Wages and I while on Big creek held a consultation as to our future course. Wages then sorely repented any connection that he ever had with old Brown, “and,” said he, “I intend to get away from him, for I am fearful the old fool will get drunk and tell everything he does know.” We then concluded our best way was for Wages to take his horse and cart, take old Niel McIntosh with him, and his wife and child, and start west and travel in the vicinity of Pearl river; there leave his wife; take the cart and horse and he and McIntosh to travel down Pearl river till they came opposite Catahoula; then turn in and get our money, and cross the Mississippi river; send McIntosh back to let McGrath and I know where to find him, and for us to slip off and go slyly, and not let Brown know where we were going, “and,” said Wages, “if I can manage to rob old Tom Sumrall on my route and make a raise, so much the better. And you and your crowd may manage to make a raise here before you leave.” BURNING OF ELI MAFFITT’S HOUSE, AND ATTEMPTED MURDER OF HIS WIFE. The same day Wages and I were consulting thus, my brother John Copeland came to bring me some clothes, and he informed me that it was reported that old Eli Maffitt held a large amount of money, and that there was a project on foot to rob him and burn his house the first good opportunity; that Maffitt had taken a contract to build a bridge in Perry county, and would shortly leave home, and that Eli Myrick was to let the party know what time Maffitt commenced the bridge and would be absent from home. I then told Wages what was on foot. He then said “let me leave home about three days before, and I will try on the some night to rob old Sumrall and burn his house.” In a few days Myrick came down and told us that Maffitt was up in Perry county, and would not be home in two weeks. Wages immediately geared up, and started with his cart, his wife and McIntosh. Three nights after that Allen Brown, McGrath, John Copeland and I went to Maffitt’s just after dark, about seven o’clock, on the night of the 15th of December, 1847. Eli Myrick did not go with us, because he said Mrs. Maffitt would know him too well, but he was in the secret and shared his part of the money. On getting near, we stopped to consult as to the safest way to get the money. Some were for robbing the house and not injuring any of the family. That I opposed, for I never believed in leaving any living witness behind to tell what I had done, if there was any way to prevent it. I always thought that two persons were enough to keep a secret, and it was safest if one of them were dead, for dead witnesses give no evidence. It was agreed that we should go into the house and demand the money, and if given up, to leave the inmates peaceably and unharmed.