xt7r7s7hr12r https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7r7s7hr12r/data/mets.xml Morehead, James T. (James Turner), 1797-1854. 1840  books b92-156-29785696 English A.G. Hodges, state printer, : Frankfort, Ky. : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Kentucky History To 1792. Address in commemoration of the first settlement of Kentucky  : delivered at Boonesborough the 25th May, 1840 / by James T. Morehead. text Address in commemoration of the first settlement of Kentucky  : delivered at Boonesborough the 25th May, 1840 / by James T. Morehead. 1840 2002 true xt7r7s7hr12r section xt7r7s7hr12r 




AN ADDRESS



COMMEMORATION



OF THE



FILST SrE.TT'LEINRxT



     OF KENTUCKY:



             DELI V E R ElD



At Boonesborough the 25th May, 1840,



               B Y



Ii ATN   E.S



T. MIOREIIEAD.



    FRANKFORT, KVY.
A. G. HODGES.....STATE PRINTER.
       1840.

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                                      COUNTY O  MADISON, May 29th, 1810.
HON. JAMES T. MOREHEAD,
       Dear Sir:-On behalf of the several Committees appointed by the Counties
of Madison and Clarke, in relation to the Celebration at Boonesborough, on the 24th
instant, of the 65th Anniversary of the first settlement of Kentucky, we have to request
that you will furnish for the press, a copy of the very appropriate and eloquent address
delivered by you en that interesting occasion.
  In making this request, we take pleasure in assuring you, that we not only express
the wishes of the several Corhmittees, but of the whole community, and that we are
               Most respectfully, and sincerely, yours, c.
                       DANIEL BRECK,            J. B. HOUSTON,
                       DAVID IRViNE,             JOHN MARTIN,
                       W. II. CAPERTON,         A. W. 1MILLS,
                       ARCHIBALD WOODS, PATTON D. HARRISON.











                                               FRANKFORT, 5th June, 1840.
Gentlemen:
      In-complying with your request to furnish you a copy of my address at Boones-
borough, oa. the 25th ultimo, on the occasion of the Celebration of the first settlement
of Kentucky, I beg to be pefmitted to express my acknowledgements for the favorable
terms in which you have been pleased to speak of it, and the gratification 1 shall feel,
should it contribute, in any degree, to diffuse acquaintance with the early history of our
Common wealth.
                     I have the honor to be,
                             With great respect,
                                        Gentlemen,
                                            Your obedient servant,
                                                JAMES T. MOREHEAD.
 DANIEL BRECK, Esq., and others,
                         Committee, c.

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A DDRESS.



   WE meet under circumstances of peculiar felicitation.
From various parts of our beloved Commonwealth, we
have come up to the place which has been known in past,
as it will continue to be known in all future time, as the
first permanent residence of those extraordinary men,
who, with fortitude and perseverance unexampled in the
history of the human race, dislodged the aborigines of
the soil we inhabit, and prepared it, under the pressure
of almost incredible hardships and sufferings, for the
abode of free and intelligent man. The descendants of
the pioneers have assembled to discharge pious obligra-
tions of high and solemn import, to their memory. On
the spot where we now are, there was convened, sixty-
five years ago, the first Legislative Assembly of the great
Valley of the West. It was composed of seventeen del-
egates or representatives of not more than one hundred
and fifty constituents, then the probable number of the
people of Kentucky. The day on which they began
their perilous labors, in an uninhabited and savage wil-
derness, of which the red man and the buffalo had until
then been the sole and unmolested possessors,-a middle
point of time, between the commencement and comple-.
tion of the first rude fortress built by our ancestors for
protection and defence-has been selected as the one
most appropriately to be dedicated by the citizens of
Kentucky to the commemoration of the earliest and
inost interesting event of their his.torY

 


6



   The importance of that event,-the dignity of the
 occasion-the interest and impressiveness of the specta-
 cle now presented to view-all combine to inspire us
 with sentiments of profound gratitude to Heaven, that
 we have lived to see this day: and our prayers are due
 to the great disposer of human events, who shielded our
 fathers and has hitherto watched over us, that He will
 preserve our institutions for generations to come, and
 that through His divine agency we may be permitted to
 perpetuate this anniversary by a solemn annual dedica-
 tion of it to the purposes of gratitude and thanksgiving
 and joy.
   Anxious for the indulgence I have often received from
my fellow citizens, and sustained by the confidence that
it will not be withheld, I proceed to the performance of
the duty which they have assigned to me.
  The seventeenth century was distinguished by the
settlement of the North American colonies, and the suc-
cessful establishment of their institutions. To say noth-
ing of the causes by which those events were superin-
duced, or of their influence upon the political affairs of
mankind, it may be observed that no revolution either of
manners or pursuits could be more thorough and per-
ceptible, than that which was experienced by the primi-
tive emigrants from the old world to the new. They
were the subjects of a misgoverned but time honored
state, in which the few remaining relics of feudalism
gave proof of the progress of modern amelioration;
and no sooner had they landed on the shore of the new
world, than they found themselves the occupants of a
wilderness, untrodden by the foot of civilized man, in-
fested by savages, unsparing in cruelty and greatly su-
perior in numbers, and bounded only by oceans that en-
circled the.cOntinont. In this exposed condition, years

 


7



of calamity and of suffering passed over them. Indo-
lence, vice and famine produced their inevitable conse-
quences-anarchy and discord and death. The re-
straints of government-the feebleness of their resour-
ces the paucity of their numbers,-their remoteness
from the parent country-the strength and fierceness of
the surrounding native tribes-all contributed to impair
their energies and damp their hopes-but notwithstand-
ing the weight of such powerful retardments, before the
close of the first half century after their emigration, the
settlements had spread from the coasts to the interior;
the colonial institutions had taken deep root in the soil-
and an impulse was given to the progress of the colonies
which was never afterwards'to be overcome. The char-
acteristics of the colonists in the mean time had under-
gone such a change as was necessary to adapt them to
the emergencies of their new condition. The extension
of their population westward, while it enlarged the boun-
daries of civilization, tended at the same time, to enure
the adventurous emigrants to scenes of toil and of dan-
ger; and to engender the habits and modes of life and
action, of rude and unpolished man. If the mass of the
people of the colonies, even of those that were most dense-
ly settled, were deprived of the luxuries and superflui-
ties of life, the inhabitants of the frontier preferred a
livelihood acquired by the contingent and hazardous em-
ploymqnt of a hunter, to the cultivation of the soil, or
the practice of any mechanical occupation. While the
force of circumstances propelled them on the one hand,
into hostile contact with the natives, in respect to whom
their position was necessarily antagonistical, they were
urged, on the other, to depend for protection and secui-
rity on their personal prowess and intrepidity alone; and
to seek the means of support, in the midst of ferocious

 


8



and wily enemies, whose stealthy incursions no vigilance
could elude; whose implacable resentment, no other sa-
crifice than that of blood could appease. The dextrous
use of the rifle, therefore, became an acquisition of in-
dispensible importance. The instinct of self-preserva-
tion pointed it out as a weapon necessary at once for an-
noyance and defence; and in a country abounding with
every species of game, the frequent visitations of scar-
city and want, taught them to rely on that trusty imple-
ment as a most valuable auxiliary in furnishing subsis-
tence to their families and themselves.
  In the progress of little more than a century and a
half from the colonization of Virginia to the breaking out
of hostilities with the parent country in 1775, the pop-
ulation of the colonies had swelled to three millions. A
nation had sprung up, claiming attention for its thrifti-
ness and enterprise, its increasing commercial and agri-
cultural resources, its intelligence and devotion to civil
liberty. All the circumstances of its early career were
favorable to the formation of those traits of character,
that fitted it for the conflict which the rashness and vio-
lence of the maternal councils threatened and precipita-
ted-favorable also to the enlargement of the colonial
possessions, by the conquest of distant and unexplored
regions, the occupancy of which was still in bold and
warlike Indian tribes. The existing generation was ad-
mirably qualified for the distinguished part it was to per-
form on a new theatre of human affairs. Born in the
wilderness, it might almost be said to have been nurtur-
ed in hardship-to have been disciplined in the hunter's
camp,-to have been educated in the school of exposure
and of peril. Wave after wave of civilization, as the
colonial settlements expanded, wafted the aboriginal
tribes still farther westward, and their places were sup-

