Sometimes the two were away from home for months together, and Daniel declared little James to be as good a woodsman as his father.
Meanwhile fascinating accounts of the new land of Florida, ceded to Britain by the Treaty of Paris in 1763, had leaked into the Back Country; and in the winter of 1765 Boone set off southward on horseback with, seven companions.

Colonel James Grant, with whose army Boone had fought in 1761, had been appointed Governor of the new colony and was offering generous inducements to settlers.

The party traveled along the borders of South Carolina and Georgia.

No doubt they made the greater part of their way over the old Traders' Trace, the "whitened" warpath; and they suffered severe hardships.

Game became scarcer as they proceeded.