I Trust My Friend

Dogs were an important part of the early settler’s lives.  They were extremely useful for alerting the people to unseen dangers, protecting their families and livestock, and for tracking and pursuing game animals and enemies.    

The following account taken from Pioneer Life in Kentucky by Daniel Drake, M.D. very clearly illustrates the instincts and abilities of a good dog, but it also shows the intimate understanding shared by a man and his close companion.            

“In the year 1786, three brothers set out from a wooden fort, in which some families were intrenched, to hunt on Green river, in the State of Kentucky.  They ascended the river in a canoe for several miles, when, finding no game, they determined on returning home.  The oldest brother left the canoe, that he might hunt on his way back.  As the other two slowly floated down the stream, and were at a point called the Little Falls, they discovered an Indian skulking toward them through the woods.  He was on the same side of the river with their brother.  After deliberating a moment, they decided on flight; and applying their paddles with great industry soon reached the fort, but did not relate what they had seen.  In about an hour the brother arrived, and while ignorant of their discovery made the following statement:            

“ ‘That has happened to me to-day, which never happened to me before.  I had not met with any game, and became tired of walking, and turned in toward the river, intending to meet my brothers at the Little Falls, and take a seat in the canoe; but when I got near to that point, my dog sat down and howled in a low and piteous tone.  I coaxed him, patted and flattered him to follow me, but he would not; and when I would approach him, he would jump up joyously and run off from toward the river, and look at me and wag his tail, and seem eager to go on.  After endeavoring, in vain, to get him to follow me, I concluded to follow him, and did so.  He ran briskly before me, often looking back, as if to be sure that I was coming, and to hasten my steps.’            

“The brother was then told, that at the very point where the faithful dog had arrested his march toward the canoe, those who were in it had discovered the Indian.  All who had heard the story, believed that he had been perceived by the animal, and recognized as the enemy of his master; for, as my respectable correspondent adds:            

“ ‘The dog of the hunter was his companion and friend.  They were much together, and mutually dependent upon and serviceable to each other.  A hunter would much rather have lost his horse than his dog.  The latter was the more useful animal to his master, and greatly more beloved by him.”

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