1^ j^MoiJ^ BoVSei^e^ Vi^; ^ m% J7 '-'^/^yy^ 'fA. J of tl|P Hmtirrfiita of Nnrtlj (Earnlina aifllUrtt0ti 0f Nnrtly CUarcliulana of tlipCClasa of IBBH CB B724bol UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 00032193956 This book must not be taken from the Library building. THE BORDER BOY HOW HE BECAME THE GREAT PIONEER OF THE WEST LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE BY W. H. BOGART ILLUSTRATED BOSTON LEE AND SHEPARD, rUBLISHERS KEW YORK CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM CoPYlilGHT, 1884, By lee and SHEPARD. All rights reserved. The Border Boy, PREFACE. 1kterwv'>ven with the history of the entrance of the Great West into the family of civilized nations, is the career of Daniel Boone. It has been the obiect of the compiler of this volume to present the narrative of that career in fidelity, and in such light as would rescue the memory of this great man from the common judgment passed upon him, of being only an Indian fighter and a bold hunter. To Daniel Boone, the Great Pioneer of the West — having ever a purpose and a destiny before him — this volume in- vites the reader. The compiler has been greatly aided by the admirable work of Mr. Peck — so accurate and impartial — preserved n the collection of American Biographies by Jared Sparks; by McClung's Sketches of Western Adventure ; by the ex jellent local Histories of Kentucky, collated with such indus try and care by Mr. Lewis Collins ; and by the admirable Address of Gov. IMorehead, delivered at Boonesborough. If the perusal of tliis volume shall elicit a deeper and a tv PREFACE more diffused gratitude for the memory of the Man who. when he was master of a vas^t .erritory committed no op. pression, and when ne was dej rived of every acre uttered no murmui '— wLo ft tight only to defend, and subdued onlj to yield up to his country — it will have accomplished th§ object of its compiler CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. fmtrodiietion. — Ancestry of Daniel Boone the pioneer. — Heme of his ancestors. — Emigration of George Boone fronc England and settlement in Pennsylvania. — Birth of Daniel.— Lineage, — School-boy days. — His love for forest life. — The boy hunter. — Removal of Squire Boone, the father of Daniel, to North Carolina II CHAPTER II. New home in the old North State. — Marriage of Daniel Boone to Rebecca Bryan. — Boone, with his bride crosses the valley of the Yadkin, and builds his cabin. — Other settlers. — Boone shuns society. — Determined to remove west of the mountains. — De Soto — Indian tribes. — Prevail- ing ignorance of the country west of the mountains. — Character of Boone. — An incident of his old age. — The Colonial system. — Its results, , , , . 81 CHAPTER III. «ohn Finley*s visit to Tennessee in 1767. — Dr. "Walker's ex- pedition. — Boone's visit to the Holston River. — Boone and five others move west of the Cumberland Mountains.— n CX)NTENT8. ▲as Boone's wife. — ^Filson's life of Boone.-^Boone aid Stewart taken prisoners by the Indians. — Escape. — They find their companions gone. — Boone and Stewart remain alone. — The narrative. — Indian treaties. — Fate of Finley. — Squire Boone arrives. — Death of Stewart — Boone and his brother pass the winter alone in the woods. — Squire Boone returns to North Carolina for supplies, M CHAPTER IV. Boone alone in the wilderness. — Deprivation. — His own nar- rative. — His brother returns with supplies and horses.^ News from his family. — Extract from Governor Morehead's address. — The two brothers explore the country, and de- termine to locate upon the Kentucky River. — They return home. — Wonder of his neighbors at seeing Daniel. — They are deterred from emigrating by fear of the Indians. — Daniel and Squire Boone, with their families, remove to Kentucky, 7t CHAPTER V. I'he journey. — ^Five families and forty men join the Boones at Powell's Valley. — A party of the emigrants are attacked by Indians. — Boone's son and five others killed. — The com- pany turn back to the settlements on the Clinch River. — The Long Hunters. — Virginia grants land in Kentucky to the soldiers of the French War. — They learn the charac- ter of the land from Boone. — Lord Dunmore orders a sur- vey. — ^The expedition. — Boone's reports confirmed. — Herds of buffalo. — Surveyors reach the present location of Har- rodsburg and Louisville. — Lord Dunmore sends for Boone —Rescue of the surveyora, 89 CONTENTS. VB CHAPTER VI. Boone and Stoner penetrate the wilderness eight hundred miles, to the Falls of the Ohio. — ^They find the party of James Harrod, and warn them of Indian hostilities. — Lord Dunmore assigns Boone to a military command. — Battle of Point Pleasant — Boone returns to his family. — Fertility and beauty of the West. — Richard Henderson, — His project of a colony. — Boone is sent on a mission to the Indians by Lord Dunmore. — His success. — Boone employed to open a road from the Holston to the Kentucky River, — Hostility of the Indians. — Letter to Colonel Henderson Ofi CHAPTER VII. Boone and his company build a fort. — He removes his fam- ily to it. — Other families remove to the fort, — Arrival of Henderson. — Boonesborough. — Transylvania Land Com- pany. — Other settlements. — The first Legislature. — Boone a Delegate. — John Floyd. — Henderson's address, — Boone as a Legislator, — Divine service. — Colonel Callaway's family arrives. — ^The Indians capture three girls. — The pursuit and the rescue. — ^The Indians attack other posts, — Indian mode of warfare, — The war with Great Britain. — Alarm of the settlers. — Return of many of them, I2i CHAPTER VIII. rhe revolutionary war. — Harassed by the Indians, — General Clarke's journal. — Military force of the settlements. — Hen- derson's land titles. — ^The compromise. — ^The settlers' peti- tion to be taken under the protection of Virginia. — The In- dians attack Boonesborough fort and are repulsed. — Attack renewed by greater numbers. — The whites again success- ful. — Reinforcements arrive. — News arrives cf Washing- utn's victory over Howe 144 Vni CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX. General Qiorge R. Clarke. — Virginia grants i'0\^ der !