours of discovery to the north, west, and south. On one of these tours Boone and one of his companions were surprised by the Indians and made prisoners. The Indians treated them roughly and threatened them with all sorts of torture. At the end of a week, however, the two captives watched their chance, and escaped. When they got back to their old camp they found it plundered, and the others of the party had gone home.
“We had better go home too,” said Boone’s companion, and they started without delay. On the way they met Squire Boone, Daniel Boone’s brother, and another man. Shortly after this the man who had been a captive with Boone was killed, and the hunter who had come West with Squire Boone returned to his home. This left the two brothers alone.
All winter the two Boones hunted and explored the region, keeping away from all the Indians of that vicinity. When spring came Squire Boone returned home, leaving Daniel alone to the solitude of the great forests.
This was what Daniel Boone really loved, and not a day was lost during the time he was left alone. He explored the territory for miles around, and paddled his way on many a stream. Thus three months passed, and then the brotherreturned with pack horses and a load of much needed provisions and a goodly supply of powder.
With all the time already spent in this vast wilderness, Daniel Boone was not yet satisfied to go back to his home on the Yadkin, and it was not until March, 1771, that he and his brother retraced their steps to civilization. In that time they had gained a wonderful insight into the country, and could now speak with authority of its formation and worth. They were familiar with every trail worth knowing, and could tell true stories of the richness of the soil.
But in those days things moved rather slowly, and it took two years to bring a number of the settlers up to the point of moving westward with their belongings. It was the end of September, 1773, that Daniel Boone and his brother, Squire Boone, with their families, moved to a place called Powell’s Valley. Here they were joined by five other families and forty men.
It was a hopeful beginning of the great work of settling the West, but it came to a speedy and disastrous termination. The pioneers had been but two weeks on the march when a band of Indians fell upon some of the young men who had gone out to round up the cattle. The fight was short and sharp, and six of the young men, includingDaniel Boone’s oldest son, a lad of seventeen, were killed.
This was a great shock to the other members of the expedition, and despite the earnest protestations of Daniel and Squire Boone, it was decided to turn back.
“We can do nothing against the redskins,” said one timid hunter. “They will turn in some dark night and massacre the whole of us.”
But though this expedition turned back, the disaster did not dim the fame of Daniel Boone. He was known far and wide as Colonel Boone, the discoverer of Kentucky, and this fame reached even to the courts of Virginia, and he was often consulted regarding this “promised land” which he had explored. He was sent out at one time to assist a number of surveyors, and at another to open negotiations with the Indians, and his work in these directions served to increase his fame materially.
It was in the autumn of 1774 that a treaty was made with the Cherokee Indians by which all the land between the Cumberland and Kentucky Rivers passed into the control of a body known as the Transylvania Company. Immediately steps were taken to survey the territory, and to establish a trail which might be used by prospective settlers. It was a difficult task, and it fell to thelot of Daniel Boone to lead the way from a settlement on the Holston to the Kentucky River.
The Indians had been willing to negotiate the sale of the land, but when they saw an actual road being made through their beloved country they grew enraged, and soon there was a skirmish, in which two of Boone’s party fell, and he narrowly escaped death. But the expedition stood its ground, until it reached the site of the present village of Boonesborough, located about eighteen miles southeast of the city of Lexington. Here no time was lost in building a fort, and in making other defenses against the red men.
As soon as the stronghold was complete, Daniel Boone went back to the East and brought on his wife and children, and they were speedily joined by several other families. Then other settlements besides that of Boonesborough began to appear, and it was then that Peter Parsons went westward to see for himself if this “land of plenty” of which he had heard so much was really as good as pictured.
Mr. Parsons was delighted, both with the aspect of the country and with the kind-heartedness of Colonel Boone and the other hunters and pioneers that he met, and it did not take him long to reach the conclusion that a home here, if once the Indians could be brought to submission,would be most desirable. He was naturally a man who wanted freedom, and the troubles in the eastern settlements, where the discontentment that led to the Revolution was already in evidence, were exceedingly distasteful to him.
As soon as Mr. Parsons had sent for his family and that of Ezra Winship to come on, he set about clearing some of the land of the sites he had selected. He was hard at work one day felling some trees when an unexpected wind came along and knocked a tree over on him, hurting his leg. He was carried into the fort, and there he lay for several weeks while the hurt member grew better.
“It is too bad,” said he to Daniel Boone. “I was going out to meet my family and the others that are expected here. I have heard that the Indians are growing ugly again, and I am afraid that they will encounter trouble.”
“You must not think of standing on that hurt leg yet,” answered Colonel Boone. “I am going out myself, in company with Jerry Wright and several others of our best marksmen. We shall do our best to bring your family and the others to this fort in safety.”
“Thank you, Colonel,” answered Peter Parsons. “If you’ll do that I will rest content. When do you calculate to start?”
“Early to-morrow morning.”
Daniel Boone was as good as his word, and the party of five was several miles away from the fort by the time the sun rose. Each man was mounted on a good horse, and the only stop made that day was for the midday meal, and to feed and water the steeds.
For several days nothing out of the usual occurred excepting that they found the remains of several Indian camp-fires, which showed that the red men were in that vicinity in force.
“Perhaps they are gathering to attack the party under this Ezra Winship,” said Jerry Wright, who had been a great friend of Boone’s son—the one who had been killed—and who was well liked by the great hunter himself.
“I trust not, Jerry,” replied Daniel Boone. “We want no more massacres here.”
It was then that the great rainstorm came on, and during this Jerry Wright’s horse ran away from him. The young hunter went after the steed, and in the darkness became separated from his companions. His trail was discovered by some Indians, and before he could recover his horse he was discovered and the Indians set upon him with fierce shouts. He tried to defend himself, but was wounded, and then the red men made him their captive.
Jerry Wright fully expected death at the hands of his enemies, but it did not come, and watching his chance, he escaped from the Indians and ran for the river. Here he swam out to a floating tree and crawled on top; and it was from this position of peril that Harry rescued him, as already described in the last chapter.