



Produced by Donald Cummings, from images made available by Google Books.








                             DANIEL BOONE
                             BACKWOODSMAN

                            SECOND EDITION




_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_


  JOHN SMITH
  GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER

An interesting work on the life and times of this famous soldier of
fortune and American colonist, intended primarily for the young, but of
such a character as to appeal to all.

“A good, strong, interest compelling narrative, and a valuable addition
to a boy’s library.”--_The Sun_, New York.

“Historical fiction that appears to show him [Smith] in a clearer
and more truthful light than has ever before been shed.”--_The
Courier-Journal_, Louisville.

“The book will be read with great interest by both old and young, for
all men love adventures of the Smith type.”--_The Republic_, St. Louis.

“Should mightily interest every boy who loves his country.”--_The
Inter-Ocean_, Chicago.

  _With four full-page illustrations in color by_
  HARRY B. LACHMAN
  12 mo.      Cloth, $1.50




[Illustration: IMMEDIATELY HE BECAME A TARGET]




                             Daniel Boone
                             BACKWOODSMAN

                                  BY
                         C. H. FORBES-LINDSAY

         Author of “John Smith, Gentleman Adventurer,” “India:
                 Past and Present,” “America’s Insular
                          Possessions,” etc.


                        _WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY_
                            FRANK McKERNAN


             “Who passes for in life and death most lucky,
              Of the great names which in our faces stare
              Is Daniel Boone, backwoodsman of Kentucky.”

                                                  --BYRON


                            [Illustration]


                         PHILADELPHIA & LONDON
                       J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
                                 1909




                            COPYRIGHT, 1908
                      BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY


                       Published September, 1908


         _Electrotyped and printed by J. B. Lippincott Company
         The Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U. S. A._




CONTENTS


 CHAPTER                              PAGE
      I THE AMERICAN BACKWOODSMAN        9
     II HARDY GOODFELLOW                24
    III THE YOUNG HUNTER                39
     IV THE DARING PIONEER              54
      V IN FAIR KENTUCKY                68
     VI HARDY’S FIRST INDIAN            86
    VII THE CAPTURE OF BOONE           101
   VIII THE HANNIBAL OF THE WEST       116
     IX THE VICTORY OF VINCENNES       131
      X A FEAT OF STRENGTH             145
     XI “BIG TURTLE”                   160
    XII DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND            174
   XIII BOONESBOROUGH IS BESIEGED      188
    XIV KENTON’S STORY                 202
     XV THE YOUNG SCOUT                216
    XVI THE WHITE SQUAW                229
   XVII A STRING OF DISASTERS          243
  XVIII “THE BLOODY YEAR”              257
    XIX SIMON GIRTY, RENEGADE          270
     XX BATTLE OF THE BLUE LICKS       285
    XXI AN OLD BIRD                    300
   XXII THE LAST HUNT                  311




ILLUSTRATIONS


                                                        PAGE

 IMMEDIATELY HE BECAME A TARGET        _Frontispiece_

 “MY SCALP, I RECKON, YOUNG FELLOW”                       96

 BOONE WAS NEARING THE LIMIT OF HIS ENDURANCE            155

 HIS WEAPON WHIZZED THROUGH THE AIR AND BURIED
    ITSELF IN THE SKULL OF THE FOREMOST                  296




Daniel Boone




I.

THE AMERICAN BACKWOODSMAN

The backwoods town in colonial days--The place of the backwoodsmen in
the march of progress--Boone and his descendants among the leading
pioneers--How the backwoods fighters forced the boundary westward--The
frontier farmer was necessarily hunter and fighter--The character of
the backwoodsman and his manner of life--The dwellings, dress and
weapons of the frontier--Daniel Boone, a typical backwoodsman--His
birth and boyhood in a frontier settlement--His parents migrate to
North Carolina--Then he marries and settles on the border--He explores
Kentucky and forms a determination to settle there.


We shall be able to follow the story of Daniel Boone with a better
understanding if, before entering upon it, we take a brief survey of
the country in which his entire life was passed and the people among
whom he lived--the American backwoods and the American backwoodsmen.

At the outbreak of the Revolution the American colonies extended no
farther west than the Alleghany Mountains, and consisted of the narrow
strip of territory lying between that rocky wall and the Atlantic
seaboard. By far the greater portion of the population dwelt along the
coast in urban centres, or in comparatively closely settled districts
which had been cleared and cultivated. In this belt were found the
large plantations and wealthy slave-owners. Beyond it, the land was
covered with virgin forest, dense, impenetrable, except along the
trails, and infested by wild beasts and savages.

In the portion of this region that lay nearest to civilization a rude
backwoods town might be found here and there. It lay in a clearing of
a few hundred acres, and usually at the junction of several frequented
trails. It consisted of a cluster of log cabins, a general store,
perhaps a smithy, a school, a tavern, and court-house. The inhabitants
seldom numbered more than three or four hundred. It may not be strictly
proper to speak of a people to whose midst the schoolmaster and the
judge penetrated, as beyond the bounds of civilization, and, of
course, the expression is used in a comparative sense. The backwoods
dominie was hardly worth considering as an educational factor. He was
generally ignorant, frequently intemperate, and sometimes immoral. The
law lost much of its wonted majesty in a community where an unpopular
judge was liable to be mobbed and a dishonest sheriff to be lynched.

