in every direction, without discovering a trace of them.  They were then but too well convinced that they had been taken by the Indians.  Captain Boone and Colonel Calloway, the agonizing parents of the lost ones, appealed to the company to obtain volunteers to pursue the Indians, under an oath, if they found the captors, either to retake their daughters, or die in the attempt.  The oath of Boone on this occasion is recorded:  “By the Eternal Power that made me a father, if my daughter lives, and is found, I will either bring her back, or spill my life blood.”  The oath was no sooner uttered than every individual of the males crowded round Boone to repeat it.  But he reminded them that a part of their number must remain to defend the station.  Seven select persons only were admitted to the oath, along with the fathers of the captives.  The only difficulty was in making the selection.  Supplying themselves with knapsacks, rifles, ammunition, and provisions, the party set forth on the pursuit.

Hitherto they had been unable to find the trail of the captors.  Happily they fell upon it by accident.  But the Indians, according to their custom, had taken so much precaution to hide their trail, that they found themselves exceedingly perplexed to keep it, and they were obliged to put forth all the acquirement and instinct of woodsmen not to find themselves every moment at fault in regard to their course.  The rear Indians of the file had covered their foot prints with leaves.  They often turned off at right angles; and whenever they came to a branch, walked in the water for some distance.  At a place of this sort, the pursuers were for some time wholly unable to find at what point the Indians had left the branch, and began to despair of regaining their trail.  In this extreme perplexity, one of the company was attracted by an indication of their course, which proved that the daughters shared the sylvan sagacity of their parents.  “God bless my dear child,” exclaimed Colonel Calloway; “she has proved that she had strength of mind in her deplorable condition to retain self possession.”  At the same instant he picked up a little piece of ribbon, which he instantly recognized as his daughter’s.  She had evidently committed it unobserved to the air, to indicate the course of her captors.  The trail was soon regained, and the company resumed their march with renewed alacrity.

They were afterwards often at a loss to keep the trail, from the extreme care of the Indians to cover and destroy it.  But still, in their perplexity, the sagacious expedient of the fair young captives put them right.  A shred of their handkerchief, or of some part of their dress, which they had intrusted to the wind unobserved, indicated their course, and that the captives were thus far not only alive, but that their reasoning powers, unsubdued by fatigue, were active and buoyant.  Next day, in passing places covered with mud, deposited by the dry branches on the way, the foot prints of the captives were distinctly traced, until the pursuers had learned to discriminate not only the number, but the peculiar form of each foot print.