306 The Winning of the West 



"I turned my hors to drive before me and he 

 got scard ran away threw Down the Saddel Bags 

 and broke three of our powder goards and Abram's 

 beast Burst open a walet of corn and lost a good 

 Deal and made a turrabel flustration amongst the 

 Reast of the Horses Drake's mair run against a 

 sapling and noct it down we cacht them all again 

 and went on and lodged at John Duncan's." 



Another entry records the satisfaction of the party 

 when at a log fort (before getting into the wilder- 

 ness) they procured some good loaf-bread and good 

 whiskey. 



They carried with them seed-corn 11 and "Irish 

 tators" to plant, and for use on the journey had 

 bacon, and corn-meal which was made either into 

 baked corn-dodgers or else into johnny-cakes, which 

 were simply cooked on a board beside the fire, or 

 else perhaps on a hot stone or in the ashes. The 

 meal had to be used very sparingly; occasionally 

 a beef was killed, out of the herd of cattle that ac- 

 companied the emigrants; but generally they lived 

 on the game they shot deer, turkeys, and, when 

 they got to Kentucky, buffaloes. Sometimes this was 

 killed as they traveled; more often the hunters got 

 it by going out in the evening after they had pitched 

 camp. 



The journey was hard and tiresome. At times 



11 It is not necessary to say that "corn" means maize; 

 Americans do not use the word in the sense in which it is 

 employed in Britain. 



