LIFE OF WILSON. Ixxix 



the latter places I found numerous fragments of large bones lying scattered 

 about. In pursuing a wounded duck across this quagmire, I had nearly depo- 

 posited 1113' carcass among the grand congregation of mammoths below, having 

 sunk up to the middle, and had hard struggling to get oilt. As the proprietor 

 intends to dig in various places this season for brine, and is a gentleman of 

 education and intelligence, I have strong hopes that a more complete skeleton 

 of that animal called the mammoth, than has yet been found, will be procured 

 [ laid the strongest injunctions on the manager to be on the lookout, and to 

 preserve everything; I also left a letter for Mr. Colquhoun to the same pur- 

 port, and am persuaded that these will not be neglected. In this neighbor- 

 hood I found the Columbo plant in great abundance, and collected some of the 

 seeds. Many of the old stalks were more than five feet high. I have since 

 found it in various other parts of this country. 



" In the afternoon of the next day I returned to my boat, replaced my bag- 

 gage, and rowed twenty miles to the Swiss settlement, where I spent the night. 

 These hardy and industrious people have now twelve acres closely and cleanly 

 planted with vines from the Cape of Good Hope. They last year made seven 

 hundred gallons of wine, and expect to make three times as much the ensuing 

 season. Their houses are neat and comfortable, they have orchards of peach 

 and apple trees, besides a great number of figs, cherries, and other fruit trees, 

 of which they are very curious. They are of opinion that this part of the 

 Indiana Territory is as well suited as any part of France to the cultivation of 

 the vine, but the vines they say require different management here from what 

 they were accustomed to in Switzerland. I purchased a bottle of their last 

 vintage, and drank to all your healths as long as it lasted, in going down the 

 river. Seven miles below this I passed the mouth of Kentucky river, which 

 has a formidable appearance. I observed twenty or thirty scattered houses 

 on its upper side, and a few below, many of the former seemingly in a state of 

 decay. It rained on me almost the whole of this day, and I was obliged to 

 row hard and drink healths to keep myself comfortable. My birds' skins were 

 wrapped up in my great coat, and my own skin had to sustain a complete drench- 

 ing, which, however, had no bad effects 



'• This evening I lodged at the most wretched hovel I had yet seen. The 

 owner, a meagre diminutive wretch, soon began to let me know of how much 

 consequence he had formerly been ; that he had gone through all the war with 

 General Washington — had become one of his lifeguards, and had sent many a 

 British soldier to his long home. As I answered him with indifference, to inter- 

 est me the more he began to detail anecdotes of his wonderful exploits ; ' One 

 grenadier,' said he, ' had the impudence to get up on the works, and to wave his 

 cap in defiance; my commander (General Washington I suppose) says to me, 

 ' Dick, says he, can't you pepper that there fellow for me?' says he. 'Please 

 your honor,' says I, 'I'll try at it;' so I took a fair, cool and steady aim, and 

 touched my trigger. Up went his heels like a turkey ! down he tumbled ! one 

 buckshot had entered here and another here (laying a finger on each breast), 

 and the bullet found the way to his brains right through his forehead. By God 

 he was a noble-looking fellow !' 



Though I believed every word of this to be a lie, yet I could not but look 



