his neighbors, John Stewart, a skilled woodsman, Joseph Holden,
James Mooney, and William Cooley, Boone left his "peaceable
habitation" on the upper Yadkin and began his historic journey
"in quest of the country of Kentucky." Already heavily burdened
with debts, Boone must have incurred considerable further
financial obligations to Judge Henderson and Colonel Williams,
acting for the land company, in order to obtain the large amount
of supplies requisite for so prolonged an expedition. Each of the
adventurers rode a good horse of strength and endurance; and
behind him were securely strapped the blanket, ammunition, salt,
and cooking-utensils so indispensable for a long sojourn in the
wilderness. In Powell's Valley they doubtless encountered the
party led thither by Joseph Martin (see Chapter VII), and there
fell into the "Hunter's Trail" commented on in a letter written
by Martin only a fortnight before the passing of Boone's
cavalcade. Crossing the mountain at the Ouasioto Gap, they made
their first "station camp" in Kentucky on the creek, still named
after that circumstance, on the Red Lick Fork. After a
preliminary journey for the purpose of locating the spot, Findlay
led the party to his old trading-camp at Es-kip-pa-ki-thi-ki,
where then (June 7, 1769) remained but charred embers of the
Indian huts, with some of the stockading and the gate-posts still
standing. In Boone's own words, he and Findlay at once "proceeded
to take a more thorough survey of the country;" and during the
autumn and early winter, encountering on every hand apparently
inexhaustible stocks of wild game and noting the ever-changing
beauties of the country, the various members of the party made
many hunting and exploring journeys from their "station camp" as
base. On December 22, 1769, while engaged in a hunt, Boone and
Stewart were surprised and captured by a large party of