ad led the way there.
He had established himself and family in the land, and had defended it
from the incursions of the Indians. And now, in his advancing years, to
be driven from the few acres he had selected and to which he supposed he
had a perfect title, seemed to him very unjust indeed. He could not
recognise any right in what seemed to him but the quibbles of the
lawyers. In his autobiography he wrote in reference to his many painful
adventures:

"My footsteps have often been marked with blood. Two darling sons and a
brother have I lost by savage hands, which have also taken from me forty
valuable horses and abundance of cattle. Many dark and sleepless nights
have I been a companion for owls, separated from the cheerful society of
men, scorched by the summer's sun, and pinched by the winter's cold, an
instrument ordained to settle the wilderness."

Agitated by the thought of the loss of his farm and deeply wounded in
his feelings, as though a great wrong had been inflicted upon him, Boone
addressed an earnest memorial to the Legislature of Kentucky. In this he
stated that immediately after the troubles with the Indians had ceased,
he located himself upon lands to which he supposed he had a perfect
title; that he reared his house and commenced cultivating his fields.
And after briefly enumerating the sacrifices he had made in exploring,
settling and defending Kentucky, he said he could not understand the
justice of making a set of complicated forms of law, superior to his
actual occupancy of the land selected, as he believed when and where it
was, it was his unquestioned right to do so.

But the lawyers and the land speculators were too shrewd for the
pioneer. Colonel Boone was sued; the question went to the courts which
he detested, and Boone lost his farm. It was indeed a very hard case. He
had penetrated the country when no other white man trod its soil. He
discovered its wonderful resources, and proclaimed them to the world. He
had guided settlers into the region, and by his sagacity and courage,
had provided for their wants and protected them from the savage. And now
in his declining years he found himself driven from his farm, robbed of
every acre, a houseless, homeless, impoverished man. The deed was so
cruel that thousands since, in reading the recital, have been agitated
by the strongest emotions of indignation and grief.

CHAPTER XII.

_Adventures Romantic and Perilous._

The Search for the H