DANIEL BOONE
You remember that when the Last French War began, in 1756, the English
colonists lived almost entirely east of the Alleghany Mountains. If you
will look at your map, you will see how small a part of our present great
country they occupied.
Even up to the beginning of the Revolution the Americans had few settlers
west of the Alleghanies, and had done very little there to make good their
claims to land.
Yet at the close of the war we find that their western boundary-line had
been pushed back as far as the Mississippi River. How this was done we
shall see if we turn our attention to those early hunters and backwoodsmen
who did great service to our country as pioneers in opening up new lands.
One of the most famous of these was Daniel Boone. He was born in
Pennsylvania, and, like many of the heroes of the Revolution, he was born
in the "thirties" (1735).
As a boy, Daniel liked to wander in the woods with musket and fishing-rod,
and was never so happy as when alone in the wild forest. The story is told
that while a mere lad he wandered one day into the woods some distance
from home and built himself a rough shelter of logs, where he would spend
days at a time, with only his rifle for company.
[Illustration: Daniel Boone.]
As he was a "good shot," we may be sure he never went hungry for lack of
food. The game which his rifle brought down he would cook over a pile of
burning sticks. If you have done outdoor camp cooking, you can almost
taste its woodland flavor. Then at night as he lay under the star-lit sky
on a bed of leaves, with the skin of a wild animal for covering, a prince
might have envied his dreamless slumber.
This free, wild life made him thoroughly at home in the forests, and
trained him for the work he was to do later as a fearless hunter and
woodsman.
When Daniel was about thirteen years old his father removed to North
Carolina and settled on the Yadkin River. There the boy grew to manhood.
After his marriage, at twenty, he built himself a hut far out in the
lonely forest, beyond the homes of the other settlers.
But he was a restless man and looked with longing toward the rugged
mountains on the west. Along the foothills other pioneer settlers and
hunters had taken up their abode. And young Boone's imagination leaped to
the country beyond the mountains, where the forest stretched for miles
upon miles, no one knew how far, to the Mississippi River. It was an
immense wilderness teeming with game, and he wanted to hunt and explore in
it.
He was twenty-five when he made the first "long hunt" we know about. At
this time he went as far as what is now Boone's Creek, in eastern
Tennessee.
Other trips doubtless he made which increased his love for wandering; and
in 1769, nine years after his first trip, having heard from a stray Indian
of a wonderful hunting-ground far to the west, he started out with this
Indian and four other men to wander through the wilderness of Kentucky.
For five weeks these bold hunters threaded their way through lonely and
pathless mountain forests, facing many dangers from wild beasts and
Indians.
BOONE GOES TO KENTUCKY
But when, in June, they reached the blue-grass region of Kentucky, a
beautiful land of stretching prairies, lofty forests, and running streams,
they felt well repaid for all the hardships of their long journey. It was
indeed as the Indian had said, alive with game. Buffaloes, wolves, bears,
elk, deer, and wild beasts of many kinds abounded, making truly a hunter's
paradise.
They at once put up a log shelter, and for six months they hunted to their
hearts' content. Then one day two of the party, Boone himself and a man
named Stewart, while off on a hunting expedition, were captured by an
Indian band. For several days the dusky warriors carefully guarded the two
white captives. But on the seventh night, having eaten greedily of game
they had killed during the day, they fell into a sound sleep.
[Illustration: Boone's Escape from the Indians.]
Then Boone, who had been watching for this chance, arose quietly from his
place among the sleeping Indians and gently wakened Stewart. The two crept
stealthily away until out of hearing of the Indians, when, rising to their
feet, they bounded off like deer through the dark woods to their own camp.
But they found no one there, for the rest of the party had fled back home.
However, Boone and Stewart stayed on, and some weeks later they were
pleasantly surprised when Daniel's brother, Squire Boone, also a woodsman,
unexpectedly arrived with another man and joined the camp. The four were
quite contented, living and hunting together, until one day Stewart was
shot by an Indian and killed. His death so frightened the man who had come
over the mountains with Squire Boone, that the woods lost their charm for
the poor fellow and he went back home.
So only the two brothers were left. They remained together three months
longer in a little cabin in the forest. Then, as their powder and lead
were getting low, Squire Boone returned to North Carolina for a fresh
supply, leaving his brother to hold the hunting-ground.
