Daniel Boone by John Stevens Cabot Abbott : Chapter 5

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Chapter five of Daniel Boone by John S. C Abbot.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recorded by
Alison Hester, Chapter five, Indian Warfare. The valley of the
Clinch River is but one of the many magnificent ravines
amid the gigantic ranges of the Allegheny Mountains. Boone, speaking

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of these ridges which he so often had occasion to cross, says,
these mountains in the wilderness, as we pass from the
old settlements in Virginia to Kentucky, are ranged in a
southwest and northeast direction, and are of great length and breadth,
and not far distant from each other. Over them, nature

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hath formed passes that are less difficult than might be
expected from a view of such huge piles. The aspect
of these cliffs is so wild and horrid that it
is impossible to behold them without terror. The spectator is
apt to imagine that nature has formerly suffered some violent convulsion,
and that these are the dismembered remains of the dreadful shock.

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One cannot but regret that no memorials are left of
a wonderful journey, full of romantic interest and exciting adventure,
which Boone at one time took to the Falls of
the Ohio to warn some surveyors of their danger. He
reached them in safety, rescued them from certain death, and
conducted them triumphantly back to the settlements. So long as

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the white men, with their rifles, could keep upon the
open prairie, they could defend themselves from almost any number
of Indians, who could only assail them with bows and arrows.
But the moment they entered the forest or any ravine
among the hills, the little band was liable to hear
the war whoop of a thousand Indian braves in the

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ambush around, and to be assailed by a storm of
arrows and javelins from unseen hands. A few days after
Boone's arrival at the encampment near the Falls of the Ohio,
and as the surveyors were breaking camp in preparation for
their precipitate retreat, several of their number, who had gone
to a spring at a short distance from the camp,

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were suddenly attacked on the twentieth of July by a
large party of Indians. One was instantly killed, the rest,
being nearly surrounded, fled as best they could in all directions.
One man hotly pursued, rushed along an Indian trail till
he reached the Ohio River. Here he chanced to find

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a bark canoe. He jumped into it and pushed out
into the rapid stream till beyond the reach of the
Indian arrows. The swift current bore him down the river
by curves and headlands, till he was far beyond the encampment.
To return against the strong flood, with the savages watching
for him, seemed perilous, if not impossible. It is said

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that he floated down the whole length of the Ohio
and of the Mississippi, a distance not less probably counting
the curvatures of the stream, than two thousand miles, and
finally found his way by sea to Philadelphia, probably in
some vessel which he encountered near the coast. This is
certainly one of the most extraordinary voyages which ever occurred.

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It was midsummer, so that he could not suffer from cold.
Grapes often hung in rich clusters in the forests which
lined the river banks, and various kinds of nutritious berries
were easily gathered to satisfy hunger. As these men never
went into the forest without the rifle and a supply
of ammunition. And as they never lost a bullet by

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an inaccurate shot, it is not probable that our adventurers
suffered from hunger. But the incidents of such a voyage
must have been so wonderful that it is greatly to
be regretted that we have no record of them. The
apprehensions of Lord Dunmore respecting the conspiracy of the Indians,
proved to have been well founded. Though Boon, with his

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great sagacity, led his little band by safe paths back
to the settlements, a very fierce warfare immediately blazed forth
all along the Virginia frontier. This conflict with the Indians,
very brief and very bloody, is usually called Lord Dunmore's War.
The white men have told the story, and they admit

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that the war arose in consequence of cold blooded murders
committed upon inoffensive Indians in the region of the Upper Ohio.
One of the provocatives to this war was the assassination
by fiendlike white men of the whole family of the
renowned Indian chief Logan, in the vicinity of the city

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of Wheeling. Logan had been the friend of the white man,
But exasperated by these outrages, he seized his tomahawk, breathing
only vengeance. General Gibson was sent to one of the
Shawneese towns to confer with Logan and to detach him
from the conspiracy against the whites. It was on this

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occasion that Logan made that celebrated speech, whose pathetic eloquence
will ever move the human heart. I appeal to any
white man to say, if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry,
and I gave him not meat, if ever he came
cold or naked, and I gave him not clothing. During

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the course of the last, long and bloody war, Logan
remained in his tent, an advocate of peace. Nay, such
was my love for the whites, that those of my
own country pointed at me and said, Logan is a
friend of white men. I had even thought to live
with you, but for the injuries of one man, Colonel Craysop,

