s, sir; I'm telling
you, sir. Mr. Blennerhassett allowed that Colonel Burr and he and a few
friends had bought eight hundred thousand acres of land, and they wanted
young men to settle it. He said he would give any young man who would go
down the river one hundred acres of land, plenty of grog and victuals
while going down the river, and three months' provision after they got
to the end; every young man must have his rifle and blanket. When I got
home, I began to think, and I asked him what kind of seed we should
carry with us. He said we did not want any, the people had seeds where
we were going--"

"Of what occupation were you upon the island?" demanded Mr. Wirt.

"A gardener, sir. And then Mr. Blennerhassett said to me, 'I'll tell you
what, Peter, we're going to take Mexico, one of the finest and richest
places in the world!' He said that Colonel Burr would be King of Mexico,
and that Mrs. Alston, daughter of Colonel Burr, was to be the Queen of
Mexico whenever Colonel Burr died. He said that Colonel Burr had made
fortunes for many in his time, but none for himself, and now he was
going to make something for himself. He said that he had a great many
friends in the Spanish territory; that the Spaniards, like the French,
had got dissatisfied with their government, and wanted to _swap_ it. He
told me that the British also were friends in this piece of business. I
told him that the people had got it into their heads that Colonel Burr
wanted to divide the Union. He sent me to Mason County with a letter,
but I wasn't to deliver it until I had the promise that it should be
burned before me as soon as 't was read, for, says he, it contains high
treason."

"Gad!" thought Mocket to himself, "I'm glad that some one else's letters
are burned as well! If I were as cool as Aaron Burr looks--"

Mr. McRae questioned the witness: "Well, who went off this December
night?"

"Mr. Blennerhassett, sir, and the whole of the party."

"At what time of the night?"

"About one o'clock."

"Did all that came down to the island go away?"

"All but one, who was sick."

"Had they any guns?"

"Some of them had. Some of the people went a-shooting; but I do not know
how many there were."

"What kind of guns; rifles or muskets?"

"I can't tell whether rifles or muskets. I saw no pistols but what
belonged to Mr. Blennerhassett himself."

"Was there any powder or lead?"

"They had powder and they had lead. I saw some powder in a long,