The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1923-12-21
DANIEL BOONE
A. D. 1776

IA As AssS
AS matter Of unnatural history
the British lion is really and truly a
lioness with a large and respectable
family. When only a cub she sharp
ened her teeth on Spain, in her youth
crushed Holland, and in her prime
Fought France, wrestling from each in
turn the command of the sea.
She was nearing her full strength
when France with a chain of forts
along the Saint Lawrence and the Mis-
sissippi attempted TO strangle the thir-
teen British cubs in America. BY the
storming of Quebec the lion smashed
that chain; but the long and world
wide wars with France had bled her
dry, and unless she could keep the
sea her cubs were doomed, so bluntly
she told them they must help.
The cubs had troubles of their own
and could not help. Theirs was the
legal, hers the moral right, but both
sides fell In the wrong when they lost
their tempers. Since then the mother
has reared her second litter with some
of that gentleness which comes of sor-
row.
So far the French In Canada were
not settlers so much as gay adventur-
ers for the Christ, or for beaver skins,
living among the Indians, or in holi-
day mood leading the tribes against
the surly British.
Among the hard fierce colonists a
very few loved nature and in child
hood took to the wilds. Such was
the son of tame Devon Quaker,
young Daniel Boone, a natural marks
man, axman, bushman, tracker and
scout of the backwoods who grew to
be a freckled rudy man, gaunt as a
wolf, and subtle as snake from his
hard training In the Indian wars.
When first he crossed the mountains
on the old warrior trail into Kentucky,
hunting and trapping paid well in that
paradise of noble timber and white
clover meadows. The country swarmed
with game, merry hunting ground
and battlefield of rival Indian tribes.
There Boone and his wife's brother
Stuart were captured by Shawnees,
who forced the prisoners to lead the
way to their camp where the other
four hunters were taken. The Indians
took their horses, rifles, powder, traps
and furs, all lawful plumber, but gave
them food to carry them to the set
Elements with warning for the whites
that trespassers would be prosecuted.
That was enough for four of the white
hunters, but Boone and Stuart tracked
the Indians and stole back some of
their plumber, only to be trailed In
their turn and recaptured.
The Shawnees were annoyed, and
would have taken these trespassers
home to be burned alive, but for
Boone's queer charm of manner which
won their liking, and his ghostlike
vanishing with Stuart into the cane
brakes The white men got away with
rifles, bullets and powder, and they
were wise enough not to be caught
again.
AT the moment when the big colonial
hive began to swarm Boone led a
party of thirty frontiersmen to cut a
pack-trail over the mountains into the
plains Of Kentucky. This wilderness
trail-some two hundred miles of mud
holes, rocks and stumps-opened the
way for settlement in Kentucky, dark
and bloody ground, for white invaders.
/ At a cost of two or three scalps
Boones outfit reached this land, to
build a stockaded village named for
the leader, Boonesborough, and after
ward he was very proud that his wife
and daughters were the first women
to brave the perils of that new set
Element
Under a giant elm the settlers, be-
ing British, had church and parlia-
ment, but only on one Sunday did
the parson pray for King George be
fore the news came that congress need
ed prayers for the new republic at
war with the motherland.
Far to the northwest of Kentucky
the forts of Illinois were held by a
British officer named Hamilton. He
had with him a handful of American
Tories loyal to the king, some newly
conquered French Canadians not much
In love with British government, and
savage Indian tribes. All these he
sent to strike the revolving colonies
In their rear, but the whole brunt OF
the horror fell upon poor Kentucky
The settlements were wrecked, the log
cabins burned, and the Indians got
out of hand, committing crimes; but
the settlers held four forts and cursed
King George through seven years OF
war.
1t was in a lull of this long storm
that Boone led force of thirty men
to get salt from the salt-licks frequent
ed by the buffalo and deer, on the
banks of Licking river. One day while
he was scouting ten miles from camp
and had just loaded his horse with
meat to feed his men, he was caught
in snowstorm, by four Shawnees
They led him to their camp where
some of the hundred warriors had
helped to capture Boone eight years
before These, with much ceremony
and mock politeness, introduced hin
to two American Tories, brace OF
French Canadians, and their Shawaet
chiefs. Then Boone found out that
this war party was marching on For
A. ~