ndurance,
speed, and woodcraft were equal to those of any Indian scout afoot.
Through Colonel Preston, his orders were conveyed to Daniel Boone, for
Boone's fame had now spread from the border to the tidewater regions. It
was stated that "Boone would lose no time," and "if they are alive, it
is indisputable but Boone must find them."

So Boone set out in company with Michael Stoner, another expert
woodsman. His general instructions were to go down the Kentucky River
to Preston's Salt Lick and across country to the Falls of the Ohio, and
thence home by Gaspar's Lick on the Cumberland River. Indian war parties
were moving under cover across "the Dark and Bloody Ground" to surround
the various groups of surveyors still at large and to exterminate
them. Boone made his journey successfully. He found John Floyd, who was
surveying for Washington; he sped up to where Harrod and his band were
building cabins and sent them out, just in time as it happened; he
reached all the outposts of Thomas Bullitt's party, only one of whom
fell a victim to the foe *; and, undetected by the Indians, he brought
himself and Stoner home in safety, after covering eight hundred miles in
sixty-one days.

* Hancock Taylor, who delayed in getting out of the country and
was cut off.

Harrod and his homesteaders immediately enlisted in the army. How eager
Boone was to go with the forces under Lewis is seen in the official
correspondence relative to Dunmore's War. Floyd wanted Boone's help in
raising a company: "Captain Bledsoe says that Boone has more [influence]
than any man now disengaged; and you know what Boone has done for
me... for which reason I love the man." Even the border, it would seem,
had its species of pacifists who were willing to let others take risks
for them, for men hung back from recruiting, and desertions were the
order of the day. Major Arthur Campbell hit upon a solution of the
difficulties in West Fincastle. He was convinced that Boone could raise
a company and hold the men loyal. And Boone did.

For some reason, however, Daniel's desire to march with the army was
denied. Perhaps it was because just such a man as he--and, indeed, there
was no other--was needed to guard the settlement. Presently he was
put in command of Moore's Fort in Clinch Valley, and his "diligence"
received official approbation. A little later the inhabitants of the
valley sent out a petition to have Boone made a "captain" and given
supreme com