"TRANSYLVANIA COMPANY" ORGANIZED.

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The victor tribe in campaign and battle could at best do little more than kill a number of the vanquished hostiles, and disperse the great body of the surviving warriors to the sheltering and safe retreats of the forest. As soon as the victorious army was withdrawn upon the countermarch homeward, the scattered forces of the dispersed hostiles emerged from the forest recesses, and resumed their tribal force and habits again. Thus, the dominancy of the Mohawk tribes of the North-east, which was asserted with so much emphasis and effect twenty years before, was at this date virtually extinct in all but the name. The Miamis on the north, and Cherokees on the south, had resumed possession and held sway practically as unquestioned as before the invasion of the Mohawks. Then, also, the encroachment of the white settlements, upon the vicinage of these latter Indians in western New York and Pennsylvania, had the usual effect to divert and enfeeble, and at the same time to dishearten them as assumed conquerors, by contrast with the presence of a people superior to themselves in numbers, in prowess, and in the resources of war.

Kentucky, by these coincidences of tribal wars and title claims, is thus presented to us as the converging point of rival contestants over the entire region from the Alleghany mountains to the Mississippi river, and from the lakes and St. Lawrence river to the gulf. In this trinity of disputed titles, there was enough to constantly irritate the jealous and passionate natures of the savage nations who were the defiant rivals, and to continue those fierce raids and bloody strifes throughout Kentucky which yet signalized her, as in the traditional past, as the "Dark and Bloody Ground.”

Of the many expeditionary measures for the colonization of Kentucky in inception and process of execution for the early spring of 1775, that organized under the name and style of the "Transylvania Company" was most conspicuous in the magnitude of its proportions, in the ability of its management, and in the means for its successful prosecution. During the previous autumn, Judge Richard Henderson, Nathaniel Hart, and several others of Granville and vicinity, North Carolina, gentlemen of large and varied resources, associated themselves into a land and improvement company with the above title, for speculative venture on a gigantic scale in the new and expansive empire of the West.

1This association had the advantage of a personal leadership of some political experience, well sustained by bold originality, that dared nothing. less than the creation of power, of fortune, and of empire out of the boundless waste and chaos of unsubdued nature. Quickly perceiving that the treaty with the Mohawks in 1768, and that just negotiated with the Miamis, left no Indian claimant to the territory of Kentucky but the Cherokees; and that the alienations between Great Britain and her colonies must soon result in war, thus leaving in doubt whether there would be again a jurisdiction more than in name to either over the vast transmontane wilderness, Judge HenI Trans. purchase - Marshall, Vol. I., pp. 13-15; Collins, Vol. II., pp 337 and 496.

derson determined to base a purchase and transfer of an immense territory in Kentucky on the title yet remaining in the Cherokees. In furtherance of this plan, he commissioned Daniel Boone to visit these Indians at their towns on the upper Tennessee waters, and open negotiations. Boone was successful in bringing about a favorable understanding and an early consummation. By appointment, Henderson, Boone, and friends met the Cherokee delegation led by Oconistoto, the first chief of the tribe, at Sycamore shoals, on the Wataga, a tributary of Holston river. The negotiations extended through twenty days, when, on the 17th of March, 1775, for ten thousand pounds sterling, there was ceded to the company all the tract of lands afterward called by the name of Transylvania, and bounded as follows: "Beginning on the Ohio river at the mouth of Cantuckey, Chenoca, or what the English call Louisa river, thence up said river and most northwardly fork of the same to the head spring thereof; thence, a south-east course to the top of Powell's mountain; thence westwardly, along the ridge of said mountain, unto a point from which a north-west course will strike the head spring of the most southwardly branch of Cumberland river; thence down said river, including its waters, to the Ohio river; thence up said river, as it meanders, to the beginning-which tract or territory of lands was, at the time of said purchase, and time out of mind had been, the land and huntinggrounds of the said Cherokee tribe of Indians." 1

