xcu i^li'E OF WILSO . 



wards, she thinks, for several hours, and talking aloud, as she said, ' like a 

 lawyei.' She then heard the report of a pistol, and something fall heavily on 

 the floor, and the words ' Lord !' Immediately afterwards she heard another 

 pistol, and in a few minutes she heard him at her door calling out ' 0, madam ! 

 give me some water, and heal my loonnds.' The logs being open, and un- 

 plastered, she saw him stagger back and fall against a stump that stands 

 between the kitchen and room. He crawled for some distance, and raised 

 himself by the side of a tree, where he sat about a minute. He once more 

 got to the room ; afterwards he came to the kitchen door, but did not speak : 

 she then heard him scraping the bucket with a gourd for water ; but it appears 

 that this cooling element was denied the dying man ! As soon as day broke, 

 and not before, the terror of the woman having permitted him to remain for 

 two hours in this most deplorable situation, she sent two of her children to 

 the barn, her husband not being at home, to bring the servants ; and on going 

 in they found him lying on the bed; he uncovered his side, and showed them 

 where the bullet had entered ; a piece of the forehead was blown off, and had 

 exposed the brains, without having bled much. He begged they would take 

 his rifle and blow out his brains, and he would give them all the money he had 

 in his trunk. , He often said, ' I am no coward ; but I am so strong, so hard 

 to die.' He begged the servant not to be afraid of him, for that he would not 

 hurt him. He expired in about two hours, or just as the sun rose above the 

 trees. He lies buried close by the common path, with a few loose rails thrown 

 over his grave. I gave Grinder money to put a post fence round it, to shelter 

 it from the hogs, and from the wolves ; and he gave me his written promise he 

 would do it. I left this place in a very melancholy mood, which was not much 

 allayed by the prospect of the gloomy and savage wilderness which I was just 

 entering»,alone. 



" I was roused from this melancholy reverie by the roaring of Buffalo river, 

 which I forded with considerable difiiculty. I passed two or three solitary 

 Indian huts in the course of the day, with a few acres of open land at each j 

 but so wretchedly cultivated, that they just make out to raise maize enough to 

 keep in existence. They pointed me out the distances by holding up their 

 fingers. This is the country of the Chickasaws, though erroneously laid down 

 in some maps as that of the Cherokees. I slept this night in one of their 

 huts ; the Indians spread a deer skin for me on the floor, I made a pillow of 

 my portmanteau, and slept tolerably well ; an old Indian laid himself down 

 near me. 



" On Monday morning I rode fifteen miles, and stopped at an Indian's to 

 feed my horse. The sight of my paroquet brought the whole family around 

 me. The women are generally naked from the middle upwards; and their 

 heads, in many instances, being rarely combed, look like a large mop ; they 

 have a yard or two of blue cloth wrapped round by way of petticoat, that 

 reaches to their knees — the boys were generally naked ; except a kind of bag 

 of blue cloth, by way o? fig-leaf. Some of the women have a short jacket, 

 with sleeves, drawn over their naked body, and the rag of a blanket is a general 

 appendage. I met to-day two officers of the United States army, who gave me 



