Chapter I: Preface

"Poor Simon Kenton experienced the bitter effects of wrong, ingratitude, and neglect. On account of some legal matters concerning his lands in Kentucky, he was imprisoned for twelve months upon the very spot where he built his cabin in 1775. In 1802, beggared by lawsuits and losses, he became landless. Yet he never murmured at the ingratitude which pressed him down, and in 1813 the veteran joined the Kentucky troops under Shelby, and was in the battle of the Thames. In 1824, then seventy years old, he journeyed to Frankfort, in tattered garments and upon a miserable horse, to ask the legislature of Kentucky to release the claims of the State upon some of his mountain lands. He was stared at by the boys, and shunned by the citizens, for none knew him. At length General Thomas Fletcher recognized him, gave him a new suit of clothes, and entertained him kindly. When it was known that Simon Kenton was in town, scores flocked to see the old hero. He was taken to the Capitol and seated in the Speaker's chair. His lands were released, and afterward Congress gave him a pension of two hundred and forty dollars a year. He died, at the age of eighty-one years, in 1836, at his residence at the head of Mad River, Logan County, Ohio, in sight of the place where, fifty-eight years before, the Indians were about to put him to death."

(Lossing's "Field-Book of the Revolution.")

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE

I. SIMON KENTON 1

II. BESIEGED 24

III. THE VENTURE 45

IV. PAUL SAMPSON 68

V. DOWN THE OHIO 91

VI. ASTRAY 114

VII. THE CAPTIVE SCOUT 131

VIII. AT THE RENDEZVOUS 161

IX. KASKASKIA 184

X. CAHOKIA 208

XI. HOMEWARD BOUND 229

XII. A NOVEL BATTLE 251

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE IN A TWINKLING I WAS BY HIS SIDE AND THERE SAW THAT WHICH CAUSED THE COLD CHILL OF FEAR TO RUN DOWN MY BACK FRONTISPIECE.

THE BRUTE FELL, AS THOUGH STRUCK BY LIGHTNING AND A CRY OF TRIUMPH RANG FROM MY LIPS 62

WITHIN FIVE SECONDS I HAD FIRED, USING THE CURL OF VAPOR FOR A TARGET 103

WE ADVANCED FROM ONE PLACE OF SHELTER TO ANOTHER, FIRING RAPIDLY 142

STRAIGHT UP TO THE BIG GATE WE ADVANCED BELIEVING THAT IN THE NEXT SECOND WE SHOULD HEAR THE ALARM GUN 204

FROM OUT OF OUR BARRICADE WHISTLED THREE BULLETS AND EVERY ONE FOUND ITS MARK 258

ON THE KENTUCKY FRONTIER.