There have been published many lives of Boone, but none of them in recent years. Had the late Dr. Lyman Copeland Draper, of Wisconsin, ever written the huge biography for which he gathered materials throughout a lifetime of laborious collection, those volumes--there were to be several--would doubtless have uttered the last possible word concerning the famous Kentucky pioneer. Draper's manuscript, however, never advanced beyond a few chapters; but the raw materials which he gathered for this work, and for many others of like character, are now in the library of the Wisconsin State Historical Society, available to all scholars. From this almost inexhaustible treasure-house the present writer has obtained the bulk of his information, and has had the advantage of being able to consult numerous critical notes made by his dear and learned friend. A book so small as this, concerning a character every phase of whose career was replete with thrilling incident, would doubtless not have won the approbation of Dr. Draper, whose unaccomplished biographical plans were all drawn upon a large scale; but we are living in a busy age, and life is brief--condensation is the necessary order of the day. It will always be a source of regret that Draper's projected literary monument to Boone was not completed for the press, although its bulk would have been forbidding to any but specialists, who would have sought its pages as a cyclopedia of Western border history. Through the courtesy both of Colonel Reuben T. Durrett, of Louisville, President of the Filson Club, and of Mrs. Ranck, we are permitted to include among our illustrations reproductions of some of the plates in the late George W. Ranck's stately monograph upon Boonesborough. Aid in tracing original portraits of Boone has been received from Mrs. Jennie C. Morton and General Fayette Hewitt, of Frankfort; Miss Marjory Dawson and Mr. W. G. Lackey, of St. Louis; Mr. William H. King, of Winnetka, Ill.; and Mr. J. Marx Etting, of Philadelphia. R. G. T. MADISON, WIS., _1902_. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE PREFACE vii I. ANCESTRY AND TRAINING 1 II. THE NIMROD OF THE YADKIN 13 III. LIFE ON THE BORDER 24 IV. RED MAN AGAINST WHITE MAN 35 V. KENTUCKY REACHED AT LAST 55 VI. ALONE IN THE WILDERNESS 71 VII. PREDECESSORS AND CONTEMPORARIES 85 VIII. THE HERO OF CLINCH VALLEY 97 IX. THE SETTLEMENT OF KENTUCKY 113 X. TWO YEARS OF DARKNESS 129