ul sovereign, and their minds had never been
agitated by the question of revolution or of independence. When,
therefore, General Duquesne proposed that they should take the oath of
allegiance to the King of Great Britain, and that then they should be
permitted to return unmolested to their homes and their friends beyond
the mountains, taking all their possessions with them, Colonel Boone and
his associates were very ready to accept such terms. It justly appeared
to them in their isolated condition, five hundred miles away from the
Atlantic coast, that this was vastly preferable to remaining in the
wilderness assailed by thousands of Indians guided by English energy and
abundantly provided with all the munitions of war from British arsenals.

But Boone knew very well that the Indians would never willingly assent
to this treaty. Still he and his fellow commissioners signed it while
very curious to learn how it would be regarded by their savage foes. The
commissioners on both sides had appeared at the appointed place of
conference, as is usual on such occasions, entirely unarmed. There were,
however, a large number of Indians lingering around and drawing nearer
as the conference proceeded. After the treaty was signed, the old Indian
chief Blackfish, Boone's adopted father, and who, exasperated by the
escape of his ungrateful son, had been watching him with a very
unamiable expression of countenance, arose and made a formal speech in
the most approved style of Indian eloquence. He commented upon the
bravery of the two armies, and of the desirableness that there should be
entire friendship between them, and closed by saying that it was a
custom with them on all such important occasions to ratify the treaty by
two Indians shaking hands with each white man.

This shallow pretense, scarcely up to the sagacity of children, by which
Blackfish hoped that two savages grappling each one of the commissioners
would easily be able to make prisoners of them, and then by threats of
torture compel the surrender of the fort, did not in the slightest
degree deceive Colonel Boone. He was well aware of his own strength and
of that of the men who accompanied him. He also knew that his riflemen
occupied concealed positions, from which, with unerring aim, they could
instantly punish the savages for any act of treachery. He therefore
consented to the arrangement. The grasp was given. Instantly a terrible
scene of confusion ensued.

The burly sa