nters were not trespassing upon Indian territory
at this time.[14] But they were destined nevertheless to be treated as
intruders.

On the 22d of December, Boone and John Stuart, one of his companions,
left their encampment, and following one of the numerous paths which the
buffalo had made through the cane, they plunged boldly into the interior
of the forest. They had as yet, as we have already stated, seen no
Indians, and the country had been reported as totally uninhabited. This
was true in a strict sense, for although, as we have seen, the southern
and northwestern tribes were in the habit of hunting here as upon
neutral ground, yet not a single wigwam had been erected, nor did the
land bear the slightest mark of having ever been cultivated.

The different tribes would fall in with each other and from the fierce
conflicts which generally followed these casual rencounters, the country
had been known among them by the name of '_the dark and bloody ground!_'

The two adventurers soon learned the additional danger to which they
were exposed. While roving carelessly from canebrake to canebrake, and
admiring the rank growth of vegetation, and the variety of timber which
marked the fertility of the soil, they were suddenly alarmed by the
appearance of a party of Indians, who, springing from their place of
concealment, rushed upon them with a rapidity which rendered escape
impossible.

They were almost instantly seized, disarmed, and made prisoners. Their
feelings may be readily imagined. They were in the hands of an enemy who
knew no alternative between adoption and torture; and the numbers and
fleetness of their captors, rendered escape by open means impossible,
while their jealous vigilance seemed equally fatal to any secret
attempt.

Boone, however, was possessed of a temper admirably adapted to the
circumstances in which he was placed. Of a cold and saturnine, rather
than an arden disposition, he was never either so much elevated by
good fortune or depressed by bad, as to lose for an instant the full
possession of all his faculties. He saw that immediate escape was
impossible, but he encouraged his companion, and constrained himself
to accompany the Indians in all their excursions, with so calm and
contented an air, that their vigilance insensibly began to relax.

[Illustration: CAPTURE OF BOONE AND STUART.]

On the seventh evening of their captivity, they encamped in a thick
canebrake, and having built a large