It is but a few years since the immense tract of country watered by the Ohio and Mississippi, began to attract the attention of our countrymen. The French had long before formed settlements on the Mississippi and the Wabash, and on the northern lakes ; but these insulated situations were so much exposed to Indian hostility, and the dispositions of the inhabitants were so uncongenial with the habits of our people, that they were at first visited only by a few enterprising traders. As the country became better known, report spoke goldenly of its fertility, and a casual reference to the map was sufficient to show the great commercial advantages to be derived from the numerous and valuable streams which intersect it in every direction ; but there

were many obstacles to its settlement. From a period shortly after the revolution to the time of the embargo in 1807, there was no reason to induce any class of citizens in the United States to emigrate ; all were fully and profitably employed at home. The sanguinary wars which spread desolation thoughout the European continent, not only opened markets for all our surplus produce, but made us the carriers of other nations. Never did American enterprise shine more conspicuously than in the improvement of these advantages : the art of shipbuilding was brought to a perfection unknown in any other country ; our flag floated in every part of the world ; there was no adventure, however novel or hazardous, which our merchants did not attempt j and our sailors displayed on every occasion the skill and boldness which has since made them conspicuous in the annals of naval warfare. Happily too, those enterprises were generally successful. The consequence was, that every man engaged in commercial pursuits found sufiicient employment for his capital, while the labouring classes received high wages, and the farmer had always a ready market and

an ample price for his produce. This flourishing state of commerce and agriculture diffused life and spirit into every rank and department of society. There was scarcely such a thing known as a man labouring merely to support his family ; no one was satisfied unless he was growing rich, and few were disappointed except by their own improvidence. It would be useless to point out the great statesmen and lawyers who have attained their present eminence from an obscure origin, or the wealthy merchants, farmers, and mechanics, who, from the most abject poverty, have risen to opulence. Our country is full of such examples, and they stand as monuments of those happy days when industry was not only a sure but a rapid guide to wealth.

Under such circumstances, few persons were disposed to emigrate to a new country ; and although some were tempted by the great prospects of gain which the fertile regions in the west were said to offer, many were discouraged by the unsettled state of the country, its reputed unhealthiness, and the vicinity of the Indian tribes.

To Europeans this part of America offered no attractions : it was too remote, too insulated, too barbarous, and too entirely uncongenial with all their habits, tastes, and feelings.

The first settlers of this country, therefore, were men whose object was not gain, but who appeared to have been allured by the very difficulties which discouraged others. They were hardy, enterprising men, fond of chance, and familiar with fatigue, who seem to have thought with Fitz James —

' If a path be dangerous known. The dansrer's self is lure alone."

Colonel Boon, the chief of these, and the first white inhabitant of Kentucky, diea lately. His name deserves to be recorded, not only on account of his dauntless courage and eccentric habits, but because his life and achievements present a glowing picture of the sufferings of those who subdued the western forests ; he stands forward, too, as a prominent individual of a class peculiar to the United States. The American who takes a retrospective view of the early history of his country, must regard with

admiration the sturdy woodsman, who, as the pioneer of civiHzation, first laid the axe to the tree, and made smooth the road for others ; but he will find him an isolated being, professing tastes and habits of his own, and voluntarily supporting incredible hardships, peril, and privation, without the usual incentives or the ordinary rewards of courage.

In the year I769, Daniel Boon, a respectable farmer of North Carolina, was led by a restless, migratory spirit into the forests of Kentucky' then an extensive wilderness, inhabited by numberless savage tribes, and as yet unexplored by civilized man. Passing the Alleghany Ridge, whose hideous precipices alone might have repelled a less determined band— guided only by the stars — depending on game for subsistence, and on their own vigilance and prowess for protection — Boon, with five adventurous companions, plunged into the boundless coiitiguity of shade, and boldly cut the tie which bound them to society. The mariner, when he looks abroad upon the vast interminable waste, may feel a depressing, yet awful and sublime sense of danger and solitude j but he has the consolation

of knowing that if the solitude of the ocean be hopeless, its dangers are few and easily surmounted : they exist rather in idea than in reality. Boon and his companions could have had no such animating reflections. In a country called the " Bloody Ground," from the extirminating character of its conflicts ; — among savage tribes, continually at war with each other, and agreeing in nothing but their deadly enmity to the whites — cut off from society — with scanty means of defence, and no hope of retreat, — we scarcely know whether to extol the courage, or censure the rashness of this gallant little party. They continued in Kentucky until the year 177<> leading a wandering life, employed chiefly in exploring the country, and frequently engaged in conflicts with the Indians. In 1775, Boon erected a fort at a salt lick, on the Kentucky River, where the town of Boonsborough now stands, which was called Fort Boonsborough, and to which he removed his family in the same year. My wife and daughters,' says he, in his journal, " were the flrst white women that ever stood on the banks of the Kentucky River." Here he was

joined by five families from North Carolina, and forty men from Powell's Valley. During the years 1775-6-7, Fort Boonsborough was frequently attacked by the Indians, and several severe engagements took place, in which the savages were always repulsed.

