Daniel Boone: The Pioneer of Kentucky
essential to the full understanding of the narrative upon which we have
entered.
It was in the year 1763 that Louisiana was ceded, by France, to Spain.
In the year 1800, it was yielded back to France, under Napoleon, by a
secret article in the treaty of Sn. Ildefonso. It had now become a
matter of infinite moment to the United States that the great Republic
should have undisputed command of the Mississippi, from its source to
its mouth. President Jefferson instructed our Minister at Paris, Robert
Livingston, to negotiate with the French Government for the purchase of
Louisiana. France was then at war with England. The British fleet swept
triumphantly all the seas. Napoleon, conscious that he could not protect
Louisiana from British arms, consented to the sale. We are informed that
on the 10th of April, 1803, he summoned two of his ministers in council,
and said to them:
"I am fully sensible of the value of Louisiana; and it was my wish to
repair the error of the French diplomatists who abandoned it in 1763. I
have scarcely recovered it before I run the risk of losing it. But if I
am obliged to give it up it shall cost more to those who force me to
part with it, than to those to whom I yield it. The English have
despoiled France of all her Northern possessions in America, and now
they covet those of the South. I am determined that they shall not have
the Mississippi. Although Louisiana is but a trifle compared with their
vast possessions in other parts of the globe, yet, judging from the
vexation they have manifested on seeing it return to the power of
France, I am certain that their first object will be to obtain
possession of it.
"They will probably commence the war in that quarter. They have twenty
vessels in the Gulf of Mexico, and our affairs in St. Domingo are daily
getting worse, since the death of Le Clere. The conquest of Louisiana
might be easily made, and I have not a moment to lose in putting it out
of their reach. I am not sure but that they have already began an attack
upon it. Such a measure would be in accordance with their habits; and in
their place I should not wait. I am inclined, in order to deprive them
of all prospect of ever possessing it, to cede it to the United States.
Indeed I can hardly say I cede it, for I do not yet possess it. And if I
wait but a short time, my enemies may leave me nothing but an empty
title to grant to the Republic I wish to conciliate. They only ask for
one city of Louisiana; but I consider the whole colony as lost. And I
believe that in the hands of this rising power, it will be more useful
to the political and even the commercial interests of France, than if I
should attempt to retain it. Let me have both of your opinions upon this
subject."
One of the ministers, Barbe Marbois, cordially approved of the plan of
"cession." The other opposed it. After long deliberation, the conference
was closed, without Napoleon making known his decision. The next day he
sent for Barbe Marbois, and said to him:
"The season for deliberation is over. I have determined to part with
Louisiana. I shall give up not only New Orleans, but the whole colony
without reservation. That I do not undervalue Louisiana I have
sufficiently proved, as the object of my first treaty with Spain was to
recover it. But though I regret parting with it, I am convinced that it
would be folly to persist in trying to keep it. I commission you,
therefore, to negotiate this affair with the envoys of the United
States. Do not wait the arrival of Mr. Munroe, but go this very day and
confer with Mr. Livingston.
"Remember, however, that I need ample funds for carrying on the war; and
I do not wish to commence it by levying new taxes. During the last
century, France and Spain have incurred great expense in the
improvement of Louisiana, for which her trade has never indemnified
them. Large sums have been advanced to different companies, which have
never returned to the treasury. It is fair that I should require payment
for these. Were I to regulate my demands by the importance of this
territory to the United States, they would be unbounded. But being
obliged to part with it, I shall be moderate in my terms. Still,
remember I must have fifty millions of francs ($10,000,000), and I will
not consent to take less. I would rather make some desperate effort to
preserve this fine country."
Negotiations commenced that day. Soon Mr. Munroe arrived. On the 30th of
April, 1803, the treaty was signed, the United States paying fifteen
million dollars for the entire territory. It was stipulated by Napoleon
that Louisiana should be, as soon as possible, incorporated into the
Union; and that its inhabitants should enjoy the same rights,
privileges, and immunities as other citizens of the United States. The
third article of the treaty, securing to them these benefits, was drawn
up by Napoleon himself. He presented it to the plenipotentiaries with
these words:
"Make it known to the people of Louisiana, that we regret to part with
them; that we have stipulated for all the advantages they could desire;
and that France, in giving them up, has insured to them the greatest of
all. They could never have prospered under any European government, as
they will when they become independent. But while they enjoy the
privileges of liberty, let them ever remember that they are French, and
preserve for their mother country that affection, which a common origin
inspires."
This purchase was an immense acquisition to the United States. "I
consider," said Mr. Livingston, "that from this day, the United States
take rank with the first powers of Europe, and now she has entirely
escaped from the power of England."
Napoleon was also well pleased with the transaction, "By this cession,"
he said, "I have secured the power of the United States, and given to
England a maritime rival, who, at some future time, will humble her
pride."
The boundaries of this unexampled purchase could not be clearly defined.
