BOONE'S LOSS AND FINAL ACQUITTAL.

171

depreciated money of his own, and considerable amounts entrusted to him by friends, he started to Virginia to make the outlay. On the way, the ingenuous and confiding old pioneer was robbed of the whole amount. Boone returned to Kentucky penniless and depressed; but suffering far more intensely from the chagrin of losing thus the money of friends entrusted to him than from his own pecuniary loss.

There was deep sympathy for the unfortunate veteran, whom all revered; yet some seemed ready in their resentment to cast unworthy reflections on him, and these touched profoundly the sensitive nature of Boone's integrity and manly pride.

Of the men who had entrusted more largely their money to Boone were Captain James Estill, Samuel Estill, Nathaniel Hart, Esq., John Boyle, the father of Chief Justice Boyle, and their neighbors. Boone set out for Williamsburg, Virginia, by the Wilderness road, then also known as Boone's old trace. He was intercepted and robbed by the Indians, or by renegade whites disguised as Indians, who infested the road, while passing through the mountainous region, of all his own and the money which he held for others. It was natural that complaints should be heard from the suffering and uncharitable; but after a full hearing and review of the facts, Boone was honorably acquitted of all blame, by Samuel Estill, in a deposition yet on file in the Madison Circuit Court, and by Captain Hart in a letter to Colonel Thomas Hart, formerly of Lexington, Kentucky.

Stephen Trigg and John Todd were this year elected members of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, for the county of Kentucky.

In February, 1780, Captain James Estill cut the initials of his name on a hackberry tree, on Little Muddy creek, in Madison county, and completed a cabin in that month previous to moving thence from Boonesborough. We are told that it took eight or ten days to build the cabin, and that Estill's station was then erected at the same place. This station was surrounded by large fields of corn, wheat, and other produce of agriculture. It soon became a place of importance, and for many years was the point of most danger in East Kentucky. Among the settlers known to have been there in 1780 were Green Clay, James Estill, Samuel Estill, Peter Hackett, Thomas Warren, David Lynch, James Miller, Thomas Miller, Adam Caperton, and others.

In the same year, George Boone, a brother of Daniel, founded a station in Madison county, about six miles north of Richmond, on the present turnpike leading to Lexington. The adjoining stations of Stephen Hancock, David Crews, and John Tanner were shortly afterward established, and became attractive points for settlers locating in that part of the State. stations of Estill, Boone, Crews, Hancock, and Tanner contributed more to the settlement of Kentucky than was done by the old fort at Boonesborough, which was rather a rallying point for settlers distributing over the State at large.

The subsequent settlements in Clay, Estill, and other counties toward Cumberland Gap, in Eastern Kentucky, were mainly offshoots from these early settlements in Madison county. These early stations were long the objects of Indian jealousy and hatred; and in defense of them were lost the lives of Captain Nathaniel Hart, Captain John Kennedy, Colonel Richard Callaway, Captain James Estill, Lieutenant John South, Captain Christopher Irvine, and Richard Hinds.

The Estills were early pioneers. They came to Boonesborough in 1776, and shared in the vicissitudes of forest life, until the death of Captain James Estill, in 1781. They gallantly fought at the battle of Point Pleasant in 1774. Colonel Samuel Estill lived through the perilous period of Indian hostilities and the last war with England in 1815. He left Kentucky in 1833 to reside with Mrs. Annie Day, a daughter, in Tennessee, where, in 1837, he died at the age of eighty-two years, and his remains were buried on the Cumberland mountain. He was a man of large and portly person, and in his later years weighed four hundred and twelve pounds. Making profession of religion toward the close of life, and desiring to be baptized by immersion, he was seated in his large arm-chair, and four men called to assist the officiating minister, Elder Thomas Ballew, in the ordinance.

The invasion of Clark's army and the destruction of the towns and fields of the Miami tribes in Ohio secured Kentucky from the annual aggressive operations on the part of these hostiles, on any extended scale, during the year 1781. The general-in-chief had also better organized and varied the sys

tem of defense against such dangers, one of the more novel features of which was the fitting up of an armed row-galley, with breastwork protections on the sides, for the patrol of the Ohio river from the falls to the mouth of Licking.1 This was built at Louisville, and was intended as a floating fortification-not very formidable to those accustomed to the implements and usages of civilized warfare, but as effective against Indian weapons and methods as the stockade forts on land. It proved to have a good effect in deterring the savages-whether from alarm at the novelty or fear of its armed. crew, it mattered little-and, indeed, was said to have stopped a threatened invasion of magnitude. The short career of this impromptu naval structure and its abandonment were mainly caused by the aversion of the militia foresters to the new element of service, for which they had no liking, and by the reduction of the regular force. The galley was finally stranded at the mouth of Beargrass, and the obstruction is said to have produced the formation of the Point.