Now Boone was left all alone. His life was continually in danger from the
Indians. For fear of being surprised, he dared not sleep in camp, but hid
himself at night in the cane-brake or thick underbrush, not even kindling
a fire lest he should attract the Indians.
During these weeks of waiting for his brother, he led a very lonely life.
In all that time he did not speak to a single human being, nor had he even
a dog, cat, or horse for company. Without salt, sugar, or flour, his sole
food was the game he shot or caught in traps.
How gladly he must have welcomed his brother, who returned at the end of
two months, bringing the needed supplies! Other hunters also came from
time to time, and Boone joined one party of them for a while.
After two years of his life in the woods he returned to his home on the
Yadkin to bring out his wife and children.
By September, 1773, he had sold his farm and was ready with his family to
go and settle in Kentucky. He had praised the new land so much that many
others wished to go with him. So when he started there were, besides his
wife and children, five families and forty men driving their horses and
cattle before them. This group was the first to attempt settlement far out
in the wilderness, away from the other settlers.
But while still on its way, the little company was set upon by a band of
Indians near a narrow and difficult pass in the mountains. Six men were
killed, among them Boone's eldest son, and the cattle were scattered. This
misfortune brought such gloom upon the party that all turned back for a
time to a settlement on the Clinch River.
But Daniel Boone was one of those who would not give up. He said of
himself that he was "ordained of God to settle the wilderness," and in the
end he carried out his unflinching purpose to make his home in the
beautiful Kentucky region.
This region had already become well known by report east of the mountains.
The Indians called it "a dark and bloody ground," for, as an old chief
told Boone, many tribes hunted and fought there, and the Indians had
roamed over it for hundreds of years.
But none of the tribes really owned the land. So it was not possible to
buy any part of it outright. Yet, to avoid strife, a friend of Boone's,
Richard Henderson, and a few others made treaties with the most powerful
tribe, the Cherokees, who said that they might settle there.
As soon as it became certain that the Indians would not make trouble,
Henderson sent Boone, in charge of thirty men, to open a pathway from the
Holston River through Cumberland Gap to the Kentucky River.
With their axes the men chopped out a path through the dense undergrowth
and cane-brakes broad enough for a pack-horse. You will be interested to
know that this bridle-path was the beginning of the famous "Wilderness
Road," as it is still called. Later the narrow trail was widened into a
highway for wagons, and it was along this way, rightly called a
"wilderness road," that in later years so many thousand settlers led their
pack-trains over the mountains into Kentucky and Tennessee.
But that is taking a long look ahead! Just now we are thinking about the
very first of these settlers, Daniel Boone and his company.
THE KENTUCKY SETTLERS AT BOONESBOROUGH
When they reached the Kentucky River, Boone and his followers built a fort
on the left bank of the stream and called it Boonesborough. Its four walls
consisted in part of the outer sides of log cabins, and in part of a
stockade, some twelve feet high, made by setting deep into the ground
stout posts with pointed tops. In all the cabins there were loopholes
through which to shoot, and at each corner of the fort stood a loophole
blockhouse. There were also two strong wooden gates on opposite sides of
the fort.
[Illustration: Boonesborough.]
After the fort was built, Boone went back to the Clinch River and brought
on his wife and children. When they settled, it was springtime, and
Kentucky was at its best. Trees were in leaf, the beautiful dogwood was in
flower, and the woods were fragrant with the blossoms of May. Do you
wonder that they loved their new home?
At first the cattle and horses were always driven into the fort at night.
Later, however, every settler had a cabin in his own clearing, where he
lived with his family and took care of his own stock. But even then in
time of great danger all went to the fort, driving their animals inside
its walls. This fort, with the outlying cabins, made the first permanent
settlement in Kentucky.
Boone was a man you would have liked to know. Even the Indians admired
him. He was tall and slender, with muscles of iron, and so healthy and
strong that he could endure great hardship. Though quiet and serious, his
courage never shrank in the face of danger, and men believed in him
because he believed in himself, while at the same time his kind heart and
tender sympathy won him lasting friendships. These vigorous and sterling
qualities commanded respect everywhere.
As a rule he wore the Indian garb of fur cap, fringed hunting-shirt,
moccasins and leggings, all made from the skins of wild animals he had
taken. This dress best suited the wilderness life.