There was not any known landmarks to which reference could be made. The
United States thus had the sole claim to the vast territory west of the
Mississippi, extending on the north through Oregon to the Pacific Ocean,
and on the south to the Mexican dominions. From the day of the transfer,
the natural resources of the great valley of the Mississippi began to be
rapidly developed.
The accompanying map will enable the reader more fully to understand the
geography of the above narrative.
CHAPTER IV.
_Camp Life Beyond the Alleghanies._
John Finley and his Adventures.--Aspect of the Country.--Boone's Private
Character.--His Love for the Wilderness.--First view of
Kentucky.--Emigrants' Dress.--Hunter's Home.--Capture of Boone and
Stewart by the Indians.--Their Escape.--Singular Incident.
In the year 1767, a bold hunter by the name of John Finley with two or
three companions crossed the mountain range of the Alleghanies into the
region beyond, now known as Kentucky. The mountains where he crossed,
consisting of a series of parallel ridges, some of which were quite
impassable save at particular points, presented a rugged expanse nearly
fifty miles in breadth. It took many weary days for these moccassined
feet to traverse the wild solitudes. The Indian avoids the mountains. He
chooses the smooth prairie where the buffalo and the elk graze, and
where the wild turkey, the grouse and the prairie chicken, wing their
flight, or the banks of some placid stream over which he can glide in
his birch canoe, and where fish of every variety can be taken. Indeed
the Indians, with an eye for picturesque beauty, seldom reared their
villages in the forest, whose glooms repelled them. Generally where the
forest approached the stream, they clustered their wigwams in its edge,
with the tranquil river and the open country spread out before them.
John Finley and his companions traversed the broad expanse of the
Alleghanies, without meeting any signs of human life. The extreme
western ridge of these parallel eminences or spurs, has received the
name of the Cumberland mountains. Passing through a gorge, which has
since then become renowned in peace and war as Cumberland Gap, they
entered upon a vast undulating expanse, of wonderful fertility and
beauty. In its rivers, its plains, its forests, its gentle eminences,
its bright skies and salubrious clime, it presented then, as now, as
attractive a residence for man as this globe can furnish. Finley and his
companions spent several months roving through this, to them, new Eden.
Game of every variety abounded. Through some inexplicable reason, no
Indians held possession of the country. But wandering tribes, whose
homes and acknowledged territory were far away in the north, the west,
and the south, were ever traversing these regions in hunting bands. They
often met in bloody encounters. These conflicts were so frequent and so
sanguinary, that this realm so highly favored of God for the promotion
of all happiness, subsequently received the appropriate name of "The
dark and bloody ground."
After an absence of many months, Finley and his companions returned to
North Carolina, with the most glowing accounts of the new country which
they had found. Their story of the beauty of those realms was so
extravagant, that many regarded them as gross exaggerations. It
subsequently appeared, however, that they were essentially true. A more
lovely and attractive region cannot be found on earth. It is man's
inhumanity to man, mainly, which has ever caused such countless millions
to mourn.
Daniel Boone listened eagerly to the recital of John Finley and his
associates. The story they told added fuel to the flame of emigration,
which was already consuming him. He talked more and more earnestly of
his desire to cross the mountains. We know not what were the emotions
with which his wife was agitated, in view of her husband's increasing
desire for another plunge into the wilderness. We simply know that
through her whole career, she manifested the most tender solicitude to
accommodate herself to the wishes of her beloved husband. Indeed he was
a man peculiarly calculated to win a noble woman's love. Gentle in his
demeanor, and in all his utterances, mild and affectionate in his
intercourse with his family, he seemed quite unconscious of the heroism
he manifested in those achievements, which gave him ever increasing
renown.
Life in the cabin of the frontiersman, where the wants are few, and the
supplies abundant, is comparatively a leisure life. These men knew but
little of the hurry and the bustle with which those in the crowded city
engage daily in the almost deadly struggle for bread. There was no want
in the cabin of Daniel Boone. As these two hardy adventurers, John
Finley and Daniel Boone, sat together hour after hour by the fire,
talking of the new country which Finley had explored, the hearts of both
burned within them again to penetrate those remote realms. To them there
were no hardships in the journey. At the close of each day's march,
which but slightly wearied their toughened sinews, they could in a few
moments throw up a shelter, beneath which they would enjoy more
luxurious sleep than the traveler, after being rocked in the rail-cars,
can now find on the softest couches of our metropolitan hotels. And the
dainty morsel cut with artistic skill from the fat buffalo, and toasted
on the end of a ramrod before the camp-fire, possessed a relish which
few epicures have ever experienced at the most sumptuous tables in Paris
or New York. And as these men seem to have been constitutionally devoid
of any emotions of fear from wild beasts, or still wilder Indians, the
idea of a journey of a few hundred miles in the wilderness was not one
to be regarded by them with any special solicitude.