rk character of
many of the incidents related, it was an hour of triumph,
notwithstanding their pity, for those wiser ones, who took care, in an
under tone, to whisper that it might be remembered that they had
predicted all that had happened.

CHAPTER XI.

A sketch of the character and adventures of several other
pioneers--Harrod, Kenton, Logan, Ray, McAffee, and others.

Colonel Boone having seen the formidable invasion of Boonesborough
successfully repelled, and with such a loss as would not be likely to
tempt the Indians to repeat such assaults--and having thus disengaged
his mind from public duties, resigned it to the influence of domestic
sympathies. The affectionate husband and father, concealing the
tenderest heart under a sun-burnt and care-worn visage, was soon seen
crossing the Alleghanies in pursuit of his wife and children. The bright
star of his morning promise had been long under eclipse; for this
journey was one of continued difficulties, vexations, and dangers--so
like many of his sufferings already recounted, that we pass them by,
fearing the effect of incidents of so much monotony upon the reader's
patience. The frame and spirit of the western adventurer were of iron.
He surmounted all, and was once more in the bosom of his family on the
Yadkin, who, in the language of the Bible, hailed him as one _who had
been dead and was alive again; who had been lost and was found_.

Many incidents of moment and interest in the early annals of Kentucky
occurred during this reunion of Boone with his family. As his name is
forever identified with these annals, we hope it will not be deemed
altogether an episode if we introduce here a brief chronicle of those
incidents--though not directly associated with the subject of our
memoir. In presenting those incidents, we shall be naturally led to
speak of some of the other patriarchs of Kentucky--all Boones in their
way--all strangely endowed with that peculiar character which fitted
them for the time, place, and achievements. We thus discover the
foresight of Providence in the arrangement of means to ends. This is no
where seen more conspicuously than in the characters of the founders of
states and institutions.

During the absence of Colonel Boone, there was a general disposition in
Kentucky to retaliate upon the Shawnese some of the injuries and losses
which they had so often inflicted upon the infant settlement. Colonel
Bowman, with a force of a hundred an