 


0



plied by the hardy backwoodsmen, who, from taste and
inclination, sought homes and employment on the con-
fines of the settlements. However the interior inhab-
itants of the colonies may have been comparatively se-
cure from the inroads of the savages, the weak and scat-
tered settlements on the border were exposed to inces-
sant conflicts, by night and by day, against fearful odds
with their desperate and deadly foe. Not only was the
power of endurance, however, strengthened by the in-
vigorating habits of a frontier life, but a constant parti-
cipation of its nerve-trying scenes, and a consequent fa-
miliarity with its perils and vicissitudes, imparted to them
charms, superior in the estimation of the tenant of the
wilderness, to the soft endearments of polished society,
or to the selfish and tranquil pursuits of ambition and
wealth. The free born wanderer of the woods knew,
only to disclaim, the artificial restraints of society, and
as he roamed through the dark and majestic forest, or
scaled the dizzy heights of the mountains, or traced the
meanderings of some noble river, his attachments for his
chosen pursuits increased with the increase of years, and
he yielded himself to their enjoyment with the proud
satisfaction that he was the free and untaxed proprietor
of the boundless domains of nature around him.
  This absorbing preference of the frontier life charac-
terized the whole class of original western emigrants;
and although the prevailing passion of that period for
adventure and discovery, may have given impulse to
their extraordinary career, to the predominant influence
of their preference for that mode of life is chiefly attrib-
utable the steady and unwavering perseverance, with
which amidst all the discouragements and difficulties
that encompassed them, they maintained their ground
            2

 


10



and eventually effected the conquest of the magnificent
regions of the West.
  Although the territory comprehended within the lim-
its of Kentucky was embraced by thepatent of James I,
to the Virginia company, yet for more than a hundred
and fifty years after Virginia was settled, Kentucky,
abounding in every thing calculated to tempt the cupidi-
ty or the enterprise of men, was as little known to the in-
habitants east of the Alleghanies, as the terra incognita
of antiquity. We have the assurance of history, that
prior to the year 1767, no citizen of Virginia had
ventured to cross the great Laurel Ridge, which was
the apparent western boundary of that colony. An explor-
ing party, it is true, unaer the direction of Dr. Walker,
had some years before, crossed the Cumberland Moun-
tain from Powell's Valley and passed hastily along the
northeastern portion of Kentucky; but their discoveries
extended no farther than the country bordering on the
Sandy river which now separates us from Virginia, and
the party returned as ignorant of Kentucky, as if no ex-
ploration had been made. Long anterior to the year
1767, the vast regions of the northwest and south had
been successfully explored from the Lakes to the Gulf of
Mexico, under the auspices of the French and Spanish
governments, and settlements were made at various pla-
ces in the discovered countries at Vincennes, Peoria,
Cahokia, Kaskaskia, and Fort Chartres on the Missis-
sippi. Towards the middle of the sixteenth century,
Ferdinand De Soto, the celebrated discoverer of the low-
er Mississippi, visited the country between Pensacola and
North Carolina, passing through Georgia, Alabama and
Tennessee-and thus became acquainted with the south-
ern parts of the continent. In June 1673 Father Mar-
t De Soto died on the 21 May, 1542. " To conceal his death," says Bancroft, [History
U. S., 1. 57] " his body was wrapped in a mantle, and iL the stillness of midnight, was

 


