Meanwhile the “principal actor,” commanding a small body of men on flatboats, was on his way down the Mississippi River. He had arrived at a place called Cole’s Creek in Mississippi territory when he first learned of the hue and cry raised against him by the President and General Wilkinson. A few days prior to this he had voluntarily surrendered himself to the territorial authorities and, after an inquest like the two earlier ones in Kentucky, he had been dismissed by a grand jury. Instead of indicting Burr the jury rebuked the authorities for their overzealousness in interfering with him and his men. Burr had nothing to fear from the civil authorities of Mississippi, but the military under Wilkinson’s command were quite a different matter. According to his later testimony Burr imagined his life was in danger. For the first and last time in his life he acted in a manner that suggested cowardice. He deserted his followers. Disguising himself as a backwoodsman he mounted a horse and started his flight. By this time the alarm had been broadcast and everywhere people were on the lookout for him. It was Nicholas Perkins who, informed of the presence of a mysterious stranger near Wakefield, in Washington County, Alabama, set out to investigate. His keen eye noted that the boots showing below the stranger’s pantaloons were much too fine for any ordinary countryman. Burr, on being challenged, acknowledged his identity and agreed to go with Perkins who turned him over to the military authorities at Fort Stoddart, an army post north of Mobile. The commander was a young Virginian, Lieutenant Edmund Pendleton Gaines. Gaines engaged Perkins to deliver his prisoner to the Government in Washington. On March 5 the party set out. The first part of the journey, made on horseback, lay through the Cherokee Indian country in Alabama and Georgia. Heavy rain increased the discomfort of the travelers. Burr bore his hardships without a whimper and with but one incident of insubordination. As a lawyer he knew his arrest was highly questionable. South Carolina was the home of his son-in-law where he might perhaps find sympathy. So, while passing through the little settlement of Chester in that state, Burr leaped from his horse and shouted, “I am Aaron Burr, under military arrest, and claim the protection of the civil authorities.” Perkins, with his superior size and strength, calmly took him around the waist, sat him back on his horse, and the party proceeded. Thereafter, Burr traveled in a gig. That is, until the party shifted to a stagecoach shortly before reaching Richmond. The original destination had been Washington. But at Fredericksburg, Virginia, Perkins received counterinstructions from President Jefferson to deliver his prisoner to the authorities in Richmond. So on their arrival at the Eagle Tavern, Perkins’ task was nearly ended.