ning, as we were taking our meal, we were visited by a band
of dogs, who, stopping ten yards from us, began to bark most furiously.
Thinking at first they belonged to the band of robbers, who employed
them to follow travellers, we hastily seized our arms, and prepared for
a fight; but Gabriel asserting the dogs were a particular breed
belonging to the Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks, and other tribes of
half-civilized Indians, established upon the Red River, we began
shouting and firing our rifles, so as to guide towards us the Indians,
who, we presumed, could not be far behind their dogs. We did not wait
long, for a few minutes afterwards a gallant band of eighty Cherokees
dashed through the cover, and reined up their horses before us. All was
explained in a moment.

A system of general depredation had been carried on, for a long while
with impunity, upon the plantations above the great bend of the Red
River. The people of Arkansas accused the Texans, who, in their turn,
asserted that the parties were Indians. Governor Yell, of the Arkansas,
complained to Ross, the highly talented chief of the Cherokees, who
answered that the robbers were Arkansas men and Texans, and, as a proof
of his assertion, he ordered a band to scour the country, until they had
fallen in with and captured the depredators. For the last two days, they
had been following some tracks, till their dogs, having crossed the
trail left by the lawyers and their prisoners, guided the warriors to
our encampments.

We gave them all our prisoners, whom we were very glad to get rid of;
and the Indian leader generously ordered one of his men to give up his
horse and saddle to the parson. To this, however, we would not consent,
unless we paid for the animal; and each of us subscribing ten dollars,
we presented the money to the man, who certainly did not lose by
the bargain.

The next morning, the leader of the Cherokee party advised me to take a
southern direction, till we should arrive at the head waters of the
river Sabine, from whence, proceeding either northward or eastward, we
should, in a few days, reach the Red River, through the cane-brakes and
the clearings of the new settlers. Before parting, the Indians made us
presents of pipes and tobacco, of which we were much in want; and after
a hearty breakfast, we resumed our journey.

CHAPTER XXXI.

The Cherokee Indians, a portion of whom we had just met on such friendly
terms, are probably destined t