LIFE OF WILSON. cxxxiii 
ceived. * 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 
wilderness. 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 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 morning, 
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 ac- 
count of the various occurrences, and shall transcribe some of 
the most interesting, omitting every thing relative to my Or- 
nithological 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 en- 
trance 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 
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 
* These drawings never came to hand. 
