’In 1831 the Red River cut-off formed.

’In 1832 steamer “Hudson” made the run from White River to Helena, a distance of seventy-five miles, in twelve hours.  This was the source of much talk and speculation among parties directly interested.

’In 1839 Great Horseshoe cut-off formed.

’Up to the present time, a term of thirty-five years, we ascertain, by reference to the diary, he has made four hundred and sixty round trips to New Orleans, which gives a distance of one million one hundred and four thousand miles, or an average of eighty-six miles a day.’

Whenever Captain Sellers approached a body of gossiping pilots, a chill fell there, and talking ceased.  For this reason:  whenever six pilots were gathered together, there would always be one or two newly fledged ones in the lot, and the elder ones would be always ‘showing off’ before these poor fellows; making them sorrowfully feel how callow they were, how recent their nobility, and how humble their degree, by talking largely and vaporously of old-time experiences on the river; always making it a point to date everything back as far as they could, so as to make the new men feel their newness to the sharpest degree possible, and envy the old stagers in the like degree.  And how these complacent baldheads would swell, and brag, and lie, and date back—­ten, fifteen, twenty years,—­and how they did enjoy the effect produced upon the marveling and envying youngsters!

And perhaps just at this happy stage of the proceedings, the stately figure of Captain Isaiah Sellers, that real and only genuine Son of Antiquity, would drift solemnly into the midst.  Imagine the size of the silence that would result on the instant.  And imagine the feelings of those bald-heads, and the exultation of their recent audience when the ancient captain would begin to drop casual and indifferent remarks of a reminiscent nature—­about islands that had disappeared, and cutoffs that had been made, a generation before the oldest bald-head in the company had ever set his foot in a pilot-house!

Many and many a time did this ancient mariner appear on the scene in the above fashion, and spread disaster and humiliation around him.  If one might believe the pilots, he always dated his islands back to the misty dawn of river history; and he never used the same island twice; and never did he employ an island that still existed, or give one a name which anybody present was old enough to have heard of before.  If you might believe the pilots, he was always conscientiously particular about little details; never spoke of ‘the State of Mississippi,’ for instance —­no, he would say, ’When the State of Mississippi was where Arkansas now is,’ and would never speak of Louisiana or Missouri in a general way, and leave an incorrect impression on your mind—­no, he would say, ’When Louisiana was up the river farther,’ or ’When Missouri was on the Illinois side.’