46 The Winning of the West 



was done. At night the Indians pitched torches of 

 cane and hickory bark against the stockade, in the 

 vain effort to set it on fire, 38 and De Quindre tried 

 to undermine the walls, starting from the water 

 mark. But Boone discovered the attempt, and sunk 

 a trench as a countermine. Then De Quindre gave 

 up and retreated on August 2oth, after nine days' 

 fighting, in which the whites had but two killed and 

 four wounded ; nor was the loss of the Indians much 

 heavier. 39 



This was the last siege of Boonesborough. Had 

 De Quindre succeeded he might very probably have 

 swept the whites from Kentucky ; but he failed, and 

 Boone' s successful resistance, taken together with 

 the outcome of Clark's operations at the same time, 

 ensured the permanency of the American occupa- 

 tion. The old-settled region lying around the orig- 

 inal stations, or forts, was never afterward seri- 

 ously endangered by Indian invasion. 



The savages continued to annoy the border 

 throughout the year 1778. The extent of their rav- 



38 McAfee MSS. 



89 De Quindre reported to Hamilton that, though foiled, 

 he had but two men killed and three wounded. In Haldi- 

 mand MSS., Hamilton to Haldimand, October 15, 1778. 

 Often, however, these partisan leaders merely reported the 

 loss in their own particular party of savages, taking no ac- 

 count of the losses in the other bands that had joined them 

 as the Miamis joined the Shawnees in this instance. But it 

 is certain that Boone (or Filson, who really wrote the Nar- 

 rative) greatly exaggerated the facts in stating that thirty- 

 seven Indians were killed, and that the settlers picked up 125 

 pounds' weight of bullets which had been fired into the fort. 



