LIFE OF WILSON. 
cxlv 
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 shoulder, 
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 morn- 
ing, May 4th, I left Nashville, About half a mile from town I ob- 
served 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 amusement, I kept a particular account of the 
various occurrences, and shall transcribe some of the most inter- 
esting, omitting every thing relative to my Ornithological excur- 
sions and discoveries, as more suitable for another occasion. Elev- 
en 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 al- 
most 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 inconvenience. The country to-day was a perpetual succes- 
sion 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 entangled 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 pros- 
trated by some terrible hurricane. I lodged this night in a miner% 
who told me he had been engaged in forming no less than thirteen 
companies for hunting mines, all of whom had left him. I advised 
20 
VOL. IX. 
