At the Choctaw Agency he had supper, consisting of “A piece of fish perfectly burnt on one side, but, in compensation uncooked on the other,” onions, and corn. Considerant reported that a negro slave was the instructor of the Indians in the Choctaw country, teaching them the crude elements of agriculture, how to play on the fiddle, and minor industries. Here at the agency he apparently became exhausted by the long rides and was somewhat discouraged over the whole proposition, but Brisbane soon overcame his discouragement and they went on. Eight days out of Fort Smith the two travellers came to Preston, located on the bluffs of the Red River. On approaching the town, Considerant describes the surrounding country and his personal reactions in the following manner: The landscape was classic and charming; its character surprised us beyond all expression. In all civilized and cultivated America, I have seen nothing so sweet, so bewitching, so ornate and complete as these solitudes by which we entered the high basin of the Red River. Brisbane and I were struck with the same idea; we seemed to behold, transported into this rich climate and under the splendid firmament of latitude 34, those admirable parks, created and sustained at so great an expense by the high aristocracy of England.... Nature has done all. All is prepared, all is arranged: we have only to raise those buildings which the eye is astonished at not finding; and nothing is appropriated nor separated by the selfish exclusiveness of civilized man; nothing is cramped. What fields of action! What a theatre of manoeuvres for a great colonization operating in the combined and collective mode! What reserves for the cradle of Harmony, and how powerful and prompt would be its developments, if the living and the willing elements of the World of the Future were transported there! A horizon of new ideas, new sentiments and hopes, suddenly opened before me, and I felt baptized in an American faith.[8] Considerant does not describe the town of Preston and his reaction to frontier life as exhibited there. The town was full of rough and crude fellows, hijackers, murderers, and adventurers of all types. An army officer, passing through the country about the time the above named travelers were there, reported that the town was one of “bad repute.”[9] From other sources it is learned that Considerant and Brisbane remained in the vicinity of Preston for a few days and then went on toward Clarksville. A letter from Bourland and Manion, a commercial company out from Preston, to a Major de Morse says: Sir: