In any case the deliberation of his conduct proved no eagerness to act. A week passed. Although time pressed, and Burr was to move down the Ohio River November 15, Wilkinson did not yet warn the President or the authorities in Mississippi and Tennessee, or the commanding officers at Fort Adams or Chickasaw Bluffs. About October 15 a troop of militia reached Natchitoches; and Wilkinson confided his plans to Colonel Burling, who accompanied it. One might almost have suspected that he was systematically sounding his officers. Not until October 21 did he send the promised letter to President Jefferson, and in that letter he did not so much as mention Burr’s name.[219] He spoke of the expedition as destined for Vera Cruz. “It is unknown under what authority this enterprise has been projected, from whence the means of its support are derived, or what may be the intentions of its leaders in relation to the Territory of Orleans.” The communication was so timed as to reach Washington after Burr should have passed down the Ohio; and it was so worded as to protect Wilkinson in case of Burr’s failure, but in no event to injure Burr. After sending this despatch to Washington by a special messenger, Wilkinson wrote October 23 a letter of mysterious warning to Lieutenant-Colonel Freeman, who commanded at New Orleans.[220] He wrote also a letter to Burr, which he afterward recovered at Natchez and destroyed.[221] He sent his force forward to the Sabine, and passed ten days in making an arrangement with the Spanish officers for maintaining the relative positions of the outposts. Not until November 5 did he return to Natchitoches. Then, at last, his movements became as rapid as they had hitherto been dilatory. November 7 he wrote to Colonel Cushing from Natchitoches:[222] “On the 15th of this month Burr’s declaration is to be made in Tennessee and Kentucky. Hurry, hurry after me; and if necessary, let us be buried together in the ruins of the place we shall defend!” He had at last chosen his part; and having decided to act as the savior of the country, he began to exaggerate the danger. “If I mistake not, we shall have an insurrection of blacks as well as whites to combat.”[223] “I shall be with you by the 20th instant,” he wrote to Freeman the same day;[224] “in the mean time be you as silent as the grave!” He left Natchitoches November 7, and reached Natchez on the 11th, whence he wrote “from the seat of Major Minor” a letter of alarm to the President, confiding to the messenger an oral account of Burr’s letter, for Jefferson’s benefit:[225]--