11



quette, a French Missionary, stood on the banks of the
Upper Mississippi; and having descended that river to
its junction with the Arkansas, returned to Chicago on
Lake Michigan, passing up the river Illinois. After
Iim, the enterprizing but unfortunate La Salle, resolved
upon a further exploration of the regions of the northwest:
and with that view, built in 1769 on Lake Erie, the first
large vessel that ever ploughed its beautiful waters. He
proceeded up the Lakes to Michilimackinac, where he
left his ship and embarking in canoes, sailed along the
coast until he reached the southern extremity of Lake
Michigan. From there he crossed over the portage to
the Illinois, and descended that river and the Mississip-
pi to the Gulf of Mexico. In 1717 "the company of
the West,"9 under whose auspices Fort Chartres was es-
tablished, became entitled, by virtue of a grant from
Louis XIV, to the immense territory, comprizing Lou.
isiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Illinois, Mis-
souri and Arkansas;  and a chain of posts was estab-
lished by the French government, to connect their pos-
sessions in Canada with those in Louisiana by a line of
communication from Quebec to New Orleans.
  Although surrounded, as we have seen, by settlements
at every point of the compass, and composing a part of
the extensive territory embraced by the patent of the
Virginia company, Kentucky remained a dangerous and
unexplored wilderness-unexplored, if we concede the
expedition of Dr. Walker to have been an entire failure-
and scarcely known by tradition to the restless and en-
terprising inhabitants of the New World, until the year
silently sunk in the middle of the stream. The discoverer of the Mississippi slept be-
neath its waters.  He crossed a large part of the continent in search of gold, and found
nothing so remarkable as his burial place."
 Hall's Sketches, 1. 143.

 


12



1767. No habitation had been reared by civilized
hands within her borders. The foot of the white man
had never touched her soil to appropriate or subdue it.
The keen glance of discovery which had penetrated ev-
ery other region of the west, had not ventured into the re-
cdsses of her majestic forests and her tangled canebrakes.
The nations of the red men themselves had never lived
within the limits of the dark and bloody ground. "The
first explorers of this region', says a historian of the
westt " found no Indians settled upon the shores of the
Ohio."     "Throughout the whole length of that beauti-
ful river, no vestige of an Indian town is to be found."
The favorite resort of the elk and the buffalo, and the
haunt of every imaginable beast of prey, Kentucky was
at once the hunting ground and the battlefield of fero-
cious tribes of savages, numerous memorials of whose
bloody conflicts, attest the desperation with which their
respective titles were disputed to the sovereignty over
the soil. It was truly a spell-bound land: and the spell
continued until it was dissolved in blood. If we -consid-
er how enchanting must have been the aspect of the
country, as it was presented to the eye of one of its
principal discoverers, when "from the top of an eminence
on the banks of the Red river, he saw with pleasure, the
beautiful level of Kentucky,9Xt our astonishment may be
"fThe country beyond the Cumberland mountain, still Lin 1767] appeared to the
dusky view of the generality of the people of Virginia, almost as obscure and doubtful,
as America itself to the people of Europe, before the voyage of Columbus. A coun-
try there was-of this none could doubt, who thought at all; but whether land or wa-
ter, mountain or plain, fertility or barrenness preponderated; whether inhabited by men
or beasts or both or neither, they knew not. If inhabited by men, they were supposed
to bo Indians,-for such had always infested the frontiers: And this had been a power-
ful reason for not exploring the regions west of the great mountain, which concealed
Kentucky from their sight."-Marshall, vol. 1, p. 7.
t Hall's Sketches, vol . 1, p. 233.
t Boone's Narrative, 1784.

 


