e second time to
turn his back to me. He said, 'If you are determined to kill me, let me
have time to pray before I die.' I told him I had no time to hear him
pray. He turned round and dropped on his knees, and I shot him through
the back of the head. I ripped open his belly, and took out his
entrails, and sunk him in the creek. I then searched his pockets, and
found four hundred and one dollars and thirty-seven cents, and a number
of papers that I did not take time to examine. I sunk the pocketbook and
papers and his hat in the creek. His boots were brand new, and fitted me
very genteelly, and I put them on, and sunk my old shoes in the creek to
atone for them. I rolled up his clothes and put them into his
portmanteau, as they were quite new cloth of the best quality. I mounted
as fine a horse as ever I straddled, and directed my course to Natchez
in much better style than I had been for the last five days.

"I reached Natchez, and spent two days with my friends at that place and
the girls under the Hill together. I then left Natchez for the Choctaw
nation, with the intention of giving some of them a chance for their
property. As I was riding along between Benton and Rankin, planning for
my designs, I was overtaken by a tall and good-looking young man, riding
an elegant horse, which was splendidly rigged off; and the young
gentleman's apparel was of the gayest that could be had, and his
watch-chain and other jewelry were of the richest and best. I was
anxious to know if he intended to travel through the Choctaw nation, and
soon managed to learn. He said he had been to the lower country with a
drove of negroes, and was returning home to Kentucky. We rode on, and
soon got very intimate for strangers, and agreed to be company through
the Indian nation. We were two fine-looking men, and, to hear us talk,
we were very rich. I felt him on the subject of speculation, but he
cursed the speculators, and said he was in a bad condition to fall into
the hands of such villains, as he had the cash with him that twenty
negroes had sold for; and that he was very happy that he happened to get
in company with me through the nation. I concluded he was a noble prize,
and longed to be counting his cash. At length we came into one of those
long stretches in the Nation, where there was no house for twenty miles,
on the third day after we had been in company with each other. The
country was high, hilly, and broken, and no water; just about the