<• the Colony. — The British garrisons at Detroit, Vincennes and Kaskaskia. — General Clarke secures the ai5 cf Boone. — Simon Kenton. — His captivity and cruel treatxient by the Indians — His rescue. — The anticipated reunion of the sur- vivors — ^The old age of Kenton. — An Indian attack. — Boone is wounded and narrowly escapes. — Boone's daring, and services to the emigrants. — Boone, with thirty men, plans an expedition to the Blue Licks, IM CHAPTER X. The Blue Licks. — ^The expedition. — Boone's adventure with two Indians. — The Indians plan an attack. — Boone is taken prisoner while hunting. — Hia party surrender and are spared through his influence. — Boone is afterwards tried by a court-martial and honorably acquitted. — Boone and his companions are taken to Old Chillicothe. — Thence to Detroit — Regard of the English for Boone. — The Indians refuse a large ransom. — ^Tliey return to Old Chillicothe with Boone alone. — They adopt him into their tribe. — They set him to making salt, and permit him to hunt, .... 171 CHAPTER XI. Affairs at Boonesborough. — Boone's wife returns to North Carolina. — Boone returns from the Salt Licks to Chillico- the. — He finds the Indians preparing an ex]iedition against Boonesborough. — Boone makes his escape, and arrives at the fort. — He hastily repairs the fort. — Boone's expedition to Paint Creek. — Defeat of the Indians. — Return of the party. — Arrival of a large body of Indians, led by Captain Du Quesne. — The garrison summoned to surrender, IM CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII. PAam Boone obtains two days to consider tie summons to suiren- der. — He refuses to surrender. — Further negotiations out- side the fort. — Treacliei-y of the Indians. — Squire Boone wounded, — Nine days' siege commences. — ^Tlie Indians retreat. — Boone's great shot. — His daughter. — The siege and the defence. — Cause of Kenton's absence. — Boone ia tried by a court-martial, and honorably acquitted, 214 CHAPTER XIII. Results of the war. — A retrospect. — Boone visits his family in North Carolina. — Emigration to the West increases. — Land office established. — Commissioners to settle soldiers* land claims. — Governor Shelby. — Great activity in the sur- veying of land. — Boone is robbed of a large sum of money. — Its effect on Boone. — The land law, 28i CHAPTER XIV. Boone returns to Boonesborough with his family. — ^The Bri- tish and Indians contemplate a bold attack on Kentucky. — Anecdote of Randolph. — Governor Morehead's history of Boonesborough — Boone and his brother go to the Blue Licks. — His brother is shot by Indians. — Boone is pursued and escapes. — The cold winter of 1780. — Organization of counties. — Indian hostilities renewed. — ^The British Gov- ernment and the Indians. — The renegades Girty and Mc- Kee. — Constant alarms of the settlers. — Tlie confederated Indians. — Boone again afflicted in the death of Bryant^. . 241 CHAPTER XV The attack on Bryant's Station.— The retreat of the Indians. — Rally of the settlers. — The council — ^The pursuit — ^The A* OONTKNTO. ambuscade. —Battle of the Blue Licks. — ^Terrible slaughter and retreat of the settlers — ^Another of Boone's sons slam. — Todd, Trigg. Harlan, and sixty-seven others slain. — Boone's account. — A thrilling incident. — Boone's report of the tattle. — CoL Thomas Marshall and Girty's brother,. ... 271 CHAPTER XVI. General Clarke. — His campaign against the Indians at Old Chillicothe. — Narrative of Boone's escape from four In dians. — The paper currency. — Courts of law instituted.—' Boone establishes himself on a farm. — ^The return of peace. — Increase of emigration. — The Indians. — Their love for rum.- -Their petition. — ^The Indians at the present day, . . . Ji9i CHAPTER XVII. Indian hostilities renewed. — ^The numerous Conventions rela- tive to the formation of a State. — John Marshall — Ken- tucky admitted into the Union as a State in 1791. — Boone'i difficulties relative to the title to his lands. — He loses his farm. — Narrative of the escape of Downing and Yates from the Indians. — The brave Kentuckians. — Escape of Mr. Rowan and family. — Boone's visit to his birth-place. — His hardships in the loss of his lands, »f CHAPTER XVm. Bsone's influence over the Indians. — Services in procuring an exchange of prisoners. — He removes to Virginia. — Resumes hunting. — His habits. — His residence in Virginia. — He con- templates removing to Upper Louisiana. — Gen. Wayne's victories over the Indians. — Boone looks to the West. .... 