Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/329

 When they had advanced two hundred miles to the west, the party divided, and Boone and Stuart proceeded in company, until, in the beautiful month of May, from a lofty eminence they saw the fertile plain of Kentucky, and its river rolling at their feet. Hardly had this splendid prospect opened before them, when they were surprised by a party of Indians, from whom they eventually succeeded in making their escape, and forming a hunting camp, the proceeds of which were sent to an eastern mart. During the year, Boone and Stuart remained the sole occupants of the "forbidden ground" of Kentucky, eluding the constant pursuit of the Indians, until the former returned to conduct a colony thither, but was attacked and driven back by the Indians. A. treaty for the cession of the lands south of Kentucky now being at length accomplished, Boone set off with a party, and opened the first "blazed trace," or outline of a road to the banks of the Kentucky river, where, early in 1775, he laid the foundation of Boonesborough. The subsequent career of Daniel Boone, deserves a word or two of notice. During the Revolution, he was taken prisoner by the Indians, and became such a favorite, that he was adopted into their tribe as a brave; but on learning that a body of British and Indians had assembled for the invasion of Kentucky and the destruction of his darling Boonesborough, he suddenly decamped, and with a single meal in his pocket, across the wilderness, accomplishing a hundred and fifty miles in six days, and gave such timely notice to his fellow-citizens as set aside the threatened attack. At the end of the war, he settled down as a farmer, but found that the lands which he had himself first discovered, had been granted away to some land-speculator in an eastern city. Thus driven away, he retired in disgust beyond the Mississippi, and sought a last resting-place on the banks of the Missouri, beyond the extreme verge of civilization; and here the old hunter was quietly gathered to his fathers. His grateful fellow-citizens have since removed his bones into Kentucky, and buried them with those of his wife, in a common sepulchre.

During the whole period of her controversy with Britain, says Mr. Grahame, America derived increased strength from domestic growth and from the flow of European emigration. Her territories presented varieties of human condition and diversified attractions adapted to almost every imaginable peculiarity of human taste,—from scenes of peace and repose, to circumstances of romantic adventure and interesting danger,—from the rudeness, the silence, and solitude of the forest, to the refinements of cultivated life, and the busy hum of men in flourishing, populous, and improved societies,—from, the lawless liberty of the back settlements, to the dominion of the most austerely moral legislation that ever prevailed among mankind. No complete memorial has been transmitted of the particulars of the emigrations that took place from Europe to America at this period; but (from the few illustrative facts that are actually preserved) they seem to have beer