Scattered through the forest were a number of riflemen whose business it was to warn the workers of the approach of an enemy; the axemen made the hills and woods ring with their strokes; the trees came crashing down to be lopped of their limbs, cut into lengths and fitted into place. Log upon log the famous fort of Boonesborough, so famous in the annals of Kentucky and the West, arose in sturdy strength.
“We’ll make her bullet-proof and high enough to keep the redskins outside,” said Boone, as he labored with his men in their work of construction.
The fort was two hundred and sixty feet in length and one hundred and fifty in breadth and was made up of a series of cabins, each of heavy logs and connected by a high fence of logs, pointed at the top as a sort of stockade. There was a cabin at each corner of the fort; all the cabin doors and windows opened inside the stockade. The only egress was by way of a heavy gate opening toward the river and another which opened upon the opposite side.
During the months of April and May and partly into June of the year 1774, the adventurers hewed and wrought upon their defense; in this time one man was killed by the hostiles; after that, however, there was no sight or sound of the enemy. In the middle of June all was finished.
Colonel Henderson and some members of the company which had purchased the rights of the Cherokees arrived shortly after this; and with them came twoscore settlers, a train of packhorses and many things which made life easier for the pioneers.
It was Colonel Henderson who gave the stronghold the name of Boonesborough, in honor of the brave woodsman who had dared so much for the founding of the new commonwealth; and much elated over the recognition given his service, Boone started back toward the Clinch River with a few companions.
“We have plenty of men,” said he, “but it will never be a recognized settlement without families. So I’m going to set an example to others by bringing out mine.”
It was in October that Daniel Boone turned his back finally upon the eastern settlements; and with some other hardy adventurers and their families, he set out once more through the Cumberland Gap and into the wilderness which they were to make bloom as a garden.
CHAPTER XIII
CONCLUSION
For a time the little settlement on the Kentucky grew and prospered without much notice from the Indians; but it was not long before the first rumblings of the Revolution were heard in that far-off place; it was learned, with alarm, that the colonies were rising in arms against England.