d amid the forest utterly by himself, while his
brother, with courage and capacity equal to his own, returned to North
Carolina for a supply of powder and lead; with which he succeeded in
rejoining the roamer of the wilderness in safety in July, 1770.

It is almost impossible to conceive of the skill, coolness, and sagacity
which enabled Daniel Boone to spend so many weeks in the midst of the
Indians, and yet undiscovered by them. He appears to have changed his
position continually--to have explored the whole centre of what forms
now the State of Kentucky, and in so doing must have exposed himself to
many different parties of the natives. A reader of Mr. Cooper's Last of
the Mohicans may comprehend, in some measure, the arts by which he was
preserved; but, after all, a natural gift seems to lie at the basis of
such consummate woodcraft; an instinct, rather than any exercise of
intellect, appears to have guided Boone in such matters, and made him
pre-eminent among those who were most accomplished in the knowledge
of forest life. Then we are to remember the week's captivity of the
previous year; it was the first practical acquaintance that the pioneer
had with the Western Indians, and we may be assured he spent that week
in noting carefully the whole method of his captors. Indeed, we think
it probable he remained in captivity so long that he might learn their
arts, stratagems, and modes of concealment. We are, moreover, to keep in
mind this fact: the woods of Kentucky were at that period filled with
a species of nettle of such a character that, being once bent down,
it did not recover itself, but remained prostrate, thus retaining the
impression of a foot almost like snow--even a turkey might be tracked
in it with perfect ease. This weed Boone would carefully avoid, but the
natives, numerous and fearless, would commonly pay no regard to it, so
that the white hunter was sure to have palpable signs of the presence
of his enemies, and the direction they had taken. Considering these
circumstances, it is even more remarkable that his brother should have
returned in safety, with his loaded horses, than that he remained alone
unharmed; though in the escape of both from captivity or death from
January, 1770, until their return to the Atlantic rivers in March, 1771,
there is something so wonderful that the old pioneer's phrase, that he
was "an instrument ordained to settle the wilderness," seems entirely
proper.

Daniel Boone's o