CHAPTER X.Daniel Boone in Kentucky.
He felt very much as Columbus did, gazing from his caravel on San Salvador; as Cortes, looking down, from the crest of Ahualco, on the Valley of Mexico; or Vasco Nunez, standing alone on the peak of Darien, and stretching his eyes over the hitherto undiscovered waters of the Pacific .-- -William Gilmore Simms: Views and Reviews.
A chance acquaintance formed by Daniel Boone, during the French and Indian War, with the Irish lover of adventure, John Findlay, was the origin of Boone's cherished longing to reach the El Dorado of the West.

In this slight incident we may discern the initial inspiration for the epochal movement of westward expansion.

Findlay was a trader and horse peddler, who had early migrated to Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

He had been licensed a trader with the Indians in 1747.

During the same year he was married to Elizabeth Harris, daughter of John Harris, the Indian-trader at Harris's Ferry on the Susquehanna River, after whom Harrisburg was named.