of a mile in singularly quick
time. I obtained them of a half-bred Choctaw, and they were valued at
five hundred dollars each.

We encamped, the first night after our departure, about thirty miles
distant from Fort Towson. The next morning I found that my two valuable
quarter horses, with six others of the drove, were missing. I said
something about my chance of finding them again, but soon had every hope
of the kind destroyed, by being informed that the Pawnee Indians were
very numerous in the neighbourhood; that they were great horse thieves;
and had undoubtedly appropriated to themselves my valuable beasts. We
went fifty miles further, when we again encamped. Here the horses of
the dumb negro and Scoggins were missing. They appeared to think their
animals might be recovered, and turned back for that purpose, promising
to overtake us, if possible, at Fort Smith.

When we arrived at the fort, I disposed of the horses I had left, and
took passage on the steamboat Reindeer, for the mouth of White River.
Edmonds insisted on accompanying me. I made no objection, of course, but
was anxious to get rid of him. It was about the twentieth of May, when
we arrived at Montgomery's Point, on the Mississippi. Edmonds, daring
the passage, frequently sympathized with me on the loss of my horses. He
also, now and then, spoke to me about the widow of Doctor ----,
commiserated her forlorn situation, and stated that he had a strong
desire, and in fact determination, to communicate intelligence of her
deplorable condition to her friends in Philadelphia. He asked me, if I
did not, myself, think of doing something of the kind. I told him that I
had forgotten her name, and had I remembered it, I hardly thought that I
should trouble myself about her or her affairs. He said, he, too, had
forgotten the name, but he could procure it of Scoggins when he
returned.

We remained at the Point several days, awaiting the arrival of a
steamboat. Finally, the Chester came along, bound for St. Louis. I took
passage in her, and left Edmonds behind, not a little to my
gratification. We had not proceeded far from the Point, when the Chester
broke down, and I was obliged to get on board of a down boat, and return
to the Point. On arriving there, the first person I encountered was the
dumb negro, who told me that Edmonds had died suddenly, since my
departure, of the cholera, which was raging at that time on the
Mississippi, and which cut men down almost wit