Daniel would recognize in these--such as Charles
Floyd--the young kinsmen of his old-time comrades whom he had
preserved from starvation in the Kentucky wilderness by the kill
from his rifle as they made their long march home after Dunmore's
War.
In May, Lewis and Clark's pirogues ascended the Missouri and the
leaders and men of the expedition spent another day in La
Charette. Once again, at least, Daniel was to watch the westward
departure of pioneers. In 1811, when the Astorians passed, one of
their number pointed to the immobile figure of "an old man on the
bank, who, he said, was Daniel Boone."
Sometimes the aged pioneer's mind cast forward to his last
journey, for which his advancing years were preparing him. He
wrote on the subject to a sister, in 1816, revealing in a few
simple lines that the faith whereby he had crossed, if not more
literally removed, mountains was a fixed star, and that he looked
ahead fearlessly to the dark trail he must tread by its single
gleam. Autumn was tinting the forest and the tang he loved was in
the air when the great hunter passed. The date of Boone's death
is given as September 26, 1820. He was in his eighty-sixth year.
Unburdened by the pangs of disease he went out serenely, by the
gentle marches of sleep, into the new country.
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