“LONG KNIFE WAS TAKEN FAIRLY AND SQUARELY IN THEBREAST.”—P. 63.
WITH BOONE ON
THE FRONTIER
OR
THE PIONEER BOYS OF OLD
KENTUCKY
BY
CAPTAIN RALPH BONEHILL
AUTHOR OF “THE BOYS OF THE FORT,” “WITH CUSTER IN
THE BLACK HILLS,” “WHEN SANTIAGO FELL,”
“THE YOUNG BANDMASTER,” ETC.
NEW YORK
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1903
BY
THE MERSHON COMPANY
PREFACE
“With Boone on the Frontier” relates theadventures of two youths who, with their families,go westward into what was at that time thewilderness of Kentucky, to join Daniel Boone insettling what has since become one of the richestand most prosperous of our States.
The history of this movement, and the historyof the man who was its greatest leader, are asfascinating as the most exciting novel ever written.Daniel Boone was a character almostunique in American history, a man the very embodimentof pluck and energy, and one who knewneither fear nor the meaning of the word fail.For years he had his eye on the great green fieldsof Kentucky, and he resolved, in spite of thedangers from natural causes and from the Indians,to open up this territory to the hundreds of pioneerswho had become tired of life along theeastern seacoast or close to it, and who wanted togo where they would be less under the rule ofthose English who were making themselves offensiveat that time. While those in the East werefighting the War for Independence he and his[iv]trusty followers were working equally hard togive to this nation a stretch of land of which anypeople might well be proud.
The first settlement in Kentucky was at Boonesborough,about eighteen miles to the southeastof Lexington, on the Kentucky River. To-daythis village is of small importance, but at thattime, in 1775, it boasted of a fort which, builtunder the directions of Daniel Boone, was a rallyingpoint for all the settlers of that territory and aplace to which they fled for safety at the first signof an Indian uprising. It is in and around thisfort that many incidents of the present tale occur.
It may be that some, in reading this story, willdeem many of the statements made therein overdrawn.Such is far from being the fact. Thedays in whi