884 CJONTENTfl CHAPTER XIX. Boone emigrates with his family to Missouri. — Tlie journey. — Spanish possession of the territory. — Injustice to Boone's social character. — Boone is welcomed to Missouri by the Lieutenant Governor. — Arrival at St. Louis of Laclede and Choteau. — Boone receives an api)ointmentfrom tlie author- ities. — He is presented with a large tract of land by the Lieutenant Governor. — He neglects to go to New Orleans to get his grant confirmed, S44 CHAPTER XX. The vicissitudes of Boone's life. — Sale of Louisiana to the United States. — Boone revisits Kentucky. — He pays off his creditors. — Returns home. — ^Tlie solitary hunter. — Ex- posure to danger as a trapper. — His hunting excursion to the Osage River. — He is again deprived of his land by land commissioners. — His education. — His children, 359 CHAPTER XXI. Kentucky as a Commonwealth. — Boone's memorial to the Legislature and to Congress. — Tlie just response of Ken- tucky. — Death of Mrs. Boone. — Boone's treatment at the hands of Congress. — General Lafayette's reception. — The contrast. — The old age of Boone. — His children. — Boone a hunter at eighty-two. — Anecdote. — Harding's portrait — Sickness of Boone. — His death. — A retrospect, 811 CHAPTER XXIL Kentucky then and now. — Washington, Lafayette, Boone, and Harrison. — ^The Legislature of Kentucky cause the re- mains of Boone to be removed to Frankfort — The public honors. — John J. Crittendei —Conclusion, 384 ^> CONTENTS. THE HUNTERS OF KENTUCKY. Jo Daviess, PAoa Simon Kenton, • • . . . 391 40*) Bland Ballard, ..... jjb John Hardin, ...... 426 Benjamin Logan, '••... |84 William Russell, . • , g 443 R'laaHarl*., ^ ^^ LIFE OF DANIEL ^OONE CHAPTER I. WTROPUCnON — ANCESTRY OF DANIKL BOONK, THE PIONEER — HOMj ^^T HM ANCESTORS EMIGRATION OF QW^f^ BOONE FROM ENGLAND, A^D SET- TLEMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA BIRTH OF DANIEL LINEAGE 8CI*OOL-BOt DAYS HLS LOVE FOR FOREST LIFE THE BOY-HUNTER REMOVAL Of SQUIRE BOONE, THE FATHER OF DANIEL, TO NORTH CAROLINA- If it he fame, that in the progress of a great empire, one name above all others shall be associated with its deliverance from the dominion of the savage — with the first step of enterprise — with the grasp of civilization upon the domain before it — then this in- heritance is that of the subject of this memoir — Daniel Boone. It was hib to lead a nation to its place of power, and the memories of that nation can- not find more grateful use, than in the treasuring to- gether of the incidents of his career. He knew no tame or commonplace existence, but lived on, in a series of wild and vivid experiences. His life is in the annals of the forest chivalry tint only America has placed before fhe observation of mankind, — and Ml all tJie stirring records of the bold and daring — 14 LITE OF DANIEL BOONE. the determined and tlie adventurous, the first place ia his by the consent of the historian. It is ever to those who seek to illustrate the career of such men, a thought of regret, that themselvea were careless of their own biography — not dreaming, while they performed great deeds, that to the world that was to come after them, every incident would be, in all its detail, of value. They were more solicitous to make the present a distinct and determined reality, than to take care of the ^^re — and thus they deem- ed the deed done in its own doing, and cared not who heard, or admired, or recorded. Especially is tliis true of men of the Border. They took the powder liorn and left the ink horn at home — auil like all men of true courage, they cared not to be the historians of their own exploits. It is such charac- teristics of the western rover — above all of Daniel Boone — that imposes upon their annalist the most difficult, as it must be the most discriminating of du- ties, in weaving a narrative of facts and not of fancies. The home of his immediate ancestor was in one of the fairest and pleasantest of the gentle garden-landa of England. Devonsliire, in its riclinc^s of ci:itiva tion, its crowded population, its immediate conti^u'n v to the comforts and advantages of an old society — ii. its peaceful exemption from the sound or alarm oi war — was in singular contrast to the scenes to whicb •^le emigration from Bradmnch, near Exeter, of George 6ETTLEMKNT IN rKNNSYLV ANIA. 14 Bcone was to introduce liis descendants. It was a Bcliool, of all others, least adapted to furnish material for the formation of character of the adventurous borderer ; and when the gentle slopes and rich pas- tures and quiet and cultured farms and fields of Dev- onshire sent to America this group of emigrants, the keenest prophet of future destiny could not have imagined a change more extraordinary than was to be wrought in the future of this family. Arriving in this country, he selected as his home, that part of Pennsylvania which is now the county of Berks, and became a large landholder. The honors of the possession of a great area of territory, which in his own country he could not acquire, the circum- stances of the new land to which he had come, made it easy, and he availed himself of the position, by pur- chasing a large estate in the locality where he had settled, and in the neighboring States of Maryland and Virginia. He had need of all these possessions, for he brought with him from Devonshire a family cf nine sons and ten daughters. Tliere was a touch of the character of his famous grandson about him, in considering England too crowdjed for the comfort of such a family as that which clustered about him. In that day, 1717, the colonies of Pennsylvania and Maryland and Virginia were a field with space and verge enough for all those iv^ho sought to give their children a capacious home 1 6 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. { ^e of the cliildren of George Boone bore the verj