In the Current of the Revolution 303 



on the tree trunks, while a regular path was cut 

 and trodden out through the thickets of underbrush 

 and the dense canebrakes and reed-beds. 



After a fortnight's hard work the party had al- 

 most reached the banks of the Kentucky River, and 

 deemed that their chief trials were over. But half 

 an hour before daybreak on the morning of the 

 25th, as they lay round their smouldering camp- 

 fires, they were attacked by some Indians, who killed 

 two of them and wounded a third ; the others sprang 

 to arms at once, and stood their ground without 

 suffering further loss or damage till it grew light, 

 when the Indians silently drew off. 4 Continuing 

 his course, Boone reached the Kentucky River, and 

 on April ist began to build Boonesborough, ' on an 

 open plain where there was a lick with two sulphur 

 springs. 



Meanwhile other pioneers, as hardy and enter- 

 prising as Boone's companions, had likewise made 

 up their minds that they would come in to possess 

 the land; and in bands or small parties they had 

 crossed the mountains or floated down the Ohio, 

 under the leadership of such men as Harrod, Lo- 



4 Collins, II, 498. Letter of Daniel Boone, April i, 1775. 

 Collins has done good work for Kentucky history, having 

 collected a perfect mass of materials of every sort. But he 

 does not discriminate between facts of undoubted authentic- 

 ity, and tales resting on the idlest legend ; so that he must be 

 used with caution, and he is, of course, not to be trusted 

 where he is biased by the extreme rancor of his political 

 prejudices. Of the Kentucky historians, Marshall is by far 

 the most brilliant, and Mann Butler the most trustworthy 

 and impartial. Both are much better than Collins. 



