suing years to people the
country, but numbers of the settlers were slain by the
Indians, whose hostility made the task so perilous that a
permanent settlement was not made till 1775. The place then
settled--a fine location on the Kentucky River--was called,
in honor of its founder, Boonesborough. Here a small fort
was built, to which the adventurer now brought his family,
being determined to make it his place of abode, despite his
dusky foes. "My wife and daughter," he says, "were the first
white women that ever stood on the banks of Kentucky River."

It was a dangerous step they had taken. The savages, furious
at this invasion of their hunting-grounds, were ever on the
alert against their pale-faced foes. In the following spring
Boone's daughter, with two other girls, who had
thoughtlessly left the fort to gather flowers, were seized
by ambushed Indians and hurried away into the forest depths.

Their loss was soon learned, and the distracted parents,
with seven companions, were quickly in pursuit through the
far-reaching forest. For two days, with the skill of trained
scouts, they followed the trail which the girls, true
hunters' daughters, managed to mark by shreds of their
clothing which they tore off and dropped by the way.

The rapid pursuers at length came within sight of the camp
of the Indians. Here they waited till darkness descended,
approaching as closely as was safe. The two fathers, Boone
and Calloway, now volunteered to attempt a rescue under
cover of the night, and crept, with the acumen of practised
frontiersmen, towards the Indian halting-place. Unluckily
for them they were discovered and captured by the Indians,
who dragged them exultingly to their camp. Here a council
was quickly held, and the captives condemned to suffer the
dreadful fate of savage reprisal,--death by torture and
flame.

Morning had but fairly dawned when speedy preparations were
made by the savages for their deadly work. They had no time
to waste, for they knew not how many pursuers might be on
their trail. The captives were securely bound to trees,
before the eyes of their distracted daughters, and fagots
hastily gathered for the fell purpose of their foes.

But while they were thus busied, the companions of Boone and
Calloway had not been idle. Troubled by the non-return of
the rescuers, the woodsmen crept up with the first dawn of
day, saw the bloody work designed, and poured in a sudden
storm of bullets on the savage