American name of " Squire," so often affixed in the progress of judicial honor, but seldom, even in tho fanciful variety of our nomenclature, finding its way to the baptismal font. He settled in Bucks county in the same State, and married Sarah Morgan. Like his father, he raised a very large family ; and it is curious to observe that it was not till he had, in Israel and Jonathan, and Samuel and Daniel, and George and Edward, drawn extensively upon the scriptural and fanciful designations of mankind, that he invest- ed his seventh and last son with his own quaint title of Squire. He became a resident of Bucks county. The vi- cinity of the Delaware was attractive to the emigrant, who had that richest country " all before him where to choose." It liad been selected by Penn as one of the great avenues to the ocean, on which enterprise must be successful. The observation of each hour in this day shows how true was the sagacity of those fathers of the country, who distinctly felt that the homes they secured would soon be surrounded by busy men. Daniel Boone was born 11th February, 1735, while his father resided near Bristol, on the right bank of the Delaware, about twenty miles from Philadelphia — inheriting from his parents that, in comparison with which all other inheritances are faint and feeble in worth — a constitution insuring longevity, a fram<^ LINEAGE. I'J fitted for tlie loiii; career of toil and exertion and de» Derate adventure, and sad suffering which awaited it. And that this physical good was a characteristic of this remarkable family, it is a record of value to ob- serve that while Boone's father attained the age of sev- enty-six years, the united ages of his six brothers and sLiters amounted to the great aggregate of five hundred and sixteen years. Three years the junior of George Washington, his destiny in the formation of a countiy for the future development of free institutions, had kindred features. When he was at the age of three, his father re- moved to Keading, in Berks county. It is difficult to realize that the important and flourishing city, the centre of one of the richest and most thickly settled counties of the great Commonwealth, was at a period which is yet imperfectly passing into history, a frontier border settlement, where the watchfulness and vigil- ance of the inhabitants were keenly exercised in guarding their homes against the attacks of the ma- rauding Indian. -It was a revelation to the hoy Boone, of the future of his life. The conversations of his childhood were the strategy of the savage — and the development of his mind w^as formed into the pattern in which its boldest pursuit was moulded. It is doubt- less literally true, that the Indian and his incidents were the household words his tongue earliest formed. Concerning his lineage, whether he was of descent 18 LIFE OF UAKIEL BOON E. from the Boones who were of the Society of Friends, an ingenious and ahle genealogical controversy hag been had ; and the arguments on either side have been 60 clear, so fortified with array of name and date, that- it has been most difficult to decide.* It is very singular that of one almost contemporaneous with the seniors of this generation, so much doubt should ex- ist. It arises from the complete seclusion and obscu- rity in which his earlier years, from youth to manhood.^ were passed, and from the cause that he was utterly unconscious, except at last, of the value of his own biography. One of the most elaborate reviews of this question has been made by John F. "Watson^ of Philadelphia, whose contributions to the historical annals of Pennsylvania and New- York have been very valuable. A note from him is subjoined. It * At a meeting of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, held at Philadelphia on the 6th instant, Mr. Thomas Biddle, Jr., the Sec- retary, read a letter in relation to the Boone famil}-. He stated that a number of early records of that family recently came into his hands, one of which gives an account of the Boone family. It states they left a town eight miles from Exeter, England, in 1717. It names Squire Boone as a son of the immigrant, and father of DanieL The letter of Mr. Biddle further states, that it is an entire mistake that the family originally belonged to the Society of Friends ; that the papers prove they were Episcopalians; that he (Mr. B.) learned rfrbally from his half-sister. Miss Boone, who died in 1846, ageJ •76, that George Boone, on his arrival in 1717, purchased and settle'! in what was then Berks county, and laic out a town, naming it Exeter. He also purchased land in different places, seme as far south M North Carolina, and that he purchased aLd laid out Georgetowa LINEAGE. 19 may well be, judging from the tone of calmness and placidity wliicli were so marked in the character ol Boone, that he, by association or education, had known the peaceful associations of the domestic life of the Friends. He may have found these traits of tlie ut- most service. Indeed, thougli this is anticipating, it will most impress the close student of the simple an- nals of the great man, that in the midst of a border life of commingling in and exposure to scenes of pred- atory warfare, he seemed to have possessed no desire whatever to stir up strife or provoke a contest. The subjoined extract throws light on it : " The first of the family of he Boone's were Friends, en- rolled and recorded in the re Drd of the monthly meetings at Gwynne meeting, — then (died North Wales, in Mont- gomery Co., Penn., to wit, 11 17, 3 1st of 10th mo., George Boone, senior, (the grandfather of Col. Daniel Boone) pro- duced a certificate of his gooc iife and conversation, from the monthly meeting in Great Br *iain, ' which was read and well received.' He was born in 1 660. George 2d, son of the above George, had one son and four daughters, born and re- corded from 1714 to '22. 