13



awakened that such a country should have remained so
long obscure and unknown: but we may not be aston-
ished that a region, teeming with all the bounties of
Providence for the red man's peculiar enjoyment, associ-
ated with recollections of the glorious exploits of his an-
cestors in the fields of nature and of battle, and endear-
ed to him by strong and deeply rooted superstitions,
should have been relinquished only when it could no
longer be maintained either by stratagem or force; only
with the extinguishment of every ray of hope of its
eventual extrication from the dominion of the invader.
Nor need we be astonished that in the prosecution of
the effort to expel the invader from their common hunt-
ing, grounds, all motives for jealousy and collision among
the conflicting tribes, should, for the occasion, have been
laid aside, and that the cause of vengeance against the
white man should have been a common cause.
  During the twenty years that intervened between the
first permanent settlement and the successful termina-
tion of General Wayne's campaign in 1794, there was
no peace for the devoted inhabitants of Kentucky.
Day after day, for twenty years, the sun rose but to wit-
ness in his course incessantly-recurring scenes of danger
and of bloodshed, the bare recital of which chills us with
horror at the distance of half a century from the period
of their occurrence. Suns set and night came, but with
the darkness came no respite from the anxious thoughts,
the unwearied watchings, the ever present perils of the
white man. If he left in the morning his cabin or his
camp-the rude spot to which he had appropriated the
endearing name of home-no assurance was allowed to
gladden the prospect of his return, that the one would
not be in ruins or the other deluged in blood. The few
and meagre records that have been transmitted of the

 


14



events of those trying years, contain little else than dai-
ly reiterations of some hair-breadth escape, or some
mournful tragedy; and so frequent and familiar were
violent deaths by the rifle or the tomahawk, so common
were scenes of devastation and massacre, that the tran-
quil disembodying of the spirit from disease, was a cu-
rious and interesting spectacle, which was witnessed by
women as well as men, with mingled emotions of won-
der and admiration and awe. It is scarcely too much to
say in the emphatic language of a very accurate histo-
rian, " that hecatombs of white men were offered by
the Indian to the God of battles in their desperate and
ruthless contention for Kentucky.-'t Yet the undaunted
emigrants maintained their ground; and while the moun-
tains and the valleys rang with the yells of a vastly out-
numbering foe, and the forests glittered with the gleams
of the tomahawk, and death was ambushed in every
canebrake, and danger lurked in every imaginable shape,
the intrepid backwoodsmen, with their characteristic
fearlessness, enjoyed life, hunted game, levelled forests,
built forts and villages, opened roads, administered
justice, married wives, spent sociable evenings, and laid
all the foundations of a future commonwealth.
  It is due to the occasion that has convened us togeth-
er, that we should unfold the prominent events in the
early history of Kentucky which led to consequences so
interesting to us all, and it is due to the memory of the
wonderful men who achieved them, that we exhibit their
characters for the admiration of mankind.
  Historians do not agree as to the precise date of the
visitof Dr. Walkert to Powell's Valley, and from thence



See Appendix, note A.   t Butler, p. 19.
t Butler, 18, says in 1747, and adds "' Dr. Walker so informed John Brown, Esq.
of Frankfort."  Marshall, 1. 6, says "6 about the year 1758."

 


15



across the Cumberland mountain to the Big Sandy river.
Whatever may have been the period, it cannot be an im-
p tant enquiry, when we know that he traversed the
northeastern border only, and saw but a small and moun-
tainous part of the country. I have said that it was no ex-
ploration of Kentucky, as is manifest from the fact, that
the party returned dissatisfied, and with such an unfa-
vorable opinion of the region through which they passed,
as to be deterred from any attempt to revisit it. The
facts connected with Dr. Walkers excursion that do
interest us, however, and about which there is no disa-
greement, are, that he gave their present appellations to
the Cumberland river and to the pass through the moun-
tain of the same name; that he crossed the main north-
ern branch of the Kentucky, which he called by the
sweet name of Louisa, by which title the main Kentucky
river as well as the country were respectively known for
many years afterwards, and was recognized by Hender-
son in the treaty at Wataga in March 1775.t At what
time, for what reason or by what means the Indian ap-
pellation of Kan-tuck-ee, was afterwards substituted,
and applied exclusively to both the river and the soil,
we have no means of determining.
  The first successful attempt to explore the Kentucky
country was made by John Finley, a backwoodsman of
North Carolina, in 1767. He was attended by a few
companions, as adventurous as himself, whose names
have escaped the notice of history. They were evident-
ly a party of hunters, and were prompted to the bold and
hazardous undertaking, for the purpose of indulging in
their favorite pursuits. Of Finley and his comrades,
and of the course and extent of their journey, little is
now known. That they were of the pure blood, and en-
 Marshall, 1, 6.  Butler, is.  t Butler, Appendix, 5i04.

