n.--New
Attack by the British and Indians.--Retaliatory Measures.--Wonderful
Exploit.

There were but fifty men in the garrison at Boonesborough. They were
assailed by a body of more than ten to one of the bravest Indian
warriors, under the command of an officer in the British army. The
boldest in the fort felt that their situation was almost desperate. The
ferocity of the Indian, and the intelligence of the white man, were
combined against them. They knew that the British commander, however
humane he might be, would have no power, should the fort be taken by
storm, to save them from death by the most horrible tortures.

General Duquesne was acting under instructions from Governor Hamilton,
the British officer in supreme command at Detroit. Boone knew that the
Governor felt very kindly towards him. When he had been carried to that
place a captive, the Governor had made very earnest endeavors to obtain
his liberation. Influenced by these considerations, he consented to
hold the conference.

But, better acquainted with the Indian character than perhaps Duquesne
could have been, he selected nine of the most athletic and strong of the
garrison, and appointed the place of meeting in front of the fort, at a
distance of only one hundred and twenty feet from the walls. The
riflemen of the garrison were placed in a position to cover the spot
with their guns, so that in case of treachery the Indians would meet
with instant punishment, and the retreat of the party from the fort
would probably be secured. The language of Boone is:

"We held a treaty within sixty yards of the garrison on purpose to
divert them from a breach of honor, as we could not avoid suspicion of
the savages."

The terms proposed by General Duquesne were extremely liberal. And while
they might satisfy the British party, whose object in the war was simply
to conquer the colonists and bring them back to loyalty, they could by
no means have satisfied the Indians, who desired not merely to drive the
white men back from their hunting grounds, but to plunder them of their
possessions and to gratify their savage natures by hearing the shrieks
of their victims at the stake and by carrying home the trophies of
numerous scalps.

Boone and his men, buried in the depths of the wilderness, had probably
taken little interest in the controversy which was just then rising
between the colonies and the mother country. They had regarded the King
of England as their lawf