“There are a few who are willing to go on across the mountains. Suppose, after we leave those who feel that they must return at the Clinch settlements, we turn about and go with the few we can hold together.”
Again the backwoodsman shook his head.
“I reckon you don’t quite see just what your uncle, the colonel, wants done,” he said. “We didn’t start only for the purpose of getting into the new country. The idea was to plant a colony. And to do that we must have people.”
“But,” persisted Oliver, with boyish ardor, “there’s your family and the Taylors. And Mr. Miller told Sandy he’d keep to the original agreement if any one else would.”
But Boone was fixed in his determination.
“We must plant a colony of some size if we plant any at all. A few families would always be in danger where enough to supply a couple of score of fighting men, if needed, would be fairly safe. For Injuns, youngster, are a careful lot; they seldom attack when there’s any danger of loss. Another thing, the first lot of emigrants must be numerous enough to attract others. Men go where men are; it’s only a few who have a liking for lonely places.”
And so the saddened column pushed toward the Clinch River, and Boone’s first attempt to settle Kentucky was at an end.
CHAPTER VIII
THE THREE BOYS RIDE ON A MISSION
However, as it chanced, it was just as well that the first attempt of Daniel Boone to colonize Kentucky failed. For a little later, the first muttering of that great Indian uprising, called the Dunmore War, began to be heard, and along the whole border ran the firebrand, the scalping knife and the tomahawk.
But previous to this outbreak of the tribes, Boone was engaged in another enterprise which tested his quality as a woodsman and explorer. Dunmore, the governor of Virginia, had some time before sent a number of surveyors to the country round about the falls of the Ohio; and now he desired that these men be guided through the wilderness back to the settlements. Boone and a man named Stoner were engaged for this work, and set out heavily armed, but carrying little or no baggage. The surveying party was found and guided to the settlements according to contract, and without mishap. The whole journey was of some eight hundred miles and through hard country; but the two woodsmen managed to do it in the remarkable time of two months.