The fact is that these people were entirely different from the
colonists of the coast--different in origin, in religion, in manners,
and customs. With splendid natural qualities, such as made them
peculiarly fitted to act as the pioneers of the nation, they were rude,
unlettered, and impatient of restraint. In the upbuilding of the infant
nation, these pathfinders formed the muscle and sinew, whilst the older
communities supplied the brain. Although both classes were essentially
Americans, in the Revolutionary period they had hardly anything in
common but their patriotism.

The inhabitants of the backwoods towns were in general the less bold
spirits. Deeper in the forest wilderness were found more daring souls,
scattered along the mountain border that divided the colonies from the
Indian territory. They lived face to face and in constant touch with
the fierce savages, and acted as a buffer to their countrymen behind
them.

The term “backwoods” conflicts somewhat with a proper sense of the
actual situation. From the time that they turned their backs on the
mother country, our people faced steadily towards the west, and
maintained a forward march in that direction until they reached the
distant shores of the continent. A marked peculiarity of the class we
have under consideration is that when they arrived in the country, they
pushed through the ranks of the colonists and, assuming the vanguard,
continued at the head of the advance, first taking possession of
Kentucky and Tennessee, then settling Mississippi and Missouri, and
ultimately marching across the continent to the Pacific. Son followed
father, and continued on when the latter lay in the peace of the grave.
Two children of Boone were among the first Americans to make homes
beyond the “Father of Waters”; a grandson was the first settler in
Kansas; another among the earliest in Colorado; and a third--the famous
Kit Carson--acted as scout and guide to the expedition of General
Frémont.

Many backwoods families devoted themselves, through several generations,
to the winning of the wilderness with rifle and axe. The debt of the
nation to these people is a heavy one. They may be compared to the
outposts of an encamped army, the border settlers being the sentries,
stretching along the enemy’s face, and the backwoods towns the pickets.
As an army sleeps in security behind its outposts, so was the main body
of the colonists, screened from the Indians by the backwoods settlers,
enabled to build up towns and cultivate its plantations in safety. And
as, when an army resumes the march, the outpost of the night before
forms the advance guard, so these border sentinels were ever in the
front of our territorial progress.

In 1783 the western boundary of the United States had been carried
forward to the Mississippi River. The large area between it and the
Alleghanies had been won for us by the dauntless backwoodsmen after
a decade of intense struggle. By holding the border Indians in check
they performed a valuable service to the colonies in their fight for
freedom. The settlement of Kentucky made possible the capture of the
British posts in the Illinois and Indiana regions, and paved the way
for the acquisition of our Western territory.

Whilst working out the destiny of a nation, the simple-minded
backwoodsmen were quite unconscious of any such high purpose. They
pushed forward into the wilderness because land was to be had
there for practically nothing. They desired to make homes for their
children, and were willing to risk their lives in the venture. As to
the hardships, they and their fathers had been accustomed to arduous
poverty in the old country. The life of the hunter, which was an
inseparable part of backwoods existence, appealed to them as it does to
all healthy men. In fact, the majority of them grew to love their hard
lot, with its constant adventure. Many, like Boone, became so enamoured
of the life, despite its dangers and hardships, that they shunned the
approach of civilization and moved farther into the forest whenever the
region they had opened up began to be at all thickly populated.

The backwoodsman was at once hunter, fighter, and farmer. He could
not look for aid or protection from the Government. He had to depend
upon his own resources and, even in the acquisition of new territory,
upon his own strong right arm. This was particularly the case with the
pioneer settlers of Kentucky, for the movement took place when all the
men and material available were needed to strengthen the Continental
forces, and the backwoodsmen battling with the Indian allies of the
British had difficulty in getting sufficient powder and lead to carry
on the conflict. Every man and youth was a home-made soldier. Most of
the women could handle a rifle, and the annals of the frontier teem
with stories of brave mothers and daughters who, in the absence of
their men-folk, successfully defended their cabins against the attacks
of savages. In the frequent sieges of the forts the women loaded the
weapons, moulded bullets, and sometimes stood to a port-hole. It is
significant of the life of the backwoodsmen that every male among them
who was old enough to carry fire-arms was spoken of as a “gun.”

For the most part, the people of the backwoods were of Scotch or Irish
descent, with a strong sprinkling of English and Germans, but in the
second generation differences of nationality were rarely detectable.
Their characters and even their physical traits were greatly affected
by the peculiar conditions of their lives, which created a type the
members of which were all much alike, whilst they differed widely from
the colonists in general. Their isolation tended to develop some of the
best human qualities. It taught them independence and self-reliance and
at the same time prompted them to help one another. On the border men
practiced the golden rule and maintained a homely code of morality
and justice. They were hard, rough and self-contained, but neither
ungenerous, cruel, nor morose.

