cuttoe knife [French,
couteau], a Dutch blanket, and no small quantity of jerked beef,"
Cocke on April 10th rode off "to the Cantuckey to Inform Capt
Boone that we were on the road." The fearful apprehensions felt
for Cocke's safety were later relieved, when along the road were
discovered his letters in forming Henderson of his arrival and of
his having been joined on the way by Page Portwood of Rowan. On
his arrival at Otter Creek, Cocke found Boone and his men, and on
relating his adventures, "came in for his share of applause."
Boone at once despatched the master woodman, Michael Stoner, with
pack-horses to assist Henderson's party, which he met on April
18th at their encampment "in the Eye of the Rich Land." Along
with "Excellent Beef in plenty," Stoner brought the story of
Boone's determined stand and an account of the erection of a rude
little fortification which they had hurriedly thrown up to resist
attack. With laconic significance Henderson pays the following
tribute to Boone which deserves to be perpetuated in national
annals: "It was owing to Boone's confidence in us, and the
people's in him, that a stand was ever attempted in order to wait
for our coming."

In the course of their journey over the mountains and through the
wilderness, the pioneers forgot the trials of the trail in the
face of the surpassing beauties of the country. The Cumberlands
were covered with rich undergrowth of the red and white
rhododendron, the delicate laurel, the mountain ivy, the
flameazalea, the spicewood, and the cane; while the white stars
of the dogwood and the carmine blossoms of the red-bud, strewn
across the verdant background of the forest, gleamed in the eager
air of spring. "To enter uppon a detail of the Beuty & Goodness
of our Country," writes Nathaniel Henderson, "would be a task too
arduous.... Let it suffice to tell you it far exceeds any
country I ever saw or herd off. I am conscious its out of the
power of any man to make you clearly sensible of the great Beuty
and Richness of Kentucky." Young Felix Walker, endowed with more
vivid powers of description, says with a touch of native
eloquence:

"Perhaps no Adventurer Since the days of donquicksotte or before
ever felt So Cheerful & Ilated in prospect, every heart abounded
with Joy & excitement ... & exclusive of the Novelties of the
Journey the advantages & accumalations arising on the Settlement
of a new Country was a dazzling object with many of our Company