at the distance of about a mile, they reached a very
secluded spot, when the Colonel, turning to his opponent, said:

"Do you know what I brought you here for?"

"No," was the reply.

"Well," added the Colonel, "I brought you here for the express purpose
of whipping you; and now I mean to do it."

"But," says the Colonel, in recording the event, "the fellow said he
didn't mean anything, and kept 'pologizing till I got into good humor."

They walked back as good friends as ever, and no one but themselves
knew of the affair.

After the adjournment of the Legislature, Crockett returned to his
impoverished home. The pecuniary losses he had encountered, induced him
to make another move, and one for which it is difficult to conceive of
any adequate motive. He took his eldest son, a boy about eight years of
age, and a young man by the name of Abram Henry, and with one
pack-horse to carry their blankets and provisions, plunged into the
vast wilderness west of them, on an exploring tour, in search of a new
home.

Crockett and the young man shouldered their rifles. Day after day the
three trudged along, fording streams, clambering hills, wading
morasses, and threading ravines, each night constructing a frail
shelter, and cooking by their camp-fire such game as they had taken by
the way.

After traversing these almost pathless wilds a hundred and fifty miles,
and having advanced nearly fifty miles beyond any white settlement,
they reached the banks of a lonely stream, called Obion River, on the
extreme western frontier of Tennessee. This river emptied into the
Mississippi but a few miles from the spot where Crockett decided to
rear his cabin. His nearest neighbor was seven miles distant, his next
fifteen, his next twenty.

About ten years before, that whole region had been convulsed by one of
the most terrible earthquakes recorded in history. One or two awful
hurricanes had followed the earthquake, prostrating the gigantic
forest, and scattering the trees in all directions. Appalling
indications remained of the power expended by these tremendous forces
of nature. The largest forest-trees were found split from their roots
to their tops, and lying half on each side of a deep fissure. The
opening abysses, the entanglement of the prostrate forest, and the
dense underbrush which had sprung up, rendered the whole region almost
impenetrable. The country was almost entirely uninhabited. It had,
however, become quite celebrated