Ixviii 
MEMOIR OF 
black, greasy, and sometimes in tatters ; tbe skin burnt 
wherever exposed to the sun ; each with a budget, wTapt up 
in an old blanket ; their beards, eighteen days old, added to 
the singularity of their appearance, which was altogether 
savage. These people came from the various tributary 
streams of the Ohio, hired at forty or fifty dollars a-trip, 
to return back on their own expenses. Some had upwards 
of eight hundred miles to travel. When they come to a 
stream that is unfordable, they coast it for a fallen tree ; 
if that cannot be had, they enter with their budget on 
their head, and, when they lose bottom, drop it on their 
shoulders, and take to swimming. They have sometimes 
fourteen or fifteen of such streams to pass in a day, and 
morasses of several miles in length, that I have never 
seen equalled in any country. I lodged this night at one 
Dobbin’s, where ten or twelve of these men lay on the 
floor. As they scrambled up in the morning, they very 
generally complained of being unwell, for which they gave 
an odd reason, — lying within doors, it being the first of 
fifteen nights they had been so indulged. Next morning, 
(Sunday,) I rode six miles to a man’s of the name of 
Grinder, where our poor friend Lewis perished. * 
“ In the same room rvhere he expired, I took down from 
Mrs Grinder the particulars of that melancholy event, 
which affected me extremely. This house, or cabin, is 
seventy-two miles from Nashville, and is the last white 
man’s as you enter the Indian country. Governor Lewis, 
she said, came thither about sunset, idone, and inquired if 
he could stay for the niglit ; and, alighting, brought his 
saddle into the house. He was dressed in a loose gown, 
white, striped with blue. On being asked if he came 
♦ “ It is liarrtly tioeessary to state that this was tho brave and 
enterprizinjf traveller whose journey, across tJio Rocky Mountains, 
to the Pacific Ocean, has obtained for him well merited eelobrity. 
The true eauso of ids committing' the rash deed, so feelingly 
detailed above, is not yet known to the public.” 
