come tired,
and stopped at a creek to get some water and rest a little. While I was
sitting on a log, looking down the road the way that I had come, a man
came in sight riding on a good-looking horse. The very moment I saw him,
I was determined to have his horse, if he was in the garb of a traveler.
He rode up, and I saw from his equipage that he was a traveler. I arose
and drew an elegant rifle pistol on him and ordered him to dismount. He
did so, and I took his horse by the bridle and pointed down the creek,
and ordered him to walk before me. He went a few hundred yards and
stopped. I hitched his horse, and then made him undress himself, all to
his shirt and drawers, and ordered him 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 around 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 dollars and
thirty-seven cents, and a number of papers that I did not take time to
examine. I sunk the pocket-book and papers and his hat, in the creek.
His boots were brand-new, and fitted me 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 brand-new cloth
of the best quality. I mounted as fine a horse as ever I straddled, and
directed my course for Natchez in much better style than I had been for
the last five days.

'Myself and a fellow by the name of Crenshaw gathered four good horses
and started for Georgia. We got in company with a young South Carolinian
just before we got to Cumberland Mountain, and Crenshaw soon knew all
about his business. He had been to Tennessee to buy a drove of hogs, but
when he got there pork was dearer than he calculated, and he declined
purchasing. We concluded he was a prize. Crenshaw winked at me; I
understood his idea. Crenshaw had traveled the road before, but I never
had; we had traveled several miles on the mountain, when he passed near
a great precipice; just before we passed it Crenshaw asked me for my
whip, which had a pound of lead in the butt; I handed it to him, and he
rode up by the side of the South Carolinian, and gave him a blow on the
side of the head and tumbled him from his horse; we lit from our horses
and fingered his p