the Spadre that morning, where I saw the grave of Matthew Lyon, a man who made a considerable figure in poHtics in the Alien and Sedition times of John Adams. "After life's fitful fever he sleeps well.'' At Piney I saw a number of Indians, and enquired of them for provisions. We are hungry, said I, and have nothing to eat. A negro woman said they were starving themselves and could not help us to anything. I told the man we should be compelled to fast until we reached Weber's or the Missionaries. An old Indian who stood behind me during this colloquy, caught hold of my arm as I started on, and with a sharp enquiring look into my eyes, exclaimed, "Nothing! nothing to eat?" Nothing at all, said I. "Come with me," said he. I followed him about one hundred yards up the bank of a creek where he turned up a hollow and entered a cabin under the brow of a hill; going to the chimney he took from within it a stick holding three pieces of bacon and gave me two of them. I offered him money. "No,' said he, "I take no money, but when you meet a hungry Cherokee share with him whatever you have, as I have shared with you." Such conduct as this,

liis later years he lived on the Arkansas River, between the Neosho and the Verdigris, about two and a half miles west of Fort Gibson. There, for a time, his brother-in-law. General Sam Houston, was a near neighbor. Rogers died at an advanced age in the early seventies of the nineteenth century.

" "Mr. Walter Webber, a metjf, who acts as an Indian trader, is also a chief of the nation,; and lives in ease and affluence, possessing a decently furnished and well provided house, several negro slaves, a large well cleared, and well fenced farm; and both himself and his nephew read, write and speak English." (Nuttall). Webber lived at the foot of the Dardanelle hills (Shinn), in what is now Pope County, Arkansas,

thought I, is practical Christianity, call it by what name you please. Parting with this warm-hearted Indian, we hastened on towards the Missionary station, which we reached the next day. This was situated on the north side of the river, and was composed of about one hundred persons, old and young, who occupied some twenty buildings arranged in a square. Here we hoped to obtain a full supply of provisions, being informed that one hundred barrels of pork and one hundred and fifty barrels of flour had lately arrived for the use of the Missionaries and their families. Entering the town, I enquired for and found the head of the concern, named Vail, laid before him our destitute condition and misfortunes in the Camanche country, and asked him for provisions enough to last us to the settlements on the Little Red,

There was a Rev. William F. Vaill who was principal of the Union mission among the Osages at this time, and a man named Vail who was, in 1821, connected with the Brainerd mission to the Cherokees east of the Mississippi. Both the Union and Brainerd missions were conducted under the same auspices as that at Dwight. The journal speaks of the presence of the former at Dwight in June 1821, but no person of the name is spoken of as being in authority there.

seventy miles below. 'Well," said he, 'I will speak to brother such a one about it," and went away for that purpose. Another man soon came up and asked me how much we wanted. I replied about one hundred pounds of flour and fifty of pork. "Well I vow and declare, I don't know how we shall be able to spare it; how much would you be willing to give?" Any reasonable price, said I ; what do you ask. We are suffering from hunger and must have provisions. He left me, saying he would see brother Vail about it and I waited an hour without seeing either of them. I then searched out brother Vail and repeated my request for provisions. He vowed and declared that he did not think they had more than enough "to do them the year round." I then asked for one-half the quantity I had named before. "We have a very large family, and if we should get out we could not get any more from the settlements." I said that what little we wanted would not make more than one meal for his family, and he could easily procure a new supply to prevent any suffering. "Well," said he, "what would you be willing to give?" "Set your own price on your property," said I, "and I will give it, as I cannot do without provisions." He then went away, saying he would see the others, naming them. Robert McKnight now came from the blacksmith's shop, where he had got his mule shod on the fore feet and had been charged for that service the sum of two dollars. We concluded that they knew the price of horse shoes, if not of flour and pork. Again I sought out the "brethren," Vail and the

other, reiterated to them our wants, and requested relief as before; the eternal question was again put, what would you be willing to give? Anything that you choose to ask, said I. "We do not think we can spare any provisions," said one. They were waiting for a bid, and I determined not to huckster with the canting hypocrites, nor gratify them by paying an outrageously exorbitant price, which they were expecting to get from my necessities. Without further parley I left them and went up to the bakery of the Station, where some of my company were trying to get some bread. I offered to pay for whatever they could sell. "No, we can't sell anything without brother Vall's permission." I offered to buy two or three bushels of fragments of bread, which I noticed on the table In a corner. "We use them In soups and for puddings and do not waste anything." My men were now furious and ready to take possession of the bakery and divide It out among them. With great difficulty I restrained them from this act. I told them they would render us all Infamous In the settlements as robbers of the Missionaries, those holy men of God; that we should be regarded with horror by all, wherever we went. If we preyed upon these lamblike and charitable christians. I told them we must go on and trust to Providence. "What!" said Mc- Knlght, "travel on without provisions when there are plenty of them here. I w411 have some, If need be, by force." I at length prevailed on them to start without committing any depredation. When leaving the town, I saw Vail at a distance, rode up to him

