30 The Winning of the West 



mediate flight, the danger from the Indians, the 

 death of his own son all combined failed to make 

 him waver one instant in his purpose. He strongly 

 urged on the settlers the danger of flight through 

 the wilderness. He did not attempt to make light 

 of the perils that confronted them if they remained, 

 but he asked them to ponder well if the beauty and 

 fertility of the land did not warrant some risk being 

 run to hold it, now that it was won. They were at 

 last in a fair country fitted for the homes of their 

 children. Now was the time to keep it. If they 

 abandoned it, they would lose all the advantages 

 they had gained, and would be forced to suffer the 

 like losses and privations if they ever wished to 

 retake possession of it or of any similar tract of 

 land. He, at least, would not turn back, but would 

 stay to the bitter end. 



His words and his steadfast bearing gave heart 

 to the settlers, and they no longer thought of flight. 

 As their corn had failed them they got their food 

 from the woods. Some gathered quantities of wal 

 nuts, hickory-nuts, and shellbarks, and the hunters 

 wrought havoc among the vast herds of game. 

 During the early winter one party of twenty men 

 that went up Caney Fork on a short trip, killed one 

 hundred and five bears, seventy-five buffaloes, and 

 eighty-seven deer, and brought the flesh and hides 

 back to the stockades in canoes; so that through 

 the winter there was no lack of jerked and smoke- 

 dried meat. 



The hunters were very accurate marksmen ; game 



