ut deprived of their
leader, taken entirely by surprise, and outnumbered three or four to
one, their massacre was certain. And it was also certain that the
Indians, exasperated by the loss which they would have encountered,
would put every prisoner to death, through all the horrors of fiendlike
torture.

Under these circumstances, Colonel Boone very wisely decided upon
surrender. It would have been very impolitic and cruel to do otherwise.
He having thus given his word, the Indians placed implicit confidence in
it. They were also perfectly faithful to their own promises. Boone was
allowed to approach his men, and represent the necessity of a surrender,
which was immediately effected. The Indians were so elated by this great
victory, and were so well satisfied with the result of the campaign,
that instead of continuing their march for the attack of Boonesborough,
they returned with their illustrious captive and his twenty-seven
companions to their head-quarters on the Little Miami River.

The modest, unaffected account which Boone himself gives of these
transactions, is worthy of record here:

"On the seventh of February, as I was hunting to procure meat for the
company, I met a party of one hundred and two Indians, and two
Frenchmen, on their march against Boonesborough; that place being
particularly the object of the enemy. They pursued and took me, and
brought me the eighth day to the Licks, where twenty-seven of my party
were, three of them having previously returned home with the salt. I,
knowing it was impossible for them to escape, capitulated with the
enemy, and at a distance, in their view, gave notice to my men of their
situation with orders not to resist, but surrender themselves captives.

"The generous usage the Indians had promised before in my capitulation,
was afterwards fully complied with, and we proceeded with them as
prisoners to Old Chilicothe, the principal Indian town on Little Miami,
where we arrived, after an uncomfortable journey in very severe weather,
on the eighteenth of February, and received as good treatment as
prisoners could expect from savages. On the tenth of March following, I
and ten of my men were conducted by forty Indians to Detroit, where we
arrived the thirtieth day, and were treated by Governor Hamilton, the
British commander at that post, with great humanity.

"During our travels, the Indians entertained me well, and their
affection for me was so great, that they utterly