Thus was it attempted to convey to the sovereign jurisdiction and control of a few individuals by this treaty seventeen million acres of land in one body, or an area equal to two-thirds of the present territory of Kentucky. It embraced about all except that part lying north and east of Kentucky river, and which was most subject to be disputed and raided by the restless and warlike Miami tribes across the Ohio. An arrangement was effected with Boone by the proprietors of Transylvania for the opening of a trace or road for the travel of men and pack-horses from a point on Holston river, not far from Wataga, to the mouth of Otter creek, on Kentucky river, the future site of Boonesborough. He, with a party composed of Squire Boone, Colonel Richard Callaway, John Kennedy, and eighteen others, was joined by Captain William Twetty and his company of eight men, making thirty in all. With ax and tomahawk, they began the toilsome work of carving out the path through the wilderness. The narrative of one of the party, young Felix Walker, says: 2 "We marked the track with our hatchets until we reached Rockcastle river. Thence, for twenty miles, we had to cut our way through a country entirely covered with dead brush. The next thirty miles were through thick cane and reed, and as the cane ceased, they began to discover the pleasing and rapturous appearance of the plains of Kentucky. So rich a soil we had never seen before, covered with clover in full bloom, while the woods abounded in wild game. It appeared that nature, in her

1 Butler, p. 13; Boone's Narrative; Henderson's Journal March, 1775.

2 Boone's Narrative; Peck's Life of Boone; Collins, Vol. II., p. 498.

FIRST FORT ERECTED IN KENTUCKY.

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profusion, had spread a feast for all that lived, both for the animal and rational world." It was cruel to so suddenly dispel the charm of these realities in view, and the visions of delight they promised in the future.

The party had proceeded unmolested with their pioneer work until the morning of Saturday, the 25th day of March. Unconscious of danger, while lying asleep in camp at a point in Madison county, about fifteen miles south of Boonesborough, they were surprised and fired into by Indians just before the dawn of day. Captain Twetty was mortally wounded and his negro servant killed, and Felix Walker very seriously wounded. Captain Boone rallied his men and held his ground until daybreak, losing no property. On the 27th, two days after, an Indian party, perhaps the same, fired on a camp of six of Boone's men, killing two and wounding three, only a few miles distant from the first point. These unfortunate events necessitated the building of the first fort in Kentucky, five miles south of the present site of Richmond. The wounds of Twetty and Walker were too serious to admit of their removal. Boone and party hastily erected a stockade fort, or bullet-proof shelter, of logs, as a protection against further assaults of the savages, and placed the wounded men inside, and there nursed them until the 28th, when Captain Twetty died of his wounds and was buried in the enclosure. On the 1st of April, they moved on to the Kentucky river, to the point selected to be fortified, bearing the wounded Walker between two horses. On the fourth day after their arrival, another of Boone's men was killed by the ambushed savages.

On the day of leaving Fort Twetty, as they had named this hasty structure, Boone wrote to Colonel Henderson, urging that if he would thwart the designs of the Indians and hold the country, to hasten his presence with all the forces he could command to the aid of the men now in Kentucky. Henderson had left Wataga on the 20th of March, and in his journal, which he kept, shows strikingly the demoralizing effects these Indian butcheries were having upon the emigrants who had already set out to follow "Boone's Trace" into Kentucky. We quote from his diary:

"Saturday, April 8th.—Started about ten o'clock. Crossed Cumberland Gap. About four miles from it, met about forty persons returning from the Cantuckey on account of the late murders by the Indians. Could prevail

on only one to return. Several Virginians who were with us turned back from here.

"Sunday, 16th.-About twelve o'clock, met James McAfee, with eighteen others, returning from Cantuckey. Of these, Robert McAfee, Samuel McAfee, and several others, were persuaded to turn back and go to Boonesborough."

This was most discouraging, but did not dishearten or deter the men of resolute will, who had planned and were executing their mission. They were too much the men of destiny to pause upon the threshold.

1 Collins, Vol. II., p. 496.

Boone and his companions, on arrival at the point selected, vigorously undertook the construction of two cabins, so connected with palisades as to give it the defensive character of a stockade fort, locating the structure near an ancient and widespreading elm tree that became of historic note in after days, 1 Henderson and party arrived on the 20th, swelling the forces to sixty guns, in pioneer phrase. After a survey of the ground by Colonel Henderson, the site and plans for more extensive works of defense were determined on, and all available forces set to work in the rapid construction of the same. With so much energy did the men work that the main fort and its defenses were all complete on the 14th of June, less than two months after the arrival of the re-enforcements. At the instance of Judge Henderson, the first fortified camp ever built in Kentucky was christened "Boonesborough," in honor of the intrepid leader who had selected the site and pioneered the way to its settlement. As described by Collins, "It was situated adjacent to the river, with one of the angles resting on its bank near the water, and extending from it in the form of a parallelogram. The length of the fort, allowing twenty feet for each cabin and opening, must have been about two hundred and sixty, and the breadth one hundred and fifty feet." The main houses were of hewn logs, and bullet-proof. They were square in form

and two stories in height, and one of these projected from each corner of the fort, the spaces between being occupied with intervening cabins and palisades, thus protecting the four sides. The gates were on opposite sides, made of thick slabs of timber, and hung on wooden hinges.

