dispersed, murdered, or gone home-they knew not which. Desolate and friendless indeed was their situation now: hundreds of miles from the habitation of civilized man, almost destitute of clothing and ammunition, surrounded by thousands of cruel and murderous savages; and the wild forests, in which the sound of the axe had never been heard, teeming with wild beasts, which nightly sent up frightful howls to destroy their rest. But BooN never despaired; he kept up his own vigor of body and mind, and reanimated the spirits of his companion. He called all their slender resources into action, husbanded his ammunition and the game which was its product, and was proceeding in that course which only could have preserved their lives and conducted them to their homes, when Providence sent them by other and more direct means a most unexpected deliverance. Boon's brother, either fired with some of his ardor for the wild excitement of the forest, or fearing the result which had actually occurred, set out in company with a friend upon the same route. While DANIEL BOON and his now sole companion, Stuart, were out in pursuit of their daily supply of game, Squire Boon (as our adventurer calls his brother) and his companion accidentally discovered their encampment. The new comers were quietly seated in the shanty, regaling themselves upon the good things which DANIEL and Stuart were so carefully husbanding for the last resort, when the two latter arrived towards night-fall at their camp. What must have been their surprise and delight when they returned to their lone quarters, and found two civilized beings like themselves, well provided in those necessaries the failure of which they had begun to anticipate with so much dread! Joyful indeed was the meeting, and the reader may conceive with what zest their various adventures were related and listened to.

But this restoration to something like the enjoyment of social life, was destined to be again interrupted. John Stuart, the companion of DANIEL BOON in his captivity among the Indians, was soon after slain in an encounter with a small party of one of the numerous hordes inhabiting that wild and unreclaimed country. After this unfortunate occurrence, the companion of Squire Boon became disheartened, and returned home; thus leaving our adventurer once more with a single companion in the wilderness. His situation, however, was now vastly better than it was when the unfortunate Stuart and himself were the sole tenants of the forest. They had now horses and ammunition, and all those necessaries upon which life depends in such a situation. Winter began to make its approach, and the two Boons thought it advisable to construct for themselves a more commodious dwelling,

and one better calculated to protect them from the inclemency of the advancing season. Accordingly they set to work, and built (as DANIEL assures us, in such fragments of his journal as have been preserved) a comfortable cottage. They found plenty of game to subsist on through the winter, and were undisturbed by the savages. But the month of May found the brothers again looking forward, with dread and anxiety, to the exhaustion of their stock of ammunition. With that true wisdom which necessity and suffering always teach, these energetic young men did not wait until the evil day came on, but braced themselves like true heroes to the urgency of the occasion. One of them resolved to return home, and procure those things of which they now stood in need, while the other should await his

return.

On the first of May, 1770, Squire Boon commenced his journey homewards, for the purpose of procuring ammunition, salt, and sugar, leaving DANIEL without any of these necessaries, except a small supply of ball and powder. One would naturally suppose that the remaining brother would have suffered dreadfully from the constant dread of savages, wild beasts, famine, or sickness, in this lone place; but, strange as it may appear, he assures us that he was amply compensated for the want of society, by the glories of nature, so lavishly spread around him,—the magnificent trees just clothing themselves in the green livery of summer, the beautiful flowers, and the wild herds nipping the pasturage on the wide plains extending, like an immense panorama, as far as the eye could reach. It would seem, from this view of his character by his own hand, that the sterner qualities of mind, and the power of enduring bodily fatigue, are not necessarily incompatible with the softer sentiments of the heart.

DANIEL BOON continued in these solitary quarters until the 27th of July, occasionally expending a small portion of his ammunition in killing game.necessary for his sustenance, with such caution as the miser uses in parting with his treasured hoard. The Indians frequently visited his quarters during his absence, as he found by their foot-marks. This induced him, whenever the weather would permit, to secrete himself in the cane-brakes or neighboring bushes, for the purpose of passing the night in greater security. To this precaution he attributed the preservation of his life. On the day just mentioned, his brother returned, provided with an ample supply of those articles which are more valued than gold and silver in these primitive regions. They soon after left the quarters which had so long, and under such

variety of incidents, afforded them shelter, and proceeded on an expedition to the Cumberland river, making observations on the country through which they passed, for future use; and naming the rivers which they were compelled to ford.

In March, 1771, the two adventurers returned to their families on the Yadkin, in North Carolina. The subject of our memoir found his family in happy circumstances, and, as may be well imagined, delighted at the return of him whom they had almost despaired of ever more beholding. He informs us, that he was so charmed with the country of the "Kentucke," that he was determined, at the risk of his life, to remove his family thither. Accordingly, having sold his farm on the Yadkin, and induced five families in the vicinity to join him, they set out on their expedition on the 25th September, 1773. As they journeyed through Powell's Valley, which was then one hundred and fortyfive miles from the settled parts of Virginia, forty hardy sons of the forest joined the adventurous enterprise. They pursued their journey uninterruptedly until the 10th of October, when the rear of the caravan was furiously attacked by a large body of Indians. Our adventurers fought with great bravery, and handled their rifles with their usual unerring precision, and were at length enabled to repulse an enemy greatly superior to them in number, but not without losses in their own ranks. Six men were killed, and one wounded. Among the former was Boon's eldest son, a most daring and impetuous lad, whose death, he assures us, covered the enterprise with gloom and melancholy. During the engagement, the Indians succeeded in scattering their cattle and otherwise injuring their property, so that they were compelled to retreat forty miles to the settlement on Clinch river.

