In the Current of the Revolution 323 



By the end of 1775 the Americans had gained 

 firm foothold in Kentucky. Cabins had been built 

 and clearings made; there were women and chil- 

 dren in the wooden forts, cattle grazed on the range, 

 and two or three hundred acres of corn had been 

 sown and reaped. There were perhaps some three 

 hundred men in Kentucky, a hardy, resolute, stren- 

 uous band. They stood shoulder to shoulder in 

 the wilderness, far from all help, surrounded by 

 an overwhelming number of foes. Each day's work 

 was fraught with danger as they warred with the 

 wild forces from which they wrung their living. 

 Around them on every side lowered the clouds of 

 the impending death struggle with the savage lords 

 of the neighboring lands. 



These backwoodsmen greatly resembled one an- 

 other; their leaders were but types of the rank 

 and file, and did not differ so very widely from 

 them; yet two men stand out clearly from their 

 fellows. Above the throng of wood-choppers, game- 

 hunters, and Indian fighters loom the sinewy figures 

 of Daniel Boone and George Rogers Clark. 



