and Virginia and settled
at the headwaters of the Yadkin."

"A fine place, too, that is," said Peleg.

"Indeed it is," assented the scout, "but it was not for me. Somehow I
seem destined to find the way for others rather than to be able to enjoy
much of quiet and rest myself. It was on the first day of May, 1769,
that I left my family in quest of the country of Kantuckee. Five men
travelled with me, all of us relying upon the reports of John Finley,
one of our number, who had been trading with the Indians there. He
averred that he had found the most beautiful of all lands. I shall not
soon forget the seventh day of June that year, when John Finley and I,
from the top of an eminence, looked out upon the beautiful land of
Kantuckee. Buffalo were more numerous than are cattle in the
settlements. They fed upon the grass that grows marvellously on those
plains. We saw hundreds in a drove, and the numbers about the salt
springs were amazing. On the 22d of December, John Stuart and I were
having a pleasing ramble. We had passed through a great forest and were
amazed at the variety of the blossoms we saw. As for game, why it almost
seemed to seek us out instead of making us the hunters. It was near
sunset and we were near the Kantuckee River, when a number of Indians
rushed out of a canebrake and made us their prisoners."

"How long did they keep you?"

"Seven days. We did our utmost not to show any uneasiness, and gradually
they became less suspicious of us. But in the dead of the night of that
seventh day, when we were lying by a large fire and all the others were
asleep, I gently shook my companion, whispered my plan, and we left the
camp without disturbing any one. My brother and another man, who had
started after us to explore the country, found the camp of our party,
but it had been plundered and the other men in our band had fled.
Strangely enough, we soon came upon one another in the forest. You may
be sure that this meeting with my brother was most welcome. The man who
was with him, however, soon went on a private excursion and was attacked
and killed by wolves. John Stuart was killed by the Indians. There we
were in a howling wilderness, hundreds of miles from our families and
surrounded by Indians who were determined to kill us. All through that
winter we had no trouble, however, and on the first of the following May
my brother went home for a new recruit of horses and ammunition, leaving
me alone. I had been wi