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the time when it was last heard from in Virginia. This messenger also bore two commissions, one of which promoted Clark from Lieutenant Colonel to Colonel, and Bowman from Captain to Major, a deserved honor in each instance to men who had surely deserved well of their country.

Thus ended the most momentous campaign against the English and their Indian allies. that has ever illumined the history of our country. Col. George Rogers Clark had not only protected Kentucky and saved it from the ravages of the Indians but he did more even than this. He had added to the domain of his country a magnificent territory out of which have since been carved the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and that part of Minnesota lying on the eastern shore of the Mississippi river. But for Clark and his genius and the indomitable spirit of himself and his men, that great territory would have been left as a possession of England and for aught the historian of today can say, may have remained to this day a portion of Canada. This is mere speculation; it is a certainty that Clark removed the

territory in question from the realm of uncertainty into that of fact.

Clark chafed under his inability, for lack of men and supplies, to reduce Detroit and Sandusky which he recognized as the bases of supplies, the heart of English occupancy and the points from which emanated the offers and inducements leading to Indian atrocities. "Had I been able to raise only 500 men," Clark afterwards stated, "when I first arrived in the country; or, when I was at St. Vincent (Vincennes) could I have secured my prisoners and have had only 300 men, I should have attempted it" (meaning the capture of Detroit and Sandusky). But he did. not have the needed men and was forced to relinquish his plans.

Captain John Todd soon arrived in the captured territory to assume the governorship, after which Colonel Clark, after sending a courier to Virginia with dispatches for Governor Henry and Thomas Jefferson announcing the complete success of the expedition, left the great domain he had won for his country and returned to the Falls of the Ohio.

CHAPTER XII.

BOONE CAPTURED SELF-SACRIFICE FOR OTHERS-TAKEN TO DETROIT-ADOPTED INTO INDIAN TRIBE-ESCAPES-REACHES BOONESBOROUGH GOES INDIAN HUNTING SURRENDER OF FORT DEMANDED REFUSE TO SURRENDER-FRENCH ATTEMPT DECEPTION-MINES AND COUNTERMINES THE SIEGE RAISED INCIDENTS OF SIEGE.

While Clark was engaged with his vast schemes looking to the conquest of the northwest and the driving therefrom of the English and their savage allies, events of moment were occurring in Kentucky.

In February, 1778, Daniel Boone and a party of thirty men were at the Blue Licks, on the Licking river, engaged in making salt for the settlements. Wandering in search of game from the camp of his associates, Boone was captured by a party of more than one hundred Indians who were en route to Boonesborough for an attack upon that station. It is probable that they had learned, through some of the means known only to the savage, that Boone was absent from the station and judged this to be an auspicious moment for an attack. Boone, in his autobiography, says that he was made a prisoner on February 7, 1778, which is probably the correct date. Of his captivity and his captors he writes: "They brought me on the 8th day to the Licks, where twenty-seven of my party were, three of them having previously returned home with the salt. I, knowing it was impossible for them to escape, capitulated with the enemy, and, at a distance, in their view, gave notice to my men of their situation, with orders not to resist but surrender themselves as captives."

The men at the Licks obeyed Boone and

soon joined him as captives. It is assumed that Boone knew the fort at Boonesborough not to be in condition for a siege and hoped, by offering himself and his men as hostages, the threatened attack might be averted. Had he not done this, Boonesborough must have fallen. Marshall, in his history of that period, perhaps correctly says: "Had the Indians, after taking Boone and his men prisoners, instead of returning home with their captives, marched on to Boonesborough they might either have taken the place by surprise or, using the influence their prisoners conferred on them, compelled a surrender of the garrison and, progressively acting on the same plan, it is probable that the two other forts would have fallen in the same way, and from the same advantage. It is hardly presumable that even if they had escaped surprise, they would have resisted a summons to surrender which might have been enforced by the massacre of the prisoners under their eyes."

Boone, knowing these matters intuitively, offered himself and his comrades willingly upon the altar of sacrifice in order that he might save the people of the three stations from death or capture and the women therein from a worse fate than any death had to offer. He proved himself now, as ever before and after, the intrepid pioneer and sol

dier ready to meet every emergency, to dare every fate regardless of the effect upon himself. He was a man.

