ALEXANDER WILSON. XC1 



have received.* I was, at that time, on the point of setting out for 

 St Louis ; but, being detained a week by constant and heavy rains, 

 and considering that it would add four hundred miles to my 

 journey, and detain me at least a month, and the season being 

 already far advanced, and no subscribers to be expected there, I 

 abandoned the idea, and prepared for a journey through the wil- 

 derness. I was advised by many not to attempt it alone, — that the 

 Indians were dangerous, the swamps and rivers almost impassable 

 without assistance ; and a thousand other hobgoblins were conjured 

 up to dissuade me from going alone. But I weighed all these 

 matters in my own mind ; and, attributing a great deal of this to 

 vulgar fears and exaggerated reports, I equipt myself for the attempt. 

 I rode an excellent horse, on which I could depend. I had a loaded 

 pistol in each pocket, a loaded fowling piece belted across my 

 shoulders, a pound of gunpowder in my flask, and five pounds of shot 

 in my belt. I bought some biscuit and dried beef, and, on Friday 

 morning, May 4, I left Nashville. About half a mile from town, 

 I observed a poor negro with two wooden legs, building himself a 

 cabin in the woods. Supposing that this journey might afford you 

 and my friends some amusment, I kept a particular account of 

 the various occurrences, and shall transcribe some of the 

 most interesting, omitting everything relative to my ornithological 

 excursions and discoveries, as more suitable for another occasion. 

 Eleven miles from Nashville, I came to the Great Harpath, a stream 

 of about fifty yards wide, which was running with great violence. 

 I could not discover the entrance of the ford, owing to the rains and 

 inundations. There was no time to be lost ; I plunged in, and 

 almost immediately my horse was swimming. I set his head aslant 

 the current, and, being strong, he soon landed me on the other side. 

 As the weather was warm, I rode in my wet clothes without any in- 

 convenience. The country to-day was a perpetual succession of 

 steep hills and low bottoms ; I crossed ten or twelve large creeks, 

 one of which I swam with my horse, where he was near being en- 

 tangled among some bad drift wood. Now and then a solitary farm 

 opened from the woods, where the negro children were running naked 

 about the yards. I also passed along the north side of a high hill, 

 where the whole timber had been prostrated by some terrible hurri- 

 * These drawings never came to hand. — Okd. 



