icable jargon of the lawyers. His suits were finally
decided against him, and he was cast out of the possession of all, or
nearly all the lands which he had looked upon as being indubitably his
own. The indignation of the old pioneer can well be imagined, as he saw
himself thus stript, by the quibbles and intricacies of the law, of all
the rewards of his exposures, labors, sufferings, and dangers in the
first settlement of Kentucky. He became more than ever disgusted with
the grasping and avaricious spirit--the heartless intercourse and
technical forms of what is called civilized society.

But having expended his indignation in a transient paroxysm, he soon
settled back to his customary mental complacency and self-possession;
and as he had no longer any pledge of consequence remaining to him in
the soil of Kentucky--and as it was, moreover, becoming on all sides
subject to the empire of the cultivator's axe and plough, he resolved to
leave the country. He had witnessed with regret the dispersion of the
band of pioneers, with whom he had hunted and fought, side by side, and
like a band of brothers, shared every hardship and every danger; and he
sighed for new fields of adventure, and the excitement of a hunter's
life.

Influenced by these feelings, he removed from Kentucky to the great
Kanawha; where he settled near Point Pleasant. He had been informed that
buffaloes and deer were still to be found in abundance on the unsettled
bottoms of this river, and that it was a fine country for trapping. Here
he continued to reside several years. But he was disappointed in his
expectations of finding game. The vicinity of the settlements above and
below this unsettled region, had driven the buffaloes from the country;
and though there were plenty of deer, yet he derived but little success
from his trapping. He finally commenced raising stock, and began to turn
his attention to agriculture.

While thus engaged, he met with some persons who had returned from a
tour up the Missouri, who described to him the fine country bordering
upon that river. The vast prairies--the herds of buffaloes--the grizzly
bears--the beavers and otters; and above all, the ancient and unexplored
forests of that unknown region, fired his imagination, and produced at
once a resolve to remove there.

Accordingly, gathering up such useful articles of baggage as were of
light carriage, among which his trusty rifle was not forgotten, he
started with his famil