CHAPTER PAGE I THE AMERICAN BACKWOODSMAN 9 II HARDY GOODFELLOW 24 III THE YOUNG HUNTER 39 IV THE DARING PIONEER 54 V IN FAIR KENTUCKY 68 VI HARDY’S FIRST INDIAN 86 VII THE CAPTURE OF BOONE 101 VIII THE HANNIBAL OF THE WEST 116 IX THE VICTORY OF VINCENNES 131 X A FEAT OF STRENGTH 145 XI “BIG TURTLE” 160 XII DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND 174 XIII BOONESBOROUGH IS BESIEGED 188 XIV KENTON’S STORY 202 XV THE YOUNG SCOUT 216 XVI THE WHITE SQUAW 229 XVII A STRING OF DISASTERS 243 XVIII “THE BLOODY YEAR” 257 XIX SIMON GIRTY, RENEGADE 270 XX BATTLE OF THE BLUE LICKS 285 XXI AN OLD BIRD 300 XXII THE LAST HUNT 311 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE IMMEDIATELY HE BECAME A TARGET _Frontispiece_ “MY SCALP, I RECKON, YOUNG FELLOW” 96 BOONE WAS NEARING THE LIMIT OF HIS ENDURANCE 155 HIS WEAPON WHIZZED THROUGH THE AIR AND BURIED ITSELF IN THE SKULL OF THE FOREMOST 296 Daniel Boone I. THE AMERICAN BACKWOODSMAN The backwoods town in colonial days--The place of the backwoodsmen in the march of progress--Boone and his descendants among the leading pioneers--How the backwoods fighters forced the boundary westward--The frontier farmer was necessarily hunter and fighter--The character of the backwoodsman and his manner of life--The dwellings, dress and weapons of the frontier--Daniel Boone, a typical backwoodsman--His birth and boyhood in a frontier settlement--His parents migrate to North Carolina--Then he marries and settles on the border--He explores Kentucky and forms a determination to settle there. We shall be able to follow the story of Daniel Boone with a better understanding if, before entering upon it, we take a brief survey of the country in which his entire life was passed and the people among whom he lived--the American backwoods and the American backwoodsmen. At the outbreak of the Revolution the American colonies extended no farther west than the Alleghany Mountains, and consisted of the narrow strip of territory lying between that rocky wall and the Atlantic seaboard. By far the greater portion of the population dwelt along the coast in urban centres, or in comparatively closely settled districts which had been cleared and cultivated. In this belt were found the large plantations and wealthy slave-owners. Beyond it, the land was covered with virgin forest, dense, impenetrable, except along the trails, and infested by wild beasts and savages.