196 Boone becomes almost idolized by the Natives. 1778. of a prolonged captivity. In April, the red men, with their one white captive, about to be converted into a genuine son of nature, returned from the flats of Michigan, covered with brush-choked forests, to the rolling valley of the Miamis, with its hill-sides clothed in their rich open woods of maple and beech, then just bursting into bloom. And now the white blood was washed out of the Kentucky ranger, and he was made a son in some family, and was loved and caressed by father and mother, brothers and sisters, till he was thoroughly sick of them. But disgust he could not show; so he was kind, and affable, and familiar, as happy as a lark, and as far from thinking of leaving them as he had been of joining them. He took his part in their games and romps; shot as near the centre of a target as a good hunter ought to, and yet left the savage marksmen a chance to excel him, and smiled in his quiet eye when he witnessed their joy at having done better than the best of the Long Knives. He grew into favor with the chief, was trusted, treated with respect, and listened to with attention. No man could have been better calculated than Boone to disarm the suspicions of the red men. Some have called him a white Indian, and, except that he never showed the Indian's blood-thirstiness when excited, he was more akin in his loves, his ways, his instincts, his joys, and his sorrows to the aboriginal inhabitants of the West than to the Anglo-Saxon invaders. Scarce any other white ever possessed in an equal degree the true Indian gravity, which comes neither from thought, feeling, or vacuity, but from a bump peculiar to their own craniums. And so in hunting, shooting, swimming, and other Shawanese amusements, the newly made Indian boy Boone spent the month of May, necessity making all the little inconveniences of his lot quite endurable. On the 1st of June, his aid was required in the business of saltmaking, and for that purpose he and a party of his brethren started for the valley of the Scioto, where he stayed ten days, hunting, boiling brine, and cooking; then the homeward path was taken again. But when Chillicothe was once more reached, a sad sight met our friend Daniel's eyes; four hundred and fifty of the choice warriors of the West, painted in the most exquisite war-style, and armed for the battle. He scarce needed to ask whither they were bound; his heart told him Boonesborough; and already in imagination he saw the blazing roofs of the little borough he had founded; and he saw the bleeding forms of his friends. Could he do nothing? He would see; meanwhile be a good Indian and look 1778. Boone's escape from Captivity. 197 all ease and joy. He was a long way from his own white homestead; one hundred and fifty miles at least, and a rough and inhospitable country much of the way between him and it. But he had travelled fast and far, and might again. So, without a word to his fellow prisoners, early in the morning of June the 16th, without his breakfast, in the most secret manner, unseen, unheard, he departed. He left his red relatives to mourn his loss, and over hill and valley sped, forty miles a day, for four successive days, and ate but one meal by the way. He found the station wholly unprepared to resist so formidable a body as that which threatened it, and it was a matter of life and death that every muscle should be exerted to get all in readiness for the expected visiters. Rapidly the white men toiled in the summer sun, and through the summer night, to repair and complete the fortifications, and to have all as experience had shown it should be. But still the foe came not, and in a few days another escaped captive brought information of the delay of the expedition in consequence of Boone's flight. The savages had relied on surprising the stations, and their plans being foiled by their adopted son Daniel, all their determinations were unsettled. Thus it proved the salvation of Boonesborough, and probably of all the frontier forts, that the founder of Kentucky was taken captive and remained a captive as long as he did. So often do seeming misfortunes prove, in God's hand, our truest good. Boone, finding his late relatives so backward in their proposed call, determined to anticipate them by a visit to the Scioto valley, where he had been at salt-making; and about the 1st of August, with nineteen men, started for the town on Paint Creek. He knew, of course, that he was trying a somewhat hazardous experiment, as Boonesborough might be attacked in his absence; but he had his wits about him, and his scouts examined the country far and wide. Without interruption, he crossed the Ohio, and had reached within a few miles of the place he meant to attack, when his advanced guard, consisting of one man, Simon Kenton, discovered two natives riding one horse, and enjoying some joke as they rode. Not considering that these two might be, like himself, the van of a small army, Simon, one of the most impetuous of men, shot, and run forward to scalp them, but found himself at once in the midst of a dozen or more of his red enemies, from whom he escaped only by the coming up of Boone and the remainder. The commander, upon considering the circumstances, 198 Boonesborough attacked by the British and Indians. 1778.. and learning from spies whom he sent forward that the town he intended to attack was deserted, came to the opinion that the band just met was on its way to join a larger body for the invasion of Kentucky, and advised an immediate return. His advice was taken, and the result proved its wisdom; for, in order to reach Boonesborough, they were actually obliged to coast along, go round, and outstrip a body of nearly five hundred savages, led by Canadians, who were marching against his doomed borough, and after all, got there only the day before them. On the 8th of August,, with British and French flags flying, the dusky army gathered around the little fortress of logs, defended by its inconsiderable garrison. Captain Du Quesne, on behalf of his mighty Majesty, King George the Third, summoned Captain Boone to surrender. It was, as Daniel says, a critical period for him and his friends. Should they yield, what mercy could they look for? and he,, especially, after his unkind flight from his Shawanese parents? They had almost stifled him with their caresses before; they would literally hug him