WAR THE FORCED ALTERNATIVE. At of the main army, crossed the mountains and intercepted the entire Indian forces, near the mouth of the Kanawha. Point Pleasant, in the vicinity, was fought the greatest and most severelycontested battle known in the annals of Indian warfare in Virginia. The confederate tribes were signally defeated, and compelled to retreat to their towns, on the Scioto. Governor Dunmore, who was nearly one hundred miles above with his troops when the battle occurred, at once crossed the Ohio and marched for these towns. The Shawanee confederates sued for peace, and, in the negotiations, relinquished all title to the country south of the Ohio, for all future time.1 observance. 15 Again, the following year, 1775, in the name of the Transylvania Company, organized under the lead of Colonel Henderson and associates, Daniel Boone negotiated with the Cherokees, at Fort Wataga, located on a branch of Holston river, for all the territory of present Kentucky south and west of the Kentucky river, except the few western counties of the Purchase. 2 And finally, the balance of Kentucky lying west of the Tennessee river, and to the Mississippi, was purchased by treaty with the Chickasaws, confirmed on the 19th day of October, 1818.3 Thus, all Indian titles and rights, to this devoted land of disputed claim and stubborn strife, were extinguished in succession, by the arbitrament of negotiation; and yet, the birth-throes of the nascent Commonwealth of Kentucky were to be endured, amid the blood and waste and anguish of the most cruel of savage warfare. Jealousies, animosities, and other causes of strife seemed ever recurring, and peaceful negotiations gave no guarantee of safety to life, or of permanency to possession. Indeed, the dominion of Virginia, after the declaration of independence and during the revolutionary war, seemed to rely mainly on her rights under the charter granted by James I., of Great Britain, to the cradle of empire she claimed from the Alleghany to the Mississippi, as set forth in her first constitution, of June 29, 1776. "Within these limits, she asserted the exclusive right of purchasing the soil from the aborigines." But we must not disparage the heroic valor and hardy endurance of the famed pioneers, by whose deeds and sufferings regenerated Kentucky received her baptism of blood, and her children the inheritance of liberty, with all the immunities of an exalted civilization. The rights of arms and of conquest are yet a part of the law of nations, and when the conditions of 1 Burk's Virginia, Vol. III., p. 396. 2 Collins, Vol. II., p. 496. 3 Butler, p. 15. stipulation and treaty failed to restrain, there was left no better alternative. Amid the perils of continued invasion, and the atrocities and carnage of relentless savage warfare, instigated and abetted by one of the most powerful empires of Europe, the issue of title and possession was transferred; and the brave backwoodsmen of Kentucky vindicated and sealed by the valor and skill of arms, upon a hundred battlefields, the right to build their homes and fortunes upon her generous soil, for which peaceful compacts gave no certain guarantee. Of such travail was born our noble Commonwealth, destined to offer up the patriotic blood of her children upon every battlefield of our common country, to become the nursing mother of new commonwealths of the great West, and to rear up statesmen for the councils of the nation. Her children, at home and abroad, delight to own and honor her; and with pardonable pride. We bear in mind that at this first quickening into embryotic life, Kentucky was but an outlying wilderness of Virginia territory, claimed by a shadowy parchment title which was barely worth asserting, as yet; and that Virginia was but a colonial dependence of Great Britain across the ocean, from whence she derived her rulers, her laws, and her authority. It formed the pivotal center of the vast empire of transmontane area of the North American continent, which had, for two centuries, been shuffled in the balances of treaty stipulations between England, France, and Spain, in the frequent changes of the fortunes of almost incessant wars between these rivals. True, English dominion was just now dominant; but how long this jurisdiction might continue, so depended on the issues of European strife, that no one could conjecture the government to whom allegiance might be due in a decade of years. The people, who went out to seek their fortunes in this unknown and mysterious land, knew not whether the King of England, or of France, or of Spain, if either, should own their allegiance. Out of this chaos of uncertain changes, Kentucky must have her genesis. BOONE'S UNFORTUNATE EXPEDITION. 17 CHAPTER V. In 1773, Daniel Boone, with a party, sets out to return to Kentucky. Attacked by Indians; Boone's son slain. The party abandon the visit to Kentucky, and fall back to Clinch river. Impetus to emigration and adventure. Bullitt, Harrod, McAfee, and Douglas lead parties out. Bullitt's hazardous visit to the Indians. McAfee's detour through Bracken. The mammoth remains there. Separate at the mouth of Kentucky river. banks. Survey first plat on site of Louisville. McAfee and Hancock Taylor go up the Kentucky to Drennon's Lick. Continuing by Frankfort and Lawrenceburg, they pass on to the vicinity of Harrodsburg. By Three Forks of Kentucky they return home, but suffer great privations. Douglas and party tarry at Big Bone, Their extermination by first men. He falls in love, and whips his rival. Flees the country, westward; changes his name to Butler. His adventures. Mrs. Ingles' captivity and wonderful es cape. Ominous bodings of the future. The period from 1771 to 1773 was less eventful in actual exploration in Kentucky, yet the spirit of unrest and adventure was alive in the colonies. For two years the Boones had tarried at their homes, vying with the returned Long Hunters in repeating the fascinating stories of their experiences in the transmontane wilds. The delay was from no want of fixed resolve, but rather to reconcile their families to the idea of such a change of home, to convert their farms and fixtures, and to gather about them a body of friends willing to share the fortunes of the wilderness with them. All arrangements complete, on the 25th of September, 1773, Daniel Boone, with his own and five other families, set out upon the journey toward Kentucky. He was joined in Powell's valley by forty men, who were willing to accept him as their leader. Driving their cattie and swine in procession, and with bedding. and baggage on pack-horses, they pursued their route in buoyant hope, until they neared the pass in the mountains, known as Cumberland Gap. Some young men, with the cattle, had fallen in the rear several miles, when they were suddenly assailed by a party of Indians, and six of them killed and a seventh wounded. The reports of firearms hastened the main body of the whites to the rescue, when the savages were driven off, and the dead buried. 