Daniel Boone: The Pioneer of KentuckyAbbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
History
Daniel Boone: The Pioneer of Kentucky
Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
Boone, Daniel, 1734-1820
"Let paeans," writes Mr. Hartly, "be sung all over the mighty West, to
Indian Corn. Without it, the West would still have been a wilderness.
Was the frontier suddenly invaded, without commissary, or quartermaster,
or other sources of supply, each soldier parched a peck of corn. A
portion of it was put into his pockets, the remainder in his wallet, and
throwing it upon his saddle with his rifle on his shoulder, he was ready
in half an hour for the campaign. Did a flood of emigration inundate the
frontier, with an amount of consumers disproportioned to the supply of
grain, the facility of raising the Indian corn, and its early maturity,
gave promise and guarantee that the scarcity would be temporary and
tolerable. Did the safety of the frontier demand the services of every
adult militiaman, the boys and women could themselves raise corn, and
furnish ample supplies of bread. Did an autumnal intermittent confine
the whole family, or the entire population to the sick bed, this certain
concomitant of the clearing and cultivating the new soil, mercifully
withholds its paroxysms till the crop of corn is made. It requires no
further labor or care afterwards. Paeans, say we, and a temple of
worshipping to the creator of Indian Corn!"
The hunters to whom we referred were indeed congenial companions to
Daniel Boone. As day after day they accompanied him in the chase, and
night after night sat by the blaze of his cabine-fire, related to him
the adventures they had encountered far away beyond the Mississippi, the
spirit of his youth revived within him. An irrepressible desire sprang
up in his heart again to become a pioneer in the pathless forest which
he loved so well. It is not improbable also that his parental feelings
might have been aroused by the consideration that his son had gone
before him to that distant land; and that he might have been animated by
the hope of being reunited with him in his declining years.
The hunters represented to him that another Kentucky could be found
beyond the Father of Waters; that the game was abundant and would be
inexhaustible, until long after his earthly pilgrimage should end; that
the Spanish Government, desirous of promoting emigration, were ready to
make the most liberal grants of land to any man who would rear a cabin
and commence the cultivation of the soil; that over an expanse of
hundreds of miles of a sunny clime, and as luxurious soil as heart could
desire, he could select his broad acres with no fear of ever again being
ejected from his home.
These representations were resistless. Colonel Boone decided again to
become a wanderer to the far West, though it involved the relinquishment
of American citizenship and becoming a subject of the crown of Spain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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