,(!:? ) 



COLONEL BOON. 



Daniel Boon, or, as he was usually called in the Western Country, 

 Colonel Boon, happened to spend a night with me under the same roof, 

 more than twenty years ago. We had returned from a shooting excur- 

 sion, in the course of which his extraordinary skill in the management of 

 the rifle had been fully displayed. On retiring to the room appropria- 

 ted to that remarkable individual and myself for the night, I felt anxious 

 to know more of his exploits and adventures than I did, and accordingly 

 took the liberty of proposing numerous questions to him. The stature 

 and general appearance of this wanderer of the western forests approach- 

 ed the gigantic. His chest was broad and prominent ; his muscular 

 powers displayed themselves in every Umb ; his countenance gave indica- 

 tion of liis great courage, enterprise, and perseverance ; and when he 

 spoke, the very motion of his lips brought the impression that whatever 

 he uttered could not be otherwise than strictly true. I undressed, whilst 

 he merely took off his hunting shirt, and arranged a few folds of blankets 

 on the floor, choosing rather to lie there, as he observed, than on the soft- 

 est bed. When we had both disposed of ourselves, each after his own 

 fashion, he related to me the following account of his powers of memory, 

 which I lay before you, kind reader, in his own words, hoping that the 

 simplicity of his style may prove interesting to you. 



" I was once," said he, " on a hunting expedition on the banks of the 

 Green River, when the lower parts of this State (Kentucky) were still in 

 the hands of nature, and none but the sons of the soil were looked upon 

 as its lawful proprietors. We Virginians had for some time been waging 

 a war of intrusion upon them, and I, amongst the rest, rambled through 

 the woods in pursuit of their race, as I now would foUow the tracks of 

 any ravenous animal. The Indians outwitted me one dark night, and I 

 was as unexpectedly as suddenly made a prisoner by them. The trick 

 had been managed with great skill ; for no sooner had I extinguished the 

 fire of my camp, and laid me down to rest, in full security, as I thought, 

 than 1 felt myself seized by an indistinguishable number of hands, and 

 was immediately pinioned, as if about to be led to the scaffold for execu- 

 tion. To have attempted to be refractory, would have proved useless and 

 dangerous to my life ; and I suffered myself to be removed from my camp 



