"I am not aware that any community has a right to force another to be civilized."—John Stuart Mill.
[7] Boone had a strong fancy for carving his name and hunting feats upon trees. His wanderings have very largely been traced by this means.
[8] When Indians were about, moccasins were always tied to the guns so as to be ready to slip on in case of a night alarm.
[9] Previous to this there had been built in Kentucky many hunters' camps, also a few isolated cabins by "improvers"; but Harrodsburg (at first called "Harrodstown") was the first permanent settlement, thus having nearly a year's start of Boonesborough. June 16, 1774, is the date given by Collins and other chroniclers for the actual settlement by Harrod.
[10] The Indians had called the Americans "Knifemen," "Long Knives," or "Big Knives," from the earliest historic times; but it was not until about the middle of the eighteenth century that the Virginia colonists began to make record of the use of this epithet by the Indians with whom they came in contact. It was then commonly supposed that it grew out of the use of swords by the frontier militiamen, and this is the meaning still given in dictionaries; but it has been made apparent by Albert Matthews, writing in the New York Nation, March 14, 1901, that the epithet originated in the fact that Englishmen used knives as distinguished from the early stone tools of the Indians. The French introduced knives into America previous to the English, but apparently the term was used only by Indians within the English sphere of influence.
[11] The names of this party of Kentucky pioneers, as preserved by tradition, are worth presenting in our record, for many of them afterward became prominent in the annals of the West: Squire Boone, Edward Bradley, James Bridges, William Bush, Samuel Coburn, Colonel Richard Calloway, Captain Crabtree, Benjamin Cutbirth, David Gass, John Hart, William Hays (son-in-law of Daniel Boone), William Hicks, Edmund Jennings, Thomas Johnson, John Kennedy, John King, William Miller, William Moore, James Nall, James Peeke, Bartlet Searcy, Reuben Searcy, Michael Stoner, Samuel Tate, Oswell Towns, Captain William Twitty (wounded at Rockcastle), John Vardeman, and Felix Walker (also wounded at Rockcastle). Mrs. Hays, Boone's daughter, traveled with her husband; a negro woman accompanied Calloway, and a negro man (killed at Rockcastle) was with Twitty.
[12] It was then within the far-stretching boundaries of Fincastle County. Kentucky was set apart as a county, December 31, 1776.
[13] It was, however, not until November, 1778, that the legislature formally declared the Transylvania Company's claims null and void.
[14] Two lines of Indians were formed, five or six feet apart, on either side of a marked path. The prisoner was obliged to run between these lines, while there were showered upon him lusty blows from whatever weapons the tormentors chose to adopt—switches, sticks, clubs, and tomahawks. It required great agility, speed in running, and some aggressive strategy to arrive at the goal unharmed. Many white captives were seriously crippled in this thrilling experience, and not a few lost their lives.
[15] Account is only taken, in these charges, of the twenty-seven captives.