192 TRAVEL, AD VENTURE, AND SPOUT. 



went to meet them, and invited them to alight and 

 refresh themselves. At the same time we took our 

 rifles, which were always lying beside us when we 

 worked in the fields, and advanced towards the 

 strangers. But when they saw our guns, they put 

 spurs to their horses and rode off to a greater dis- 

 tance. Asa called out to them not to fear, for our 

 rifles were to use against bears and wolves and Red- 

 skins, and not against Christian men. Upon this, 

 down they came again ; we brought out a calabash of 

 real Monongahela ; and after they had taken a dram, 

 they got off their horses, and came in and ate some 

 venison, which the women set before them. They 

 were Creoles half Spanish, half French, with a 

 streak of the Injun ; and they spoke a sort of gib- 

 berish not easy to understand. But Asa, who had 

 served in Lafayette's division in the time of the Avar, 

 knew French well ; and when they had eaten and 

 drunk, he began to make a bargain with them for two 

 of their horses. 



" It was easy to see they were not the sort of men 

 with whom decent folk could trade. First they 

 would, then they wouldn't : which horses did we 

 want, and what would we give 1 We offered them 

 thirty-five dollars for their two best horses and a 

 heavy price it was, for at that time money was scarce 

 in the settlements. They wanted forty, but at last 

 took the thirty-five ; and after getting three-parts 

 drunk upon taffia, which they asked for to wet the 



