Without salt, sugar, or flour, his sole
food was the game he shot or caught in traps.
How gladly he must have welcomed his brother, who returned at the end of
two months, bringing the needed supplies! Other hunters also came from
time to time, and Boone joined one party of them for a while.
After two years of his life in the woods he returned to his home on the
Yadkin to bring out his wife and children.
By September, 1773, he had sold his farm and was ready with his family to
go and settle in Kentucky. He had praised the new land so much that many
others wished to go with him. So when he started there were, besides his
wife and children, five families and forty men driving their horses and
cattle before them. This group was the first to attempt settlement far out
in the wilderness, away from the other settlers.
But while still on its way, the little company was set upon by a band of
Indians near a narrow and difficult pass in the mountains. Six men were
killed, among them Boone's eldest son, and the cattle were scattered. This
misfortune brought such gloom upon the party that all turned back for a
time to a settlement on the Clinch River.
But Daniel Boone was one of those who would not give up.
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