CHAPTER PAGE I. THE YOUNG FRONTIERSMAN 13 II. THE START FOR VIRGINIA 26 III. DAVY TAKES TO THE WOODS 37 IV. THE INDIANS’ VISIT 50 V. DAVY IS A SCOUT 65 VI. FOLLOWING INDIANS 78 VII. HARD FIGHTING 90 VIII. BEAN’S CREEK 107 IX. A CABIN IN THE WILDERNESS 125 X. THE ELECTION 142 XI. EARTHQUAKES 156 XII. HUNTING BEARS 168 XIII. LOST IN THE WOODS 185 XIV. THE MISSISSIPPI FLOOD 194 XV. CLAY AND WEBSTER 204 XVI. IN CONGRESS 215 XVII. DAVY’S POPULARITY 225 XVIII. TRAVELLING HARD 241 XIX. THE RIFLE “BETSY” 253 XX. OFF FOR TEXAS 265 XXI. THE BEE-HUNTER 278 XXII. THE ALAMO BESIEGED 288 XXIII. THE MEXICANS’ CHARGE 300 David Crockett I. THE YOUNG FRONTIERSMAN Birthplace in Tennessee――His Irish Blood――Summer-time in the Great Smokies――The Indian signal fires――Little Davy gets fighting mad――His love of weapons――In the Bald Mountains――Davy’s aspirations――John Crockett moves again. The antecedents of Davy Crockett are Irish, although his mother was Rebecca Hawkins, a native of Maryland, and probably of English descent. After the execution of King Charles I, in the seventeenth century, many Irishmen were transported to North America as rebels, and there sold into a state of slavery among the English colonists. Many of them were sent to Virginia and to the Somers or Bermuda Islands, and in Sir J. H. Lefroy’s “Memorials of Bermuda” occur the names of James Sheehan and David Larragan as two of the slaves bought and sold in those islands. As we might expect, the same records often make mention of the unruly and riotous nature of the Irish rebels, and of the complaints of those who thought the colony might well be rid of them. It was the blood of the fighting race that told, and one by one the slaves became freemen, to follow every bugle-call or rolling drum that has led into the storms of shot and shell on our country’s battlefields.