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Page 88
Thus ended the discussion; and the matter being put to vote, it was
carried by an overwhelming majority in favor of Todd's proposition, that
the Indians should be pursued without further delay. It was now about
three o'clock in the afternoon; and immediately on the final decision
being made, the council broke up, and orders were rapidly given to
prepare to depart forthwith. All the horses in or about the station
were now collected together, on which most of the officers and many of
the privates were soon mounted; and by four o'clock the eastern gate
was thrown open, the order to march given by Colonel Todd, and the
procession, composed of the flower of Kentucky's gallant sons, moved
forth, amid sighs and tears from the opposite sex. Reynolds--who, during
the past two or three days, since the retreat of the enemy, had employed
his leisure moments in the company of the being he loved, and who was
now finely mounted on a superb charger which had been presented him by
Colonel Boone--turned upon his saddle, as he was leaving the station,
and waved another adieu to Ella, who stood in the door of her cottage,
gazing upon his noble form, with a pale cheek, tearful eye, and beating
heart. She raised her lily hand, and, with a graceful motion, returned
his parting salute; and then, to conceal her emotion, retired into the
house.
The Indians, it was found, had followed the buffalo trace, and,
according to the account given by the scouts, had made their trail
obvious as possible, by hacking the trees on either side with their
tomahawks. Their camp fires, however, were very few, comparatively
speaking, which to Boone seemed plainly evident of a desire to mask
their numbers. He had lived in the woods all his life, was the oldest
settler on the borders, and had been several times a prisoner of the
Indians; so that he was familiar with their artifices for decoying their
enemies; and he believed, from what he saw, that it was their desire to
be followed by the whites; and that they would probably seek to draw the
latter into an ambuscade in the vicinity of the Blue Licks, where the
wild country was particularly favorable to their purpose. In imagination
he already saw the disastrous result that was destined to follow this
hasty expedition; but his counsel to the contrary had been disregarded,
and it was not a time now to dampen the ardor of the soldiers, on which
alone success could depend, by expressing his fears and laying himself
liable to further reproach and contumely. He had said and done all that
was consistent in his situation to prevent the present step; and he now
saw proper to keep his fears of the result to himself; the more so, as
a retreat was out of the question.
About dark the party came to halt, and encamped in the woods for the
night. Early on the ensuing morning they resumed their march; and
a little before noon reached the southern bluffs of Licking river,
opposite the Lower Blue Lick, distant from Bryan's Station some
thirty-six miles, and the place where, according to the opinion of
Boone, the savages would be likely to lie in wait to give them battle.
The scenery in the vicinity of the Licks, even at the present day, is
peculiarly wild and romantic; but at the period in question, it was
relieved by nothing in the shape of civilization. The Licks themselves
had for ages been the resort of buffalo and other wild animals, which
had come there to lick the saline rocks, and had cropped the surrounding
hills of every green thing, thereby giving them a barren, desolate,
gloomy appearance. On the northern bank--the one opposite our little
army--arose a tremendous bluff, entirely destitute of vegetation, the
brow of which was trodden hard by the immense herds of buffalo which had
passed over it from time immemorial on their way to and from the salt
springs at its base. To add to its dismal appearance, the rains of
centuries had sloughed deep gullies in its side, and washed the earth
from the rocks around its base, which, being blackened in the sun, now
rose grim and bare, frowning in their majesty like fettered monsters of
the infernal regions. As you ascended this ridge, a hard level trace or
road led back for something like a mile--free from tree, stump or
bush--when you came to a point where two ravines, one on either hand,
met at the top, and, thickly wooded, ran in opposite directions down to
the river, which, beginning on the right, went sweeping round a large
circuit, in the form of an iron magnet, and made a sort of inland
peninsula of the bluff in question. Back from this buffalo trace, on the
southern bank of the Licking, dark heavy woods extended for miles in
every direction, and made the whole scene impressive with a kind of
gloomy grandeur.
As our gallant band of Kentuckians gained the river, they descried some
three or four savages leisurely ascending the stony ridge on the
opposite side. On perceiving the troops, the Indians paused, gazed at
them a few moments in silence, and then, quietly continuing their
ascent, disappeared on the other side. A halt was now ordered by Colonel
Todd, and a council of war called to deliberate on what was best to be
done. The wild gloomy country around them, their distance from any post
of succor, and the startling idea that perchance they were in the
presence of a body of savages of double or treble their own numbers, was
not without its effect upon Todd and those who had seconded his hasty
movements, and served much toward cooling their ardor, and inspiring
each other with a secret awe.
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