Thrilling adventures among the early settlers, embracing desperate encounters with Indians, Tories, and refugees; daring exploits of Texan rangers and others .. . re in the hands ofan enemy who knew no alternative between adoption and torture;and the numbers and fleetness of their captors, rendered escape byopen means impossible, while their jealous vigilance seemed equallyfatal to any secret attempt. Boone, however, was possessed of atemper admirably adapted to the circumstances in which he wasplaced. Of a cold and saturnine, rather than an ardent disposition,he was never either so much eleva
Thrilling adventures among the early settlers, embracing desperate encounters with Indians, Tories, and refugees; daring exploits of Texan rangers and others .. . re in the hands ofan enemy who knew no alternative between adoption and torture;and the numbers and fleetness of their captors, rendered escape byopen means impossible, while their jealous vigilance seemed equallyfatal to any secret attempt. Boone, however, was possessed of atemper admirably adapted to the circumstances in which he wasplaced. Of a cold and saturnine, rather than an ardent disposition,he was never either so much elevated by good fortune or depressedby bad, as to lose for an instant the full possession of all his facul-ties. He saw that immediate escape was impossible, but he en-courged his companion, and constrained himself to accompany theIndians in all their excursions, with so calm and contented an air,that their vigilance insensibly began to relax. On the seventh evening of their captivity, they encamped in athick canebrake, and having built a large fire, lay down to party whose duty it was to watch, were weary and negligent, 42 ADVENTURES OF DANIEL ESCAPE OF BOONE AND STUART. and about midnight, Boone, who had not closed an eye, ascertainedfrom the deep breathing all around him, that the whole party, in-cluding Stuart, was in a deep sleep. Gently and gradually extri-cating himself from the Indianswho lay around him, he walked.„ cautiously to the spot whereStuart lay, and having succeededin awakening him, without alarm-ing the rest, he briefly informedhim of his determination, andexhorted him to arise, make nonoise, and follow him. Stuart,although ignorant of the design,and suddenly roused from sleep, fortunately obeyed with equalsilence and celerity, and within a few minutes they were beyondhearing. Eapidly traversing the forest, by the light of the stars and thebarks of the trees, they ascertained the direction in which the camplay, but upon reaching it on the next
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectfrontierandpioneerli
