My life from this time underwent a change. I had twelve negroes at my disposal, and must so employ them as not only to get their hire out of them, but also attain the object for which I had hired them, namely, making a profit. With this the careless, happy life which had surrounded me for years, far from humanity, was at an end, and the god of gold, with his thousand sufferings, hatefulnesses, and sorrows, began to establish his despotic rule even here. I now made a second extensive field which was sown with maize, by the side of my old one, while in the latter I planted cotton, as this plant does not flourish in new ground. I took young oxen from the pasturage and forced them into the strange yoke. My mules, which had hitherto only fetched at rare intervals our few wants from the settlements, were now attached to the plough at daybreak, and forced with the whip to toil till sunset. My colonists had so much to do all day that they went to bed at an early hour, and we no longer sat, as of yore, cozily round the table, talking and jesting about the unimportant events which had occurred during the day. In a word, the whole colony felt the change. Peace had departed and made room for the restless activity of civilization. Tiger did not like the change, although I carefully avoided everything which might render his residence among us less agreeable. He was now obliged to ride out hunting alone, while we required far more meat than before. Still I frequently tore myself away and went with him for three or four days into the desert, in order to recall past times, if only temporarily. Summer arrived with a rich harvest, and with it again fresh, uninterrupted toil. My neighbours had also been rewarded for their exertions by an immense maize crop, and employed the late summer in building larger houses for the reception of Lasar and his family. Strangers came to prospect the land in our neighbourhood, and all went away contented with an assurance that they would soon settle here. Among them were many unpleasant characters, but I consoled myself with the thought that they would not become near neighbours of mine, for I possessed all the forest land down the river, so far as it was suitable for cultivation, and up stream Lasar had purchased a large district adjoining my frontier. They could not settle on the open prairie without water or wood, and hence they must proceed to the streams farther north, where I was tolerably out of their reach.