Daniel Boone: The Pioneer of Kentucky
outwit, under equal advantages, the cunning savage.
"Sometimes the Indian following on his trail, watches him set his traps
on a shrub-belted stream, and passing up the bed, like Bruce of old, so
that he may leave no track, he lies in wait in the bushes until the
hunter comes to examine. Then waiting until he approaches his ambush
within a few feet, whiz flies the home-drawn arrow, never failing at
such close quarters to bring the victim to the ground. For one white
scalp, however, that dangles in the smoke of an Indian lodge, a dozen
black ones at the end of the hunt ornament the camp-fire of the
rendezvous.
"At a certain time when the hunt is over, or they have loaded their pack
animals, the trappers proceed to their rendezvous, the locality of which
has been previously agreed upon; and here the traders and agents of the
fur companies await them, with such assortments of goods as their hardy
customers may require, including generally a fair supply of alcohol. The
trappers drop in singly and in small bands, bringing their packs of
beaver to this mountain market, not unfrequently to the value of a
thousand dollars each, the produce of one hunt. The dissipation of the
rendezvous, however, soon turns the trapper's pocket inside out. The
goods brought by the traders, although of the most inferior quality, are
sold at enormous prices. Coffee twenty and thirty shillings a pint cup,
which is the usual measure; tobacco fetches ten and fifteen shillings a
plug; alcohol from twenty to fifty shillings a pint; gunpowder sixteen
shillings a pint cup, and all other articles at proportionately
exhorbitant prices.
"The rendezvous is one continued scene of drunkenness, gambling,
brawling and fighting, so long as the money and credit of the trappers
last. Seated Indian fashion around the fires, with a blanket spread
before them, groups are seen with their 'decks' of cards playing at
'euchre,' 'poker,' and 'seven-up,' the regular mountain games. The
stakes are beaver, which is here current coin; and when the fur is gone,
their horses, mules, rifles and shirts, hunting packs and breeches are
staked. Daring gamblers make the rounds of the camp, challenging each
other to play for the highest stake--his horse, his squaw if he have
one, and as once happened his scalp. A trapper often squanders the
produce of his hunt, amounting to hundreds of dollars, in a couple of
hours; and supplied on credit with another equipment, leaves the
rendezvous for another expedition which has the same result, time after
time, although one tolerably successful hunt would enable him to return
to the settlements and civilised life with an ample sum to purchase and
stock a farm, and enjoy himself in ease and comfort for the remainder of
his days.
"These annual gatherings are often the scene of bloody duels, for over
their cups and cards no men are more quarrelsome than your mountaineers.
Rifles at twenty paces settle all differences, and as may be imagined,
the fall of one or other of the combatants is certain, or, as sometimes
happens, both fall at the same fire."[H]
[Footnote H: Ruxton's Travels.]
CHAPTER XIV.
_Conclusion._
Colonel Boone Appeals to Congress--Complimentary Resolutions of the
Legislature of Kentucky.--Death of Mrs. Boone.--Catholic
Liberality.--Itinerant Preachers.--Grant by Congress to Colonel
Boone.--The Evening of his Days.--Personal Appearance.--Death and
Burial.--Transference of the Remains of Mr. and Mrs. Boone to Frankfort,
Kentucky.
Colonel Boone having lost all his property, sent in a memorial, by the
advice of his friends, to the Legislature of Kentucky, and also another
to Congress. Kentucky was now a wealthy and populous State, and was not
at all indisposed to recognise the invaluable services she had received
from Colonel Boone. In allusion to these services Governor Moorehead
said:
"It is not assuming too much to declare, that without Colonel Boone, in
all probability the settlements could not have been upheld; and the
conquest of Kentucky might have been reserved for the emigrants of the
nineteenth century."
What obstacle stood in the way of a liberal grant of land by the
Kentucky Legislature we do not know. We simply know that by a unanimous
vote of that body, the following preamble and resolution were passed:
"The Legislature of Kentucky, taking into view the many eminent services
rendered by Colonel Boone, in exploring and settling the western
country, from which great advantages have resulted, not only to this
State, but to this country in general, and that from circumstances over
which he had no control, he is now reduced to poverty; not having, so
far as appears, an acre of land out of the vast territory he has been a
great instrument in peopling; believing also that it is as unjust as it
is impolitic, that useful enterprise and eminent services should go
unrewarded by a Government where merit confers the only distinction; and
having sufficient reason to believe that a grant of ten thousand acres
of land, which he claims in Upper Louisiana, would have been confirmed
by the Spanish Government, had not said territory passed by cession into
the hands of the General Government; therefore
"Resolved by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky: That
our Senators in Congress be requested to make use of their exertions to
procure a grant of land in said territory to said Boone, either the ten
thousand acres to which he appears to have an equitable claim, from the
grounds set forth to this Legislature, by way of confirmation, or to
such quantity in such place as shall be deemed most advisable by way of
donation."
While this question was pending before Congress, Colonel Boone met with
the heaviest grief he had thus far encountered on his stormy pilgrimage.
