114 MARK TWAIN'S SKE TCHES. 



to the price of corn in Florida in 1813 was made to name double the amount which 

 fhat witness had origmally specified as the price ! The clerk not only called his 

 superior's attention to this thing, but ia making up his brief of the case called par- 

 ticular attention to it in writing. That part of the brief never got before Congress, 

 nor has Congress ever yet had a hint of a forgery existing among the Fisher papers. 

 Nevertheless, on the basis of the double prices (and totally ignoring the clerk's 

 assertion that the figures were manifestly and unquestionably a recent forgery), Mr. 

 Floyd remarks in his new report that " the testimony, particularly in regard to the 

 corn crops demands a much higher allowance than any heretofore made by the 

 Auditor or myself." So he estimates the crop at sixty bushels to the acre (double 

 what Florida acres produce), and then virtuously allows pay for only half the crop, 

 but allows two dollars and a half a bushel for that half, when there are rusty old 

 books and documents in the Congressional library to show just what the Fisher 

 testimony showed before the forgery — viz., that in the fall of 1813 corn was only 

 worth from $1.25 to $1.50 a bushel. Having accomplished this, what does Mr. 

 Floyd do next 1 Mr. Floyd (" with an earnest desire to execute truly the legislative 

 will," as he piously remarks) goes to work and makes out an entirely new bill of 

 Fisher damages, and in this new bill he placidly ignores the Indians altogether — 

 puts no particle of the destruction of the Fisher property upon them, but, even 

 repenting him of charging them with burning the cabins and drinking the whisky 

 and breaking the crockery, lays the entire damage at the door of the imbecile 

 United States troops, down to the very last item ! And not only that, but uses the 

 forgery to double the loss of corn at " Bassett's Creek," and uses it again to abso- 

 lutely treble the loss of corn on the " Alabama River." This new and ably con- 

 ceived and executed bill of Mr. Floyd's figures up as follows (I copy again from 

 the printed U. S. Senate document) : — 



The United States in account with the legal representatives of George Fisher, deceased. 



DoL. C. 

 1813. — To 550 head of cattle, at 10 dollars . . . 5,5CX) 00 



To 86 head of drove hogs ...... 1,204 cx) 



To 350 head of stock hogs ..... 1,75° 00 



To 100 ACRES Of corn ok Bassett's Creek . . . 6,000 00 



To 8 barrels of whisky ...... 350 00 