'Squire Boone,' on the 23d of 7th mo. 1720, (was son of the 1st George Boone,) was uni ted in marriage to Sarah Morgan, and the records of the '). C, Mr. Biddle, looking over l\e papers one day, remarked that 'these Boones all appeared to ha* ebeen Episcopalians." "OJi, ves," replied Miss Boone, "they were all High Church people," adding thai "most of them becauie Qua' )r8 out of compliment to Peni ftnd his successors." 20 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. meeting show, that they had the following children, to wit 8arah, born 1724, Israel in 1726, Samuel in 1728, Jonathan in 1730, Elizabeth in 1732, Daniel, the 22d of 8th mo., 1734 Mary, born in 1736, George in 1739, and Edward in 1740. These last alone are taken from the records of monthly meetings at Exeter in Berks Co., about 9 miles south from Reading, Penn. The above Daniel, is the Col. Daniel. James Boone was a distinguished mathematician, about the rear 1770, as some of his professional papers still show. He wrote some family pedigree, which is now with that last son in Missouri. Richard, a large iron master, (and his brother Samuel) now live near Reading, and their sister Sally lives in Exeter. Ruppe's History of Berks and Leb- anon, says several families of Friends settled in this towh- ship, (Oley) as early as 1713 or 1715, and that George Boone, a native of England, took out a warrant of 400 acres of land in 1718 in this township, (meaning Oley.) The re- cords of Friends concerning Boone, stop with the year 1748, as being about that time pretty much out of meeting. In 1747, Israel Boone, eldest son of Squire Boone, was dis- owned for marrying out of meeting, and on 26th of 3d mo., 1748, Squire Boone himself is disowned for countenancing such marriage. About this time he must have emigrated with his flimily to Holomant Ford, on the Yadkin River, North Carolina ; because the North Carolinian history of Boone Co., talks of Daniel as coming there a child, but I infer rather a lad of 13 or 14 years. The name 'Squire' is in all places given in place of baptismal name, and I saw nothing to indicate him as in the magistracy." The evidence from the compositions of the Forest Statesman, wIicd he had occasion to resort to the SCHOOL-BOY DATS. 21 written language, in which to communicate his idoaa to his fellow-men, is that his education, in the techni cal and school sense of the term, was very simple and incomplete. Grammar and orthography wero not his household deities. He expressed his meaning, taking his road to it over every obstacle of spelling or sentence that chanced in his way. The school was just such an one as the frontier settlements would be likely to possess. Logs were the material most avail- able for dwelling, fort, or school, and the order of ar- chitecture was severe in its simplicity. It was but one of the seven lamps of architecture that blazed in the forest. The right-angle was to the settler pos- sessed of the beauty wliich Hogarth ascribed to the curve, for it had simplicity, convenience and strength. The school-house at wliich Daniel Boone was an at- tendant was of the square form — the windows, a mere hole cut in the logs to admit the light — a chimney, huge in utter disproportion, on one oide, and the art of the rude mason evinced only in the alternate lay ers of log and clay. 'No luxury ol cushions, or pa- tent seats, or easy-angled desks, favored the children of that time. Their minds were taught in the midst of privation ; and to submit to the roughness and in- convenience of life was the discipline which prepared those who attended them to go out and " make the rough places smooth." All that education set before it8 guests, were the great dishes of the feast of learn- 22 LIFE OF DANIEL liOONE. 1*112 — but the artist had no skill in their preparation The school was to be passed through as an ordeal, ra thei than lingered in as a privilege. To read was taught, but it was more as the median ical utterance of the words — to write, but with char- acters whose size, more than grace, was consulted — to cypher, the problems as simple as for which a ru- ral trade could furnish the example. But they who graduated at such chairs, went thence to write with glittering axe and sword their names and history and purposes in forests — to read the emotions and pas- sions and will of crafty and dangerous foes, or the true destinies of an advancing country — to use their arithmetic in estimating the resources of arms, the chances of battle, the results of harvest. The schol- ar and the merchant were always behind them, wait- ing the time of safe adventure. . But among the brief library of that school, their text books were few indeed. There was one in which, in all probability, as it was part of the routine of study, Boone was taught, whose lessons came to hirr m the mighty solitudes of his after years. A lonely man — a companion of the stately trees — away from home and the vices of the race, the heavens above him seemed nearer than to us, who are forever at- tracted by the crowd around us ; ar.d the prom]:>ting8 of admiration, of veneration, and of simple faith, may have