ng the western border were drawn into the midst of
the war of the Revolution. From now on, the East and the West had
each its own work to do. While Washington and his "ragged
Continentals" fought for our independence, "the rear guard of the
Revolution," as the frontiersmen were called, were not less busy.

Under their brave leaders, Boone, Clark, and Harrod, in half a dozen
little blockhouses and settlements, they were laying the foundations
of a great commonwealth, while between them and the nearest eastern
settlements were two hundred miles of wilderness. The struggle became
so desperate in the fall of 1776 that Clark tramped back to Virginia,
to ask the governor for help and to trade for powder.

Virginia was at this time straining every nerve to do her part in the
fight against Great Britain, and could not spare men to defend her
distant county of Kentucky; {3} but, won by Clark's earnest appeal,
the governor lent him, on his own personal security, five hundred
pounds of powder. After many thrilling adventures and sharp fighting
with the Indians, Clark got the powder down the Ohio River, and
distributed it among the settlers. The war with their savage foes was
now carried on with greater vigor than ever.

Now we must remember that the vast region north of the Ohio was at
this time a part of Canada. In this wilderness of forests and
prairies lived many tribes of warlike Indians. Here and there were
clusters of French Creole villages, and forts occupied by British
soldiers; for with the conquest of Canada these French settlements
had passed to the English crown. When the war of the American
Revolution broke out, the British government tried to unite all the
tribes of Indians against its rebellious subjects in America. In this
way the people were to be kept from going west to settle.

[Illustration: Indians attacking a Stockaded Fort on the Frontier]

{4} Colonel Henry Hamilton was the lieutenant governor of Canada,
with headquarters at Detroit. It was his task to let loose the
redskins that they might burn the cabins of the settlers on the
border, and kill their women and children, or carry them into
captivity. The British commander supplied the savages with rum,
rifles, and powder; and he paid gold for the scalps which they
brought him. The pioneers named Hamilton the "hair buyer."

For the next two years Kentucky well deserved the name of "the dark
and bloody ground." It was one long, dismal story of desperate