 


16



dowed with the genuine qualities, of the pioneers, is
manifestly undeniable. That they passed over the Cum-
berland, and through the intermediate country to the
Kentucky river, and penetrated the beautiful valley of
the Elkhorn, there are no sufficient reasons to doubt.
It is enough, however, to embalm their memory in our
hearts, and to connect their names with the imperisha-
ble memorials of our early history, that they were the
first adventurers that plunged into the dark and enchant-
ed wilderness of Kentucky,-that of all their cotempo-
raries they saw her first-and saw her in the pride of
her virgin beauty-at the dawn of summer-in the full-
ness of her vegetation-her soil, instinct with fertility,
covered with the most luxuriant verdure-the air per-
fumed with the fragrance of flowers, and her tall forests
looming in all their primeval magnificence.
   How long Finley lived, or where he died, the silence
of history does not enable us to know. That his remains
are now mingled with the soil that he discovered, there
is some reason to hope, for he conducted Boone to Ken-
tucky in 1769-and there the curtain drops upon him for-
ever. It is fit it should be raised. It is fit that justice, late
and tardy that it be, should be done to the memory of the
first of the pioneers. And wheat can be more appropri-
ate, than that the first movement should be made for the
performance of such a duty, on the day of the commem-
oration of the discovery and settlement of the Common-
wealth
  The return of the hunters to North Carolina created a
general sensation. The glowing accounts they gave of
the country they had visitedof its extraordinary beau-
ty, its surpassing fertility, and above all, of the unex
haustible abundance of wild game which it furnished,
fired the hearts of the inhabitants of the frontier. After

 


17



a twelvemonth or more had elapsed, Finley's roving
habits conducted him to the Yadkin river in the vicinity
of the residence of Daniel Boone, whose life, although
he was then but twenty-two years of age, had already
developed the features of that extraordinary character,
which subsequently distinguished his career, and secur-
ed him a conspicuous rank among the remarkable men
of the period in which le lived. The simple narrative
of Finley's adventures was sufficient to fix the determi-
nation of the future conqueror of the wilderness; and it
was resolved that they would explore Kentucky togeth-
er. In the ensuing spring they set off on their journey.
"It was on the Ist of May 17695," says Boone himselft
whose phraseology I prefer to adopt, "1 that I resigned
my domestic happiness, and left rny family and peacea-
ble habitation on the Yadkin river., in North Carolina,
to wander through the wilderness of America, in quest
of the country of Kentucke, in company with John Fin-
ley, John Stuart, Joseph Holden, James Mooney, and
William Cool."
  What can be more striking, than the predominance
of the passion for adventure-the controlling influence
of devotion to the hunter's life-exhibited in this touch-
ing annunciation of the motives and objects of the youth-
ful pioneer He had not long been married. His fa-
ther had removed from the advancing settlements of the
Schuylkill to the unbroken forests of North Carolina.
Bloone after his marriage plunged deeper into the wilder-
ness-and with the characteristic fidelity of the sex, his
wife followed the hazardous fortunes of her husband.
On a remote and sequestered spot near the head waters
of the Yadkin, he built cabins, and cleared fields, and



 Boone "waRn born about the year 1746." Marshall, 1. 17. Flint's Life of Boone, I
 Tenone'd Narrative 1784. Am. Mus. 2, 321.
            3

 