Spies and scouting parties were distributed and sent to important parts of the country, and headquarters kept well advised of all that was going on. A characteristic incident is related of Clark: After the establishment of Fort Jefferson on the Mississippi, in company with Josiah Harlan and Harmar Consilla, he proceeded on foot to Harrodsburg. The perils of the way were great. They painted and decked themselves like Indians, and advanced as far as Tennessee river without interruption. 2 They found a flood tide of water, and Indians of the Chickasaw tribe hunting on both sides of the river. They constructed a raft tied together with grapevines, on which they placed their guns and clothes, plunged into the foaming current, and swam over. Under cover of the high banks, they had reached nearly the middle of the stream, when the enemy discovered them, and quickly exchanged whoops of intelligence. A deep creek put in on the opposite side, and the white party, by drifting and swimming, landed below, so as to put this between themselves and the Indians on that side, and thus escaped. In approaching a fort on Red river, in Logan county, they were mistaken for Indians by the garrison, and only the loud calling of his own name by Clark saved them from the deadly bullets of their friends. On their route, they met a party of forty emigrants almost starved for food. Their unpracticed hunters failed to kill the buffalo, of which there were plenty on the prairies here, from want of a knowledge of the fact that the hump on the back requires a different aim to hit the heart from that of other animals. Clark and companions soon set them right on this point, and killed for them a supply for all present wants. They ran with the herd, and fired and loaded as they went, until they had killed fourteen. The strangers, themselves expert hunters of other game, were amazed to witness such results, in contrast with their own failure. As in many other cases, the hunter's long experience only sufficed.

THE AMBUSCADE OF THE INDIANS.

175

Reaching Harrodsburg, he found the people almost crazed over the land excitement. Every one was trying to secure lands, and nothing else was

talked of, or would be considered. The office

of Mr. May, the surveyor, was besieged by
crowding applicants, and little attention.
was paid to Clark's authority. He pro-
posed to May to close up his office, that
attention might be given to the defense of
the country. The latter replied that he
had no authority to do this; but if the
general would issue an order, he would
be the first to obey it. Accordingly, such
an order was placed on the door of the
surveyor's office, notifying that the office
was closed by order of Brigadier-General
Clark until after an expedition could be car-
ried on against the enemy. The result was,
the enlistment of the forces that were led against the Pickaway towns.

COLONEL SAMUEL ESTILL.

During this year, a company of Dutchmen came into Madison county to select a suitable place for a settlement.1 Ripperdan, Boyers, and several others went over to Estill's station, about two miles above the mouth of Little Muddy creek, to ask the aid of Captain James Estill and his brother, Sam Estill, a noted forester and Indian fighter. As they rode along a path through the cane, they passed a large oak tree which had lately fallen near the trace. Behind its dry red leaves a band of Indians were ambushed, and they had cut and placed upright in a crack in the tree some cane, the better to conceal them. Sam Estill's quick and trained eye discerned a moccasin behind the tree, and he at once raised his rifle and fired at the spot, then threw himself off his horse on the opposite side, and shouted, "Indians!" The savages fired also, one shot breaking the right arm of Captain Estill, whose horse wheeled and galloped back to the station. The rider, not able to check him, with his gun in the remaining hand, seized the bridle in his teeth, but could not control him. A big savage, painted and feathered in horrid style, sprang out and endeavored to tomahawk Ripperdan, all having dismounted. The Dutchman, not much used to Indian fighting, and sorely frightened, called to Sam Estill to shoot the Indian. Estill had just emptied his gun at the savages, and cried out, "Why don't you shoot him, d-n you; your gun's loaded?" Reassured by Estill's voice and command, Ripperdan jerked his gun to his shoulder and fired, in a few feet of the enemy. The Indian dropped his gun, gave a shriek like a wounded bear, and fell dead. This checked the attack, and the savages retreated through the cane. Sam Estill, believing that his brother had galloped off to save himself, when he should have remained through the fight, was indignant at what he deemed a 1 Collins, Vol. II., p. 527.