whole party, discouraged by the blow, retired to the safer region of
Clinch River. In the mean time the dauntless speculator Richard
Henderson had begun his occupation with all the pomp of viceroyalty.
Harrodsburg had been founded, and corn planted, and a flourishing
colony established at the Falls of the Ohio. In 1774 Boone was called
upon by the Governor of Virginia to escort a party of surveyors
through Kentucky, and on his return was given the command of three
garrisons; and for several years thereafter the history of the State
is the record of his feats of arms. No one ever equaled him in his
knowledge of Indian character, and his influence with the savages was
a mystery to him and to themselves. Three times he fell into their
hands and they did not harm him. Twice they adopted him into their
tribes while they were still on the war-path. Once they took him to
Detroit, [Footnote: Silas Farmer, historiographer of Detroit, informs
us that Daniel Boone was brought there on the 10th of March, 1778, and
that he remained there a month.] to show the Long-Knife chieftains of
King Greorge that they also could exhibit trophies of memorable
prowess, but they refused to give him up even to their British allies.
In no quality of wise woodcraft was he wanting. He could outrun a dog
or a deer; he could thread the woods without food day and night; he
could find his way as easily as the panther could. Although a great
athlete and a tireless warrior, he hated fighting and only fought for
peace. In council and in war he was equally valuable. His advice was
never rejected without disaster, nor followed but with advantage; and
when the fighting once began there was not a rifle in Kentucky which
could rival his. At the nine days' siege of Boonesboro' he took
deliberate aim and killed a negro renegade who was harassing the
garrison from a tree five hundred and twenty-five feet away, and whose
head only was visible from the fort. The mildest and the quietest of
men, he had killed dozens of enemies with his own hand, and all this