"Well, father came back from New Orleans. He took the horses and put them back on the boat, then tied the boat to our boat and hired a steamboat to take us back to the mouth of the Red River, as flat boats do not run upstream. When we got to the mouth of Red River, they took two of the horses out of the boat and as the river had a levee on each side and a flat road on top, they tied our boat and the horses' boat together, put a horse on each levee and tied to our boats with ropes. We started upstream. We traveled fast as the horses were wanting out. They fairly ran and we went a little faster than we liked but each horse had a young man to ride on his back and keep him from going too fast. We went that way until we got to Bayou LaFouch, LA, then they put the horses in the boats again, and all the man got on the boats with spikes to keep us from striking shore and started down that bayou like a hurricane. The river was very high and running swiftly and the people along the shore did not know what it meant. The hired men said that it was the most dangerous piece of work they had ever seen. We got to a big plantation in Louisiana where there was what was called a Texas road. Father and sons had prepared for our trip on land by bringing along four wagons that had never been put together. One was a four-horse wagon and was a buggy with double covers and new harness, and everything new right from the shop. They took the wagons off the boats and it took the man quite awhile to put them all up, to put on the bows and covers which were made in New York. They were made so that not a drop of water could get in. The people said they had never seen such a turnout before. It was a pretty, warm afternoon when they got everything ready to start. They concluded to go out as far as they could that afternoon to see how the horses would go. They went pitching. The four-horse wagon was the baggage wagon and had our tent in it. We got out eight or 10 miles and put up our tent for the night for the men to sleep in. the ladies slept in the wagons. When we got up the next morning it was raining and it rained for 21 days. I do not mean all the time but showers every day. We were in the pine woods and had to stay on the road or we would mire up. We finally got to the Sabine River and each one wanted to be the first one to cross and say they were the first to be in Texas. The Sabine was high. All the bottoms were covered with water. We had to be ferried five miles, that is, we got the ferry boat and went down stream five miles, then landed. As the ferry boat could only carry one wagon at a time and it took a day for each trip, we were there for several days. The horses had to be ferried over, too. It all took time. After we got over we were in the wilderness. A man came to our tent and said he could save us 40 miles of travel. He had a private way which he sold to Father Luce and which we afterwards found was the worse way. It was a foolish bargain. We were well fixed for travel and the 40 miles around were good roads, and the one we took was too low and poor.