A SERIOUS BREAKDOWN. 197 



journeys to Cairo City, on the eastern bank of the 

 Mississippi, then a much larger town than Chicago : 

 in fact, at that time the latter was but a small village, 

 entirely unsuspicious of its future greatness. 



" In company with a gentleman much older than 

 myself, I had, at that point, or ' city ' as it was 

 called, established a trading-post to supply ihe 

 Indians and the border settlers of the vicinity. As 

 you may surmise, I was rather young to be engaged 

 in that sort of business. I could tell you how I 

 drifted into it, but no matter. 



"It was near the end of November, as my 

 memoranda tell me, that I started on my long trip, 

 making the journey to Buffalo from New York by 

 stage. At that place I embarked on a schooner, 

 and after a cold, dismal, and dangerous voyage, 

 arrived at Chicago on the i2th of December, some- 

 thing like three weeks from the time I left New 

 York ; having passed through Lake Erie to Detroit, 

 then through Detroit River to Lake Huron, through 

 Huron and the Straits of Mackinaw into Michigan, 

 across that lake to what is now the great city of the 

 West, Chicago. We were delayed several days in 

 the straits by ice, and came near being treated to 

 an Arctic experience by being frozen in. 



" Little did I dream, at that time, of the improved 

 facilities of travel that we now enjoy : a Pullman 



