ommencement of my
greatness in what the world calls villainy. The two fellows who robbed
me were named Haines and Phelps; they made me known to all the
speculators that visited New Orleans, and gave me the name of every
fellow who would speculate that lived on the Mississippi river, and many
of its tributary streams, from New Orleans up to all the large Western
cities.

"I had become acquainted with a Kentuckian, who boarded at the same
tavern I did, and I suspected he had a large sum of money; I felt an
inclination to count it for him before I left the city; so I made my
notions known to Phelps and my other new comrades, and concerted our
plan. I was to get him off to the _swamp_ with me on a spree, and when
we were returning to our lodgings, my friends were to meet us and rob us
both. I had got very intimate with the Kentuckian, and he thought me one
of the best fellows in the world. He was very fond of wine; and I had
him well fumed with good wine before I made the proposition for a
frolic. When I invited him to walk with me he readily accepted the
invitation. We cut a few shines with the girls, and started to the
tavern. We were met by a band of robbers, and robbed of all our money.
The Kentuckian was so mad that he cursed the whole city, and wished that
it would all be deluged in a flood of water so soon as he left the
place. I went to my friends the next morning, and got my share of the
spoil money, and my pocketbook that I had been robbed of. We got seven
hundred and fifty dollars of the bold Kentuckian, which was divided
among thirteen of us.

"I commenced traveling and making all the acquaintances among the
speculators that I could. I went from New Orleans to Cincinnati, and
from there I visited Lexington, in Kentucky. I found a speculator about
four miles from Newport, who furnished me with a fine horse the second
night after I arrived at his house. I went from Lexington to Richmond,
in Virginia, and from there I visited Charleston, in the State of South
Carolina; and from thence to Milledgeville, by the way of Savannah and
Augusta, in the State of Georgia. I made my way from Milledgeville to
Williamson county, the old stamping-ground. In all the route I only
robbed eleven men but I preached some fine sermons, and scattered some
counterfeit United States paper among my brethren.

* * * * *

"After I returned home from the first grand circuit I made among my
speculators, I re