Until the 6th of June, 1774, I remained with my family on the Clench, when myself and another person were solicited by Governor Dunmore, of Virginia, to conduct a number of surveyors to the Falls of Ohio. This was a tour of eight hundred miles, and took sixty-two days.
On my return, Governor Dunmore gave me the command of three garrisons during the campaign against the Shawanese. In March, 1775, at the solicitation of a number of gentlemen of North Carolina, I attended their treaty at Wataga with the Cherokee Indians, to purchase the lands on the south side of Kentucky river. After this, I undertook to mark out a road in the best passage from the settlements through the wilderness to Kentucky.
[Original]
Having collected a number of enterprising men, well armed, I soon began this work. We proceeded until we came within fifteen miles of where Boonesborough now stands, where the Indians attacked us, and killed two and wounded two more of our party. This was on the 22d of March, 1775. Two days after we were again attacked by them, when we had two more killed and three wounded. After this we proceeded on to Kentucky river without opposition.
[Original]
On the 1st of April we began to erect the fort of Boonesborough, at a salt lick sixty yards from the river, on the south side. On the 4th, the Indians killed one of our men. On the 14th of June, having completed the fort, I returned to my family on the Clench, and whom I soon after removed to the fort. My wife and daughter were supposed to be the first white women that ever stood on the banks of Kentucky river.