My horse having a navel gall come on his back, I sold him with the saddle, bridle, cloak and blanket, etc., on credit for about three fourths of the value, with uncertainty whether I should ever be paid: thus I crossed the river French Broad in a canoe and set out for my appointment; but fearing I should be behind the time, I hired a man (whom I met on the road with two horses) to carry me five miles in haste for three shillings; which left me but one sixteenth of a dollar. In our speed he observed there was a nigh way by which I could clamber the rocks and cut off some miles: so we parted; he having not gone two thirds of the way yet insisted on the full sum. I took to my feet the nigh way as fast as I could pull on, as intricate as it was, and came to a horrid ledge of rocks on the bank of the river where there was no such thing as going round; and to clamber over would be at the risk of my life, as there was danger of slipping into the river. However, being unwilling to disappoint the people, I pulled off my shoes, and with my handkerchief fastened them about my neck, and creeping upon my hands and feet with my fingers and toes in the cracks of the rocks with difficulty I got safe over. In about four miles I came to a house and hired a woman to take me over the river in a canoe, for my remaining money and a pair of scissors; the latter of which was the chief object with her: so our extremities are other’s opportunities. Thus with difficulty I got to my appointment in Newport in time. I had heard about a singularity called the _jerks_ or _jerking exercise_, which appeared first near Knoxville in August last, to the great alarm of the people; which reports at first I considered as vague and false. But at length, like the Queen of Sheba, I set out to go and see for myself and sent over these appointments into this country accordingly. When I arrived in sight of this town, I saw hundreds of people collected in little bodies; and observing no place appointed for meeting, before I spoke to any, I got on a log and gave out an hymn; which caused them to assemble round, in solemn attentive silence. I observed several involuntary motions in the course of the meeting, which I considered as a specimen of the jerks. I rode seven miles behind a man across streams of water and held meeting in the evening, being ten miles on my way.