One would have supposed that this party would have needed no more monition to keep them together, and always on their guard.  But, forgetful of the fate of Stewart, the partner of the elder Boone, who had recently arrived, allowed himself to be beguiled away from the two Boone’s, as they were hunting together.  The object of his curiosity was of little importance.  In pursuit of it, he wandered into a swamp, and was lost.  The two brothers sought him, long and painfully, to no purpose.  Discouraged, and perhaps exasperated in view of his careless imprudence, they finally concluded he had chosen that method of deserting them, and had set out on his return to North Carolina.  Under such impressions, they relinquished the search, and returned to camp.  They had reason afterwards to repent their harsh estimate of his intentions.  Fragments of his clothes, and traces of blood were found on the opposite side of the swamp.  A numerous pack of wolves had been heard to howl in that direction the evening on which he had been lost.  Circumstances placed it beyond a doubt, that, while wandering about in search of his companions, these terrible animals had come upon him and torn him in pieces.  He was never heard of afterwards.

The brothers were thus left alone in this wide wilderness, the only white men west of the mountains; as they concluded the remainder of the original party had returned to North Carolina.  But they were neither desponding nor indolent.  They held pleasant communion together—­hunted by day, cooked their game, sat by their bright fires, and sung the airs of their country by night, as though in the midst of the gayest society.  They devoted, beside, much of their time and labor to preparing a comfortable cabin to shelter them during the approaching winter.

They were in want of many things.  Clothing and moccasins they might supply.  With bread, sugar, and salt, though articles of the first necessity, they could dispense.  But ammunition, an article absolutely indispensable, was failing them.  They concluded, too, that horses would be of essential service to them.  They finally came to the resolution that the elder Boone should return to North Carolina, and come out to the new country with ammunition, horses, and supplies.

The character of Daniel Boone, in consenting to be left alone in that wilderness, surrounded by perils from the Indians and wild beasts, of which he had so recently and terribly been made aware, appears in its true light.  We have heard of a Robinson Crusoe made so by the necessity of shipwreck; but all history can scarcely parallel another such an instance of a man voluntarily consenting to be left alone among savages and wild beasts, seven hundred miles from the nearest white inhabitant.  The separation came.  The elder brother disappeared in the forest, and Daniel Boone was left in the cabin, so recently cheered by the presence of his brother, entirely alone.  Their only dog followed the departing brother, and Boone had nothing but his unconquerable spirit to sustain him during the long and lonely days and nights, visited by the remembrance of his distant wife and children.