Of the men who were prisoners with Boone, one (Stephen Hancock) escaped and made his way to Boonesborough where he made known the capture of Boone and the condition of the prisoners. Hancock, a gallant soldier of the frontier, was later the founder of a station in what became Madison county, which station bore his name. He was a gallant man, a frontiersman born, and left his impress upon the new country as one of its most intrepid Indian fighters.

Boone correctly judged the future movements of his captors. Elated by their unexpected success in the easy capture of so many prisoners without loss to themselves, they abandoned the march upon Boonesborough and countermarched upon their own undisputed territory.

In March, Boone and ten of his men were taken by the Indians to Detroit, a British garrison commanded by that same Colonel Hamilton to whom Colonel Clark referred as "the hair buyer," and whom he subsequently captured, as has been seen, at Vincennes. Hamilton treated his captives with humanity and civility, going so far as to offer the Indians à ransom of one hundred pounds for the release of Boone, at the same time assuring the latter that it was his intention to release him on parole. But if Hamilton, from whatever cause, had become attached to Boone, so also had the Indians, who vastly admired his skill as woodsman and hunter and refused to consider any terms of ransom. Boone, while naturally anxious to escape captivity, was much exercised by the failure of Colonel Hamilton's plan for his release. He had pretended, through motives of policy, to be entirely content and to find pleasure in the midst of his new surroundings with the Indians, and was fearful of exciting their suspicion by any showing of interest in the

offer of Hamilton. It is related that while at Detroit, several English gentlemen, perhaps attracted by his personality and sympathizing with his condition, offered loans of money to Boone, but, since he saw no present probability of an opportunity for repayment, he declined their generous offers. After a time Boone went with his captors to Chillicothe, leaving his ten comrades still prisoners at Detroit.

Arriving, after a march of fifteen days, at Chillicothe, Boone was speedily adopted as a son by one of the principal families of the Indians at that point. In addition to being one of the first of pioneers and among the bravest of Indian fighters, Boone was also a philosopher and proceeding upon the theory that what cannot be cured must be endured, he accepted the situation and submitted to all that was offered him by his captors with a seeming good grace. The ceremony of adoption must have appealed to whatever sense of the ludicrous he may have had, though it is difficult to imagine the possession of such a sense by a man so sternly engaged in the realities of frontier existence. Peck's "Life of Boone" describes the incidents of adoption as follows:

"The forms of this ceremony of adoption were in keeping with the nature of the savages and as severe as they were ludicrous. The hairs of the head and the beard were plucked out by a painful and tedious operation, one by one, excepting a tuft some three or four inches in diameter on the crown for the scalp lock, which was tied and dressed up with trinkets and feathers. The candidate was then taken into the river in a state of nudity and there thoroughly washed and rubbed, to take all his white blood out. This ablution, as well as the previous processes described, was performed by Indian women."

When the ablution was completed to the satisfaction of these Indian ladies, Boone was conducted to the council-house where he lis

tened to an address from the chief, in which he was informed as to the great honors conferred upon him. His head and face were then painted in the hideous savage style, at the conclusion of which Daniel Boone "the brave old pioneer" emerged in full panoply, as "a big Injun," it being assumed that he had been permitted to resume his customary raiment after the completion of his involuntary bath.

These Indians knew Boone; they knew his prowess as a hunter and as a fighter; they knew that alone and unguarded he had wandered through the wonderful wilds of Kentucky, and they imagined that in him they had discovered one who was a kindred spirit with themselves. Therefore they thought it an easy task to identify him with their tribe; to make him one of them and to have the benefit of his unusual skill as a hunter and his gallantry as a fighter. Boone knew these views of the Indians and, in his role as a philosopher, seemingly fell in with them. But his heart was with those back at Boonesborough and he bided his time; cautious, watchful, resourceful, he waited for his opportunity. It was the custom in the Indian tribes of that day to provide the man whom they adopted with a squaw to build his fires, prepare his food and perform such other duties as may be required by her lord and master. It is not known if this custom was adhered to in the case of Boone. When he finally returned to civilization, Daniel, who was then fifty years old, made no mention of any such incident. If the most interested party elected to remain silent on the subject, history can be generous and do the same without further comment. Certain it is that no blandishment of Indian maiden, no kindly treatment by his captors, could wean Boone from his love of liberty and the fellowship of his own people. His mind was ever on an escape and a return to his family in Kentucky.

