polished gestures, and, above all, the manuscript sermon of a Boston divine, would have disgusted the men and women of the frontier.  What cared they for predestination or free-will, or for any of the dogmas of the schools?  They wanted to hear the simple, fundamental truths of the Gospel, and they wanted to hear them from a man of their own stamp.  They wanted a “fire and brimstone” preacher, one whose fiery eloquence could stir the very depths of their souls, and set their simple imaginations all ablaze; one who could shout and sing with true Western abandon; who could preach in his shirt-sleeves, sleep with them on the bare ground, brave all the dangers of a frontier life, and, if necessary, thrash any one who dared to insult him.  Such was the man for these sturdy, simple Western folk, and such a man they found in Peter Cartwright.

Peter went at the task before him with a will.  The country being sparsely settled, people had to travel a long way to get to church, and it became a matter of expediency for the clergy to hold religious gatherings at stated points, and to continue them for several days, so that those who desired to attend might be able to avoid the necessity of going home every evening and coming back next day.  Church edifices being scarce, these meetings were held in the woods, and a large encampment was formed by the people in attendance.  This was the origin of the camp-meeting system, which for many years was the only effective way of spreading the Gospel in the West.  It was at a camp-meeting that Peter obtained religion, and he has ever since been a zealous advocate of, and a hard worker at, them.  From the first he was successful.  The fame of the “boy preacher” went abroad into all the land, and people came in to the camp from a hundred miles around to hear him.  He had little education, but he knew his Bible thoroughly, and was a ready speaker, and, above all, he knew how to deal with the people to whom he preached.  He made many converts, and from the first took rank as the most popular preacher in the West.

Peter not only believed in the overruling power of God, but he was firmly convinced of the active and personal agency of the devil in human affairs.  Many of the follies and faults of the people around him took place, he averred, because they were possessed of devils.  Each camp-meeting was to him a campaign against Satan, and in his opinion Satan never failed to make a good fight for his kingdom.  Certainly some very singular things did occur at the meetings at which he was present, and, naturally, perhaps, some persons began to believe that Peter Cartwright possessed supernatural powers.  The following incident, related by him, not only explains some of the phenomena to which I allude, but also the manner in which he was regarded by some of the unconverted: