Scarcity of salt at Boonesborough--Boone goes to Blue Licks to make
salt, and is captured by the Indians--Taken to Chillicothe--Affects
contentment, and deceives the Indians--Taken to Detroit--Kindess of
the British officers to him--Returns to Chillicothe--Adopted into
an Indian family--Ceremonies of adoption--Boone sees a large force
of Indians destined to attack Boonesborough--Escapes, and gives the
alarm, and strengthens the fortifications at Boonesborough--News
of delay by the Indians on account of Boone's escape--Boone goes
on an expedition to the Scioto--Has a fight with a party of
Indians--Returns to Boonesborough, which is immediately besieged
by Captain Duquesne with five hundred Indians--Summons to
surrender--Time gained--Attack commenced--Brave defense--Mines and
countermines--Siege raised--Boone brings his family once more back
to Boonesborough, and resumes farming.
While George Rogers Clark was engaged in his campaign against the
British posts in the northwest, Daniel Boone was a prisoner among the
Indians. The people at Boonesborough were suffering for want of salt.
It could not be obtained conveniently from the Atlantic Colonies, but it
could be manufactured at a place called the Blue Licks, from salt water,
which abounded there.
In January, 1778, accompanied by thirty men, Boone went to the Blue
Licks to make salt for the different Stations; and on the 7th of
February following, while out hunting, he fell in with one hundred
and two Indian warriors, on their march to attack Boonesborough. He
instantly fled, but being upward of fifty years old, he was unable to
outstrip the fleet young men who pursued him, and was a second time
taken prisoner. As usual, he was treated with kindness until his final
fate should be determined, and was led back to the Licks, where his
party were still encamped. Here Boone surrendered his whole party, to
the number of twenty-seven, upon a promise on the part of the Indians
of life and good treatment, both of which conditions were faithfully
observed. This step was apparently unnecessary; but the result showed
that it was a master-stroke of policy on Boone's part. He knew the
nature of the Indians, and foresaw that they would forthwith return
home with their prisoners, and thus save Boonesborough from attack.
Had the Indians gone on to that place, by showing their prisoners
and threatening to put them to the torture, they might have obtained
important results. But they did nothing of the kind. As Boone had
calculated, they went home with their prisoners and booty.
Captain Boone has been censured for the surrender of his men, which
he made at his own capture, and at a subsequent period was tried by
court-martial and acquitted. This was a just decision. The surrender
caused the Indians to return home with their prisoners instead of
attacking Boonesborough, which would almost certainly have been taken
and destroyed if this surrender had not been made.
Elated with their unexpected success, the Indians now returned at once
to old Chilicothe, the principal town of the Shawnees, on the Little
Miami, treating their prisoners, during a march of three days in very
cold and inclement weather, as well as they fared themselves, as
regarded fire and provisions. Boone and his companions were kept in
captivity by the Indians, and closely watched for several weeks, when
the old pioneer and ten of his men were conducted to Detroit, then a
British garrison, and all but Boone presented to the commandant, by whom
they were all well treated. For the old pioneer himself, the Indians had
conceived a particular liking; and they stubbornly refused to give him
up, though several gentlemen of Detroit were very anxious they should
leave him, and the commandant offered to ransom him by a liberal sum.
He was therefore compelled to accompany them back to Chillicothe, their
town on the Little Miami, which they reached after a march of fifteen
days.
Boone was now formally adopted as a son in one of the Indian families.
"The forms of the ceremony of adoption," says Mr. Peck,[36] "were often
severe and ludicrous. The hair of the head is plucked out by a painful
and tedious operation, leaving a tuft, some three or four inches in
diameter, on the crown, for the scalp-lock, which is cut and dressed up
with ribbons and feathers. The candidate is then taken into the river in
a state of nudity, and there thoroughly washed and rubbed, 'to take all
his white blood out.' This ablution is usually performed by females. He
is then taken to the council-house, where the chief makes a speech, in
which he expatiates upon the distinguished honors conferred on him. His
head and face are painted in the most approved and fashionable style,
and the ceremony is concluded with a grand feast and smoking."
After undergoing after this fashion what was not inaptly termed the
Indian toilette, Boone was considered a regular member of the tribe, and
by judiciously accommodating himself to his new condition, he rapidly
won upon the regards of the Indians, and soon secured their confidence.
They challenged him to a trial of skill at their shooting-matches--in
which he took care not to excel them--invited him to accompany them on
their hunting excursions, bestowed particular notice upon him in various
ways, and always treated him with much consideration. As regarded merely
his physical comfort, Boone's situation was, at this time, rather
enviable than otherwise; but he felt a depressing anxiety with regard
to his wife and children, and doubted the safety and prosperity of the
Station, without his own watchfulness and superintendence. He therefore
determined to escape from his captors at the earliest possible period,
and very impatiently waited an opportunity for accomplishing this
purpose.
Early in June, a party of Indians went to the Scioto Licks to make
salt. Boone was taken with them, but kept so constantly employed at
the kettles, that he found no chance of escaping. Having sufficiently
supplied themselves with the desired article, the party returned; and
at the Chillicothe town, Boone found four hundred and fifty Indian
warriors, armed well and painted in a most frightful manner, ready to
march against Boonesborough: this was on the fifteenth or sixteenth of
the month.
Boone now saw the absolute necessity of escaping at once, and determined
to make the attempt without delay. He rose at the usual time the next
morning, and went out upon a hunt. His object was to give his wary
masters the slip, in such a manner as would be least likely to excite
their suspicions, and be the longest in determining them upon a pursuit.
No sooner was he at such a distance from the town as would prevent
observations of his movements, than he struck out rapidly in the
direction of Boonesborough. So great was his anxiety, that he stopped
not to kill any thing to eat; but performed his journey--a distance of
one hundred and sixty miles--in less than five days, upon one meal,
which, before starting, he had concealed in his basket. On arriving at
Boonesborough, he found the fort, as he feared he should, in a bad state
for defense; but his activity soon strengthened it, and his courage at
once reinspired the sinking hearts of the garrison. Every thing was
immediately put in proper condition for a vigorous defense, and all
became impatient for intelligence of the movements of the enemy.
A few days after Boone's escape from the Indians, one of his
fellow-prisoners succeeded likewise in eluding their vigilance, and
made his way safely and expeditiously to Boonesborough. This man arrived
at the Station at a time when the garrison were hourly expecting the
appearance of the enemy, and reported that, on account of Boone's
elopement, the Indians had postponed their meditated invasion of the
settled regions for three weeks.[37] It was discovered, however, that
they had their spies in the country, watching the movements of the
different garrisons; and this rendered the settlers wary and active, and
gave all the Stations time and opportunity to strengthen themselves, and
make every preparation for a powerful resistance of what, they could not
but believe, was to be a long and great effort to drive them from the
land, and utterly destroy their habitations.
Week passed after week, but no enemy appeared. The state of anxiety and
watchfulness in which the garrison at Boonesborough had, for so long a
time, been kept, was becoming irksome, and the men were beginning to
relax in their vigilance. This Boone observed, and it determined him to
undertake an expedition, which he had been probably meditating for some
time. On the 1st of August, therefore, with a company of nineteen of
the brave spirits by whom he was surrounded, he left the fort with the
intention of marching against and surprising one of the Indian towns on
the Scioto. He advanced rapidly, but with great caution, and had reached
a point within four or five miles of the town destined to taste of his
vengeance, when he met its warriors, thirty in number, on their way to
join the main Indian force, then on its march toward Boonesborough.
An action immediately commenced, which terminated in the flight of the
Indians, who lost one man and had two others wounded.
Boone received no injury, but took three horses, and all the "plunder"
of the war party. He then dispatched two spies to the Indian town, who
returned with the intelligence that it was evacuated. On the receipt of
this information, he started for Boonesborough with all possible haste
hoping to reach the Station before the enemy, that he might give warning
of their approach, and strengthen its numbers. He passed the main body
of the Indians on the sixth day of his march, and on the seventh reached
Boonesborough.
On the eighth day, the enemy's force marched up, with British colors
flying, and invested the place. The Indian army was commanded by Captain
Duquesne, with eleven other Canadian Frenchmen and several distinguished
chiefs, and was the most formidable force which had yet invaded the
settlements. The commander summoned the garrison to surrender "in the
name of his Britannic Majesty."