Of course, this life in a new country would not be without its exciting
adventures. One day, some months after Boone's family had come to
Boonesborough, Boone's daughter, with two girl friends, was on the river
floating in a boat near the bank. Suddenly five Indians darted out of the
woods, seized the three girls, and hurried away with them. In their flight
the Indians observed the eldest of the girls breaking twigs and dropping
them in their trail. They threatened to tomahawk her unless she stopped
it. But, watching her chance, from time to time she tore off strips of her
dress and dropped them as a clew for those she knew would come to rescue
them.
When the capture became known, Boone, accompanied by the three lovers of
the captured maidens and four other men from the fort, started upon the
trail and kept up the pursuit until, early on the second morning, they
discovered the Indians sitting around a fire cooking breakfast. Suddenly
the white men fired a volley, killing two of the Indians and frightening
the others so badly that they beat a hasty retreat without harming the
girls.
Another exciting experience, which nearly caused the settlement to lose
its leader, came about through the settlers' need of salt. We can get salt
so easily that it is hard to imagine the difficulty which those settlers,
living far back from the ocean, had in obtaining this necessary part of
their food. They had to go to "salt-licks," as they called the grounds
about the salt-water springs. The men would get the salt water from the
springs and boil it until all the water evaporated and left the salt
behind.
Boone with twenty-nine other men had gone, early in 1778, to the Blue
Licks to make salt for the settlement. They were so successful that in a
few weeks they were able to send back a load so large that it took three
men to carry it. Hardly had they started, however, when the men remaining,
including Boone, were surprised by eighty or ninety Indians, captured, and
carried off to the English at Detroit.
For we must not forget that all this time, while we have been following
Boone's fortunes west of the Alleghanies, on the east side of those
mountains the Revolution was being fought, and the Indians west of the
Alleghanies were fighting on the English side. They received a sum of
money for handing over to the English at Detroit any Americans they might
capture, and that is why the Indians took Boone and his companions to that
place.
But, strangely enough, the Indians decided not to give Boone up, although
the English, realizing that he was a prize, offered five hundred dollars
for him. The Indians admired him because he was a mighty hunter, and they
liked him because he was cheerful. So they adopted him into the tribe and
took him to their home.
Boone remained with them two months, making the best of the life he had to
lead. But when he overheard the Indians planning to make an attack upon
Boonesborough, he made up his mind to escape if possible and give his
friends warning.
His own words tell the brave story in a simple way: "On the 16th of June,
before sunrise, I departed in the most secret manner, and arrived in
Boonesborough on the 20th, after a journey of one hundred and sixty miles,
during which I had but one meal." He could not get any food, for he dared
not use his gun nor build a fire for fear his foes might find out where he
was. He reached the fort in safety, and was of great service in beating
off the attacking party. This is only one of the many narrow escapes of
this fearless backwoodsman.
Another incident illustrates his quick wit. One day, while he was in a
shed looking after some tobacco, four Indians with loaded guns appeared at
the door. They said: "Now, Boone, we got you. You no get away any more.
You no cheat us any more." While they were speaking Boone had gathered up
in his arms a number of dry tobacco leaves. Rubbing them to dust, he
suddenly flung it into the faces of the Indians, filling their eyes and
nostrils. Then, while they were coughing, sneezing, and rubbing their
eyes, he escaped.
[Illustration: Boone Throwing Tobacco into the Eyes of the Indians Who Had
Come to Capture Him.]
These are but a few of Boone's dangerous adventures. From them all he came
out safe and for years continued to be the able leader of the settlers at
Boonesborough.
There he remained until after Kentucky was admitted as a State into the
Union (1791). Four years later he moved still farther west, led on by love
for the wild, lonely life of the forest, a life which never lost its charm
for him, even down to his last days.
He died in 1820, eighty-five years old, his long life covering a period of
very great change in the growth of our country. By that time we had become
a nation with broadly expanded boundaries.
It has been said that but for Daniel Boone the settlement of Kentucky
could not have been made for several years. However this may be, we know
that he was one of those fearless and daring men whose courage helped to
establish that part of our country long known as "the West."
SOME THINGS TO THINK ABOUT
1. What kind of boyhood had Daniel Boone?
2. Imagine yourself to have been in his place during the weeks when he was
alone in the Kentucky forests; give an account of what happened.
3. Tell about his second capture by the Indians and his escape. Why did
they admire him?
4. What did he do for Kentucky? What kind of man was he?