The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1888-05-19

termined to see it with his own eyes,
and select q home for himself in that
garden of the world. With five COM
panions he set out and spent several
months in leisurely traversing the
country, in the course of which they
had all the usual adventures, includ-
ing a weeks captivity among the
Indians.
In due time he led forth little band
of emigrants, consisting of four fami-
lies, twenty-six men, four women, and
four or five children, who settled at a
place on the Clinch river. which they
named Boonesborough. Here he lived
for several years, defending himself
and his family with admirable vigilance,
courage and tact against the wiles of the
\ Indians. During the Revolutionary
War all the Indians on the continent
were in agitation, and for the first
three years Of the contest, British in
tluence being paramount, the Western
settlements were never safe from at
tack. Only few days after the Dec
laration of Independence a daughter
of Daniel Boone and two of her play
mates were padding in canoe oppo-
site Boonesborough, when five Indians
| sprang from an ambush and carried
them away with them into the wilder
ness. Boone being absent at the time,
it was not until daybreak the next
morning that he and three friends
could start in pursuit. But by ten
O'Clock they came upon the party of
Indians while they were hating for
breakfast. They gave one fire, rushed
upon them, put them to flight, and re-
covered the terrified and sobbing girls.
During that bloody time two of his
sons and brother fell under the rifles of
the savage foe, and he himself spent con-
siderable time as a prisoner among one
of the tribes, escaping just in time to
conduct the defence of Booonesborough
against a most formidable attack. For
about ten years the'settlers of Kentucky
waged almost incessant war against
the Indians, and wherever the danger
was greatest, there Daniel Boone was
sure to be, conducting the defense or
heading the attack.
He stood six feet two; his chest was
broad, his limbs muscular, and his
whole form powerfully and symmetri-
cally developed. His temperament was
tranquil and cool, incapable of worry,
| anxiety, or fear; man of few words
and quiet demeanor, who never could
be disconnected OF pertubed. He could
stick a nail into q board, and at dis
lance of forty PAGES drive it home with
bullet. He could bring a squirrel
down from a lofty tree, without hitting
it, by the mere shock of the bullet pass
ing close to its head.
In dark night he could snuff can
die at distance of forty PAGES, three
times out OF seven-a peculiarly diff
cult feat. He was equally expert in
all the ways of capturing game, track
ing Indians and guarding against sur
prise. At the same time he had a con-
stitution that could endure incredible
fatigue and privation. On one occa-
sion he walked hundred and sixty
miles in four days and nights, upon
only one meal.
The last years of this heroic man
When he and his brave companions
had rendered Kentucky a safe and in
viting dwelling place, he was as
founded one day by the sheriff coming
to his cabin and telling him that he
had no legal right to the lands upon
which he had lived so long. And SO, in
deed, it proved. He could not under
stand how any man could have a right
to his farm superior to his own.
MY footsteps ne wrote upon this subject,
"have oft enbeen marked with blood. Two darl-
! ing sons and a brother have lost by savage
! hands, which have also taken from me forty val
liable horses and abundance of cattle. Many
| dark ana sleepless nights have been compan-
ion forowls, separated from the cheerful society
| of men, scorched by the summers sun and
pinched by the winters cold, an instrument or
dained TO settle the wilderness"
All true. And yet the case went
against him in the courts, and he lost
his farm. After this he went to
Virginia, and lived some years a hun
ter's life in the woods. But, by and
by, the spirit of the pioneer revived
within him, and, at the age OF sixty
one he traversed the whole breadth
of Kentucky, and joined his son who
had opened farm near the junction of
the Mississippi and Missouri rivers,
not far from the village of St. Louis.
He was now subject Of the King of
Spain, and the Spanish Governor made
him commander of his district and
gave him eight thousand acres of land
But ill-luck pursued him, A few
years after, when all this country was
coded to the United States, he lost his
land through not having complied with
some formalities; and, of course, he lost
his Office as well. Congress, however,
some years later, when he was seventy
nine years of age, made him a grant of
eight hundred and fifty acres of land
in Missouri, upon which he lived in
peace and plenty, surrounded by affec-
tionate grandchildren.