plish. Seconded by his family,
his farm was sold, his affairs closed, and May 10, 1836, saw him
properly fitted out for a plunge into the western wilds. Three emigrant
wagons contained their movables, each drawn by three yoke of stout
oxen. The first contained provisions and groceries, seeds and grain for
planting, with apparatus for cooking. The second contained the
household furniture that was indispensable, beneath which lay a
quantity of boards, tent canvass, an extra set of wagon covers ready
for use, twine, ropes &c., and was also to be the apartments of Mr. and
Mrs. Duncan, and the girls. The third was loaded with agricultural and
carpenter's tools, and contained the magazine, and was appropriated to
the use of Andy Howe and the boys. Two saddle horses, five mules and
three milch cows, with six as fierce hunting dogs as ever run down an
antelope, constituted their live stock.

Thus prepared the family bade a glad adieu to their old home to find a
more congenial one. I say a glad adieu, for certainly the older members
of the family went voluntarily, and the younger ones, carried away by
the hurry of preparation, had no time to think, and perhaps knew not of
the dangers they would have to encounter. Youth is ever sanguine, and
they had learned from the older ones to look upon the forest freed from
the Indians as the Elysium of this world.

Onward to the west the tide of emigration is still rolling. Three
centuries ago, the Massachusetts and Virginia colonies were the west to
the European, three thousand miles over the Atlantic ocean. Brave was
the soul, and stout the heart, that then dared it. A century later
Pennsylvania and New York was the west; the tide was rolling on; still
a century later its waves had swept over the Alleghanies, and went
dashing down the Mississippi valley, anon dividing in thousands of
rivulets, went winding and murmuring among the rugged hills and
undulating plains. But even the burden of its murmurings was _the_
west, still on to the west. And now where is the west? Not the
Mississippi valley but the fastnesses of the Rocky Mountains. That
part we find on charts as the "_unknown_." A valley situated among
mountains, sunny and luxuriant as those of a poet's dream; but guarded
by a people driven to desperation. This is now the west.

Chapter Second.

The Journey. Encampment. Buffalo hunt. Anne and Edward lost. They
discover an old fort. Fight with a Wolf. Take refuge in a Tree. Re