Not long before the return of Boone, this important
post had been put under the care of Major Smith, an active and
intelligent officer. He repaired thither, and put the station, with
great labor and fatigue, in a competent state of defence. Learning from
the return of some of the prisoners, captured at the Blue Licks, the
great blow which the Shawnese meditated against this station, he deemed
it advisable to anticipate their movements, and to fit out an expedition
to meet them on their own ground.--Leaving twenty young men to defend
the place, he marched with thirty chosen men towards the Shawnese
towns.
At the Blue Licks, a place of evil omen to Kentucky, eleven of the men,
anxious for the safety of the families they had left behind and deeming
their force too small for the object contemplated, abandoned the
enterprise and retreated to the fort. The remaining nineteen, not
discouraged by the desertion of their companions, heroically persevered.
They crossed the Ohio to the present site of Cincinnati, on rafts. They
then painted their faces, and in other respects assumed the guise and
garb of savages, and marched upon the Indian towns.
When arrived within twenty miles of these towns they met the force with
which Boone had set out. Discouraged by his escape, the original party
had returned, had been rejoined by a considerable reinforcement, the
whole amounting to two hundred and fifty men on horse-back, and were
again on their march against Boonesborough.
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