They had to go to "salt-licks," as they called the grounds
about the salt-water springs. The men would get the salt water from the
springs and boil it until all the water evaporated and left the salt
behind.
Boone with twenty-nine other men had gone, early in 1778, to the Blue
Licks to make salt for the settlement. They were so successful that in a
few weeks they were able to send back a load so large that it took three
men to carry it. Hardly had they started, however, when the men remaining,
including Boone, were surprised by eighty or ninety Indians, captured, and
carried off to the English at Detroit.
For we must not forget that all this time, while we have been following
Boone's fortunes west of the Alleghanies, on the east side of those
mountains the Revolution was being fought, and the Indians west of the
Alleghanies were fighting on the English side. They received a sum of
money for handing over to the English at Detroit any Americans they might
capture, and that is why the Indians took Boone and his companions to that
place.
But, strangely enough, the Indians decided not to give Boone up, although
the English, realizing that he was a prize, offered five hundred dollars
for him.
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