Traveling thence through the Indian country, safety would be assured by a junction with other migrants.

Speed would be greater on horseback, but the route was feasible for vehicles, and a traveler would find a tent and a keg of water conducive to his comfort.

The Indians, who were generally short of provisions in spring and summer, would have supplies to spare in autumn; and the prevailing dryness of that season would make the streams and swamps in the path less formidable.

An alternative route lay through Georgia; but its saving of distance was offset by the greater expanse of Indian territory to be crossed, the roughness of the road and the frequency of rivers.

The viewing of the delta country, he thought, would require three or four months of inspection before a choice of location could safely be made.[14] [Footnote 14: _Plantation and Frontier_, II, 197-200.] The procedure of planters embarking upon long distance migration may be gathered from the letters which General Leonard Covington of Calvert County, Maryland, wrote to his brother and friends who had preceded him to the Natchez district.