Meanwhile, Boone had been arranging his bundles of tobacco and at length had them adjusted to his satisfaction. Suddenly he removed two poles and the next instant the four Indians were buried beneath a huge pile of dry leaves. Before they could extricate themselves Boone had sprung through the open door and was fifty yards away.
When he had reached what he considered a safe distance, the farmer turned and at the sight that met his eyes, burst into peals of laughter. The Indians, blinded and half suffocated, had groped their way out of the shed and were now aimlessly stumbling around, whilst their frames shook with violent coughing and sneezing. With scanty breath they cursed Boone’s cunning and bewailed their own folly.
Boone went to the cabin and secured his rifle. He then bade the Indians, who were by this time somewhat recovered, get their guns and begone. He warned them that if he should catch them in that part of the country again worse would assuredly befall them. It would be interesting to know the story Pewultee and his companions told upon their returning to Chillicothe.
With the development of the territory and the return of peace, steps were taken by the authorities for the proper surveying of land in Kentucky and the perfection of titles. In this process hundreds of the older settlers were dispossessed in favor of shrewder claimants, better versed in the technicalities of the law. Boone had always displayed an aversion for legal forms and carelessness in matters of business. Scrupulously honest, he credited all others with a similar quality. His life had been governed by the golden rule, which, indeed, generally prevailed in the backwoods communities. He was as ignorant as any child of the devious ways of the speculator and land-shark. Nor was it possible for him to conceive that the State he had served so loyally should fail to protect him in what he reasonably considered his rights.
When his beautiful farm at Boonesborough and other tracts were wrested from him by the subtle processes of law, he was aggrieved to think that the community for which he had bled and suffered could offer him no better recompense than the beggar’s portion, but he did not become embittered, as did Clark towards the close of his life. Boone laid his misfortunes at the door of the speculators and lawyers, and resolved to leave Kentucky and seek a new home in the wilderness. In a memorial to the legislature of Kentucky in 1812, he says: “Unacquainted with the niceties of the law, the few lands I was enabled to locate were, through my ignorance, generally swallowed up by better claims.”
Hale and active, and with spirit undaunted, the grand old pioneer set out when past sixty years of age for the land of prairies beyond the “Father of Waters.” His fame had reached the Spanish dominions in America, and the Lieutenant-Governor whose seat was at St. Louis invited him to settle in that district with “assurance that ample portions of land should be given to him and his family.”
The proposal was an alluring one to Boone. Many Americans were settled in Louisiana, and it was already generally believed that the country would soon be annexed to the United States. Boone’s eldest son, Nathan, had some years previous taken up land in the rich country bordering on the Missouri River. The invitation of the Spanish official presented a means of acquiring land which Boone had not the money to purchase and, finally, the region beyond the Mississippi abounded in game.
Boone accepted the liberal offer and in 1795, accompanied by his family, journeyed to the Femme Osage settlement, about forty-five miles from St. Louis, and there took up his abode. Here, as promised, a large tract of land was conveyed to him and he was made commandant, or syndic, of the district. The post was an important one, entailing both civil and military duties of a responsible nature.
A large proportion of the people in the district were Americans, among whom were included several of Boone’s relatives. The population was a peaceable, happy and prosperous one. Boone found the new conditions of his life congenial and he passed his last years in cheery contentment. He discharged his duties agreeably to the community under his control, and to the satisfaction of the Spanish authorities. When, at length, he passed peacefully away in the year 1820, at the ripe old age of eighty-six, the American flag was flying over the land.