said a citizen to a traveller, who, in 1819, was passing the road from Arcola to Eaglesville,—­“do you know, sir, who is that fine-looking man who has just ferried you across the creek?” “No.  Who is he?” was the reply.  “That,” said the citizen, “is the officer who commanded Napoleon’s advanced guard when he returned from Elba.”  This was Colonel Raoul, now a general in France.

[Footnote 42:  One of the few writers of Alabama.  The “Romantic passages” is a book of great interest.]

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=_143._= THE YOUTH OF THE INDIAN CHIEF WEATHERFORD.

But the mind of the young Indian, though grasping with singular readiness the knowledge thus imparted, was subject to stronger tastes and propensities; and he indulged in all the wild pursuits and amusements of the youth of his nation with an alacrity and spirit which won their approval and admiration.  He became one of the most active, athletic, and swift-footed participants in their various games and dances, and was particularly expert and successful, as a hunter, in the use of the rifle and the bow.  He was also noted, even in his youth, for his reckless daring as a rider, and his graceful feats of horsemanship, which the fine stables of his father enabled him to indulge.  To use the words of an old Indian woman who knew him at this period, “The squaws would quit hoeing corn, and smile and gaze upon him as he rode by the corn-patch.”

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=_Abel Stevens,[43] 1815-._=

From “The History of Methodism.”

=_144._= THE EARLY METHODIST CLERGY IN AMERICA.

They composed a class which, perhaps, will never be seen again.  They were distinguished by native mental vigor, shrewdness, extraordinary knowledge of human nature, many of them by overwhelming natural eloquence, the effects of which on popular assemblies are scarcely paralleled in the history of ancient or modern oratory, and not a few by powers of satire and wit which made the gainsayer cower before them.  To these intellectual attributes they added great excellences of the heart, a zeal which only burned more fervently where that of ordinary men would have grown faint, a courage that exulted in perils, a generosity which knew no bounds, and left most of them in want in their latter days, a forbearance and co-operation with each other which are seldom found in large bodies, an entire devotion to one work, and, withal, a simplicity of character which extended even to their manners and their apparel.  They were likewise characterized by rare physical abilities.  They were mostly robust.  The feats of labor and endurance which they performed, in incessantly preaching in villages and cities, among slave huts and Indian wigwams, in journeyings seldom interrupted by stress of weather, in fording creeks, swimming rivers, sleeping in forests,—­these, with the novel circumstances with which such a career frequently brought them into contact, afford examples of life and character which, in the hands of genius, might be the materials for a new department of romantic literature.  They were men who labored as if the judgment fires were about to break out on the world, and time to end with their day.  They were precisely the men whom the moral wants of the new world at the time demanded.