In the month of March, 1813, his wife, whom he tenderly loved, died at
the age of seventy-six. She had been one of the best of wives and
mothers, seeking in all things to conform to the wishes of her husband,
and aid him in his plans. She was a devoted wife and a loving mother.
Colonel Boone selected upon the summit of a ridge the place for her
burial, and marked out the spot for his own grave by her side.
We have no means of knowing what were the religious views which
sustained Mrs. Boone in her dying hour. Her life was passed in the
discharge of the humble duties of a home in the wilderness, and she had
no biographer. But we do know that the religion of Jesus had penetrated
many of these remote cabins, and had ennobled the lives of many of these
hardy pioneers.
Under the Spanish Government, the Roman Catholic Religion was the
established religion of the province, and none other was openly
tolerated. Still, the authorities were so anxious to encourage
emigration from the United States, that they avoided any rigorous
enforcement of the law. Each emigrant was required to be "a good
Catholic," _un bon Catholique_. But by connivance of the authorities,
only a few general questions were asked, such as:
"Do you believe in Almighty God? in the Holy Trinity? in the true
Apostolic Church? in Jesus Christ our Saviour? in the Holy Evangelists?"
The ceremony was closed by the declaration that the applicant was _un
bon Catholique_. Thus many Protestant families entered the Spanish
territory, and remained undisturbed in their religious principles.
Protestant clergymen crossed over the Mississippi river and, unmolested,
preached the gospel in the log cabins of the settlers. The Catholic
priests received their salaries from the Spanish crown, and no taxes for
religion were imposed.
The Reverend John Clark, a very zealous Christian minister, made monthly
excursions to the Spanish territory. The commandant at St. Louis, Mr.
Trudeau, would take no notice of his presence till the time when he knew
that Mr. Clark was about to leave. Then he would send a threatening
message ordering him to leave within three days. One of the emigrants,
Mr. Murich, of the Baptist persuasion, who knew the commandant very
well, petitioned for permission to hold religious meetings at his house
and to have Mr. Clark preach. Mr. Trudeau replied:
"You must not put a bill upon your house, or call it a church. But if
any of your friends choose to meet at your house, sing, pray, and talk
about religion, you will not be molested provided you continue, as I
suppose you are, _un bon Catholique_."
Thus, in reality, there was scarcely any restraint in those remote
regions, even under the Spanish regime, imposed upon religious freedom.
Christian songs, the penitential and the triumphant, often ascended,
blended with prayers and praises from these lonely and lowly homes in
the wilderness. Thus characters were formed for heaven, and life was
ennobled, and often far more of true nobility of soul and more real and
satisfying enjoyment were found in those log huts, illumined only by the
blaze of the pitch pine knot, than Louis XIV. and his courtiers ever
experienced amidst the splendors and the luxuries of Versailles and of
Marly.
We do not know that Colonel Boone ever made a public profession of his
faith in Christ, though somewhere we have seen it stated that he died an
honored member of the Methodist Church. It is certain that the religious
element predominated in his nature. He was a thoughtful, serious,
devout, good man. He walked faithfully in accordance with the light and
the privileges which were conferred upon him in his singularly
adventurous life.
Colonel Boone was seventy-nine years of age when Congress conferred upon
him a grant of eight hundred and fifty acres of land. He had never
repined at his lot, had never wasted his breath in unavailing murmurs.
He contentedly took life as it came, and was ever serene and cheerful.
But this grant of land, though it came so late, greatly cheered him. He
was no longer dependent upon others. He had property rapidly increasing
in value to leave to the children and the grand-children he so tenderly
loved. His aged limbs would no longer allow him to expose himself to the
vicissitudes of hunting, and he took up his abode with one of his sons,
enjoying, perhaps, as serene and happy an old age as ever fell to the
lot of mortals. His conversation often gathered charmed listeners around
him, for he had a very retentive memory, and his mind was crowded with
the incidents of his romantic career. It is said that at this period of
his life an irritable expression never escaped his lips. His
grand-children vied with each other in affectionate attentions to one
whom they ardently loved, and of whose celebrity they were justly proud.
Colonel Galloway, the gentleman whose two daughters were captured, with
one of the daughters of Colonel Boone, in a boat by the Indians, which
event our readers will recall to mind, visited Colonel Boone in Missouri
about this time. He gives a very pleasing description of the gentle and
genial old man, as he then found him.
His personal appearance was venerable and attractive, very neatly clad
in garments spun, woven, and made in the cabin. His own room consisted
of a cabin by itself, and was in perfect order. "His countenance was
pleasant, calm, and fair, his forehead high and bold, and the soft
silver of his hair in unison with his length of days. He spoke feelingly
and with solemnity of being a creature of Providence, ordained by heaven
as a pioneer in the wilderness to advance the civilization and the
extension of his country. He professed the belief that the Almighty had
assigned to him a work to perform, and that he had only followed the
pathway of duty in the work he had pursued; that he had discharged his
duty to God and his country by following the direction of Providence."
His stormy day of life had passed away into an evening of unusual beauty
and serenity.