The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 3, July 1899 - April, 1900 Page: 24

Texas Historical Association Quarterly.

very rough way that I ought to have been there when the others ate.
I replied that I had gone in search of game and had had to go at
least three or four miles, but everything had been driven off by
those new hunters. I recollected having a few sea biscuits in my
trunk, and I opened it and got three.
I intended to make another effort to find game by wading a
lagoon or lake on our side of the river, but Mattigan, my Irish
friend, said I could not get over without a boat, for it was not only
deep water but very boggy. I remarked to him in the hearing of
the others that things looked squally, that I thought old Cannon
did not intend coming back, or he would have passed by once or
twice, which he promised to do, that as to the old Governor and the
party I supposed they were captured by Indians, and that we were
in a fair way to starvation. In the evening I got this sturdy Irish-
man off, and suggested to him the chances of crossing the river on
a raft to the other side. I told him that the land was higher and
the timber not so far off, and that the chances for game were better
than on the side we were on. He very readily consented to help
me and went for an axe. We found a much lighter job than we
thought, for it was quite easy to find light seasoned logs. We made
a very substantial raft sufficient to buoy up three men or more. I
warned him not to speak of my project, or we should have it as it
was at first, and everything would be scared away by the muskets.
He said there was no danger of that, for they were already afraid
of the Indians.
Early next morning I awoke and awakened Mattigan. We went
at once and found the current quite slack, the tide being near its
fall. We, or rather he, had picked up scraps of plank to make two
paddles, and we crossed with no trouble. I stood on the bank to
see him row back, for he said he knew very little about water craft.
I instructed him to pull first on one side and then on the other,
and steer his raft straight across.
I started for the timber, for the river ran through a salt marsh,
and if I recollected aright there was not so much as a scrub or a
sapling on either side for perhaps a mile or more. I proceeded
about half a mile, when off to my right, three or four hundred yards
away, I discovered a single deer feeding. I felt my chance to be a
bad one, as I had nothing to hide myself. She was too busy to
notice me, and I stooped down and advanced when she put her head
down to feed. I had to go forward in this manner half way to her