All the necessary arrangements of preparing for this distant expedition, of making sales and purchases, had occupied nearly two years.  The expedition commenced its march on the 26th of September, 1773.  They all set forth with confident spirits for the western wilderness, and were joined by forty persons in Powell’s Valley, a settlement in advance of that on the Yadkin, towards the western country.  The whole made a cavalcade of nearly eighty persons.

The three principal ranges of the Alleghany, over which they must pass, were designated as Powell’s, Walden’s, and Cumberland.  These mountains forming the barrier between the old settlements and the new country, stretch from the north-east to the south-west.  They are of great length and breadth, and not far distant from each other.  There are nature-formed passes over them, which render the ascent comparatively easy.  The aspect of these huge piles was so wild and rugged, as to make it natural for those of the party who were unaccustomed to mountains, to express fears of being able to reach the opposite side.  The course traced by the brothers on their return to Carolina, was found and followed.  The advantage of this forethought was strongly perceived by all.  Their progress was uninterrupted by any adverse circumstance, and every one was in high spirits, until the west side of Walden’s ridge, the most elevated of the three, had been gained.  They were now destined to experience a most appalling reverse of fortune.

On the tenth of October, as the party were advancing along a narrow defile, unapprehensive of danger, they were suddenly terrified by fearful yells.  Instantly aware that Indians surrounded them, the men sprang to the defence of the helpless women and children.  But the attack had been so sudden, and the Indians were so much superior in point of numbers, that six men fell at the first onset of the savages.  A seventh was wounded, and the party would have been overpowered, but for a general and effective discharge of the rifles of the remainder.  The Indians, terror-struck, took to flight, and disappeared.

Had the numbers of the travellers allowed it, they felt no inclination to pursue the retreating Indians.  Their loss had been too serious to permit the immediate gratification of revenge.  The eldest son of Daniel Boone was found among the slain.  The domestic animals accompanying the expedition were so scattered by the noise of the affray, that it was impossible again to collect and recover them.  The distress and discouragement of the party were so great, as to produce an immediate determination to drop the projected attempt of a settlement in Kentucky, and return to Clinch river, which lay forty miles in their rear, where a number of families had already fixed themselves.

They then proceeded to perform the last melancholy duties to the bodies of their unfortunate companions with all decent observances which circumstances would allow.  Their return was then commenced.  Boone and his brother, with some others, did not wish to forsake the undertaking upon which they had set out; but the majority against them was so great, and the feeling on the subject so strong, that they were compelled to acquiesce.  The party retraced, in deep sadness, the steps they had so lately taken in cheerfulness, and even joy.