Late in June of this year, 1778, a party of

Indians visited the Scioto Salt Lick in Ohio and Boone was with them. Returning to Chillicothe, Boone found over four hundred warriors full panoplied for warfare and about to set out for the capture and destruction of Boonesborough. Now or never, was the time for him to escape and warn the Kentuckians of the coming danger. It is a reflection upon the Indian, usually over-cautious and suspicious, that Boone under such cirsumstances, was permitted to go out alone ostensibly for the purpose of hunting. That hunting trip covered a large expanse of territory in Ohio and Kentucky to which latter Boone set his course. Marshall in his history, says: "So great was his anxiety that he made no attempt to kill anything to eat. The journey of one hundred and sixty miles was performed in five days upon a single meal of victuals which he had concealed in his blanket." This is a somewhat surprising statement, requiring one to believe that Boone, practically without sustenance, made his way through a trackless forest, crossing the Ohio river en route, at a rate of more than thirty miles per day.

Be that as it may, the important feature is that Boone reached Boonesborough on June 20th, finding the place but poorly conditioned for defense, but setting about at once to prepare for the expected attack. The return of this master mind to their counsels put new heart and life into the garrison and the necessary repairs were speedily made. Another prisoner, escaping from the Indians later than Boone, brought to the fort the intelligence that owing to the escape of the latter the threatened attack had been postponed for three weeks. The Indians had their spies in Kentucky and must have learned from them that the forts had all been strengthened to resist attack and their garrisons reinforced. This knowledge, together with the escape of Boone, may have operated to delay their threatened attack.

As the Indians did not come to hunt for Boone, the latter concluded to go out and hunt for them. Accordingly on August 1st, with nineteen men, he set out from the fort, his objective point being Paintcreektown, on the Scioto, which he proposed to surprise and capture. Simon Kenton was one of this party. When nearing the Indian encampment which it was proposed to attack, Kenton heard loud peals of laughter from a canebrake near him. He quickly concealed himself behind a tree just as two Indians came into view mounted on a pony one facing to the rear, the other to the front. It was their laughter Kenton had heard and which was speedily changed to the death moan. From his place behind a tree, Kenton fired instantly killing one of the Indians and severely wounding the other. Following the savage custom of that day, he rushed out to scalp the Indian whom he had killed, when he was suddenly surrounded by some thirty Indians. Dodging from tree to tree to escape their aim, he was only saved by the prompt arrival of Boone and his men who attacked and drove off the savages.

Spies were now sent forward to the vicinity of the town, who, on their return, reported that it was evacuated. Boone's generalship here came into play, and he reasoned correctly that the threatened attack on Boonesborough was about to be made. He thereupon determined to return as speedily as possible to that place, hoping to reach Boonesborough in advance of the Indians, thus giving warning to the garrison and allowing time for preparation to withstand the expected attack. Six days afterwards he passed the main body of the savages and on the seventh arrived safely at the fort.

On the following day the Indians, under command of Captain Duquesne, eleven other French Canadians and some of their own chiefs, appeared before the fort four hundred strong, and with the flag of England flying

over their headquarters. It was thus, in those early days that our English cousins "reached hands across the sea" to their kindred on this side.

This was the most formidable force any Kentucky fort had been called upon to resist, but there was no weakening before it. Boone was cool and collected. When a summons came demanding a surrender in the name of King George III, he asked for two days' time in which to consider it, which request was granted. A council was called and there were not fifty men to attend it. But those were men indeed. They could make a manly defense and die fighting for the women and children in the fort, or they could surrender and become the victims of savage barbarity. They did not hesitate but determined to hold the fort while life remained among them. The result of their deliberations was kept secret among those in the council. It is recorded in history that after the adjournment of the council each man went out to collect and bring into the fort such of his horses and cattle as could be found. How this was possible, with the fort surrounded by four hundred hostile Indians, no previous historian has found time to explain. This present historian also finds himself pressed for time.

At the expiration of the two days granted by the besiegers Boone mounted a bastion of the fort and announced to Duquesne that there would be no surrender of the fort, at the same time politely expressing his appreciation of the notice of the proposed attack and the time thus allowed him to prepare for defense. Duquesne had evidently expected a different response to his demand for a surrender, but, before beginning an attack, determined upon an artifice to decoy Boone and others of the garrison to the outside where he hoped to have them in his power. He thereupon declared that it was the order of Colonel Hamilton that he should take the garrison captives, treat them as prisoners of

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