In their dealings with hostile Indians the backwoodsmen may appear to
have exercised merciless severity, but that is hardly to be wondered
at when the provocation is considered. The wanton barbarity of their
enemies hardened them and goaded them to revenge. This sometimes took
the form of deplorable cruelty but, as a rule, the backwoodsmen were
neither inhuman nor bloodthirsty. They fought in defence of their homes
and property, and when they carried the conflict into the Indian’s
country it was usually in retaliation for an attack and with a view to
checking further hostilities. The settler was always glad to live in
peace if he might.

As to the respective rights of the white men and their red foes,
a great deal has been said on both sides, and perhaps it would be
impossible to exactly weigh the equities in the case. It was, however,
inevitable that a growing and energetic race should have contested the
possession of the soil with the mere handful of savages that did not
occupy it but merely roamed over it, hunting and camping here and
there and keeping up a perpetual warfare among themselves. They set up
claims, it is true, to the exclusive possession of certain large areas
but, even among themselves, such claims were only sustained by superior
strength, and one tribe frequently ousted another from its accustomed
territory.

The most ardent defenders of the Indians must find it difficult to
establish a case of trespass against the settlers of Kentucky. The
territory that is now comprised within that State was ceded by the
Indians in more than one treaty and purchased for a definite sum.
Moreover, it had not been the home or country of any particular tribe,
but was held as a hunting-ground common to all and in which none were
allowed to settle. It contained no permanent Indian villages, nor was
an acre of its soil cultivated until the white man cleared the land.

The pioneers of the wilderness made their settlements in groups of five
or six families. The first thing they did was to erect their cabins and
form a fort. This was usually accomplished by raising the former in
a row and making their backs one side of a palisaded enclosure, with
blockhouses at the corners. This was the refuge of all during an attack
by the Indians, but otherwise each family lived in a cabin upon its
farm. The clearings were generally four hundred acres in extent and lay
at some distance from each other in the heart of the forest. The trees
having been felled, the settler left the stumps standing, rolled the
trunks to one side and burned the branches on the spot. He then planted
his fields with maize or other cereals. Some stock was raised and a
few sheep, but only in sufficient numbers to supply local needs. Corn,
or maize, was the principal reliance of the frontier farmer. His wife
made a coarse flour and hominy from it, and a bag of the parched grains
served him for food on his hunting expeditions.

The backwoods cabin was commonly a one-roomed structure of unhewn
logs, chinked with clay and moss. After a while, when the owner became
fairly settled and had his fields in good order, this would give place
to a larger building, containing perhaps as many as three rooms and
an attic reached by a ladder. A huge stone fireplace occupied one end
of the cabin, and the door was always furnished with heavy bolts. The
logs were hewn, at least on the inside, and the roof covered with
clapboards. There was little furniture and few utensils in such a
place. The table was a board set on trestles, and three-legged stools
served to sit upon. The beds were rough wooden contrivances covered
with skins. The dishes and platters were often of wood and the spoons
and forks of pewter, the hunting-knife serving admirably to cut the
meat. The family depended very largely upon its head to furnish the
larder with venison and bear-steaks.

The dress of the backwoodsman was a distinctive one. He wore a
hunting-shirt of buckskin, or homespun, ornamented with a fringe of
the same material, or perhaps with porcupine quills. It was a loose
tunic, descending nearly to the knees and fastened round the waist with
a belt, from which were suspended the tomahawk and hunting-knife. From
his shoulders hung by a strap the powder-horn and bullet-pouch, in
which he also carried spare flints. On his head he wore a fur cap or
a soft felt hat, and his feet were covered with moccasins, after the
fashion of the Indians, from whom the dress was in large part borrowed.
His legs were encased in leather leggings or trousers.

The backwoodsman’s principal weapon was the heavy flint-lock rifle. It
was five feet, and sometimes slightly more, in length, and although it
did not carry very far was exceedingly accurate. The most marvellous
feats of marksmanship were performed by some of the pioneers with these
weapons. Every boy learned to shoot almost as soon as he was strong
enough to lift a gun, and his training in woodcraft commenced even
earlier, so that it is not surprising that many a youth, such as Kit
Carson and Simon Kenton, exhibited the qualities of the expert hunter
and Indian fighter before his beard was grown.

There was little money in the backwoods, pelts serving instead. Almost
all the needs of the people were supplied by themselves. The women made
homespun, in which they clothed the children and themselves. Every man
was something of a smith, and most of the rifles were of backwoods
manufacture. The men tanned the skins and their wives sewed them into
foot-gear and garments. Trenchers and bowls, and even harrows and
sleds, were made without much difficulty.

There were, however, a few very necessary articles for which the
settlers had to depend upon the outside world. These were salt, iron,
powder and lead. In the fall the members of a settlement would make a
joint collection of fur-skins and send two or three of their number to
some large town, such as Baltimore, to get what was needed. Thus, a
train of several peltry-laden horses would make the long, slow journey
over a distance which we may cover in these days in two or three hours.

Daniel Boone was a typical backwoodsman. Born in a frontier