and asked, "What are you doing here?" "We are instructing the Indians in the Christian religion." "I think," said I, "you might learn some of the principles of your religion from the Indians themselves. An old Cherokee yesterday gave me two out of three pieces of meat which he had, and refused pay for them in money. He told me to do the same by a Cherokee should I meet one in want. Here you are afraid to put a price on your flour and meat for fear of not charging enough. You wish me to name an exorbitant price. You wish to make the most out of me and you shall make nothing." He was saying that charity began at home, he must provide for his own household, and so forth, as I left him in disgust with his meanness and hypocrisy. We now left the river and bore eastwardly, and that evening killed a turkey, upon which we lived two days and a half, when we reached Little Red River,'' where we procured an excellent dinner, and a supply of food from a settler whose name I forgot. This was the first meal we had eaten, sufficient to break our fasts, since we had left James Rogers' house, five days before.

From this place I hastened home without any occurrence of note. My family was sick when I arrived, and my creditors soon became more clamorous

than ever; each endeavored to anticipate the others, and the executive officers of all the courts, from the United States District Court down to those of Justices of the Peace, swarmed around me like insects in August. I gave up all my property, even the beds upon which my children were born, and after all was sold, though the officers supposed there was enough to satisfy the judgments against me, there yet remained a large amount still due. The whole Is now paid. In the twenty years which have intervened I discharged all my debts on account of these two expeditions of which the narration is now closed. I lost by them about the sum of twelve thousand dollars, and after all the hardships I had endured, found myself poorer than ever. The reader has been told how I incurred these losses, most of which were, perhaps, under the circumstances, to have been expected. I was the first American that ever went among the Camanches for the purpose of trading. Before my first trip among them their name was unknown to our people ; the Americans called them Pawnees and knew them only by that name. They were then wilder and more ignorant of our power than now, when they have probably learned that we do not all live in one village, and have derived from their kindred tribe, the Pawnees, and other neighbors, a tolerably correct Idea of our strength and numbers. Traders would now run very little risk of the robberies which I suffered from them, and probably none at all of being killed in time of peace. The trade would now be profitable ; equally so as when I was among them,

and from the greater cheapness of goods a greater profit could be made, while the dangers would be far less. Were it not for advancing age, I should repeat the adventures, notwithstanding their unfortunate issues heretofore. Age, however, forbids any farther attempts to retrieve my fortune in this manner. I have been enabled through the real friendship of a brother to support my family and give my children the rudiments and foundation of an education; which, though not such as I would have given them had better fortune attended me, is sufficient, if properly improved, to enable them to go through the world with honor and usefulness. I have uniformly endeavored to instil in their minds principles of integrity and republicanism; and for myself, to bequeath, as the richest inheritance I could leave them, a good example and an unsuUied name. With strong bodies and habits of labor, with honor and intelligence, they will succeed in a country of liberty and equal rights to all. I have always been true to my country, and uniformly studied to advance the interests of my countrymen in all my transactions with the savages and Spaniards; and I have my reward in the satisfaction derived from a conscientious and patriotic discharge of duty on all occasions. At the age of sixty-three, with broken health, I feel none of the peevishness of age ; I look forward cheerfully and hopefully on the coming days, without

"Shuddering to feel their shadows o'er me creep,"

and rejoice, in my decHne, over the rise and glorious prospects of my country. I have the consolation of

being able to recall to my mind several manifestations of the confidence and esteem of my fellow-citizens, exerted towards me at a time when the hand of misfortune bore heaviest upon my head. They did me the honor, in eighteen hundred and twentyfive, of electing me General of the Second Brigade, First Division of the Militia of Illinois, an office which I now hold. I was also elected, in the same year, to represent the county of Monroe in the Legislature of Illinois, of which I was a member for two sessions. I was appointed Post Master in the same county in eighteen hundred and twenty-seven, and have held the appointment ever since.