come up w his memory from tlie teach ingg 80H00L-B0Y DAYS. 23 of the simple lessons of tlie school-house, with chetT- ing and consoling power. Boone's " schooling" wa? soon over. Tlie times left astute scholarship to the far-off cities of the Old World. Tlie frontier men had other and bolder pursuits. Around the schcol-house was the material for learn ing to an illimitable extent. The woods opened their recesses to the hunter, in which he could acquiie all the mysteries of forest craft ; and Boone found in these scenes pursuits most congenial. Pennsylvania, in the policy pursued by its founder, had not fought its dominion inch by inch, from the savage ; but his doctrines had not quite as successfully reached the frontier, as they had been prevalent at the seat of government. The Indian was regarded, even by the most sensible and best judging of the settlers, as an incumbrance — as of a class of men who occupied land, the value of which they did not realize, and of which they made most imperfect use. But those who looked thus upon them were the few. The many con- sidered the Indian as a foe — as treacherous — never to be trusted, and ready to destroy whenever oppor- tunity offered ; and thus a fitting subject for the prowess and might of the white man. The woods were common ground to each. As the Indian eithei could not or would not acquire the habit of the set- tler, the latter applied himself to acquire the cun- ning and the strategy of the forest men. The settlei 24 LIFE OF DANIKL DOONE. watched the niovements of the savages, to learn the means hy which sucli accurate knowledge of pathway and retreat, and fastness and cave and glen — of the most minnte hahits of the wild heast — of all that pertained to forest life, was obtained ; — and in this school, Daniel Boone sprnng at once to superior schol- arship. The rifle was, in his hand, nnerring as the bow of Kobin Hood. He learned lessons of the snow and the leaves and the moss, and to detect, with quick eye, the tread of foot — to rival the sagacity of the hound, or what was as intense in its accuracy — the cunning of the Indian warrior. It has been professed by some who have written of the bold Boone, to invest his cliildhood and school days with incidents of strange interest. It would be gratifying to be able, with a regard to that without which a biography is but a fable, so to do. But Boone's heroic character was made by circumstances. The strong workings of after life developed the man. The training for that life began in the rough expe- riences of the border. Above all, the life of the wood- !nan taught the boy self-reliance. It gave him to know wdiat a treasure he held in his own energies, and showed him that when he had a work tO do, him- self was, of all others, the best craftsman. A better echool, a more varied learning, would have been in- consistent with the pioneer destiny that was in store for him. He was to see the State, while as yet it had THE BOY-HUNTER. 25 I It i)io physical material of its rought to lio:ht, it miHit be found that the event lul era which just preceded the opening of the West to the wanderings of the settlers, was thronged with all EXTRACT FKOM JUDGE MARSHALL. 37 the inoidents of Tndian f^ray and Indian border \\ ra This disturbed condition of the country kept back eu terprise. It was one thing to go out with the expec- tation of meeting one's ^vorst foe in the wild beast and quite another to risk the encounter with the sav age, whose every passion was excited by the fact which even his immature mind received, that the men who had made a home for themselves in this wild, part of the Carolinas, would not always regard the mountain as an insurmountable barrier. The language of John Marshall has faithfully de- lineated the impression cherished by the people of the frontier, in respect to the country that lay beyond. To them it was a perpetual desire to go in and possess it, but they were deterred by their want of any know ledge of what it really was. The change to us, who view that country in these days, when not a century has elapsed, is wonderful. It is the contrast between a wilderness and an empire. Traversed by all possi- ble modes of conveyance — the wild beast a specta- cle and a show — the comforts and luxuries of civili- zation on all sides — it is hard to credit the annals of obscurity, of caution, of doubt and difficulty that are before us, in the histories of the period when Boone «ras preparing to become the first successful and per- severing occupant of the new country. Judge Mar glial] says : 88 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. "The country bevonr! tho Ciimhorland mo-antain, still (in 17t)T) appeared to the dusky view of the generality of the people of Virginia, almost as obscure and doubtful, as Aniei ica itself to the people of Europe, before the voyage of Co- lumbus. A country there was — of this none could doubt, who thought at all ; but whether land or water, mountain or plain, fertility or barrenness, preponderated — whether in- habited by men or beasts, or both, or neither, they knew not. If inhabited by men, they were supposed to be In- dians, — for such had always infested the frontiers. And this had been a powerful reason for not exploring the region west of the great mountain, which concealed Kentucky from heir sight." In the movements of men, it is very rarely that even those actions which, by their consequences, and the magnitude to which, when once begun, they grow, a^e the result of a design " to do