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the last spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, cut off
all the relatives of Logan, not sparing even my woman
and children. There runs not a drop of my blood
in the veins of any human creature. This called on
me for revenge. I have killed many, I have fully
glutted my vengeance for my country. I rejoice at the

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beams of peace, yet do not harbor the thought that
mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear.
He will not return on his hill to save his life.
Who is there to mourn for Logan? This war, though
it lasted but a few months, was very sanguinary. Every
exposed point on the extensive Virginia frontier was assailed. Cabins

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were burned, harvests were trampled down, cattle driven off, and men,
women and children either butchered or carried into captivity. More
dreadful than death, the peril was so dreadful that the
most extraordinary efforts on the part of the Virginian government
were requisite. To meet it. An army of three thousand

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men was raised in the utmost haste. This force was
in two divisions. One of eleven hundred men rendezvoused in
what is now Greenbrier County and marched down the valley
of the Great Canawa to its entrance into the Ohio
at a place now named Point Pleasant Lord Dudmore. With
the remaining nineteen hundred crossed the Cumberland Mountains to Wheeling,

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and thence descended the Ohio in boats to form a
junction with the other party at the mouth of the
Great Canawa. Thence united, they were to march across the
country about forty miles due west to the valley of
the Scioto. The banks of this lovely stream were lined
with Indian villages in a high state of prosperity. Cornfields

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waved luxuriantly around their humble dwellings. They were living at
peace with each other and relied far more upon the
produce of the soil than upon the chase for their support.
It was the plan of Lord Dunmore to sweep this
whole region with utter desolation and entirely to exterminate them,
the Indians. But the savages did not await his arrival

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in their own homes. Many of them had obtained guns
and ammunition from the French in Canada, with whom they
seemed to have lived on the most friendly terms. In
a well ordered army for Indian warfare, whose numbers cannot
now with certainty be known. They crossed the Ohio below
the mouth of the Great Kanawa, and marching through the

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forest in the rear of the hills fell by surprise,
very impetuously upon the rear of the encampment at point pleasant.
The Indians seemed to be fully aware that their only
safety was in the energies of desperation. One of the
most bloody battles was then fought which ever occurred in
Indian warfare. Though the Virginians, with far more potent weapons,

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repelled their assailants, they paid dearly for their victory. Two
hundred and fifteen of the Virginians fell dead or severely
wounded beneath the bullets or arrows of their foes. The
loss which the savages incurred could never be ascertained with accuracy.
It was generally believed that several hundred of their warriors
were struck down on that bloody field. The Whites, accustomed

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to Indian warfare and skilled in the use of the rifle,
scarcely fired a shot which did not reach its mark.
In the cautious warfare between the tribes, fighting with arrows
from behind trees, the loss of fifteen or twenty warriors
was deemed a great calamity. Now to find hundreds of
their braves weltering in blood was awful beyond precedent and

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gave them new ideas of the prowess of the white man.
In this conflict, the Indians manifested a very considerable degree
of military ability, Having constructed a breastwork of logs behind
which they could retreat in case of a repulse, they
formed in a long line extending across the point from
the Kanawa to the Ohio. Then they advanced in the

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impetuous attack through the forest, protected by logs and stumps
and trees. Had they succeeded in their assault, there would
have been no possible escape for the Virginian troops. They
must have been annihilated. The Indians had assembled on that
field nearly all the warriors of four powerful tribes, the Shawnee, Delaware, Mingo,

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and weind Dots. After the repulse, panic stricken, they fled
through the wilderness, unable to make any other stand against
their foes. Lord Dunmore, with his triumphant army, flushed with
victory and maddened by its serious loss, marched rapidly down
the left bank of the Ohio, and then crossed into
the valley of the Scioto to sweep it with flame.

