The Mediterranean, though the biggest boat on it, was soon crowded; but at Helena, Crockett and a great number of the leading men of the expedition got off.

And as Dare and Crockett had become friends, I followed them." "Where did you go to ?" "We went ostensibly to a big barbecue at John Bowie's plantation, which is a few miles below Helena.

Invitations to this barbecue had been sent hundreds of miles throughout the surrounding country.

We met parties from the depths of the Arkansas wilderness and the furthest boundaries of the Choctaw nation coming to it.

There were raftsmen from the Mississippi, from the White, and the St.Francis rivers.