one and her
daughter were the first of her color and sex that ever stood upon the
banks of the wild and beautiful Kentucky.

A few days after their arrival, the emigrants had a very solemn
admonition of the peril which surrounded them, and of the necessity of
constant vigilance to guard against a treacherous and sleepless foe. One
of their number who had sauntered but a short distance from the fort,
lured by the combined beauty of the field, the forest and the river, was
shot by a prowling Indian, who, raising the war-whoop of exultation and
defiance, immediately disappeared in the depths of the wilderness.

Colonel Henderson and his partners, anxious to promote the settlement of
the country, by organising parties of emigration, were busy in making
known through the settlements the absolute security of the fort at
Boonesborough, and the wonderful attractions of the region, in soil,
climate, and abounding game. Henderson himself soon started with a large
party, forty of whom were well armed. A number of pack-horses conveyed
the luggage of the emigrants. Following the very imperfect road that
Boone with much skill had engineered, which was quite tolerable for
pack-horses in single file, they reached Boonesborough early in the
following spring.

The Transylvania Company was in the full flush of successful experiment.
Small parties of emigrants were constantly arriving. Boonesborough was
the capital of the colony. Various small settlements were settled in its
vicinity. Colonel Henderson opened a land office there, and in the
course of a few months, over half a million of acres were entered, by
settlers or speculators. These men did not purchase the lands outright,
but bound themselves to pay a small but perpetual rent. The titles,
which they supposed to be perfectly good, were given in the name of the
"proprietors of the Colony of Transylvania, in America."

Soon four settlements were organised called Boonesborough, Harrodsburg,
Boiling Spring, and St. Asaph. Colonel Henderson, on the twenty-third of
May, 1775, as president or rather sovereign of this extraordinary realm,
summoned a legislature consisting of delegates from this handful of
pioneers, to meet at his capital, Boonesborough. Henderson presided.
Daniel and his brother Squire were delegates from Boonesborough. A
clergyman, the Reverend John Leythe, opened the session with prayer.
Colonel Henderson made a remarkable and admirable speech. This
extraordinary legi