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We have no accounts of the details of this cruel expedition,
but the following graphic description of a similar excursion into
the land belonging to the Cherokees will give one a
vivid idea of the nature of these conflicts. The celebrated
Francis Marion, who was an officer in the campaign and
an eye witness of the scenes which he describes, gives

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the following narrative of the events which ensued. Now commenced
a scene of devastations scarcely paralleled in the annals of
this continent. For thirty days the army employed themselves in
burning and ravaging the settlements of the broken, spirited Indians.
No less than fourteen of their towns were laid in ashes,

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Their granaries were yielded to the flames, their corn fields ravaged,
while the miserable fugitives flying from the sword took refuge
with their starving families among the mountains. As the lands
were rich and the season had been favorable, the corn
was bending under the double weight of lusty roasting ears

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and pods and clustering beams. The furrows seemed to rejoice
under their precious loads. The fields stood thick with bread.
We encamped the first night in the woods near the fields,
where the whole army feasted on the young corn, which,
with fat venison, made a most delicious treat. The next morning,

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by order of Colonel Grant, we proceeded to burn down
the Indian cabins. Some of our men seemed to enjoy
this cruel work, laughing very heartily at the curling flames
as they mounted, loud crackling over the tops of the huts.
But to me it appeared a shocking sight poor creatures,
thought I, we surely need not grudge you such miserable habitations.

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But when we came, according to orders to cut down
the fields of corn, I could scarcely refrain from tears.
For who could see the stalks that stood so stately
with broad green leaves, and gaily tasseled shocks filled with
the sweet milky flower the staff of life? Who I say,
could see without grief these sacred plants sinking under ours

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with all their precious load, to wither and rot untasted.
In the fields I saw everywhere around the footsteps of
little Indian children, where they had lately played under the
shelter of the rustling corn. No doubt they had often
looked up with joy to the swelling shocks, and were
gladdened when they thought of the abundant cakes for the

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coming winter. When we are gone, thought I, they will return, and,
peeping through the weeds with tearful eyes, will mark the
ghastly ruin poured over their homes and the happy fields
where they had so often played. Such was life among
the comparatively intelligent tribes in the beautiful and fertile valley

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of the Scayoto. Such was the scene of devastation, or
of punishing the Indians, as it was called, upon which
Lord Dunmore's army entered, intending to sweep the valley with
fire and sword, from its opening at the Ohio to
its head waters league away in the north. In this campaign,
the Indians, while with much sagacity they combined their main

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force to encounter the army under Lord Dunmore, detached separate
bands of picked warriors to assail the settlements on the frontier.
At every exposed point. These bands of painted savages, emerging
from the solitudes of the forests at midnight, would fall
with hideous yells upon the lone cabin of the settler,
or upon a little cluster of log huts and in

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a few hours, nothing would be left but smoldering ruins
and gory corpses. To Daniel Boone, who had manifested wonderful
skill in baffling all the stratagems of the Indian warfare,
was assigned the difficult and infinitely important task of protecting
these frontiers. Three garrisons were placed under his command, over

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which he exercised supreme control. He located them at the
most available points, noiselessly asked from one to the other
to see that they were fortified according to the most
approved principles of military engineering then known in the forest.
His scouts were everywhere to give prompt notice of any
approach of hostile bands. Thus, this quiet, silent man, with

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great efficiency, fulfilled his mission to universal satisfaction, without seeking fame,
without thinking even of such a reward for his services.
His sagacity and his virtues were rapidly giving him a
very enviable reputation throughout all those regions. The discomfited Indians

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had become thoroughly disheartened and sent couriers to Lord Dunmore
imploring peace. Comstock their chief seems to have been a
man not only of strong native powers, of mind, but
of unusual intelligence, with quite a brilliant retinue of his warriors.
He met Lord Dunmore in council at a point in
the valley of the Scioto, about four miles south of

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the present city of Circleville. Comstock himself opened the deliberations
with a speech of great dignity and argumentative power, in
a loud voice, which was heard, as he intended by
all in the camp. He portrayed the former prosperous condition
of the Indian tribes, powerful in numbers and abounding in wealth,

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in the enjoyment of their rich corn fields and their
forests filled with game. With this he contrasted very forcibly
their present wretched condition, with diminished numbers and with the
loss of their hunting grounds. He reproached the Whites with
the violation of their treaty obligations, and declared that the
Indians had been forbearing in the extreme under the wrongs

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which had been inflicted upon them. We know, said he
perfectly well, our weakness when compared with the English. The
Indians desire only justice. The war was not sought by us,
but was forced upon us. It was commenced by the Whites.
We should have merited the contempt of every white man.

