Perhaps it was not a very serious misfortune for Daniel Boone that his school instruction was so scanty, for, “in another kind of education,” says Mr. Peck,[5] “not unfrequent in the wilds of the West, he was an adept.  No Indian could poise the rifle, find his way through the pathless forest, or search out the retreats of game, more readily than Daniel Boone.  In all that related to Indian sagacity, border life, or the tactics of the skillful hunter, he excelled.  The successful training of a hunter, or woodsman, is a kind of education of mental discipline, differing from that of the school-room, but not less effective in giving vigor to the mind, quickness of apprehension, and habits of close observation.  Boone was regularly trained in all that made him a successful backwoodsman.  Indolence and imbecility never produced a Simon Kenton, a Tecumthe, or a Daniel Boone.  To gain the skill of an accomplished hunter requires talents, patience, perseverance, sagacity, and habits of thinking.  Amongst other qualifications, knowledge of human nature, and especially of Indian character is indispensable to the pioneer of a wilderness.  Add to these, self-possession, self-control, and promptness in execution.  Persons who are unaccustomed to a frontier residence know not how much, in the preservation of life, and in obtaining subsistence, depends on such characteristics!”

In the woods surrounding the little settlement of Exeter, Boone had ample opportunity for perfecting himself in this species of mental discipline, and of gaining that physical training of the limbs and muscles so necessary in the pursuits of the active hunter and pioneer.  We have no record of his ever having encountered the Indians during his residence in Pennsylvania.  His knowledge of their peculiar modes of hunting and war was to be attained not less thoroughly at a somewhat later period of life.

[Footnote 1:  “Pittsburg Gazette,” quoted by Peck.]

[Footnote 2:  The eldest, James, was killed by the Indians in 1773, and his son Israel was killed at the battle of Blue Licks, August 19th, 1782.]

[Footnote 3:  Bogant gives 11th of February, 1735.  Peck, February, 1735.  Another account gives 1746 as the year of his birth, and Bucks County as his birth-place.  The family record, in the hand writing of Daniel Boone’s uncle, James, who was a school master, gives the 14th of July, 1732.]

[Footnote 4:  “Adventures of Daniel Boone, the Kentucky Rifleman.”  By the author of “Uncle Philip’s Conversations.”]

[Footnote 5:  “Life of Daniel Boone” By John M. Peck.]

CHAPTER II.

Removal of Boone’s father and family to North Carolina—­Location on the Yadkin River—­Character of the country and the people—­Byron’s description of the backwoodsman—­Daniel Boone marries Rebecca Bryan—­His farmer life in North Carolina—­State of the country—­Political troubles foreshadowed—­Illegal fees and taxes—­Probable effect of this state of things on Boone’s mind—­Signs of movement.