At length, thoroughly discouraged, the enemy raised the siege and departed, having succeeded only in killing two and wounding four of the garrison, while their dead numbered thirty-seven, and their wounded a large number.  One of these dead was a negro, who had deserted from the fort and joined the Indians, and whom Boone brought down with a bullet from the remarkable distance, for the rifles of that day, of five hundred and twenty-five feet.  After the enemy had gone there were “picked up,” says Boone, “one hundred and twenty-five pounds’ weight of bullets, besides what stuck in the logs of the fort, which certainly is a great proof of their industry,” whatever may be said of their marksmanship.

The remainder of Daniel Boone’s life we can give but in outline.  After the repulse of the enemy he returned to the Yadkin for his family, and brought them again to his chosen land.  He came back to find an Indian war raging along the whole frontier, in which he was called to play an active part, and on more than one occasion owed his life to his strength, endurance, and sagacity.  This warfare continued for a number of years, the Indians being generally successful, and large numbers of soldiers falling before their savage onsets.  At length the conduct of the war was intrusted to “Mad Anthony” Wayne, whose skill, rapidity, and decision soon brought it to an end, and forced the tribes to conclude a treaty of peace.

Thenceforward Kentucky was undisturbed by Indian forays, and its settlement went forward with rapidity.  The intrepid Boone had by no means passed through the fire of war unharmed.  He tells us, “Two darling sons and a brother have I lost by savage hands, which have also taken from me forty valuable horses and abundance of cattle.  Many dark and sleepless nights have I been a companion for owls, separated from the cheerful society of men, scorched by the summers’ sun, and pinched by the winter’s cold, an instrument ordained to settle the wilderness.”

One wilderness settled, the hardy veteran pined for more.  Population in Kentucky was getting far too thick for his ideas of comfort.  His spirit craved the solitude of the unsettled forest, and in 1802 he again pulled up stakes and plunged into the depths of the Western woods.  “Too much crowded,” he declared; “too much crowded.  I want more elbow-room.”

His first abiding place was on the Great Kanawha, where he remained for several years.  Then, as the vanguard of the army of immigrants pressed upon his chosen home, he struck camp again, and started westward with wife and children, driving his cattle before him, in search of a “promised land” of few men and abundant game.  He settled now beyond the Mississippi, about fifty miles west of St. Louis.  Here he dwelt for years, hunting, trapping, and enjoying life in his own wild way.