In the Current of the Revolution 41 



came out across the mountains; and at the same 

 time the small parties of hunters succeeded in pretty 

 well clearing the woods of Indians. Many of the 

 lesser camps and stations had been broken up and 

 at the end of the year there remained only four 

 Boonesborough, Harrodstown, Logan's station at 

 St. Asaphs, and McGarry's, at the Shawnee Springs. 

 They contained in all some five or six hundred per- 

 manent settlers, nearly half of them being able-- 

 bodied riflemen. 29 



Early in 1778 a severe calamity befell the settle- 



89 The McAfee MSS. give these four stations ; Boone says 

 there were but three. He was writing from memory, however, 

 and was probably mistaken ; thus he says there were at that 

 time settlers at the Falls, an evident mistake, as there were 

 none there till the following year. Collins, following Marshall, 

 says there were at the end of the year only one hundred and 

 two men in Kentucky, sixty-five at Harrodstown, twenty- 

 two at Boonesborough, fifteen at Logan's. This is a mistake 

 based on a hasty reading of Boone's narrative, which gives 

 this number for July, and particularly adds that after that 

 date they began to strengthen. In the McAfee MSS. is a 

 census of Harrodstown for the fall of 1777, which sums up: 

 Men in service, 81; men not in service, 4; women, 24; chil- 

 dren above ten, 12 ; children under ten, 58 ; slaves above ten, 

 12; slaves under ten, 7; total, 198. In October Clark in his 

 diary records meeting fifty men with their families (there- 

 fore permanent settlers), on their way to Boone, and thirty- 

 eight men on their way to Logan's. At the end of the year, 

 therefore, Boonesborough and Harrodstown must have held 

 about two hundred souls apiece: Logan's and McGarry's 

 were considerably smaller. The large proportion of young 

 children testifies to the prolific nature of the Kentucky wo- 

 men, and also shows the permanent nature of the settle- 

 ments. Two years previously, in 1775, there had been, per- 

 haps, three hundred people in Kentucky, but very many of 

 them were not permanent residents. 



