July [1770] following, when my brother, to my great felicity, met me according to appointment, at our old camp. . . ." Danger signs which could not escape the quick eyes of the brothers having convinced them that Indian hunting parties were again abroad, they now turned southward, and began explorations along the Cumberland, where they found game even more abundant, but a much poorer quality of soil. Returning northward in March, 1771, they pushed on to the banks of the Kentucky, where they selected a point which they considered especially well adapted for the construction of the permanent settlement which they were eagerly planning to establish,2 and, with this great idea before them, they packed a load of peltries upon each horse and retraced the toilsome road over the mountains to their families upon the banks of the Yadkin.

Daniel Boone had spent some two years in the wilderness of Kentucky, during most of which time he had neither tasted bread nor seen the face of man, with the exception of his brother, his unfortunate fellow hunters now gone, and a few straggling Indians more animal than human; but at its close he was a real Kentuckian, the first Kentuckian, ready at all times to speak in unmeas

"Of all men, saving Sylla, the man-slayer,

Who passes for, in life and death, most lucky,

Of the great names which in our faces stare,

The General Boone, backwoodsman of Kentucky,

Was happiest of mortals anywhere.”

-"Don Juan," VIII, kxi.

Again and again the dominant note of the Boone narrative is the happiness

which came to him in his solitude.

1 Peck's "Boone," pp. 33 and 34.

2 Peck's "Boone," p. 34; Bogart's "Boone," p. 79.

3 Collins, II, p. 57; Peck's "Boone," p. 34.

ured praise of the land which, he says, "I esteemed a second paradise." 1

While Boone was thus wandering alone, supposing himself the only white man in the region, a party of forty hunters from "New river, Holston and Clinch," in Virginia, led by the wonderful stories which they had heard of the abundance of game in the district, left their homes and started upon a hunting expedition.2 Provided with dogs, traps and a hunter's outfit, they started westward and, passing through the Cumberland Gap, arrived in what is now Wayne County, Kentucky. Camping a few miles below the Cumberland River, they established a depot for trade with Indian hunters, and from this central point small bands wandered in various directions, hunting or exploring as their fancy dictated. Once in five weeks, according to agreement, they were to "round up" at headquarters, deposit their pelts and relate their experiences. But the "calls of the wild" were too diverse for such a plan to be feasible. One band after another deserted the expedition, each being intent upon its own object. Ten of them constructed transports, loaded them with skins and wild meat, and embarked upon the Cumberland for the Spanish fort at Natchez, whence they made the overland journey homeward, comforted by the possession of considerable Spanish gold. Some lost themselves in the wilderness and doubtless fell a prey to prowling savages; while Colonel James Knox, the real leader of the expedition, with nine kindred spirits, pushed on deeper and deeper into the trackless wilderness, and near the present site of Greensburg, in Green

1 Filson's "Kentucke."

2 Collins, I, p. 17, II, pp. 367 and 417; Durrett's "Kentucky Centenary,"

From a sketch by John Trumbull, now in possession of Colonel Reuben T. Durrett. It is signed "J. T. 1776," and is drawn upon untanned deer skin, upon the reverse side of which the hair still appears.

County, built another trading station, from which as a center he carried his explorations as far as Barren, Hart and other neighboring counties. Knox and his companions remained two years in the Kentucky district, wondering, as Boone wondered, at the indescribable fertility and beauty of the land, revelling in the game which was everywhere abundant, and treasuring up experiences which were to lose nothing in the telling, when they should return to the settlements beyond the mountains. To them, by common consent, has been given the name, "long hunters," and their stories, added to those related by Boone and his comrades, caused many a gallant woodsman to migrate to this land of promise, even at the risk of life and fortune.

1

No serious attempt to plant a settlement in the district 1 was made, however, until 1773, when Daniel Boone, "having successfully disposed of his possessions in North Carolina, left his home in the Yadkin Valley and, accompanied by his own and several other North Carolina families, started westward along the hunters' trail." They were joined, at points along the route, by some forty other bold pioneers, and thus reinforced, the second immigrant party pushed on toward the wilderness. Their march was necessarily slow, as they were impeded by their cattle and pack horses; but at last they reached Cumberland Gap, and were preparing to cross the mountains, when a band of Indians suddenly attacked them from behind, and six of the company were killed. The

1 Dr. Thomas Walker had secured a large land grant about twenty miles west of Cumberland Gap, and Joseph Martin had established a settlement within it, at a point a few miles east of where Jellico now stands (1769), but the Indians had proved so hostile that the enterprise had soon been abandoned. Winsor's "Western Movement," p. 21.