isted on retreating, and they at length yielded to the general
desire. Accordingly, the dead were decently buried, and in great sadness
they all traced their way back to Clinch river.

Here Daniel Boone remained with his family eight months. At the end of
that time he was requested by Governor Dunmore, of Virginia, to go to the
falls of the Ohio, to serve as a guide to a party of surveyors who had
been sent there some months before. The western country was now beginning
to attract attention, and the Indians were becoming very hostile to the
whites. Accordingly, on the 6th of June, 1774, he started (with one man,
Michael Stoner), and without any accident reached the point at which he
aimed--the spot where Louisville now stands. The service for the
surveyors was promptly performed, and they were enabled to complete their
work, while Boone was at liberty to return to his family. It is
remarkable that he made this journey on foot, a distance of eight hundred
miles, through a trackless wilderness, in the short period of sixty-two
days.

He was not allowed to remain quiet long; soon after his return, the
Indians northwest of the Ohio, especially the Shawanese, made open war
upon the whites. Governor Dunmore felt bound to protect his countrymen,
and, among other acts for their defence, sent Daniel Boone, with the
title of captain, to take command of three garrisons. This service was
likewise well performed; matters were soon more quiet, the soldiers were
discharged, and Boone was relieved from his post.

He had not been a wanderer in the woods in vain; his fame had gone
abroad, and his services were in the following spring sought again. A
company of gentlemen in North Carolina--the principal man of whom was
Colonel Richard Henderson--were attempting to purchase the lands on the
south side of the Kentucky river, from the Cherokee Indians.[4] They had
agreed to hold a treaty with the Indians, at Wataga, in March, 1775, to
settle the boundaries of their intended purchase, and they now desired
Boone to attend that treaty, and manage their business. In compliance
with their wish, he went to Wataga, and performed their service so well,
that they gave him further employment. He was now requested to mark out a
road from their settlement, through the wilderness, to Kentucky river.
This was a work of great labor. It was necessary to make many surveys to
find the best route, and when the best was found, it was, much of it,
over mountai