p62 1817 Journal Thomas Dean

and put out the tire, laid down again, went to sleep. I had a remarkable dream which agitated me very much. It brought to me the situation of my family, and the state of my affairs in which I left them. The irnprudence of leav- ing home on such a journey without first settling all of my affairs; that they would lose greatly in case of my never returning to them again. The contents of my dream agitated me so that I could not eat much breakfast. I may write it down when I have more leisure, but I must note our situ- ation this morning. Paul and R. Fowler again went out up the northeast branch, along an old path, to find a settlement of Indians, or to see if we could go up the river. They returned and said that they thought our passage up at an end; if we went any farther we would lose the boat and all the baggage we could not carry. We held a council to decide whether we should risk the sacrifice or return to Fort Har~ rison and there dispose of what we could, and then go by land. Thomas Isaac Was in favor of going up the river as far as we could, and try the experiment. The rest were for returning. Betsy Isaac was unwell with the ague and fever, quite feeble, and it was difticult to provide a pas- sage for her. Thomas started to examine the northeast branch after breakfast and retumed about 1 o'clock P. M. and said that he went up the east branch about eight miles and thought that we could not get up. We then concluded to return to Fort Harrison, sell our boat and what bag- gage we could not carry on our backs, go across the country through the woods. We took some bread and sas- safras tea, the only food we had that we could eat. Our pork was spoiled so that we could not eat it, but I made a