1 1 Hartley's Daniel Boone, pp. 81 and 82. 1 This was a sad day for all, especially for the family of Daniel Boone, for among the slain was a beloved son. This disaster greatly disturbed the plans of the party. The Boones, and some others, were for proceeding onward to Kentucky, but the majority insisted on a return. The former yielding, all retraced their steps to the settlement on Clinch river, in south-west Virginia, about forty miles from the place where the Indians had attacked them. Here Boone remained through the winter, with his family. But the infection had spread far and wide, and moved others to visit Kentucky during this interval. A new impetus was given to this desire of adventure by the provisions of the Virginia government, granting bounties in lands, to be located in the Ohio valley, to the officers and soldiers of her own troops who had served in the British war in Canada, against the French, which terminated in the treaty of 1763, and in which France relinquished all future claim. to the country from Canada to the Ohio valley, and back to the Mississippi river, inclusive. In 1773, and previously, adventurers, led by daring men, some of whom became illustrious in after history, explored these valleys, with a view to locating the choicest lands. No less a personage than George Washington surveyed 2,084 acres of land on Great Sandy, now embracing the town of Louisa, about the year 1769, carving his name on the beginning corner. For this land, a patent was issued to John Fry, by the crown of Great Britain, in 1772. In June, 1773, four parties from Virginia passed down the Ohio, led respectively by Captain Thomas Bullitt, Captain James Harrod, James Douglas, and the McAfee brothers. A most remarkable incident, illustrative of the self-possessed courage and forethought of Captain Bullitt, is authentically given. Landing with his comrades on the north bank of the Ohio, at a convenient point, and instructing his party to await his return, he set out alone for the Shawanee town of Chillicothe. Bullitt had come out to Kentucky with the double intention of surveying lands and of making a permanent settlement. For the first object, he had a special commission from William and Mary College, in Virginia, in the managers of which was vested the right of conferring such authority. He knew that the Miami tribes yet. claimed their hunter's rights to this land, although, at the treaty of Fort Stanwix, the Six Nations had ignored such claim in the transfer to the English. His comrades watched his departure, and awaited his return, with doubting anxiety. Bullitt reached the town without being discovered, and made known his presence by waving a white flag, as a token of peace. The astonished Indians gathered about him, and with curious interest asked him how and why he had so suddenly come to them. Bullitt, with ready selfpossession, replied that he was from the Long Knife, and as the red men and white men were at peace, he had come among his brothers for a friendly talk about the white men settling on the other side of the Ohio. His own jour nal gives his speech, and their response: 1 1 Marshall, Vol. I., p. 33. ព CAPTAIN BULLITT'S SUCCESSFUL MISSION. 19 "Brothers: We come from Virginia. The king of my people has bought from the nations of red men, both north and south, all the land, and I am instructed to inform you, and all the warriors of this great country, that the English and Virginians are in friendship with you. This friendship is dear to them, and they hold it sacred. The same friendship they expect from you. The Shawanees and Delawares are our nearest neighbors, and we want them to be our best friends. "Brothers: You did not get any of the money or blankets given for the land which we are going to settle. This was hard for you. But it is agreed by the great men who own the land, that they will make a present to both the Shawanees and Delawares the next year and the year following. "Brothers: I am appointed to settle the country, to live in it, to raise corn, and to make proper regulations among my people. There will be some principal men from my country soon, who desire to say more to you. The governor will come out this year, or the next. When I come again, I will have a belt of wampum. This time, I came in haste, and had not one ready. My people want the country, to settle and cultivate. They will have no objection to your hunting and trapping there. I hope you will live by us as brothers and friends. You know my heart, and as it is single toward you, I expect you to give me a kind talk. I will write to my governor what you say to me, and he will believe all I write." The Indians, as was their custom in council or conference, were grave and deliberative, and this matter concerned their hunting-grounds. They asked a day for an answer, and on the morrow they assembled again, with Bullitt present, and through Richard Butler returned the following response: "Oldest brother, the Long Knife: We heard you would be glad to see your brothers, the Shawanees and Delawares, and talk with them. But we are surprised that you sent no runner before you, and that you came quite near us, through the trees and grass, a hard journey, without letting us know until you appeared among us. "Brother: We have considered your talk carefully, and we are made glad to find nothing bad in it, nor any ill meaning. You speak what seems very kind and friendly, and it pleases us well. You mentioned to us your intention to settle on the other side of the Ohio with your people. We are pleased that they are not to disturb us in our hunting; for we must hunt to kill meat for our women and children, and to have something to buy our powder and lead, and to get us blankets and clothing. All our young people are pleased with what you said. We desire that you will be strong in fulfilling your promises toward us, as we are determined to be very straight in advising our young men to be kind and peaceable toward you. This spring, we saw something wrong on the part of our young men. They took some horses from the whites; but we have advised them not to do so again, and have cleaned their hearts of all bad intentions." Richard Butler was the interpreter, and made Captain Bullitt his guest |