PILOT 



249 



"When he made his appearance in New Orleans, in the wagon of a 

 Yankee pedlar, and privately showed Major Dubois 2 126, with one hundred 

 and sixty-five pounds on his back, it is not difficult to understand that the 

 pedlar's wagon was simply an agency to assist in a little sharp practice 

 among sporting men, and to get on as much money as possible in a match 

 with somebody. We have it from an unpublished source that the horse was 

 well known among a few sporting men about Covington, Kentucky, before 

 he made his appearance in New Orleans ; and that is the earliest point in his 

 history of which there is any trace. 



" Blackburn's Davy Crockett has not founded so large a family as some 

 others, but, with such animals as Red Cloud, Molsey, etc., indebted to *hem 

 for their speed, his true origin becomes a matter of very great interest. We 

 know of no circumstance connected with his history that points toward Can- 

 ada. We thus might go on and enumerate Tom Hal, Snowstorm, Blue Bull, 

 Rainbow, and scores of others in the West, that were called Canadians for 

 no other reason in the world than that they were pacers. The only two that 

 we can now definitely and positively trace from Canada to Kentucky were 

 Canada Chief, that went to Tennessee, and Cceur de Lion, neither of which 

 appears to have made any mark". 



In our next work, "The Horse", it will be shown that Copperbottom was 

 in fact brought to Kentucky from Bolton, Canada. The evidence that Pilot 

 was brought from Montreal, or some point near there, amounts to a demon- 

 stration, as will appear. 



We observed that a person who occasionally wrote for some of the horse 

 papers over the nom de plume, "Spurs", seemed to have some knowledge 

 of the early history of Pilot, and learned that his address was C. W. Kennedy, 

 Montgomery, Alabama. We wrote him and got a reply under date of April 

 20th, 1885, containing the following information : 



"I knew Mr. Dubois in New Orleans and was for several years in part- 

 nership with Mr. Heinsohn, who bought old Pilot from Mr. Dubois. Pilot 

 was unmistakably a Canuck. I have talked with both the gentlemen named 

 and got it from them that Pilot was brought to New Orleans by a pedlar who 

 thought he could beat any horse living in a pace. I have owned and handled 

 and seen a good many good ones, and I am sure Pilot could go faster than 

 any one, trotter or pacer, I ever saw. My belief was that the pedlar took 

 Pilot with him to make races, as a match was made at New Orleans for one 

 thousand dollars a side. Pilot was hard to restrain, and I was told that the 

 pedlar rode him two miles in 4 : 47, having pulleys attached to a breeching. 

 This leaked out and the match fell through. I have ridden him often. He 

 always paced except in the snow, to sleigh, when he often trotted and did so 

 fast He was never hitched up, that I know of, except to sleigh. Pilot was 

 cross, and most persons were afraid of him, as he was a bad biter, 

 a black horse, fourteen hands high, with very heavy mane and tail, 

 very long and heavy for a horse of his height, and the strongest of his size 

 ever saw. His hind leg was almost perfectly straight. There could be no 

 mistake about his being a Canadian. * * Old Pilot lost an 