The site of the fort is now better indicated as near the crossing of the Kentucky river by the railroad recently constructed from Winchester to Richmond, though it has long since lost importance as a trading point. Twenty acres were laid off into lots and streets, and fifty acres more were directed to be laid off, out of the full survey tract of six hundred and forty acres. Henderson found himself very much embarrassed on his first arrival, on this account. In his diary for April 21st, he says: "Captain Boone's company having laid out most of the adjacent good lands into lots of two acres each, and taking it as it fell to each individual by lot, was in actual possession of them. After some perplexity, I resolved to erect a fort three hundred yards from the other, and on the opposite bank of a large lick."

Boonesborough was only established as an incorporate town, however, by act of the Virginia Legislature, in October, 1779, "on the Kentucky river, in the county of Kentucky, for the reception of traders." At the same time, the Legislature established "at the town of Boonesborough, to the land on the opposite shore, a ferry over the Kentucky river. The price for a man, three shillings, and for a horse, the same; the keeping of which ferry, and the emoluments of the same, are hereby given and granted to Richard Calloway." Thus was projected the foundations of a city in vision, not to be realized in the future."

1 Collins, Vol II., p. 520

2 Collins, Vol. II., p. 520.

REMINISCENCES OF EARLY LIFE OF BOONE.

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The brightest dream of ambitious hope had now materialized to Daniel Boone. It is fit and opportune that we should pause here, and dwell for awhile upon the early life and incidents which form the mold in which was cast the character of a man, unsurpassed in history in simple heroism of unselfish purpose and action, in the modest sphere of life to which designing Providence undoubtedly called him. On the future page, as on the past, the name and deeds of this remarkable man must be prominent to the close of the pioneer era, or the history of Kentucky can not be written. Daniel Boone was born at Exeter, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, on the 14th of July, 1732, according to the family record in the handwriting of his uncle, James Boone. His parents were Squire and Sarah Boone, and he was one of eleven children, seven sons and four daughters. George and Mary Boone, the grandparents of Daniel, emigrated to America and arrived at Philadelphia in October, 1717, from the vicinity of Exeter, England, bringing with them eleven children, nine sons and two daughters. He purchased a large tract of land in Bucks county, when it was yet on the frontier, and gave the name Exeter to it, after his native place in England, and by which the township in Bucks county is yet known. Here, on the right bank of Delaware river, amid the almost unbroken forests, Boone learned his first lessons and acquired that passion for adventures of the hunt and the solitudes of the wilderness which was the ruling impulse of his life. Family reminiscence. confirms the natural conjecture of the mind, that in earliest boyhood days, when he was able to shoulder the old flint-lock rifle, and to sight it at arm's rest at an object in view, he daily roamed the woods in search of sport and game. In boyish pride, he one day came in exulting, with the skin of a ferocious panther which he had brought down, just couched to spring upon him. While yet in early teens, he ventured to prolong his absence on the hunt for two days and nights. The alarmed family, joined by sympathizing neighbors, traversed the woods in search of the lost boy. They at length saw smoke rising from a rude structure in the distance, and on reaching it, found young Boone, in camp. The floor was covered with the skins of such animals as he had slain, while pieces of meat were roasting at the fire. Such was his beginning.

His education was scant, indeed. We have the tradition of the border school-house of rude logs and puncheon seats on the dirt floor; of the schoolmaster of fickle humors, and given to frequent use of the bottle for himself and of the rod for the children. Boone one day, chasing a rabbit into the hollow root of an old tree, thrust in his hand and brought out the dominic's bottle. Preparing himself by the next day, he put in it a powerful emetic, and quietly prepared the older boys for the crisis. They had all suffered from his cruel temper, and they now knew the cause of it. The result was a day of distressing sickness to the master, of disgust and revolt among the

1 Hartley's Daniel Bocne; Peck's Boone.

2 Adventures of Boone, the Kentucky Rifleman; Collins, Vol. II., p. 520.