to what I
knew, he would have prevented me, even if he had taken my life.

I discovered from the negro, that the secret band of outlaws, to whom I
here alluded, had a large number of members scattered among the
different tribes of Indians; that they are all about the western
country, in fact, and that all are true to each other as steel itself.
The negro assured me that he could find friends at every turn; yes,
those who _would die for him!_ He was well off, however, without them,
and had determined to pass the remainder of his days in living a life of
honesty; hoping that, by so doing, God would forgive him, if man did
not.

The negro told me much more in regard to himself and his companions. He
said he had been deaf and dumb, in order to find out what was going on.
He stood about and heard much said, which would not have been said had
it been supposed he could hear, and much, too, that was at times
extremely valuable to the band.

I told him that I had often noticed and pitied him. His reply was, that
he saw I felt for him, and it was none the worse for me that I did. This
very county where we were, was afterwards infested by Murrill and his
gang; and it was here that, in 1841, the citizens turned out and put to
death, by shooting and drowning, some forty or fifty villains.

But to return to the negro. I told him that his intelligence startled
me. He assured me, that while with him I was not in danger; that, to
tell the truth, where we then were was not a very bad tract of country.
For, said he, the brethren of Arkansas and Mississippi are not "clear
grit." That a few weeks preceding, a man by the name of Jeffries, who
had passed counterfeit money, they permitted to be taken and put to
death. He had, it seems, got off about one thousand dollars of the
spurious money on some river boatmen and traders; who returned when they
found the money was bad, pursued the counterfeiter to an island on the
river; where, after having stripped him naked and tied him to a tree,
they beat him to death! It was true this man was not a member of the
secret fraternity; but he would have been had his life been spared.

At this point of my conversation with the negro, I discovered the
steamboat HURON near by, so I shook hands with him and left him.
Rejoicing that a boat had at last come along, I was soon on board her,
bound for Louisville. We "wooded" some thirty miles distant from
Montgomery's Point, and at the wood-yard, I overheard o