18



found employment for his rifle. But it was not long be-
fore the tide of emigration, sweeping in every direction
from the Atlantic coasts, reached the frontier of North
Carolina; and Boone found himself in imminent danger
of being surrounded by civilized neighbors, whose settle-
ments threatened to disturb the range and divide the
empire of the wilderness. He became a discontented
man; and after his imagination had been dazzled by
Finley's description of his romantic excursion, he re-
solved " to leave his family," to " resign his domestic
happiness," to abandon "his peaceable habitation on
the Yadkin," and become "1 a -wanderer through the wil-
derness of America, in quest of the country of Ken-
tucke, several hundred miles distant from the colonial
settlenents, and swarming with savages, the implacable
enemies of his race and nation! How uncontrollable
must have been the passion for adventure! The result
will show, that it was his "' ruling passion, strong in
death."
  The little party of half a dozen hunters with no other
equipage than their knapsacks, and no weapons but their
rifles, proceeded on tLo toilsome and perilous journey, un-
til "on the 7th of June, after travelling," says Boone,
"1 through a mountainous wilderness, in a western direc-
tion, we found ourselves on Red river, where John Fin-
ley had formerly been trading with the Indians, and from
the top of an eminence saw with pleasure the beautiful
level of Kentucke."
  After the marvellous accounts which Boone had re-
ceived from Finley of the country in which he now found
himself, we may well imagine what were the emotions
that swelled the bosom of the satisfied adventurer, as
from the top of the eminence on which he stood, be sur-
veyed the beautiful and boundless level that for the first

 


19



time was presented to his view. It must indeed have
been a bright and enrapturing prospect! Kentucky lay
before him in her matchless attractions; in his own ex-
pressive language, " a second paradise." All the visions
of his imagination were realized at a glance. Boone
was a lover of the beauties of nature, and has painted,
himself, the picture of what he saw.  He "passed
through a great forest, in which stood myriads of trees."
" Nature was here," he continues, "a series of wonders
and a fund of delight. She displayed her ingenuity and
industry in a variety of flowers and fruits, beautifully
colored elegantly shaped, and charmingly flavored; and
we were diverted with numberless animals, presenting
themselves perpetually to our view."   "Herds of buf-
faloes, more numerous than the cattle of the settlements,
browsed on the leaves of the cane and cropped the her-
bage on those extensive plains. We saw hundreds in a
drove."
  The party encamped on the Red river, one of the
tributaries of the Kentucky; and having made a shelter
to defend them from the inclemency of a very rainy sea-
son, " began to hunt and reconnoitre the country."
  On the 22d December, as Boone and Stuart rambled
on the banks of the Kentucky river, a company of In-
dians rushed out of a thick cane brake and made them
prisoners. After seven days captivity and confinement,
they were so fortunate as to make their escape; and re-
turning to their old camp, they found it plundered, and
their comrades " dispersed or gone home." Neither
history nor tradition furnishes any account of the fate
of those men-
          " Nor trace nor tidings of their doom declare,
          Where lived their grief, or perished their despair."
Finley was one of them; and I do not discover that his

 



20



name is ever again mentioned in the annals of those
times. But their places were soon providentially sup-
plied. "About this time," says Boone, from whose nar-
rative I have extracted these details, " my brother Squire
Boone and another adventurer, who came to explore the
country shortly after us, were wandering through the
forest, and accidentally found our camp."  Without
doubt it was a cheering accident, and the meeting must
have been as cordial as it was unexpected: but its con-
solations were of short duration. Soon after this fortu-
nate accession to their numbers, John Stuart was killed
by the savages, and " the man," continues the narra-
tive, "who came with my brother, returned home by
himself."
  The brothers were now left alone. The winter was
far advanced, and it was necessary that something
should be done to protect them from the weather. They
built a small cottage, of such materials as their toma-
hawks could supply, and occupied it, without molesta-
tion, until the spring.
  With the year 1769, ended the first scene of the deep
and bloody tragedy of the settlement of Kentucky. It
was an ominous prelude to the events that were to follow,
and mournfully prefigured that the future common-
wealth was to be born in convulsions and baptized in
blood.
  On the return of spring, the intrepid hunters found
themselves involved-in a very serious dilemma. Their
store of ammunition was nearly exhausted, and their ri-
fles were their only means of security and support.-
Without them they must starve, or fall unarmed and
 Of all the pioneers, the least justice has been deone to Finley. And yet he was
the first of them all. Would it not be one Etep toward rescuing him from undeserved
obscurity, if the Legislature of Kentucky would avail itself of the first occasion that
offers, to name a rounty after hirn

 


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defenceless under the hatchets of the savages. The im-
prudence-nay the actual hazard-of a protracted delay
in the w