In the Current of the Revolution 307 



it rained ; and again there were heavy snow-storms, 

 in one of which an emigrant got lost, and only found 

 his way to camp by the help of a pocket-compass. 

 The mountains were very steep, and it was painfully 

 laborious work to climb them, while chopping out 

 a way for the pack-train. At night a watch had 

 to be kept for Indians. It was only here and there 

 that the beasts got good grazing. Sometimes the 

 horses had their saddles turned while struggling 

 through the woods. But the great difficulty came 

 in crossing the creeks, where the banks were rotten, 

 the bottom bad, or the water deep; then the horses 

 would get mired down and wet their packs, or they 

 would have to be swum across while their loads 

 were ferried over on logs. One day, in going along 

 a creek, they had to cross it no less than fifty times, 

 by "very bad foards." 



On the seventh of April they were met by Boone's 

 runner, bearing tidings of the loss occasioned by 

 the Indians; and from that time on they met par- 

 ties of would-be settlers, who, panic-struck by the 

 sudden forays, were fleeing from the country. 

 Henderson's party kept on with good courage, and 

 persuaded quite a number of the fugitives to turn 

 back with them. Some of these men who were thus 

 leaving the country were riot doing so because of 

 fright; for many, among them the McAfees, had 

 not brought out their families, but had simply come 

 to clear the ground, build cabins, plant corn, and 

 turn some branded cattle loose in the woods, where 

 they were certain to thrive well, winter and summer, 



