At one of the first houses in the redoubtable border village the stage halted, and a couple of trunks were added to our load; next, a female was handed into the coach, followed by her protector. The proportions of neither could at this time be more than guessed at; and not one syllable was exchanged by any of the parties. In a few minutes we were again under weigh, and plunging through the forest. We reached Fort-Mitchell about daylight, where formerly a considerable garrison was kept up: the post is now, however, abandoned. Here an unanticipated treat awaited us, for we were compelled to leave our, by this time, tolerably warm stage, for one fairly saturated with the rain that had fallen during the night. Our luggage was pitched into the mud by the coachman, who had only one assistant; so we were fain to lend a hand, instead of standing shivering by, until the trunks were fished out, and disposed of on the new stage. A delay here of an hour and a half enabled me, however, to stroll back, and take a look at the deserted barrack. By this time too the day was well out; the sky broke with a more cheerful look than for some days back had favoured us, and was hailed by us all with great pleasure. I prepared my 'baccy, and climbed on to the box by the driver, resolute to hold on there as long as possible. For five hours we got along at the rate of four miles an hour, through a forest of pine growing out of a sandy soil, without any undergrowth whatever,--the trees of the noblest height, and just so far apart that horsemen might have galloped in any direction without difficulty. Our driver was a lively intelligent young fellow, having a civil word of inquiry or of greeting for every Indian we encountered: these were by no means numerous however, and they seldom replied by more than a monosyllable, hardly appearing to notice our passage. The country was in general slightly undulating, but now and then we came to places where I considered us fairly pounded, so abrupt were the declivities and so deep the mud. There are few persons certainly called on for a more frequent display of pluck and coolness than these drivers; I should like some of our flash dragsmen to see one or two bits we got through on this road; not that any mile of it would be considered passable by Pickford's vans, in the condition it was at this season. We halted for a late breakfast at a solitary log-tavern kept by Americans, where we were received with infinite civility, and where the lady of the _auberge_ was inclined to be amiable and communicative,--not an every-day rencontre in these parts. She informed me that the means they could command for the mere necessaries of living were very limited; that butcher's meat was only attainable at Columbus, and that any attempt to rear a stock of poultry was ridiculous, as the Indians of the country invariably stole every feather.