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We could have tamely submitted to the murders which have
been inflicted upon our unoffending people at the hands of
the white men. The power was with Lord Dunmore. In
the treaty of peace, he exacted terms which, though very
hard for the Indians, were perhaps not more than he
had a right to require. The Indians surrendered four of

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their principal warriors as hostages for the faithful observance of
the treaty. They relinquished all claims whatever to the vast
hunting grounds which their bands from time immemorial had ranged
south of the Ohio River. This was an immense concession.
Lord Dunmore returned across the mountains well satisfied with his campaign,

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though his soldiers were excited almost to mutiny in not
being permitted to wreak their vengeance upon the unhappy savages.
And here let it be remarked that deeply wronged as
these Indians unquestionably were, there was not a little excuse
for the exasperation of the whites. Fiends incarnet could not
have invented more terrible tortures than they often inflicted upon

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their captives. We have no heart to describe these scenes.
They are too awful to be contemplated. In view of
the horrid barbarity thus practiced, it is not strange that
the English should have wished to shoot down the whole race, men,
women and children, as they would exterminate wolves or bears.

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This campaign being thus successfully terminated, Daniel Boone returned to
his humble cabin on the Clint River. Here he had
a small and fertile farm, which his energetic family had
successfully cultivated during the summer, and he spent the winter
months in his favorite occupation of hunting in the forests around.
His thoughtful mind during these long and solitary rambles was

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undoubtedly occupied with plans for the future immigration to his
beautiful Kentucky was still his engrossing thought. It is not
wonderful that a man of such fearless temperament and a
natural turn of mind so poetic and imaginative, should have
been charmed beyond expression by a realm whose attractions he

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had so fully experienced. That the glowing descriptions of Boone
and Findlay were not exaggerated is manifest from the equally
rapturous account of others who now began to explore this
favored land. Imlay writes of that region, everything here assumes
a dignity and splendor I have never seen in any

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other part of the world. You ascend a considerable distance
from the shores of the Ohio, and when you would
suppose you had arrived at the summit of a mountain,
you find yourself upon an extensive level. Here an eternal
jeweler reigns, and the brilliant sun of latitude thirty nine degrees,
piercing through the azore heavens, produces in this prolific soil

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and early maturity, which is truly astonishing. Flowers, full and perfect,
as if they had been cultivated by the hand of
a florist, with all their captivating odors, and with all
the variegated charms which color and nature can produce. Here
in the lap of elegance and beauty decorate the smiling groves.

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Soft zephyrs gently breathe on sweets, and the inhaled air
gives a glow of health and vigor that seems to
ravish the intoxicated senses. The Virginian government now resolved to
pour a tide of immigration into these as yet unexplored
realms south of the Ohio. Four hundred acres of land

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were offered to every individual who would build a cabin,
clear a lot of land, and raise a crop of corn.
This was called a settlement right. It was not stated
how large the clearing should be or how extensive the
corn filled. Several settlements were thus begun in Kentucky. When
there was a new and extraordinary movement which attracted universal attention.

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A very remarkable man named Richard Henderson appeared in North Carolina,
emerging from the humblest walks of life, and unable even
to read until he had obtained maturity, he developed powers
of conversational eloquence and administrative ability of the highest order.

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The Cherokee Indians claimed the whole country bounded by the Kentucky,
the Ohio, and the Cumberland Rivers, and we know not
how much more territory, extending indefinitely to the south and west.
Colonel Henderson formed an association of gentlemen, which he called
the Transylvania Company. Making a secret journey to the Cherokee country,

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he met twelve hundred chiefs in council and purchased of
them the whole territory equal to some European kingdoms bounded
by the above mentioned rivers. For this realm above a
hundred miles square, he paid the insignificant sum of ten
wagon loads of cheap goods, with a few firearms and
some spirituous liquors. Mister Henderson, to whom the rest of

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the company seemed to have delegated all their powers, now
assumed the position of proprietor, governor, and legislator of his
magnificent domain, which he called Transylvania. It seems that Boone
accompanied Colonel Henderson to the Council of the Cherokee Chieftains,
which was held at Wataga, the southern branch of the
Holston River. Boone had explored nearly the whole of this region,

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and it was upon his testimony that the company relied
in endeavoring to purchase these rich and fertile lands. Indeed,
as we have before intimated, it has been said that Boone,
in his wonderful and perilous explorations, was the agent of
this secret company. No treaties with the Indians were sure
of general acquiescence. There were always discontented chieftains, There were