some great thing " — but arising from some cause connected with the personal relation, either in the desire to render the condition in life more agreeable, or to give strength or pleasure to the social tie, their beginning, being in the ordinary routine of affair, is forgotten. It may be doubted whether, if the opinions gener- ally received of Daniel Boone were true, he would have been the pioneer of Kentucky. Until his his tory was closely investigated, he was classed with tlie wild huntsman — the Indian fighter — the man of border foraj — a link between the savage and tlie set 39 tier. His real character was not this. Mild and Bimple-hearted — steady, not impulsive in courage — buid and determined, but always rather inclined to defend than attack — he stood immeasurably above that wretched class of men, who are so often the pre- liminaries of civilization. Boone deliberately chose the peace of solitude, rather than to mingle in the wild wranglings and disputings of the society around him. This is the key to his movement in quitting the Yadkin and his home thereon. He had his distinc- tive character. It was plain and simple — not so, alone when the depths of a forest home made such regimen but a necessity, but when he was surrounded by kind and ministering friends, the same habit con- tinued. He had the great habit of simplicity within him — a quality of mind which seems most easy to maintain, and yet in its purity is among the most ex- traordinary and difficult. This concentration, within a small limit of his de- sires, remained to old age — and it is but illustrating his life on the borders of Carolina, to allude to the incident which an eminent artist narrates, that when he visited the great pioneer, the very year of hia death, when the decrepitude of old age was upon him, tlie veteran, swinging in his cot, toasted on his ram- rod a slice of venison — his long life not teaching him to forego the simplicity of his earlier habit. He found in the forest and in the chase, scenes and ad- 40 LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. ventures that talked with him, in a language unsal lied by the wretchedness of duplicity, and fraud, and petty scheming, or successful cunning, that soon made their appearance in the region about him ; and he could not reconcile himself to the manner in Avhich human law determined the variances. There seemed to be too much of form, and not enough of the dis' tinct and plain equities of a just judgment, about it all. Boone was a reformer, just so far as to discover errors in the framework of society around him ; but lie was disposed rather to avoid than to correct them. Iliose who perpetrated the wrong, were not inclined to regard him as the man who was to remodel their ways, and he sought no authority. The adventures of the forest would at once give field to his energies, and take him away from scenes which he felt to be adverse to his own simple-hearted desire to do kindly to his fellow men. Tliere were circumstances in the situation of that part of ^orth Carolina in which Boone resided, which led to his departure for that life of adventure which has made his name memorable, and which is now a precious chapter in the history of the country. The increasing wealth of the Scotch settlers, ac- quired by their unerring sagacity, soon made its mark^ and the desire to outrival each other in the luxuries of life was everywhere prevalent. The peaceful cjuiet of domestic life was invaded by the foe within, in tli« GRIEVANCES OF THE C0L0W1S1«. 41 guise of a jT^assion fr.r tlie same ornament an(i ilis play wliicli were to be found in the older society of tlie seaboard. The mark was set upon those who either declined to follow the path of advancing for- tune, or were unable to do it — and this could not but make its impression upon society ; nor could it fail ol r3mark from Boone. If he could scarcely bear the artificial restraints of custom and rule in ordinary times, to a man of the severe simplicity, which was 60 eminently the case with him, the fight of fashion was too sinfull. It made him uneasy in his river- Ride home, and he looked impatiently beyond the hills for a refuge. There were circumstances in the government which rendered this more unendurable. The parent country sent out to the important and responsible position of governor of the colony, those whose sympathies and associations at once linked in with those who affected a tendency towards aristocratic living, and this oidy made the separation of the two classes more evident. But the grievance was destined to reach the people in a more direct manner. The ofiicers of the courts oon found a way in which to raise their fortunes, by following the increase in the cost of living by an augmentation of their fees and perquisites. Perhaps no better device could have been originated to arouse the great mass of the people. To authorize the collection of all sums over fort^ 42 LIFE OF DAIHEL BOONE. Shillings ic a court of record, was to open widely the patli to a most extensive litigation, and the probable results soon followed. It was a harvest fcr the law- yer and the clerk, — the sheriff, the speculator^ and the tax gatherer followed with ready and unrelenting footsteps. At first the people doubted whether their wrongs could last for any other period than as a brief and rapidly passing trouble. But the gloom increased. The people petitioned to their rulers, but the sympa- thy of these was all with those who were far more ready to seek occasion still deeper to oppress the peo- ple, than to lighten their calamity. Tlie petitioners and the petitions were alike treated with scorn. The colonial system was realizing the climax of its errors. The government was too far removed from the people, and the open rebellion which followed was a significant type of the more extended grasp of power by the people themselves, which was witnessed in all parts of the colonies but few years afterwards. Taxation is a power, which, even in its wise exercise, . 