Newspaper Page Text
Entered according to Act of Congress, in June, 1867, by J. W. Burke & Cos., in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the So. District of Georgia.
Vol. I.
Written for Burke’s Weekly.
DANIEL BOONE.
HIS remarkable man was
a native of Virginia, and
. was k° rn about the year
1737. He was skilled, at
Ms an early age, in the use
of the rifle, and was a noted marks-
JAY man and hunter long before he left
n|| his native State. From Virginia
he removed to North Carolina, but
at what age we have no means of
ascertaining. While living in this
State, he spent most of his time
hunting in the then wilderness
country near the Cumberland moun
tains.
His own account of his discovery
of Kentucky was that himself, his
brother Squire, and a servant boy,
were taking a hunt in Powell’s Val
ley, when he found a gap, or low
place in the mountain. He ascend
ed to the top of the mountain, from
whence he imagined that he could
see the Ohio river. He thought it
the most beautiful country he had
overseen, and returned to the camp,
telling his brother what he had
seen, and that they must go up and
cross the mountain. They did so,
and found the deer so plentiful that
they soon loaded their seven horses
with skins, and Boone started his
brother and the servant boy back with
them to North Carolina. lie instructed
his brother to bring back with him as
many horses as he could get, and he would
have skins enough to load them all by
the time he returned. The brother and
servant left, and Boone remained in the
new country hunting for eight months,
during all of which time ho never saw the
face of a white man. In all this time he
declared that he never enjoyed himself
better—his only companions being his
faithful dogs, who guarded his camp from
MACON, Gs A., JANUARY 18, 1868.
foes at night, and aided him in hunting
by day.
At the end of eight months, Boone’s
brother and servant boy came back with
fourteen horses, and as the packs were
all ready, they loaded their horses and
started for home in a day or two. “They
traveled the first day, and until about ten
o’clock the next day, when he saw four
Indians, with as many horses, loaded with
beaver fur. They wore crossing each
other, and seeing plainly that they must
‘?W •^^sa^[ji|y3psSiSS^y'«^fc'^wS^ytT\voilL
meet, he cautioned his brother and the
boy not to let the Indians have their guns
out of their hands, for they would be sure
to want to got them, under pretence of
wanting to examine them. V» hen they
came up to the Indians, as Boone expect
ed, they tried to get the guns, but failed.
They then went round Boone’s horses
and drove them off with their own.
Thinking it not prudent to attack four
Indians, with no one to assist him but one
man and a boy, Boone allowed them to
depart, and he and his. party set off foi
home, feeling very badly at the loss of
their property. But the next day, at ten
o’clock, he told his brother and the boy
that if they would “ stick to him ” he
would turn back and follow the Indians,
“ even to their towns, but what he would
have his skins and horses back again.
They assented to it, and immediately pur
sued hard after them, and came in sight
of them the first day. ‘ Now,’ said Boone,
‘we must trail them on until they stop
to eat.’
“The Indians at length halted,
hoppled their horses, cooked and
ate; Boone and his companions
watching them all the time. He
well knew that, having eaten, they
would lie down to sleep except one.
They did so, and the one left on
o-uard sat on a log at the head of
the others, and Boone and his boys
had to creep on all-fours for a hun
dred yards, in order to get near
enough to shoot. Boone told his
brother that lie would take for his
own mark the one on the log; the
brother must aim at the one on the
right, and the boy at the one on the
left; and that, when he gave the
signal, they must fire and keep
loading and shooting, making as
much noise, and using as many dif
ferent tones as they could.” They
fired, but only the Indian on the log
was killed, and the others bore him
off. The Indians fled in disorder, and
Boone and his party followed them for
three-quarters of a mile, shouting and
yelling. They then came back, toqk
their own horses and those of the Indians,
put on the loads of skins and beaver fur,
and drove them safe into North Carolina.
Boone finally moved into Kentucky,
about the year 1775, and built a fort at a
salt spring, on the Kentucky river, where
Boonesborough is now situated. He liv
ed in Kentucky until 1798, when he re
moved to Upper Louisiana, which at that
No. 29