The Winning of the West, Volume Two | Page 9

respite of two days to consider de Quindre's request, and occupied
the time in getting the horses and cattle into the fort. At the end of the
two days the Frenchman came in person to the walls to hear the answer
to his proposition; whereupon Boon jeered at him for his simplicity,
thanking him in the name of the defenders for having given them time
to prepare for defence, and telling him that now they laughed at his
attack. De Quindre, mortified at being so easily outwitted, set a trap in
his turn for Boon. He assured the latter that his orders from Detroit
were to capture, not to destroy, the garrison, and proposed that nine of

their number should come out and hold a treaty. The terms of the treaty
are not mentioned; apparently it was to be one of neutrality,
Boonsborough acting as if it were a little independent and sovereign
commonwealth, making peace on its own account with a particular set
of foes. At any rate, de Quindre agreed to march his forces peaceably
off when it was concluded.
Boon accepted the proposition, but, being suspicious of the good-faith
of his opponents, insisted upon the conference being held within sixty
yards of the fort. After the treaty was concluded the Indians proposed to
shake hands with the nine white treaty-makers, and promptly grappled
them. [Footnote: Apparently there were eighteen Indians on the treaty
ground, but these were probably, like the whites, unarmed.] However,
the borderers wrested themselves free, and fled to the fort under a
heavy fire, which wounded one of their number.
The Indians then attacked the fort, surrounding it on every side and
keeping up a constant fire at the loop-holes. The whites replied in kind,
but the combatants were so well covered that little damage was done.
At night the Indians pitched torches of cane and hickory bark against
the stockade, in the vain effort to set it on fire, [Footnote: McAfee
MSS.] and de Quindre tried to undermine the walls, starting from the
water mark. But Boon discovered the attempt, and sunk a trench as a
countermine. Then de Quindre gave up and retreated on August 20th,
after nine days' fighting, in which the whites had but two killed and
four wounded; nor was the loss of the Indians much heavier. [Footnote:
De Quindre reported to Hamilton that, though foiled, he had but two
men killed and three wounded. In Haldimand MSS., Hamilton to
Haldimand, October 15, 1778. Often, however, these partisan leaders
merely reported the loss in their own particular party of savages, taking
no account of the losses in the other bands that had joined them--as the
Miamis joined the Shawnees in this instance. But it is certain that Boon
(or Filson, who really wrote the Narrative) greatly exaggerated the facts
in stating that thirty-seven Indians were killed, and that the settlers
picked up 125 pounds' weight of bullets which had been fired into the
fort.]
This was the last siege of Boonsborough. Had de Quindre succeeded he
might very probably have swept the whites from Kentucky; but he
failed, and Boon's successful resistance, taken together with the

outcome of Clark's operations at the same time, ensured the
permanency of the American occupation. The old-settled region lying
around the original stations, or forts, was never afterwards seriously
endangered by Indian invasion.
Ferocious Individual Warfare.
The savages continued to annoy the border throughout the year 1778.
The extent of their ravages can be seen from the fact that, during the
summer months those around Detroit alone brought in to Hamilton
eighty-one scalps and thirty-four prisoners, [Footnote: Haldimand MSS.
Letter of Hamilton, September 16, 1778. Hamilton was continually
sending out small war parties; thus he mentions that on August 25th a
party of fifteen Miamis went out; on September 5th, thirty-one Miamis;
on September 9th, one Frenchman, five Chippewas, and fifteen Miamis,
etc.] seventeen of whom they surrendered to the British, keeping the
others either to make them slaves or else to put them to death with
torture. During the fall they confined themselves mainly to watching
the Ohio and the Wilderness road, and harassing the immigrants who
passed along them. [Footnote: McAfee MSS.]
Boon, as usual, roamed restlessly over the country, spying out and
harrying the Indian war parties, and often making it his business to
meet the incoming bands of settlers, and to protect and guide them on
the way to their intended homes. [Footnote: Marshall, 55.] When not on
other duty he hunted steadily, for game was still plentiful in Kentucky,
though fast diminishing owing to the wanton slaughter made by some
of the more reckless hunters. [Footnote: McAfee MSS.] He met with
many adventures, still handed down by tradition, in the chase of
panther, wolf, and bear, of buffalo, elk, and