He redoubled his efforts to
throw the Indians off their guard. He sang and whistled blithely
about the camp at the mouth of the Scioto River, whither he had
accompanied his Indian father to help in the salt boiling. In
short, he seemed so very happy that one day Black Fish took his
eye off him for a few moments to watch the passing of a flock of
turkeys. Big Turtle passed with the flock, leaving no trace. To
his lamenting parent it must have seemed as though he had
vanished into the air. Daniel crossed the Ohio and ran the 160
miles to Boonesborough in four days, during which time he had
only one meal, from a buffalo he shot at the Blue Licks. When he
reached the fort after an absence of nearly five months, he found
that his wife had given him up for dead and had returned to the
Yadkin.
Boone now began with all speed to direct preparations to
withstand a siege. Owing to the Indian's leisurely system of
councils and ceremonies before taking the warpath, it was not
until the first week in September that Black Fish's painted
warriors, with some Frenchmen under Dequindre, appeared before
Boonesborough. Nine days the siege lasted and was the longest in
border history. Dequindre, seeing that the fort might not be
taken, resorted to trickery. He requested Boone and a few of his
men to come out for a parley, saying that his orders from
Hamilton were to protect the lives of the Americans as far as
possible.
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