to death, if again within their grasp. Should they refuse to yield, what hope of successful resistance? And they had so much need of all their cattle to aid them in sustaining a siege, and yet their cows were abroad in the woods. Daniel pondered the matter, and concluded it would be safe, at any rate, to ask two days for consideration. It was granted, and he drove in his cows! The evening of the 9th soon arrived, however, and he must say one thing or another; so he politely thanked the representative of his gracious Majesty for giving the garrison time to prepare for their defence, and announced their determination to fight. Captain Du Quesne was much grieved at this; Governor Hamilton was anxious to save bloodshed, and wished the Kentuckians taken alive; and rather than proceed to extremities, the worthy Canadian offered to withdraw his troops, if the garrison would make a treaty, though to what point the treaty was to aim is unknown. Boone was determined not to yield; but then he had no wish to starve in his fort, or have it taken by storm, and be scalped; and he thought, remembering Hamilton's kindness to him when in Detroit, that there might be something in what the Captain said; and at any rate, to enter upon a treaty was to gain time, and something might turn up. So he agreed to treat; but where? Could nine of the garrison, as desired, safely venture into the open field? It might be all a trick to get possession of some of the leading whites. Upon 1778. The invaders forced to retreat from Boonesborough. 199 the whole, however, as the leading Indians and their Canadian allies must come under the rifles of the garrison, who might with certainty and safety pick them off if treachery were attempted, it was thought best to run the risk; and Boone, with eight others, went out to meet the leaders of the enemy, sixty yards from the fort, within which the sharpest shooters stood with leveled rifles, ready to protect their comrades. The treaty was made and signed, and then the Indians, saying it was their custom for two of them to shake hands with every white man when a treaty was made, expressed a wish to press the palms of their new allies. Boone and his friends must have looked rather queer at this proposal; but it was safer to accede than to refuse and be shot instantly; so they presented each his hand. As anticipated the warriors seized them with rough and fierce eagerness, the whites drew back struggling, the treachery was apparent, the rifle-balls from the garrison struck down the foremost assailants of the little band, and, amid a fire from friends and foes, Boone and his fellow deputies bounded back into the station, with the exception of one, unhurt. The treaty trick having thus failed, Captain Du Quesne had to look to more ordinary modes of warfare, and opened a fire which lasted during ten days, though to no purpose, for the woodsmen were determined not to yield. On the 20th of August, the Indians were forced unwillingly to retire, having lost thirty-seven of their number, and wasted a vast amount of powder and lead. The garrison picked up from the ground, after their departure, one hundred and twenty-five pounds of their bullets.* Meanwhile the United States had not lost sight entirely of western affairs. A fort was built early in the summer of this year, upon the banks of Ohio a little below Pittsburgh, near the spot where Beaver now stands. It was built by General McIntosh, who had been appointed in May to succeed General Hand† in the West, and was named with his name. It was the first fort built by the whites north of the Ohio. From this point it was intended to operate in reducing Detroit, where mischief was still brewing. Indeed the natives were now more united than ever against the colonies. In June we find Congress in possession of information, that led them to think a universal frontier war close See Butler 534.-Marshal i. Boone's Narrative, &c. + Sparks' Washington, v. 361, 382. Doddridge, p. 243.—Silliman's Journal, vol. xxxi. Art. i. p. 18. 200 Treaty of peace and alliance with the Delawares. 1778. at hand. The Senecas, Cayugas, Mingoes (by which we presume, were meant the Ohio Iroquois, or possibly the Mohawks,) Wyandots, Onandagas, Ottawas, Chippeways, Shawanese, and Delawares, were all said to be more or less united in opposition to America. Congress, learning the danger to be so immediate and great, determined to push on the Detroit expedition, and ordered another to be undertaken by the Mohawk valley against the Senecas, who might otherwise very much annoy and impede the march from Fort Pitt. For the capture of Detroit, three thousand continental troops and two thousand five hundred militia were voted; an appropriation was made of nearly a million of dollars; and General McIntosh was to carry forward the needful operations.† All the flourish which was made about taking Detroit, however, and conquering the Senecas, ended in the Resolves of Congress, it being finally thought too late in the season for advantageous action, and also too great an undertaking for the weak-handed colonies. + This having been settled, it was resolved, that the forces in the West should move up and attack the Wyandots and other Indians about the Sandusky; || and a body of troops was accordingly marched forward to prepare a half-way house, or post, by which the necessary connexion might be kept up. This was built upon the Tuscarawas, a few miles south of the present town of Bolivar. In these quiet, commercial days the Ohio canal passes through its midst.§ It was named Fort Laurens, in honor of the President of Congress. While these warlike measures were pursued on the one hand, the Confederacy on the other by its Commissioners, Andrew and Thomas Lewis of Virginia, formed at Fort Pitt on the 17th of September, a treaty of peace and alliance with the Chiefs of the Delawares, White-Eyes, Kill-Buck, and Pipe.¶ Journals of the Old Congress, vol. ii. p. 585. Washington speaks of McIntosh as having great worth and merit, a firm disposition, love of justice, assiduity, and a good understanding.-Sparks v. 361. + Journals of the Old Congress, vol. ii. p. 633. Journals of the Old Congress, vol. ii. p. 633. § Silliman's Journal, xxxi. 57; where the name as in many treaties, &c. is misprinted Lawrence. See volume of Indian Treaties Washington, 1837.-It is the first treaty recorded... See also Old Journals, ii. 577.-Do. iii. 81. |