IT is much to be regretted that the great mass of personal 

 adventures, with which the life of the pioneers in the west is 

 known to have abounded, has accompanied the actors in those 

 scenes to the oblivion of the grave. And yet we could expect 

 nothing else. The privations and sufferings of the wilderness, 

 the dangers and escapes in conflicts with savage beasts, and 

 equally savage Indians were such every day occurrences, as 

 to be considered hardly worth repeating, still less, recording, 

 and many a spirit-stirring incident and adventure is now 

 forever lost. 



fiere and there, however, may be found some rough pine- 

 knot survivor, who in the evening of life can look back to the 

 scuffles with Indians, or conflicts with wild beasts with an inte- 

 rest of which he felt nothing at the time, the more so when 

 he finds a stranger like myself, ready and desirous to take the 

 narrative from his own lips. 



Mr. E. E. Williams, has furnished me with some interesting 

 notes of pioneer adventures. He has been an old hunter, 

 supplying not only his own family, but the settlements in 



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