LIFE OF WILSON.



ceived. * I was at that tinme on the point of setting out for St.
Louis; but being detained a week by constant and heavy rains,
and considering that it would add four hundred miles to my
journey, and detain me at least a month; and the season being
already far advanced, and no subscribers to be expected there,
I abandoned the idea, and prepared for a journey through the
wilderness. I was advised by many not to attempt it alone;
that the Indians were dangerous, the swamps and rivers almost
impassable without assistance, and a thousand other hobgoblins
were conjured up to dissuade me from going alone. But I
weighed all these matters in my own mind; and attributing a
great deal of this to vulgar fears and exaggerated reports, I
equipt myself for the attempt. I rode an excellent horse, on
which I could depend; I had a loaded pistol in each pocket, a
loaded fowling piece belted across my shoulder, a pound of
gunpowder in my flask, and five pounds of shot in my belt. I
bought some biscuit and dried beef, and on Friday morning,
May 4th, I left Nashville. About half a mile from town I ob-
served a poor negro with two wooden legs, building himself a
cabin in the woods. Supposing that this journey might afford
you and my friends some amusement, I kept a particular ac-
count of the various occurrences, and shall transcribe some of
the most interesting, omitting every thing relative to my Or-
nithological excursions and discoveries, as more suitable for
another occasion. Eleven miles from Nashville I came to the
Great Harpath, a stream of about fifty yards wide, which was
running with great violence. I could not discover the en-
trance of the ford, owing to the rains and inundations. There
was no time to be lost, I plunged in, and almost immediately
my horse was swimming. I set his head aslant the current,
and being strong, he soon landed me on the other side. As
the weather was warm, I rode in my wet clothes without any
inconvenience. The country to-day was a perpetual succes-
sion of steep hills and low bottoms; I crossed ten or twelve
large creeks, one of which I swam with my horse, where he
              * These drawings never came to hand.



*..i