xcii 
LIFE OF WILSON. 
wards, she thinks, for several hours, and talking aloud, as she said, ' like a 
lawyer.' She then heard the report of a pistol, and something fall heavily oa 
the floor, and the words ' 0 Lord !' Immediately afterwards she heard another 
pistol, and in a few minutes she heard him at her door calling out '0, madam! 
give me some icater, and heal my wounds.' The logs being open, and un- 
plastered, she saw him stagger back and fall against a stump that stands 
between the kitchen and room. He crawled for some distance, and raised 
himself by the side of a tree, where he sat about a minute. He once more 
got to the room ; afterwards he came to the kitchen door, but did not speak : 
she then heard him scraping the bucket with a gourd for water; but it appears 
that this cooling element was denied the dying man ! As soon as day broke, 
and not before, the terror of the woman having permitted him to remain for 
two hours in this most deplorable situation, she sent two of her children to 
the barn, her husband not being at home, to bring the servants ; and on going 
in they found him lying on the bed ; he uncovered his side, and showed them 
where the bullet had entered ; a piece of the forehead was blown ofl', and had 
exposed the brains, without having bled much. He begged they would take 
his rifle and blow out his brains, and he would give them all the money he had 
in his trunk. He often said, ' I am no coward ; but I am so strong, so hard 
to die.' He begged the servant not to be afraid of him, for that he would not 
hurt him. He expired in about two hours, or just as the sun rose above the 
trees. He lies buried close by the common path, with a few loose rails thrown 
over his grave. I gave Grinder money to put a post fence round it, to shelter 
it from the hogs, and from the wolves ; and he gave me his written promise he 
would do it. I left this place in a very melancholy mood, which was not much 
allayed by the prospect of the gloomy and savage wilderness which I was just 
entering4.alone. 
" I was roused from this melancholy reverie by the roaring of Bufl'alo river, 
which I forded with considerable difiiculty. I passed two or three solitary 
Indian huts in the course of the day, with a few acres of open land at each ; 
but so wretchedly cultivated, that they just make out to raise maize enough to 
keep in existence. They pointed me out the distances by holding up their 
fingers. This is the country of the Chickasaws, though erroneously laid down 
in some maps as that of the Cherokees. I slept this night in one of their 
huts; the Indians spread a deer skin for me on the floor, I made a pillow of 
my portmanteau, and slept tolerably well; an old Indian laid himself down' 
near me. 
" On Monday morning I rode fifteen miles, and stopped at an Indian's to 
feed my horse. The sight of my paroquet brought the whole family around 
me. The women are generally naked from the middle upwards; and their 
heads, in many instances, being rarely combed, look like a large mop ; they 
have a yard or two of blue cloth wrapped round by way of petticoat, that 
reaches to their knees — the boys were generally naked; except a kind of bag 
of blue cloth, by way fig-leaf. Some of the women have a short jacket, 
with sleeves, drawn over their naked body, and the rag of a blanket is a general 
appendage. I met to-day two oflScers of the United States army, who gave me 
