Boone, on the contrary, was too simple-minded, too little given to
prospective calculations, and his heart in too much what was passing
under his eye, to make this thrifty forecast. In age, in penury,
landless, and without a home, he is seen leaving Kentucky, then an
opulent and flourishing country, for a new wilderness and new scenes of
adventure.
Among the names of the conspicuous backwoodsmen who settled the west, we
cannot fail to recognize that of James Harrod. He was from the banks of
the Monongahela, and among the earliest immigrants to the "Bloody
Ground." He descended the Great Kenhawa, and returned to Pennsylvania in
1774. He made himself conspicuous with a party of his friends at the
famous contest with the Indians at the "Point," Next year he returned to
Kentucky with a party of immigrants, fixing himself at one of the
earliest settlements in the country, which, in honor of him, was called
Harrodsburgh.
Nature had moulded him of a form and temperament to look the formidable
red man in the face. He was six feet, muscular, broad chested, of a firm
and animated countenance, keen and piercing eyes, and sparing of speech.
He gained himself an imperishable name in the annals of Kentucky, under
the extreme disadvantage of not knowing how to read or write! Obliging
and benevolent to his neighbors, he was brave and active in their
defence. A successful, because a persevering and intelligent hunter, he
was liberal to profuseness in the distribution of the spoils.
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