AMERICAN LIBERALITY. 115 



of money I deemed requisite to enable me to reach the 

 plains, and to fulfil the intentions which had brought me 

 across the wild waves of the Atlantic. In the course of 

 the chequered phases of my life, I scarce know one of the 

 friendly acts of my acquaintances (and from them I have 

 received many) which filled me with so much delight as 

 this splendid offer of Mr Robert Campbell's, and I hesi 

 tated not at once to embrace it. 



Of course the thought had heavily weighed on my 

 mind as to what envious detractors in England would 

 have said, if I had turned back from any difficulty or 

 danger, and I know but too well what my own feelings 

 would have been in the event of being forced to miss my 

 longed-for opportunity of hunting up the giant game on 

 the prairies of their own desert. Those who have shared 

 in my first hare-hunt, sported with me in niy boyish 

 hours, and ridden in manhood by my side when hunting 

 stag or fox, they, at least, would understand my jump 

 from sadness into joy, when I thus, almost unexpect 

 edly, saw all that I could then and there desire placed 

 subservient to my will ; the means most amply put at 

 my disposal by which I should slay the wild bison, and 

 all this by a friend of but a few hours' personal know 

 ledge of me, although, being an enlightened gentleman, 

 he of course understood my station in society. Mr 

 Campbell then introduced me to many of his friends and 

 acquaintances, some of whom had been to the plains, as 

 well as to his brother, who also received me with a kind 

 ness I shall never forget. We then consulted, with the 

 strictest view to economy and efficiency, how and in 

 what way I should collect an outfit, and most speedily 

 and cheaply travel to the furthest limits of the settled 

 towns, Kansas city, in the territory of that name, being 



