The Winning of the West, Volume Two | Page 8

and McGarry's were considerably smaller. The large proportion of
young children testifies to the prolific nature of the Kentucky women,
and also shows the permanent nature of the settlements. Two years
previously, in 1775, there had been, perhaps, three hundred people in
Kentucky, but very many of them were not permanent residents.]
Boon Captured.
Early in 1778 a severe calamity befell the settlements. In January Boon
went, with twenty-nine other men, to the Blue Licks to make salt for
the different garrisons--for hitherto this necessary of life had been
brought in, at great trouble and expense, from the settlements.

[Footnote: See Clark's Diary, entry for October 25, 1777.] The
following month, having sent three men back with loads of salt, he and
all the others were surprised and captured by a party of eighty or ninety
Miamis, led by two Frenchmen, named Baubin and Lorimer. [Footnote:
Haldimand MSS. B., 122, p. 35. Hamilton to Carleton, April 25, 1778.
He says four-score Miamis.] When surrounded, so that there was no
hope of escape, Boon agreed that all should surrender on condition of
being well treated. The Indians on this occasion loyally kept faith. The
two Frenchmen were anxious to improve their capture by attacking
Boonsborough; but the fickle savages were satisfied with their success,
and insisted on returning to their villages. Boon was taken, first to Old
Chillicothe, the chief Shawnee town on the Little Miami, and then to
Detroit, where Hamilton and the other Englishmen treated him well,
and tried to ransom him for a hundred pounds sterling. However, the
Indians had become very much attached to him, and refused the ransom,
taking their prisoner back to Chillicothe. Here he was adopted into the
tribe, and remained for two months, winning the good-will of the
Shawnees by his cheerfulness and his skill as a hunter, and being
careful not to rouse their jealousy by any too great display of skill at the
shooting-matches.
Hamilton was urging the Indians to repeat their ravages of the
preceding year; Mingos, Shawnees, Delawares, and Miamis came to
Detroit, bringing scalps and prisoners. A great council was held at that
post early in June. [Footnote: _Do._, June 14, 1778.] All the
northwestern tribes took part, and they received war-belts from the
Iroquois and messages calling on them to rise as one man. They
determined forthwith to fall on the frontier in force. By their war parties,
and the accompanying bands of tories, Hamilton sent placards to be
distributed among the frontiersmen, endeavoring both by threat and by
promise of reward, to make them desert the patriot cause. [Footnote:
Do., April 25, 1778.]
Boon Escapes and Makes a Foray.
In June a large war party gathered at Chillicothe to march against
Boonsborough, and Boon determined to escape at all hazards, so that
he might warn his mends. One morning before sunrise he eluded the
vigilance of his Indian companions and started straight through the
woods for his home where he arrived in four days, having had but one

meal during the whole journey of a hundred and sixty miles. [Footnote:
Boon's Narrative.]
On reaching Boonsborough he at once set about putting the fort in good
condition; and being tried by court-martial for the capture at the Blue
Licks, he was not only acquitted but was raised to the rank of major.
His escape had probably disconcerted the Indian war party, for no
immediate attack was made on the fort. After waiting until August he
got tired of the inaction, and made a foray into the Indian country
himself with nineteen men, defeating a small party of his foes on the
Sciota. At the same time he learned that the main body of the Miamis
had at last marched against Boonsborough. Instantly he retraced his
steps with all possible speed, passed by the Indians, and reached the
threatened fort a day before they did.
Boonsborough again Beseiged.
On the eighth day of the month the savages appeared before the
stockade. They were between three and four hundred in number,
Shawnees and Miamis, and were led by Captain Daigniau de Quindre, a
noted Detroit partisan [Footnote: Haldimand MSS. Aug. 17, 1778,
Girty reports that four hundred Indians have gone to attack "Fort
Kentuck." Hamilton's letter of Sept. 16th speaks of there being three
hundred Shawnees with de Quindre (whom Boon calls Duquesne).];
with him were eleven other Frenchmen, besides the Indian chiefs. They
marched into view with British and French colors flying, and formally
summoned the little wooden fort to surrender in the name of his
Britannic Majesty. The negotiations that followed showed, on the part
of both whites and reds, a curious mixture of barbarian cunning and
barbarian childishness; the account reads as if it were a page of
Graeco-Trojan diplomacy. [Footnote: See Boon's Narrative.] Boon first
got a