Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 3).djvu/158

 *tention of our journey, we communicated to each other our remarks upon the country that we had just travelled over. He had been upward of six hundred miles since his departure from his place of residence, and I had been four hundred since I left New York. He proposed accompanying me to Pittsburgh. I observed to him that I was on foot, and gave him my reasons for it, as it is very uncommon in America to travel in that manner, the poorest inhabitant possessing always one, and even several horses.

From Greensburgh to Pittsburgh it is computed to be about thirty-two miles. The road that leads to it is very mountainous. To avoid the heat, and to accelerate my journey, I set out at four in the morning. I had no trouble in getting out of the house, the door being only on the latch. At the inns in small towns, on the contrary, they are extremely careful in locking the stables, as horse-stealers are by no means uncommon in certain parts of the {55} United States; and this is one of the accidents to which travellers are the most exposed, more especially in the southern states and in the western countries, where they are sometimes obliged to sleep in the woods. It also frequently happens that they steal them from the inhabitants; at the same time nothing is more easy, as the horses are, in one part of the year, turned out in the forests, and in the spring they frequently stray many miles from home; but on the slightest probability of the road the thief has taken, the plundered inhabitant vigorously pursues him, and frequently succeeds in taking him; upon which he confines him in the county prison, or, which is not uncommon, kills him on the spot. In the different states the laws against horse-stealing are very severe, and this severity appears influenced by the great facility the country presents for committing the crime.

I had travelled about fifteen miles when I was over