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Show 1836- 1837I Ffogg'* Far West 367 ranee of the worthy souls who took upon them to direct. I have given this instance in detail for die special edification and benefit of all future wayfarers in Illinois. The only unerring guide on the prairies is the map and the compass. Half famished, and somewhat more than half vexed at the adventures of the morning, I found myself, near noon, at the cabin- door of an honest old Virginian, and was ere long placed in a fair way to relieve my craving appetite. With the little compass which hung at the safety- riband of my watch, and. which had done me such rare service during my wanderings, the worthy old gentleman seemed heart- stricken at first sight, and warmly protested that he and the " stranger " must have " a small bit of a tug " for that fixen, a proposition which said stranger by no means as warmly relished. Laying, therefore, before the old farmer a slight outline of my morning's ramble, he readily perceived that with me the " pretty leetle fiocen " was anything but a superlative. My evening ride was a delightful one along the edge of an extended prairie; but, though repeatedly assured by the worthy settlers upon the route that I could " catch no dijfickulty on my way no how, 1' my compass was [ 123] my only safe guide. At length, crossing " Mud River" upon a lofty bridge of logs, the town of Pinkneyville was before me just at sunset* 1* Pinkneyville has but little to commend it to the passing traveller, whether we regard beauty of location, regularity of structure, elegance, size, or proportion of edifices, or the cultivation of the farms in its vicinage. It would, *• Mud Creek rises in the northwestern part of Perry County, flows through the southwestern part of Washington and the southeastern part of St Clair counties, and enters the Kaakaakia two miles below FayetteviUe. In January, 1827, the state legislature in organizing Perry County appointed a commission to select a seat of justice to be known as Pinckneyville ( Pinkneyville), its town site being located and platted in January, 1828.- ED. |
