“If you wish you may head an expedition against the Indians,” said Daniel Boone. “I would go myself, but at present that is impossible. More settlers are coming in every day, as you can see, and Colonel Henderson is anxious to open a regular land office and form a permanent local government.”
What Boone said about new settlers was true. Nearly every day some pioneers came straggling in, and once or twice a month a body of six or eight families would appear. These settlers located at various points, but all looked to the fort at Boonesborough for aid in time of peril. A government was formed, which, though crude, succeeded in preserving some sort of law and order. Various officers were elected, but the majority of the settlers looked to Boone as their most reliable leader, especially when dealing with the ever-present Indian question.
From Yellow Blanket it was learned that the Indians under Long Knife and the other chiefs now amounted to perhaps a hundred all told. Of these less than thirty were full-fledged warriors, the balance being women, children, and old men incapable of fighting.
“Fifteen or twenty good shots ought to be able to whip them, and whip them well,” said Ezra Winship to Peter Parsons.
“I believe you,” answered Mr. Parsons. “And if we can get together that many pioneers I am willing to go out with you and see if we cannot rescue my daughter and your wife, and also the other captives.”
It was no easy matter to find so many good shots willing to enlist for the venture. Those who had members of their families missing were eager enough, but others held back, saying that they must remain at home to protect their own folks and provide food for the coming fall and winter. Many had not yet built their cabins, having lived during the summer under tents, and these felt that their first duty was to provide suitable shelters against the snow and cold weather that was coming.
“We should have started sooner, when the feeling against the redskins was more bitter,” said Peter Parsons. “Now the folks have grown accustomed to what has been, and it doesn’t look so cruel to them.”
But he and Ezra Winship persisted, and at last they gathered together seventeen men who were willing to undertake the trip. Of this number, four were men who had lost various members of their families by death during the raid, five, including Mr. Winship and Mr. Parsons, wanted to find, if possible, relatives who were lost, and the others went merely from a sense of duty, or for the excitement.
“We’ll teach ’em a lesson they won’t forgit in a hurry,” said old Pep Frost, who was of the number. “We’ll come down on ’em like a reg’lar hurricane, hear me!” The prospect just suited this man, and he went around whistling gayly as though getting ready for a pleasure outing.
Joe and Harry had both begged hard for permission to go along, but their fathers would not listen to their pleadings.