aracter, he was more anxious
than ever to find refuge from the embarrassments which oppressed him in
the solitudes of his beautiful Kentucky. Notwithstanding his comparative
poverty, his family on the banks of the Yadkin need not experience any
want. Land was fertile, abundant and cheap. He and his boys in a few
days, with their axes, could erect as good a house as they desired to
occupy. The cultivation of a few acres of the soil, and the results of
the chase, would provide them an ample support. Here also they could
retire to rest at night, with unbolted door and with no fear that their
slumbers would be disturbed by the yell of the blood-thirsty savage.

The wife and mother must doubtless have wished to remain in her pleasant
home, but cheerfully and nobly she acceded to his wishes, and was ready
to accompany him to all the abounding perils of the distant West. Again
the family set out on its journey across the mountains. Of the incidents
which they encountered, we are not informed. The narrative we have from
Boone is simply as follows: our readers will excuse the slight
repetition it involves:

"About this time I returned to Kentucky with my family. And here, to
avoid an enquiry into my conduct, the reader being before informed of my
bringing my family to Kentucky, I am under the necessity of informing
him that during my captivity with the Indians, my wife, who despaired of
ever seeing me again, had transported my family and goods back through
the wilderness, amid a multitude of dangers, to her father's house in
North Carolina. Shortly after the troubles at Boonesborough, I went to
them and lived peaceably there until this time. The history of my going
home and returning with my family forms a series of difficulties, an
account of which would swell a volume. And being foreign to my purpose I
shall omit them."

During Boone's absence from Kentucky, one of the most bloody battles was
fought, which ever occurred between the whites and the Indians. Colonel
Rogers, returning with supplies (by boat) from New Orleans to the Upper
Ohio, when he arrived at the mouth of the Little Miami, detected the
Indians in large numbers, painted, armed, and evidently on the war
path, emerging from the mouth of the river in their canoes, and crossing
the Ohio to the Kentucky shore. He cautiously landed his men, intending
to attack the Indians by surprise. Instead of this, they turned upon him
with overwhelming numbers, and assailed him