Boon's settlement began now to exhibit something like a permanent residence of civilized men. The forest was levelled around the fort, fields were enclosed and cultivated, and rustic labours were mingled with the business of war, and the sports of the chase. Their numbers were now spfficient, in general, to prevent surprise ; and in case of danger, the fortress offered a secure retreat. Nevertheless, in January I778, while Boon was engaged with a party of twentyseven men in making salt at the Blue Lick, they were surprised and taken by a large body of Indians, who were on their way to attack the fort, and conveyed to Chilicothe, on the Little Miami, then a considerable Indian town In the month of March following. Boon was carried with ten of his men to Detroit, where the party was well treated by the British Governor, Hamilton, as indeed they had hitherto

been by the Indians, agreeably to a stipulation made at the time of their capture. Tlie gallant bearing of Boon, and his skill in hunting, had by this time, endeared him to the Indians, so that although the British officers offered a hundred pounds sterling for him, with the intention of setting him at liberty, they would not sell him, nor would they allow him to remain a prisoner with his companions at Detroit, but took him back with them to Chilicothe. " Here," says his journal, ' I was adopted into the family of a chief as a son, which is their custom, and permitted to hunt and spend my time as I pleased. In June following they took me to Sciota Salt Springs, where we continued making salt for ten days. On our return to Old Chilicothe, I was alarmed to see four hundred and fifty Indians, the choicest of their warriors, painted and armed in a fearful manner, and ready as I found to march against Boonsborough. I now determined to make my escape on the first opportunity; there was no time to be lost. On the l6th, before sun-rise, I got off in the most secret manner, and on the 20th, arrived at Boonsborough, a distance of one

hundred and sixty miles, while travelling which I had but one meal. I found our fort in a state ; all hands were engaged earnestly in repairing and fortifying it in the best manner possible for the impending blow of the enemy, whose arrival was expected daily. Some time previous to my capture, a re-inforcement of forty-five men arrived from North Carolina, and Colonel Brown with one hundred men from Virginia ; and notwithstanding we had lost some in killed and others wounded, we considered ourselves pretty strong, and determined to brave all dangers. We were in waiting for the enemy, when we got information that they had postponed their march for two weeks, in consequence of my escape from them ; in the meantime, we had several skirmishes with small parties of the Indians. On the 8th of August, however, the ferocious Indian army arrived, four hundred and forty-four in number, under the command of Captain Duquesne, eleven other Frenchmen, and some of their own chiefs, and marched up within view of the fort with British and French colours flying. They halted, and despatched a summons to me, in His Britannic

Majesty s name to surrender the fort ; to this I returned for answer that I wanted two days to consider of it, which wasgranted

"It wasnow a critical time with us. We were a small number in the garrison ; a powerful, cruel, and savage army lay before our stockaded fort, whose appearance proclaimed inevitable death. We immediately began to collect what number of our horses and cattle we could, and bring them through the posterns into the fort. On the evening of the 9th, I returned answer, that we were determined to defend our fort while a man was livins;. Now,' said I to their commanding-officer, who stood attentively hearing my sentiments, we laugh at all your formidable preparations, but thank you for giving us notice and time to prepare ; your efforts will not prevail ; our gates shall even deny you admittance.' Whether this answer affected their courage or not, I cannot tell, but contrary to our expectations, they formed a scheme to deceive us, declaring it was their orders from Governor Hamilton to take us captives ; but if nine of us would come out and treat with them, they

would withdrav/ their forces and return home peaceably. The sound of this proposition was grateful to our ears, and y< e agreed to the proposal.

' We held the treaty within sixty yards of the garrison, fearing that treachery was at the bottom of this manoeuvre ; the articles were formally agreed to and signed, and the Indians told us it was customary with them on such occasions, for txvo Indians to shake hands with every white man in the treaty, as an evidence of entire friendship. "We agreed to this also, but were soon convinced they were determined to take us prisoners. They immediately grappled with us ; and, although surrounded by hundreds of savages, we extricated ourselves from them, and got into the garrison all safe, one man excepted, who was wounded. A furious attack was now made on us from all sides, and a constant heavy fire continued between us day and night for nine days, during which they attempted to undermine our fort. We began a countermine, which they discovered, and, in consequence, they quitted this project. They now began to be convinced that neither their stra-