One Sunday afternoon, Jemima and two other girls went for a canoe ride on the Kentucky River at Boonesborough. They knew they should not go out of sight of the fort, but they went anyway. They paddled down the river and around the bend. The current drew them in to the opposite bank.

“Let’s land and pick some of those bright-colored flowers,” one of the girls suggested.

Jemima shook her head. “I’m afraid of the Indians,” she said. “Those Shawnees are mean.”

By now the canoe had drifted near the shore. The girl at the bow shoved with her paddle. The boat would not move. It was stuck fast in the mud.

All at once five Indians leaped from the underbrush. They grabbed the screaming girls and carried them into the forest. They planned to take them north to the Indian towns and keep them there as slaves.

Back at the fort no one missed the girls until after dark. Then someone saw that the canoe was gone. When Daniel Boone heard this, he picked up his gun and rushed toward the river. He did not stop to put on his shoes.

He felt sure that Indians had taken Jemima and her friends away.

Three young men who loved the girls very much went with Boone. The men took another canoe and began to paddle down the river. They could not go far in the dark. Before long, they had to stop and wait for morning.

When the sun came up, Boone found the girls’ trail. He thought the Indians were taking them toward the Ohio River. He knew he must catch them before they crossed it and went to the Indian towns in the north.

The white men left their canoe. They traveled all day through the deep woods. Then they made camp and waited for the long night to end. At daylight they started out again.

Boone took short cuts through the woods, but he always found the trail. His sharp eyes saw what the girls had left for him to see. One had dug her heels into the soft mud. Another had left bits of her dress here and there.

Boone led the young men straight through the heart of the forest to Jemima and her friends. About noon the men caught sight of the girls. The Indians had stopped with them for their noon meal. The white men crept up. Bang! Bang! Bang! went their guns.

“It’s Father!” Jemima cried.

“Fall flat on your faces, girls!” Daniel Boone shouted.

The white men ran toward the Indians. They shot their guns as they ran.

The Indians were taken by surprise. One Indian threw his tomahawk. It almost hit the girls. Two Indians were shot. The others ran away.

The men took the three girls back to Boonesborough. Later the three girls married the three young men.