172 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



With all his anxieties, he found repose here. He knew 

 content to be where he was, at last, with none to rebuke him, 

 none to say to him, nay. 



His brother returned during the year, and they met at the 

 camp where they had parted. The brave and noble brothers 

 now explored the country more thoroughly, and to greater 

 distances than before, as the younger had then brought in 

 what was far more precious than silver and gold, powder and 

 shot ! The last of the year 1771, they returned for their 

 families, having determined to remove to Kentucky. The 

 renown of the young hunter and his discovery had now 

 reached the settlements, and on the way back he was joined 

 by forty stout hunters in Powell's valley. 



They had reached the interior, when the party was attacked 

 by a large force of Indians, and six of their number killed. 

 Their cattle were scattered, and indeed the whole party dis- 

 organized by this incident, and in spite of Boone's exhorta- 

 tions, they persisted in returning upon their trail and retreated 

 to a settlement on the Clinch river. 



Boone was indignant, and buried himself in the depths of 

 the forest, leaving his family in charge of the new settlement, 

 and there remained alone, a hunter, for four years, revisiting 

 his family occasionally. 



He had now become generally known as the man of the 

 frontiers, and his reputation had filled the ear of authority, 

 and, by the energetic Governor Spottswood, of the State of 

 Virginia at that time, he was employed in some surveys of 

 importance, and from that period was considered the leading 

 spirit of that part of the State territory. 



In 1775, after numerous and important services to the 

 Government and the emigrants, who had begun to flock into 

 the country from all sections, in small parties, he arrived at 

 a salt spring or lick, with a scattered fragment of his party, 

 which had been much cut up by the Indians, and commenced 

 building a fort on the site of what is now termed Boons- 



