ut the next afternoon they trooped, breathless, into Boonesborough,
with word that the Shawnees--in full force--were close at hand.

At ten o'clock the following morning, September 7, the enemy appeared.
They had crossed the Kentucky at a ford a mile and a half above the
fort, had marched around by the rear, and now filed down for it from a
timbered ridge on the south.

They made an imposing sight. They had flags, both French and British.
They had horses with baggage. They mustered some four hundred
warriors, a dozen Canadian white men, and a negro named Pompey who was
an adopted Shawnee. Their red chiefs were Black Fish himself,
Moluntha, Black Wolf and Black Beard; their captain was a
French-Canadian named Isidore Chene, of the British Indian department
at Detroit.

Under a white flag, Captain Chene demanded the surrender of Fort
Boonesborough. Counting the old men and boys, and several slaves,
Daniel Boone had sixty persons who could handle a rifle; only forty of
them were really shooters. He asked for two days in which to consider
surrendering, but his mind was already made up.

The Shawnees had not donned their war paint for nothing; old Black Fish
had come, looking for his "son"--and the rest had come, looking for
whatever they might get.

Captain Chene, a pleasant enough man, consented. He posted his hideous
array in the forest, to cut off any escape; Captain Boone spent the two
days in gathering loose cattle into the stockade and putting last
touches upon the defences. He looked in vain for the militia from
Virginia.

Of course, while he knew what he himself would rather do, he had no
right yet to speak for the rest. He held a council with them. If they
surrendered, he said, likely enough their lives would be spared, but
they would be prisoners in far-away Detroit, they would lose all their
property, their fort and homes would be burned. If they fought, they
might hold out, but the Indians were led by white soldiers and it would
be a desperate siege, much worse than the other sieges. If they were
overcome, they could expect no mercy, for the few whites would be
unable to keep the tomahawks and scalping-knives from them.

Every voice declared:

"Let us fight."

Therefore on the morning of the third day Captain Boone made reply to
Captain Chene.

"Sir, we have consulted together and are resolved to defend our fort
whilst a single one of us is living. But we thank you for giving us
notice,