Explorers of the Americas: Daniel Boone

Note: This is part of a series of fictional journalism accounts (newspaper style) of the Explorers of the Americas.

W.H. Bogart / US Public Domain

May 16, 1771, from the frontier: On the morning of May 1, 1769, Daniel Boone left on a second beaver hunt to Kentucky. On December 23, he and his brother-in-law John Finley were ambushed by fifteen Native Shawnee. Boone attempted to signal the other party members to flee with the pelts; the men fled, but left the pelts behind. After seizing the entire party’s earnings and supplies, the Indians left Boone and Finley with only four pairs of moccasins, two small French guns, gunpowder, and lead, instructing them, “Go home and stay there. Do not come back anymore, for this is our hunting grounds.”

Boone was not about to let the Indians get away with his party’s entire crop of pelts. He wanted back what he and his men rightfully earned. After a day of pursuit, he and Finley noiselessly stole back their horses and fled, stopping to rest at dawn. The Shawnee discovered soon after that the horses were missing, and followed the hunters’ tracks on horseback. Neither Boone nor Finley heard the Shawnee’s approach and were again captured. The Shawnee Indians bound Boone and Finley, telling them they would be freed after crossing the Ohio river. As the Shawnee were planning their way to cross the Ohio, Boone snapped their restraint, and they fled to a dense stand of cane. Despite fears that the cane would be torched, they remain hidden and the Shawnee left. After two days of walking, Boone and Finley, rejoined with the rest of the group; all have returned unharmed but unsuccessful.

Volume I Issue I

 








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