These Memories are put down without system, or order, as they have presented themselves, and have been related in a manner which I have attempted to make entertaining and instructive, without being prolix or tedious. They will be chiefly interesting to the people of the South; though much may, and, I hope, will be read by those of the North. Some of my happiest days have been passed in the North: at Cambridge some of my sons have been educated, and some of my dearest friends have been Northern men. Despite the strife which has gone far toward making us in heart a divided people, I have a grateful memory of many whose homes and graves were and are in New England. Would that this strife had never been! But it has come, and I cannot forego a parent's natural feelings when mourning the loss of sons slain in the conflict, or the bitterness arising therefrom toward those who slew them. Yet, as I forgive, I hope to be forgiven. There are but few now left who began the journey of life with me. Those of this number who still sojourn in our native land will find much in these pages familiar to their remembrance, and some things, the reading of which may revive incidents and persons long forgotten. In the West, in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas, there are many--the descendants of those who participated in events transpiring fifty years ago--who have listened at the parental hearth to their recital. To these I send this volume greeting; and if they find something herein to amuse and call up remembrances of the past, I shall feel gratified. To the many friends I have in the Southwest, and especially in Louisiana and Mississippi, where I have sojourned well-nigh fifty years, and many of whom have so often urged upon me the writing of these Memories, I commit the book, and ask of them, and of all into whose hands it may fall, a lenient criticism, a kindly recollection, and a generous thought of our past intercourse. It is an inexorable fate that separates us, and I feel it is forever. This sad thought is alleviated, however, by the consciousness that the few remaining sands of life are falling at the home of my birth; and that when the end comes, as very soon it must, I shall be placed to sleep amid my kindred in the land of my nativity. THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. REVOLUTIONARY TRADITIONS. Middle Georgia--Colonel David Love--His Widow--Governor Dunmore-- Colonel Tarleton--Bill Cunningham--Colonel Fannin--My Grandmother's Bible--Solomon's Maxim Applied--Robertus Love--The Indian Warrior-- Dragon Canoe--A Buxom Lass--General Gates--Marion--Mason L. Weems --Washington--"Billy Crafford" CHAPTER II. PIONEER LIFE. Settlement of Middle Georgia--Prowling Indians--Scouts and their Dogs--Classes of Settlers--Prominence of Virginians--Causes of Distinction--Clearing--Log-Rolling--Frolics--Teachers Cummings and Duffy--The Schoolmaster's Nose--Flogging--Emigration to Alabama CHAPTER III. THE GEORGIA COMPANY.