Just as we were taking the saved buffalo up to the fort, the sentry came to me and announced that five white men were riding down the river, upon which I went to the turret and saw that the new arrivals were three white men, a negro and a mulatto. About half an hour later the strangers rode up to the fort and dismounted at the gate, while the coloured men took their horses and unsaddled them. A fine looking man of nearly sixty years of age advanced to me, shook my hand and introduced himself to me as a Mr. Lasar, from Alabama, one of his young companions as his son John, and the other as his cousin Henry, of the same name. The old gentleman had something most elegant and attractive about his appearance, which evidenced lengthened intercourse with the higher social circles; over his high bronzed forehead shone his still thick though silvery hair, while long black eyebrows overshadowed his light blue eyes, and his fresh complexion seemed to protest against his white hair. Though fully six feet high he carried himself with the strength of a man of thirty, and his bright merry eyes proved that his mind was still youthful. He was an old Spaniard, had settled when a young man in Alabama, and though the blue eyes contradicted his origin, it was manifested in all the rest of his countenance. His son John was shorter and lighter built, with black curling hair and very dark, but pleasant eyes, a nice looking youth of seventeen, and cousin Henry a young man of twenty odd, of middle height and narrow between the shoulders, showed by his auburn hair and grey eyes, that his blood was mixed. I conducted the strangers to the parlour and set before them a breakfast, among the dishes being one of duck's breast in jelly. The old gentleman was greatly surprised, and said that he had not expected to find anything at my house beyond very good game and roasted marrow bones. When I treated them to French wine and cigars, and they surveyed the ornaments of my room, they expressed the utmost surprise at the amount of comfort they found, and John said that I had everything precisely as his father intended to have it when he settled here. The old gentleman now informed me of his intention to come into my neighbourhood and requested my advice and aid. He had a cotton plantation in Alabama, but the number of his negroes had increased so considerably that he could not employ them all on his estate, and must hire out the majority at very low wages; land was too high in price there, so he preferred taking up Government land here and submitting to the privations and dangers of a life on the border. He now proposed to inspect the land, then return and send on John with fifty negroes, so as to get a maize crop ready, while he would follow in autumn with his family and five hundred slaves. I was very glad to have such neighbours, so I gladly offered him my services in showing him as much fine land as he wanted close to mine.