The boiler recoiled, cutting away part of the bow, and the explosion blew up the pilot’s deck, which rendered the vessel totally unfit for service.  I remained three days at Memphis, and visited the neighbouring farms and plantations.  Several parties of Chickesaw Indians were here, trading their deer and other skins with the townspeople.  This tribe has a reservation about fifty miles back, and pursues agriculture to a considerable extent.  After the massacre and extermination of the Natchez Indians, by the Christians of Louisiana, the few survivors received an asylum from the Chickesaws; who, notwithstanding the heavy vengeance with which they were threatened, could never be induced to give up the few unhappy “children of the Sun” who confided in their honour and generosity:  the fugitives amalgamated with their protectors, and the Natchez are extinct.

Some of the Indians here assembled, indulged immoderately in the use of ardent spirits, with which they were copiously supplied by the white people.  During these drinking fits, there is always one at least of the party who remains sober, in order to secure the knives, &c.  Hence the Americans derive the cant phrase of “doing the sober Indian,” which they apply to any one of a company who will not drink fairly.  One of the Indians had a pony which he wished to sell, having occasion for some articles, and his skins not bringing him as much as he had anticipated.  A townsman demanded the price.  The Indian put up both his hands, intimating that he would take ten dollars.  The pony was worth double the sum; but the spirit of barter would not permit the white man to purchase without reducing the price:  he offered the Indian five dollars.  The Indian was evidently indignant, but only gave a nod of dissent.  After some hesitation, the buyer, finding that he could not reduce the price, said he would give the ten dollars.  The Indian then held up his fingers, and counted fifteen.  The buyer demurred at the advance; but the Indian was inexorable, and at length intimated that he would not trade at all.  Such is the character of the Aborigines—­they never calculate on your necessities, but only on their own; and when they are in want of money, demand the lowest possible price for the article they may wish to sell—­but if they see you want to take further advantage of them, they invariably raise the price or refuse to traffic.

Hunting in Tennessee is commonly practised on horseback, with dogs.  When the party comes upon a deer-track, it separates, and hunters are posted, at intervals of about a furlong, on the path which the deer when started is calculated to take.  Two or three persons then set forward with the dogs, always coming up against the wind, and start the deer, when the sentinels at the different points fire at him as he passes, until he is brought down.  Another mode is to hunt by torch-light, without dogs.  In this case, slaves carry torches before the party; the light of which so amazes the deer, that he stands gazing in the brushwood.  The glare of his eyes is always sufficient to direct the attention of the rifleman, who levels his piece at the space between them, and seldom fails of hitting him fairly in the head.