[Footnote 49: Gallagher.] CHAPTER XVIII. Season of repose--Colonel Boone buys land--Builds a log-house and goes to farming--Kentucky organized on a new basis--The three Counties united in one district, and Courts established--Colonel Boone surprised by Indians--Escapes by a bold stratagem--Increase of emigration--Transportation of goods commences--Primitive manners and customs of the settlers--Hunting--The autumn hunt--The hunting camp-Qualifications of a good hunter--Animals hunted--The process of building and furnishing a cabin--The house-warming. After the series of Indian hostilities recorded in the chapters immediately preceding this, Kentucky enjoyed a season of comparative repose. The cessation of hostilities between the United States and Great Britain in 1783, and the probable speedy cession of the British posts on the Northwestern frontier, discouraged the Indians, stopped their customary incursions on the Kentuckians, and gave them leisure to acquire and cultivate new tracts of land. Colonel Boone, notwithstanding the heavy loss of money (which has been already mentioned) as he was on his journey to North Carolina, was now able to purchase several locations of land. He had been compensated for his military services by the Commonwealth of Virginia, to which Kentucky still belonged. On one of his locations he built a comfortable log-house and recommenced farming, with his usual industry and perseverance, varying the pursuits of agriculture with occasional indulgence in his favorite sport of hunting. In 1783 Kentucky organized herself on a new basis, Virginia having united the three counties into one district, having a court of common law and chancery for the whole territory which now forms the State of Kentucky. The seat of justice at first was at Harrodsburg; but for want of convenient accommodations for the sessions of the courts, they were subsequently removed to Danville, which, in consequence, became for a season the centre and capital of the State.[50] A singular and highly characteristic adventure, in which Boone was engaged about this time, is thus narrated by Mr. Peck: "Though no hostile attacks from Indians disturbed the settlements, still there were small parties discovered, or _signs_ seen on the frontier settlements. On one occasion, about this period, four Indians came to the farm of Colonel Boone, and nearly succeeded in taking him prisoner. The particulars are given as they were narrated by Boone himself, at the wedding of a granddaughter, a few months before his decease, and they furnish an illustration of his habitual self-possession and tact with Indians. At a short distance from his cabin he had raised a small patch of tobacco to supply his neighbors, (for Boone never used the 'filthy weed' himself,) the amount, perhaps, of one hundred and fifty hills.