320 The Winning of the West 



though they agreed with Lord Dunmore in nothing 

 else, were quite as determined as he that Kentucky 

 should remain part of Virginia. So Transylvania's 

 fitful life flickered out of existence; the Virginia 

 Legislature in 1778 solemnly annulling the title of 

 the company, but very properly recompensing the 

 originators by the gift of two hundred thousand 

 acres. 27 North Carolina pursued a precisely sim- 

 ilar course ; and Henderson, after the collapse of his 

 colony, drifts out of history. 



Boone remained to be for some years one of the 

 Kentucky leaders. Soon after the fort at Boones- 

 borough was built, he went back to North Carolina 

 for his family, and in the fall returned, bringing 

 out a band of new settlers, including twenty-seven 

 "guns" that is, rifle-bearing men and four wom- 

 en, with their families, the first who came to Ken- 

 tucky, though others shortly followed in their 

 steps. 28 A few roving hunters and daring pioneer 

 settlers also came to his fort in the fall; among 

 them, the famous scout, Simon Kenton, and John 

 Todd, 29 a man of high and noble character and well- 

 trained mind, who afterward fell by Boone's side 

 when in command at the fatal battle of Blue Licks. 



27 Gov. James T. Morehead's "address" at Boonesborough, 

 in 1840 (Frankfort, Ky., 1841). 



28 Do., p. 51. Mrs. Boone, Mrs. Denton, Mrs. McGarry, 

 Mrs. Hogan; all were from the North Carolina backwoods; 

 their ancestry is shown by their names. They settled in 

 Boonesborough and Harrodsburg. 



29 Like Logan he was born in Pennsylvania, of Presbyterian 

 Irish stock. He had received a good education. 