18 regarded as an oppressive necessity ; but when the avails go directly to the benefit of all, the greater good of the result heals all the trouble. But in Carolina, the taxes emanated from a class of men who were in- imical by position and circumstance to those who were compelled to pay, and to whom the payment was 80 much subtracted from the necessities of lifa RESULTS OF THE COLONIAL SYSTEM. 43 fncleecL to inakc a climax, tlie very collecting sher iffs augmented the taxes, and collecting, rather what they chose than what the law exacted, plundered the peDple and made grain of their neceswty. CflAPTEK 111. OHN FINLEy's visit to TENNESSEE IN 1767 DR. WALKEr's EXP» I <• *^# — BOONe's visit to the HOLSTON river BOONE AND FIVE OTHERS kO fM WEST OF THE CUMBERLAND MOUNTAINS BOONe's WIFE FILSON's UFl OF BOONE BOONK AND STEWART TAKEN PRISONERS BY THE INDIANS — ESCAPE THEY FIND THEIR COMPANIONS GONE —^ BOONE AND STEWART REMAIN ALONE THE NARRATIVE INDIAN TREATIES FATE OF FINLEl SQUIRE BOONE ARRIVES DEATH OF STEWART BOONE AND Htt BROTHER PASS THE WINTER ALONE IN THE WOODS SQUIRE BOONE RS TURNS TO NORTH CAROLINA FOR SUPPLIES. In 1767, John Findlay, or Finlej, formed one of a party of hunters, who determined to enlarge tlie nsua» bounds of their foray upon the wild game, and daring more than those who had gone before him, he found himself upon the waters of the Kentucky River. The Indians roamed the land undisturbed, and ignorant of the tremendous power that existed in the pale-faced neighborhood over the mountain, disdained to liarast. these hunters, the first who had made themselvea known to them. They traversed a portion of Tennes- Bee. Its valleys in all the wealth of vegetation, and -ts scenery of bold type — its mountain forests, and above all — for these were practical men, who rather looked upon what was to be acquired than at the beautiful — there was a variety and a sufficiency of game. Forest and cane-brake were explored, and FINLEY S VISIT TO TENNESSEE. io there was a glowing consciousness that a rare land had been discovered, and that tliey had been the first to enjoy it. It is easy to imagine, in some degree, the delight which he and his party experienced in once getting be- yond the bounds of their former chase. Evidently, from the history of Finley, and of all those who, like him, " extended the area of civilization," to them, whatever other pursuit was in their village, or from home, forced upon them, that in which they reveled was the open and free life of the hunter — a pursuit where they feared no enemy whose craft and cunning was superior to the roving animal, whose strength and en- durance gave him almost equality in the contests of the forests. In relation to the visit of Finley, Gov- ernor Morehead, in his admirable address at Boones- borough, (May 25, 1840,) uses the following language, which would not be characteristic of himself, were it not eloquent and graceful : " Of Finley and his comrades, and of the course and ex. tent of their journey, little is now known. That they were of the pure blood, and endowed with the genuine qualities of the pioneers, is manifestly undeniable. That they passed over the Cumberland, and through the intermediate country to the Kentucky River, and penetrated the beautiful valley of the Elkhorn, there are no sufficient reasons to doubt. I; is en-, ugh, however, to embalm their memory in our hearts, and to connect their names with the imperishable memorials of our early history, that they were the first adventtirers that 4:6 LH^E of DANIEL BOONE. [ylunged into the dark and enchanted wilderness of Kentucky — that of all their cotemporaries they saw her first, — and saw her in the pride of her virgin beauty — at the dawTi of summer — in the fullness of her vegetation — her soil ip- Btinct with fertility, covered with the most luxuriant ver- dure — the air perfumed with the fragrance of flowers, and her tall forests looming in all their primeval magnificence How long Finley lived, or where he died, the silence of his tory does not enable us to know. That his remains are no^ mingled with the soil that he discovered, there is some rea son to hope, for he conducted Boone to Kentucky in 1709— and there the curtain drops upon him forever." So early as 1750, according to some accounts, though by others fixed in 1747, and 1748, Dr. Walker, with a party, had attempted an exploration beyond the mountain. He crossed from Powell's Valley ovei to Cumberland, and traversed with rapidity along th« north-eastern portion of Kentucky ; but his task seemed to be ended with the country which borders on the Sandy River, now one of the frontier lines of Kentucky and Virginia. This expedition seems, hy all historians, to have been considered as a failure. It must have been so, for its results were so trifling, leaving no monument in history, and valuable only, it may be, in fixing the fact in the intercourse of the people, that the mountain barrier could be overcome. Had he possessed the vigor of the famour, men who ha