for
nearly two years. He was sorry he had lost the skins, but he was happy
that he had seen Kentucky.

Attacked by Indians

Two years later Daniel Boone decided that he had been away from
Kentucky long enough. "Pack up, Rebecca," he said to his wife. "Pack
up, children. We Boones can't stay in one spot forever. We're going to
move to Kentucky. It's wild and beautiful there. There'll be plenty of
land for you young ones when you want homes of your own."

So the Boones packed up. Six other families joined them. People always
seemed ready to join Daniel in his search for adventure. The household
goods and the farm tools were piled on pack horses. A few of the people
rode horseback. But most of them walked. They drove their pigs and
cattle before them. The rough trails made travel slow, but the families
did not seem to mind.

Just before they reached Cumberland Gap, Daniel Boone sent his
sixteen-year-old son, James, on an errand.

"Turn back to Captain Russell's cabin and ask him for the farm tools he
and I were talking about," he told the boy. "You can catch up with us
tomorrow."

James reached Captain Russell's safely. He camped that night with
several men who planned to join Boone. In the darkness some Indians
crept up and killed them all.

When the families with Boone heard the news, they no longer wanted to
go to Kentucky. They turned and went back over the mountains. The Boone
family was sad because of James' death. But Daniel would not give up
his dream of living in Kentucky. It would just have to wait a little.
He took his wife and children to a spot where they would be safe. But
they did not go all the way back to the Yadkin Valley.

Daniel learned that all through the Kentucky Wilderness the Indians
were fighting the white men.

Too many white men were coming west. Indians wanted to keep their
hunting grounds for themselves. Daniel Boone and another man went into
Kentucky to warn the surveyors who were measuring land there. Nearly
all of them escaped safely. For a time, the Indians stopped fighting
and Kentucky was peaceful again.

The Wilderness Road

Now a rich man named Richard Henderson had a big idea. He would try to
buy Kentucky from the Indians for himself and start another colony. His
own company would sell land to settlers. Henderson was Daniel's friend.
Boone had talked to the Indians about the idea and thought they would
sell the land. Many Indian tribes hunted in Kentucky