Contents ▼▲
Front Matter At Boonesborough Beginning of the Story Boone on the Yadkin Boone Moves his Family Ready for the Journey What we Wore Driving Cattle and Sheep Camping at Nightfall The Long Halt Jimmy Boone Goes to Clinch Murder of Jimmy Boone A Time of Mourning The Faint-hearted Return A New Home Making Moccasins Tanning Leather Governor Dunmore Our Home on the Clinch Household Duties Attacked by a Wildcat Fighting the Wildcat Boone and Father Return The Wilderness Road Building the Forts Boonesborough Gathering Salt Boonesborough Precautions Our Home in the Fort Ready for Cooking Furnishing the House The Hominy Block The Supply of Water Sports Inside the Fort Wrestling and Running Religion of the Indians Indian Babies Colonel Callaway Arives News from Eastern Colonies Venturing Outside the Fort Dividing the Land Who Owned Kentucky? Ready to Build a Home Billy's Hard Lot Preparing Flax Spinning and Soap Making Broom Making More Indian Murders Indian "Signs" Woodcraft and Hunting Pelts Used as Money Petition of the Settlers Making Sugar Building Fences Capture of the Girls My Willful Thoughts Finding the Trail The Pursuit The Story Told by Jemima Elizabeth's Heroism Rescuing the Girls Alarm Among the Settlers Indians on the Warpath The First Wedding The Wedding Festivities The Brides Home The Housewarming Attacks by the Indians Besieged by the Savages In the Midst of the Fight The Assault by the Indians Failure of the Assault Watchfulness of the Indians The Sortie My Father Wounded Our Wounded

Hannah of Kentucky - James Otis




Boonesborough

At length we arrived within sight of Boonesborough, and all rejoiced that here was a fort in which we would be safe from the Indians.

There are ten strong log cabins built in the form of a rectangle, inclosing a space of about one third of an acre. Continuous with the backs of the huts, and joining one to the other, is a stout fence of logs set firmly into the ground; this palisade, together with the backs of the houses, makes what Billy calls the line of defense. Each cabin is twenty feet long, and from twelve to fifteen feet wide, while those that stand at each corner have an additional story which extends out over the lower part, so that those who are inside may see any Indians that creep up under cover of the fence to shoot through the crevices.

[Illustration] from Hannah of Kentucky by James Otis

On two sides of this fort, opposite each other, are heavy gates made of puncheon planks. These are swung on wooden hinges, with enormous bars inside, so that when they are closed and the stout timbers dropped into place, all the savages in Kentucky could not break them down.

Around the fort the trees are cleared away for a long distance, so that the Indians cannot sneak up from behind one tree to another, and thus come close to the palisade before being seen.

This fort, already called Boonesborough, stands by the side of the creek, within view of the Kentucky River, and when I first saw it, after the long journey from Powell's Valley, I believed no place could be more beautiful; but I have since come to wonder if the Yadkin is not as fine as this creek, and if the country about my old home is not more pleasant.

What seemed strange to me was, that although we could see men in the inclosure, from the slight rise of land where we halted to view our future home, no one came forth to meet us, nor were the big gates thrown open to give us entrance, even though our company was less than half a mile away. It appeared almost as if the people in the fort were not pleased at our coming; yet we knew that Mr. Boone, his wife, and two daughters were inside.