t their first camp in Kentucky on
the Red Lick fork of Station Camp Creek.

This camp was their base of operations. From it, usually in couples, we
infer, the explorers branched out to hunt and to take their observations
of the country. Here also they prepared the deer and buffalo meat for
the winter, dried or smoked the geese they shot in superabundance, made
the tallow and oil needed to keep their weapons in trim, their leather
soft, and their kits waterproof. Their first ill luck befell them in
December when Boone and Stewart were captured by a band of Shawanoes
who were returning from their autumn hunt on Green River. The Indians
compelled the two white men to show them the location of their camp,
took possession of all it contained in skins and furs and also helped
themselves to the horses. They left the explorers with just enough meat
and ammunition to provide for their journey homeward, and told them to
depart and not to intrude again on the red men's hunting grounds. Having
given this pointed warning, the Shawanoes rode on northward towards
their towns beyond the Ohio. On foot, swiftly and craftily, Boone and
his brother-in-law trailed the band for two days. They came upon the
camp in dead of night, recaptured their horses, and fled. But this was
a game in which the Indians themselves excelled, and at this date the
Shawanoes had an advantage over Boone in their thorough knowledge of the
territory; so that within forty-eight hours the white men were once more
prisoners. After they had amused themselves by making Boone caper
about with a horse bell on his neck, while they jeered at him in broken
English, "Steal horse, eh?" the Shawanoes turned north again, this time
taking the two unfortunate hunters with them. Boone and Stewart escaped,
one day on the march, by a plunge into the thick tall canebrake. Though
the Indians did not attempt to follow them through the mazes of the
cane, the situation of the two hunters, without weapons or food, was
serious enough. When they found Station Camp deserted and realized that
their four companions had given them up for dead or lost and had set off
on the trail for home, even such intrepid souls as theirs may have felt
fear. They raced on in pursuit and fortunately fell in not only with
their party but with Squire Boone, Daniel's brother, and Alexander
Neely, who had brought in fresh supplies of rifles, ammunition, flour,
and horses.

After this lucky encounter the group separ