Daniel Boone: The Pioneer of Kentucky
could have been, he selected nine of the most athletic and strong of the
garrison, and appointed the place of meeting in front of the fort, at a
distance of only one hundred and twenty feet from the walls. The
riflemen of the garrison were placed in a position to cover the spot
with their guns, so that in case of treachery the Indians would meet
with instant punishment, and the retreat of the party from the fort
would probably be secured. The language of Boone is:
"We held a treaty within sixty yards of the garrison on purpose to
divert them from a breach of honor, as we could not avoid suspicion of
the savages."
The terms proposed by General Duquesne were extremely liberal. And while
they might satisfy the British party, whose object in the war was simply
to conquer the colonists and bring them back to loyalty, they could by
no means have satisfied the Indians, who desired not merely to drive the
white men back from their hunting grounds, but to plunder them of their
possessions and to gratify their savage natures by hearing the shrieks
of their victims at the stake and by carrying home the trophies of
numerous scalps.
Boone and his men, buried in the depths of the wilderness, had probably
taken little interest in the controversy which was just then rising
between the colonies and the mother country. They had regarded the King
of England as their lawful sovereign, and their minds had never been
agitated by the question of revolution or of independence. When,
therefore, General Duquesne proposed that they should take the oath of
allegiance to the King of Great Britain, and that then they should be
permitted to return unmolested to their homes and their friends beyond
the mountains, taking all their possessions with them, Colonel Boone and
his associates were very ready to accept such terms. It justly appeared
to them in their isolated condition, five hundred miles away from the
Atlantic coast, that this was vastly preferable to remaining in the
wilderness assailed by thousands of Indians guided by English energy and
abundantly provided with all the munitions of war from British arsenals.
But Boone knew very well that the Indians would never willingly assent
to this treaty. Still he and his fellow commissioners signed it while
very curious to learn how it would be regarded by their savage foes. The
commissioners on both sides had appeared at the appointed place of
conference, as is usual on such occasions, entirely unarmed. There were,
however, a large number of Indians lingering around and drawing nearer
as the conference proceeded. After the treaty was signed, the old Indian
chief Blackfish, Boone's adopted father, and who, exasperated by the
escape of his ungrateful son, had been watching him with a very
unamiable expression of countenance, arose and made a formal speech in
the most approved style of Indian eloquence. He commented upon the
bravery of the two armies, and of the desirableness that there should be
entire friendship between them, and closed by saying that it was a
custom with them on all such important occasions to ratify the treaty by
two Indians shaking hands with each white man.
This shallow pretense, scarcely up to the sagacity of children, by which
Blackfish hoped that two savages grappling each one of the commissioners
would easily be able to make prisoners of them, and then by threats of
torture compel the surrender of the fort, did not in the slightest
degree deceive Colonel Boone. He was well aware of his own strength and
of that of the men who accompanied him. He also knew that his riflemen
occupied concealed positions, from which, with unerring aim, they could
instantly punish the savages for any act of treachery. He therefore
consented to the arrangement. The grasp was given. Instantly a terrible
scene of confusion ensued.
The burly savages tried to drag off their victims. The surrounding
Indians rushed in to their aid, and a deadly fire was opened upon them
from the fort, which was energetically responded to by all the armed
savages from behind stumps and trees. One of the fiercest of battles had
instantly blazed forth. Still these stalwart pioneers were not taken by
surprise. Aided by the bullets of the fort, they shook off their
assailants, and all succeeded in escaping within the heavy gates, which
were immediately closed behind them. One only of their number, Boone's
brother, was wounded. This escape seems almost miraculous. But the
majority of the Indians in intelligence were mere children: sometimes
very cunning, but often with the grossest stupidity mingled with their
strategy.
Duquesne and Blackfish, the associated leaders, now commenced the siege
of the fort with all their energies. Dividing their forces into two
parties, they kept up an incessant fire upon the garrison for nine days
and nine nights. It was one of the most heroic of those bloody struggles
between civilization and barbarism, which have rendered the plains of
Kentucky memorable.
The savages were very careful not to expose themselves to the rifles of
the besieged. They were stationed behind rocks, and trees, and stumps,
so that it was seldom that the garrison could catch even a glimpse of
the foes who were assailing them. It was necessary for those within the
fort to be sparing of their ammunition. They seldom fired unless they
could take deliberate aim, and then the bullet was almost always sure to
reach its mark. Colonel Boone, in describing this attempt of the Indians
to capture the commissioners by stratagem, and of the storm of war which
followed, writes:
"They immediately grappled us, but, although surrounded by hundreds of
savages, we extricated ourselves from them and escaped all safe into the
garrison except one, who was wounded through a heavy fire from their
army. They immediately attacked us on every side, and a constant heavy
fire ensued between us, day and night, for the space of nine days. In
this time the enemy began to undermine our fort, which was situated
about sixty yards from the Kentucky river. They began at the water mark
and proceeded in the bank some distance, which we understood by their
making the water muddy with the clay. We immediately proceeded to
disappoint their design by cutting a trench across their subterranean
passage. The enemy discovering our counter mine by the clay we threw out
of the fort, desisted from that stratagem. Experience now fully
convincing them that neither their power nor their policy could effect
their purpose, on the twentieth of August they raised the siege and
departed.
