ong which the army was advancing. He confesses to some qualms of
conscience as to the right of one hunter thus to steal away the game
killed by another.

It was late in the afternoon when he reached the rear. He pressed along
to overtake his own company. The soldiers looked wistfully at the
venison. They offered him almost any price for it. Crockett was by
nature a generous man. There was not a mean hair in his head. This
generosity was one of the virtues which gave him so many friends.
Rather boastfully, and yet it must be admitted truthfully, he writes,
in reference to this adventure:

"I could have sold it for almost any price I would have asked. But this
wasn't my rule, neither in peace nor war. Whenever I had anything and
saw a fellow-being suffering, I was more anxious to relieve him than to
benefit myself. And this is one of the true secrets of my being a poor
man to the present day. But it is my way. And while it has often left
me with an empty purse, yet it has never left my heart empty of
consolations which money couldn't buy; the consolation of having
sometimes fed the hungry and covered the naked. I gave all my deer away
except a small part, which I kept for myself, and just sufficient to
make a good supper for my mess."

The next day, in their march, they came upon a drove of swine, which
belonged to a Cherokee farmer. The whites were as little disposed as
were the Indians, in this war, to pay any respect to private property.
Hundreds of rifles were aimed at the poor pigs, and their squealing
indicated that they had a very hard time of it. The army, in its
encampment that night, feasted very joyously upon fresh pork. This
thrifty Cherokee was also the possessor of a milch cow. The animal was
speedily slaughtered and devoured.

They soon came upon another detachment of the army, and uniting,
marched to Ten Islands, on the Coosa River, where they established a
fort, which they called Fort Strother, as a depot for provisions and
ammunition. They were here not far from the centre of the country
inhabited by the hostile Indians. This fort stood on the left bank of
the river, in what is now St. Clair County, Alabama. It was a region
but little explored, and the whites had but little acquaintance with
the nature of the country around them, or with the places occupied by
the Indians. Some scouts, from the friendly Creeks, brought the
intelligence that, at the distance of about eight miles from the fort,
there