Boone and his men, perilous as was their situation, received the
summons without apparent alarm, and requested a couple of days for
the consideration of what should be done. This was granted; and Boone
summoned his brave companions to council: _but fifty men appeared_!
Yet these fifty, after a due consideration of the terms of capitulation
proposed, and with the knowledge that they were surrounded by savage and
remorseless enemies to the number of about _five hundred_, determined,
unanimously, to "_defend the fort as long as a man of them lived!_"
The two days having expired, Boone announced this determination from one
of the bastions, and thanked the British commander for the notice given
of his intended attack, and the time allowed the garrison for preparing
to defend the Station. This reply to his summons was entirely unexpected
by Duquesne, and he heard it with evident disappointment. Other terms
were immediately proposed by him, which "sounded so gratefully in the
ears" of the garrison that Boone agreed to treat; and, with eight of
his companions, left the fort for this purpose. It was soon manifest,
however, by the conduct of the Indians, that a snare had been laid
for them; and escaping from their wily foes by a sudden effort, they
re-entered the palisades, closed the gates, and betook themselves to
the bastions.
A hot attack upon the fort now instantly commenced; but the fire of the
Indians was returned from the garrison with such unexpected briskness
and fatal precision that the besiegers were compelled to fall back.
They then sheltered themselves behind the nearest trees and stumps, and
continued the attack with more caution. Losing a number of men himself,
and perceiving no falling off in the strength or the marksmanship of
the garrison, Duquesne resorted to an expedient which promised greater
success.
The fort stood upon the bank of the river, about sixty yards from its
margin; and the purpose of the commander of the Indians was to undermine
this, and blow up the garrison. Duquesne was pushing the mine under the
fort with energy when his operations were discovered by the besieged.
The miners precipitated the earth which they excavated into the river;
and Boone, perceiving that the water was muddy below the fort, while it
was clear above, instantly divined the cause, and at once ordered a deep
trench to be cut inside the fort, to counteract the work of the enemy.
As the earth was dug up, it was thrown over the wall of the fort, in the
face of the besieging commander. Duquesne was thus informed that his
design had been discovered; and being convinced of the futility of any
further attempts of that kind he discontinued his mining operations, and
once more renewed the attack upon the Station in the manner of a regular
Indian siege. His success, however, was no better than it had been
before; the loss appeared to be all upon his side; his stock of
provisions was nearly exhausted; having for nine days tried the bravery
of his savage force, and tasked his own ingenuity to its utmost, he
raised the siege, and abandoned the grand object of the expedition.
During this siege, "the most formidable," says Mr. Marshall, "that had
ever taken place in Kentucky from the number of Indians, the skill of
the commanders, and the fierce countenances and savage dispositions of
the warriors," only two men belonging to the Station were killed, and
four others wounded.
Duquesne lost thirty-seven men, and had many wounded, who, according to
the invariable usage of the Indians, were immediately borne from the
scene of action.
Boonesborough was never again disturbed by any formidable body of
Indians. New Stations were springing up every year between it and the
Ohio River, and to pass beyond these for the purpose of striking a blow
at an older and stronger enemy, was a piece of folly of which the
Indians were never known to be guilty.
During Boone's captivity among the Shawnees, his family, supposing that
he had been killed, had left the Station and returned to their relatives
and friends in North Carolina; and as early in the autumn as he could
well leave, the brave and hardy warrior started to move them out again
to Kentucky. He returned to the settlement with them early the next
summer, and set a good example to his companions by industriously
cultivating his farm, and volunteering his assistance, whenever it
seemed needed, to the many immigrants who were now pouring into the
country, and erecting new Stations in the neighborhood of Boonesborough.
He was a good as well as a great man in his sphere, says Mr. Gallagher,
(our chief authority for the foregoing incidents); and for his many and
important services in the early settlements of Kentucky, he well
deserved the title of Patriarch which was bestowed upon him during his
life, and all the praises that have been sung to his memory since his
death.[38]
[Footnote 36: "Life of Daniel Boone."]
[Footnote 37: Gallagher.]
[Footnote 38: W.D. Gallagher, in "Hesperian."]