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D my 'Mackintosh', for whilst my companions were wet through I was comparatively dry.

 For an hour or more we wandered about among the groves of Live-oaks, undulating prairies now & then startling a deer, but without a track or trail. The compass was resorted to & knowing that the __ 'bottom' or timbers of the Colorado River must lay in an Easterly direction, we took that way, we soon fell in with a track which [crossed out: took] conducted us in to __ Valley & from some Negro we found on a plantation we found we were only some Eight Miles from our destination; but, this we did not attain ere nightfall.  On approaching the ferry we found that the River was running so rapidly that it was impossible to cross.   +
 I solicited hospitality at a small log house for the night, when a genteel woman appeared with several children round her.

' Ah Sir I could have done it a few months since & glad would I have been to have done so, for you look fatigued & the Storm will do you no good. But pray Sir where are