"During this siege, which threatened death in every form, we had two men
killed and four wounded, besides a number of cattle. We killed of the
enemy thirty-seven and wounded a great number. After they were gone we
picked up one hundred and twenty-five pounds weight of bullets, besides
what stuck in the logs of our fort, which certainly is a great proof of
their industry."
It is said that during this siege, one of the negroes, probably a slave,
deserted from the fort with one of their best rifles, and joined the
Indians. Concealing himself in a tree, where unseen he could take
deliberate aim, he became one of the most successful of the assailants.
But the eagle eye of Boone detected him, and though, as was afterwards
ascertained by actual measurement, the tree was five hundred and
twenty-five feet distant from the fort, Boone took deliberate aim,
fired, and the man was seen to drop heavily from his covert to the
ground. The bullet from Boone's rifle had pierced his brain.
At one time the Indians had succeeded in setting fire to the fort, by
throwing flaming combustibles upon it, attached to their arrows. One of
the young men extinguished the flames, exposing himself to the
concentrated and deadly fire of the assailants in doing so. Though the
bullets fell like hailstones around him, the brave fellow escaped
unscathed.
This repulse quite disheartened the Indians. Henceforth they regarded
Boonesborough as a Gibraltar; impregnable to any force which they could
bring against it. They never assailed it again. Though Boonesborough is
now but a small village in Kentucky, it has a history which will render
it forever memorable in the annals of heroism.
It will be remembered that Boone's family, supposing him to have
perished by the hands of the Indians, had returned to the home of Mrs.
Boone's father in North Carolina. Colonel Boone, anxious to rejoin his
wife and children, and feeling that Boonesborough was safe from any
immediate attack by the Indians, soon after the dispersion of the
savages entered again upon the long journey through the wilderness, to
find his friends east of the mountains. In the autumn of 1778, Colonel
Boone again found himself, after all his wonderful adventures, in a
peaceful home on the banks of the Yadkin.
The settlements in Kentucky continued rapidly to increase. The savages
had apparently relinquished all hope of holding exclusive possession of
the country. Though there were occasional acts of violence and cruelty,
there was quite a truce in the Indian warfare. But the white settlers,
and those who wished to emigrate, were greatly embarrassed by
conflicting land claims. Many of the pioneers found their titles
pronounced to be of no validity. Others who wished to emigrate,
experienced great difficulty in obtaining secure possession of their
lands. The reputation of Kentucky as in all respects one of the most
desirable of earthly regions for comfortable homes, added to the desire
of many families to escape from the horrors of revolutionary war, which
was sweeping the sea-board, led to a constant tide of emigration beyond
the mountains.
Under these circumstances the Government of Virginia established a
court, consisting of four prominent citizens, to go from place to place,
examine such titles as should be presented to them, and to confirm those
which were good. This commission commenced its duties at St. Asaph. All
the old terms of settlement proposed by Henderson and the Transylvania
Company were abrogated. Thus Colonel Boone had no title to a single acre
of land in Kentucky. A new law however was enacted as follows:
"Any person may acquire title to so much unappropriated land, as he or
she may desire to purchase, on paying the consideration of forty pounds
for every one hundred acres, and so in proportion."
This money was to be paid to the State Treasurer, who would give for it
a receipt. This receipt was to be deposited with the State Auditor, who
would in exchange for it give a certificate. This certificate was to be
lodged at the Land Office. There it was to be registered, and a warrant
was to be given, authorizing the survey of the land selected. Surveyors
who had passed the ordeal of William and Mary College, having defined
the boundaries of the land, were to make a return to the Land Office. A
due record was there to be made of the survey, a deed was to be given in
the name of the State, which deed was to be signed by the Governor, with
the seal of the Commonwealth attached.
This was a perplexing labyrinth for the pioneer to pass through, before
he could get a title to his land. Not only Colonel Boone, but it seems
that his family were anxious to return to the beautiful fields of
Kentucky. During the few months he remained on the Yadkin, he was busy
in converting every particle of property he possessed into money, and in
raising every dollar he could for the purchase of lands he so greatly
desired. The sum he obtained amounted to about twenty thousand dollars,
in the depreciated paper currency of that day. To Daniel Boone this was
a large sum. With this the simple-hearted man started for Richmond to
pay it to the State Treasurer, and to obtain for it the promised