[Footnote: _Do._ Captain A. McKee to De
Peyster, September 26, 1781.] About the middle of the month they fell in
with a party of settlers led by Squire Boon.

Squire Boon and Floyd Defeated.

Squire Boon had built a fort, some distance from any other, and when
rumors of a great Indian invasion reached him, he determined to leave it
and join the stations on Bear Grass Creek. When he reached Long Run,
with his men, women, and children, cattle, and household goods, he
stumbled against the two hundred warriors of McKee and Brant. His people
were scattered to the four winds, with the loss of many scalps and all
their goods and cattle. The victors camped on the ground with the
intention of ambushing any party that arrived to bury the dead; for they
were confident some of the settlers would come for this purpose. Nor
were they disappointed; for next morning Floyd, the county lieutenant,
with twenty-five men, made his appearance. Floyd marched so quickly that
he came on the Indians before they were prepared to receive him. A smart
skirmish ensued; but the whites were hopelessly outnumbered, and were
soon beaten and scattered, with a loss of twelve or thirteen men. Floyd
himself, exhausted and with his horse shot, would have been captured had
not another man, one Samuel Wells, who was excellently mounted, seen his
plight. Wells reined in, leaped off his horse, and making Floyd ride, he
ran beside him, and both escaped. The deed was doubly noble, because the
men had previously been enemies. [Footnote: Marshall, I., 116. Floyd had
previously written Jefferson (Virginia State Papers, I., 47) that in his
county there were but three hundred and fifty-four militia between
sixteen and fifty-four years old; that all people were living in forts,
and that forty-seven of the settlers of all ages had been killed, and
many wounded, since January; so his defeat was a serious blow.] The
frontiersmen had made a good defence in spite of the tremendous odds
against them, and had slain four of their opponents, three Hurons and a
Miami. [Footnote: Haldimand MSS. Thompson's letter; McKee only mentions
the three Hurons. As already explained, the partisan leaders were apt,
in enumerating the Indian losses, only to give such as had occurred in
their own particular bands. Marshall makes the fight take place in
April; the Haldimand MSS. show that it was in September. Marshall is as
valuable for early Kentucky history as Haywood for the corresponding