They had passed over two mountains, Powell's and Walden's, and were approaching Cumberland mountain, when this misfortune befel them. These mountains are situated in what was then called the wilderness, between the settlements then existing in Western Virginia, and the place of their destination. These they were now compelled to recross, and the enterprise was abandoned by nearly all those who had engaged in it. Thus was this gallant little band dispersed by the unfortunate rencounter with the savages. Boon remained with his family at the settlements on Clinch river, until the 6th of June, 1774, when he, together with an adventurer by the name of Storer, was engaged by Governor Dunmore, of Virginia, to conduct a number of surveyors to the falls of the Ohio. This was a tour of near eight

hundred miles-performed on foot, and accomplished in sixty-two days.

On his return, Governor Dunmore gave him the command of three garrisons, which he maintained during the war of the period, against the Shawnese.

In March 1775, he was requested by a number of gentlemen of North Carolina to attend at an assemblage of the Cherokee Indians, convened for the purpose of forming a treaty, and purchasing their lands south of the "Kentucke."

He was soon afterwards employed to mark out the most direct route for a road from the settlements in Virginia to the country of his first adventures.

Having collected a number of hardy and enterprising men, well armed, he soon began his work, and proceeded until he came within fifteen miles of where Boonsborough now stands. Here the savages attacked them, killed two, and wounded two more of the adventurers.

On the 5th of March 1775, three days after the rencounter just mentioned, the Indians attacked them again, when two more were killed and three wounded. After these disasters, they pursued their enterprise to the Kentucky river, without further molestation.

On the 1st of April 1775, Boon commenced the erection of a fort, about sixty yards from the river, near one of the salt licks, the very spot upon which Boonsborough now stands.

This rude palisade was finished on the 14th June of the same year, when he returned to the settlements on Clinch river, for the purpose of removing his family to this distant and uncultivated land. They arrived at the fort without any adventure worthy of note. Mrs. Boon and her daughter were the first of their race and sex that ever stood upon the banks of the Kentucky river.

The Indians were much dissatisfied at the erection of this fort, and on the 14th of December 1775, made a desperate assault upon its inmates, by which one man was killed and another wounded. After this repulse, and the great loss sustained on this occasion by the Indians, they treacherously appeared to give up all idea of farther molesting the new settlers. Their seeming resignation to the presence of the intruders was persevered in until the 14th of July 1776, exactly seven months, by which time the inhabitants of the fort were completely thrown off their guard, insomuch that the daughters of the residents made frequent excursions into the forests in the vicinity. On the day above mentioned, three young ladies, two of them daugh

ters of Colonel Calaway, and the third the daughter of Boon, were leisurely strolling through the woods in the immediate neighborhood of the fort, when they were pursued and captured by a party of Indians, before they could make good their retreat within the gates.

On this occasion the treacherous foe had separated into small parties, as agreed on by previous arrangement, and simultaneously attacked all the other forts and settlements, several of which had sprung up during the long season of tranquillity.

Boon was no sooner apprised of the absence of the young ladies, on his return from hunting, than he promptly and without waiting for the coöperation of his friends, pursued the trail, which he easily discovered. He knew perfectly well, that if he waited to collect a large force, the cunning robbers would be entirely out of his reach. By that sagacity for which he was so remarkable, he was enabled to keep on the trail without the least deviation, and at length he discovered that the fair young captives had themselves preserved sufficient presence of mind to indicate the course of their captors, by snapping a small twig from time to time, as they passed through the shrubbery on their route. At length he came in sight of the kidnappers, and after slaying two of the three, recovered the fair prisoners,* by his single, unaided and unerring rifle.

Hostilities were continued from this time until the 15th of April 1777, when a simultaneous attack by the united hordes was made upon Boonsborough. The effective force of the savages amounted to about one hundred; in this engagement the whites had one killed and four wounded. July 14th, they made a second assault with double their former number;-the battle lasted forty-eight hours, during which the besieged again lost one man and another was wounded. This too, it appears, was but a part of another simultaneous movement against all the white settlements, as Colonel Logan's fort and others were attacked at the same time.

About the 25th of July, Boon's settlement received an accession of twenty-five men from North Carolina. The sight of these new adventurers was truly welcome to the inhabitants of the town or fort,

* This, it will appear to the reader, is a very different account of the adventures, from that given in a life of Boon by one of our most distinguished writers. We have followed the account given in Boon's own journal, dictated by himself, and published during his life time. This explanation may also suffice for many similar discrepancies in the two accounts.