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almost always conflicting claims of hostile tribes. There were always
wandering tribes of hunters and of warriors, who, exasperated by
the treatment which they had received from vagabond white men,
were ever ready to wreak their vengeance upon any band
of emigrants they might encounter. Colonel Henderson's treaty was made

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in the month of March seventeen seventy five. With characteristic vigor.
He immediately made preparations for the settlement of the kingdom
of which he was the proud monarch. The first thing
to be done was to mark out a feasible path
through which emmigrants might pass without losing their way over
the mountains and through the wilderness to the heart of

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this new Eden. Of all the men in the world,
Daniel Boone was the one to map out this route
of five hundred miles. He took with him a company
of road makers, and in a few months opened a
path which could be traversed by pack horse and even
by wagons, to a place called Boonesville on the Kentucky River,
within about thirty miles of the present site of Lexington.

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The Indian hunters and warriors, notwithstanding the treaties into which
the chieftains of the north and the South had entered
watched the construction of this road with great solicitude. They
knew full well that it would air long secure their
expulsion from their ancient hunting grounds. Though no general warfare
was organized by the tribes, it was necessary to be

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constantly on the watch against lawless bands who were determined
to harass the pioneers in every possible way. In the
following letter, Boone communicated to Colonel Henderson the hostility which
they had perhaps unexpectedly encountered. It was dated the first
of April and was sent back by a courier through

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the woods. Dear Colonel, after my compliments to you, I
shall acquaint you with my misfortunes. On March the twenty fifth,
a party of Indians fired on my company about half
an hour before day and killed mister Twitty and his Negro,
and wounded mister Walker very deeply, but I hope you

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will recover. On March the twenty eighth, as we were
hunting for provisions, we found Samuel Teill's son, who gave
us an account that the Indians fired on their camp.
On the twenty seventh day, my brother and I went
down and found two men killed and scalped, Thomas mc
dowell and Jeremiah mac Peters. I have sent a man

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down to all the lower companies in order to gather
them all to the mouth of the Otter Creek. My
advice to you, sir, is to come or send as
soon as possible. Your company is greatly desired, for the
people are very uneasy, but are willing to stay and
venture their lives with you. And now is the time
to frustrate there the Indians intentions and keep the country

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while we are in it. If we give way to
them now, it will ever be the case. This day
we start from the battleground to the mouth of Otter Creek,
where we shall immediately erect a fort, which will be
done before you can come or send. Then we can
send ten men to meet you if you send for them.
I am, sir, your most obedient servant, Daniel Boone. Boone

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immediately commenced upon the left bank of the Kentucky River,
which here ran in a westerly direction. The erection of
a fort. Their position was full of peril, for the
road makers were but few in number, and Indian warriors
to the number of many hundreds might at any time
encircle them. Many of these Indians had also obtained muskets

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from the French in Canada and had become practiced marksmen.
Nearly three months were busily occupied in the construction of
this important fort. Fortunately, we have a minute description of
its structure and a sketch of its appears rants either
from the pencil of Colonel Henderson or of someone in
his employ The fort or fortress, consisted of a series

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of strong log huts enclosing a large interior or square.
The parallelogram was about two hundred and sixty feet in
length and one hundred and fifty in breadth. These cabins,
built of logs, were bullet proof. The intervals between them
were filled with stout pieces of timber about twelve feet high,
planted firmly in the ground, in close contact with each other,

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and sharpened at the top. The fort was built close
to the river, with one of its angles almost overhanging
the water, so that an abundant supply could be obtained
without peril. Each of the corner houses projected a little,
so that from the portholes any Indian could be shot,
who should approach the walls with ladder or hatchet. This

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really artistic structure was not completed until the fourteenth day
of June. The Indians, from a distance watched its progress
with dismay. They made one attack, but were easily repelled,
though they succeeded in shooting one of the immigrants. Damiel
Boone contemplated the fortress on its completion with much satisfaction.

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He was fully assured that behind its walls and palisades,
bold hearts with an ample supply of ammunition, could repel
any assaults which the Indians were capable of making. He
now resolved immediately to return to Clinch River and bring
his family out to share with him his new and
attractive home. End of Chapter five.