S82 TRAVELS THROUGH NORTH AMERICAN 
its heavy lash, seemed as determined as the 
mules of the abbess of Ando u dies to go no 
farther, in this situation we could not help 
bantering the fellow upon the excellence of 
his cattle, which he had boasted so much of at 
setting out, and he was ready to -cry with vexa¬ 
tion at what we said ; but having accidentally 
mentioned the sum we had paid for the car¬ 
riage, his passion could no longer be restrain¬ 
ed, and it broke forth in ail its fury. It ap¬ 
peared that lie was the owner of two of the 
horses, and for the use of them, and for driv¬ 
ing the carriage, was to have had one half of 
the hire ; but the man. whom he had agreed 
with, and paid at Albany, had given him only 
ten dollars as his moiety, assuring him, at the 
same time, that it was exactly the half of 
what we had given, although in reality it fell 
short of the sum by seven dollars and a half. 
Thus cheated by his companion, and left in 
the lurch by his horses, he vowed vengeance 
against him on his return ; but as protestations 
of this nature would not bring us any sooner 
to our journey’s end, and as it was necessary 
that something should be immediately done, 
if we did not wish to remain all night in the 
woods, we suggested the idea, in the mean 
time, of his conducting the foremost horses as 
postilion, whilst one of our servants should 
drive the pair next to the wheel. This plan 
