At one time they were taken by Indians, who plundered their camp and stole all their furs. Most of the party were discouraged and went back to the settlements, but Boone and one companion were angry at their loss and determined to stay and make it good. This was like Boone, who knew nothing of fear, and who did not easily give up what he wanted to do. He made several trips to Kentucky and greatly liked the new country. At length, having decided to take his family with him and make his home there, he became the leader of the pioneers that went out under the Transylvania Company, as it was called. They built a fort and founded a place named Boonesborough, after the great hunter. But he was much more than a hunter, being now a military commander and doing surveying also for people who were taking up tracts of new land. Houses and forts were built, forests were cleared, and crops were raised. Such was the beginning of the state of Kentucky. It was not all simple and pleasant work, however. In 1768, the year before Daniel Boone and John Finley went through the Cumberland Gap, a great company of Indians had gathered at Fort Stanwix, which we remember from the battle of Oriskany, and by a treaty had given to the English the rights to the Kentucky region. But the powerful Cherokees of the southern mountains were not at Fort Stanwix, and they had something to say about the settlement of Kentucky lands. So Boone called them together at a great meeting on the Watauga river, and bought the Kentucky forests from them. This was the time when an old chief said to Boone, “Brother, we have given you a fine land, but I believe you will have much trouble settling it.” The old Indian was right,--they did have much trouble. Cabins were burnt, and settlers were slain with gun and tomahawk, but Boone and many others with him would admit no failure. People began to pour in through the Cumberland Gap, until more forests were cleared, the towns grew larger, and the Indians, who do not like to fight in the open country, drew back to the woods and the mountains. Boone marked out the trail which was afterwards known as the Wilderness road. It had also been known as Boone’s trail, Kentucky road, Virginia road, and Caintuck Hog road. A man who went out with Boone in one of his expeditions to Kentucky kept a diary, and in it he gives the names of some of the new settlers. One of these was Abraham Hanks, who was Abraham Lincoln’s grandfather. It was no easy journey that these men made to Kentucky, and no easy life that they found when they got there, but they planted the first American state beyond the mountains, and the rough pioneers who lived in cabins and ate pork, pumpkins, and corn bread were the ancestors of some of our most famous men.