The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 3, July 1899 - April, 1900 Page: 12
294 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
unfortunate circumstance for the expedition and particularly for
the poor devils of immigrants.
In the next four or five days they found the Lively, which was
purchased and brought up Bayou St. Johns for overhauling. Cap-
tain Butler employed his old friend, Hugh McDonald, a fine Scotch
sailor, and Jimmy, the little English sailor boy. Old Captain Rin-
ker put on board an "old salt," a negro, as cook. And a good one
he was, besides every inch a sailor. I had my hands full as laggard
and errand boy, to purchase and send the bills for payment to Cap-
tain Rinker. Colonel Austin had promised at the time of his en-
gaging with Lieutenant Butler to give him charge of the vessel,
provided Captain Cannon, who was then on his way in charge of a
brig from Providence, R. I., did not arrive in time. At any rate,
Lieutenant Butler was to be second in charge of the Lively. We
worked diligently in the outfit, for many spars and sails were neces-
sary, and much of the ratting had to be supplied.
About this time my friend Mr. Nichols came to the vessel with
a box some 3J feet long, half as wide, and 10 or 12 inches deep.
Getting out of the omnibus, he held it up to me and said, "Here it
is, all in fine order with some powder and balls, but look out that
she doesn't tell on you about your being a marksman." It was a
very fine looking rifle. When he took it, it was bright barreled, but
it had now a dark blue barrel, and all the bright work about it was
darkened. He said nothing tended quicker than a shining thing to
attract attention and frighten game. Then followed a trial in
shooting. I prepared a blackboard and placed on it a white piece
of paper just the size of a dollar, fixed a rest at forty yards dis-
tance and seating myself on the ground I fired and placed the ball
an inch below the paper. Mr. Nichols told me I had drawn too fine
a sight. The second shot was just even with the center, in the edge
of the paper to the right. The third was in the top of the paper,
and the fourth and fifth were like shots, none as near as the third.
Mr. Nichols said they would pass. The gun would lie very snugly
in the box after unbreeching it, the moulds and two pairs of wipers,
a small flat fine file, two handsaw files, and two callipers and a ham-
mer, all being made fast around in the inside of the box, but easily
taken out or replaced. The trappings in the way of hunting shirt,
leggins, moccasins, coarse shirts and drawers were all that I could
wish at that time. It was no difficult matter to procure dressed
buffalo and deer skins, as our trade up the Missouri was better than
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 3, July 1899 - April, 1900, periodical, 1900; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101015/m1/20/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.