The young adventurer was William Churchill Houston and his destination was Princeton, then called New Jersey College. Having said his farewells to relatives and neighbors and received the blessings and embraces of his anxious parents, the youth rode out into the wilderness trail. His saddlebags were well filled with provisions but there had been little room for books. His rifle was strapped to his saddle. He fingered a small packet of bills sewed inside his shirt. His father, Archibald, had staked him with a horse and saddle and fifty pounds in British currency for college—a generous enough allowance except that Princeton was far away.

Thç trail ran hundreds of miles across rivers, through small settlements, with wilderness in between. At that time, Indians in the pay of the French still harassed the settlers and travelers. "Thieves and murderers abounded," according to Thomas Allen Glenn in his book, "William Churchill Houston 1746-1788."l But the tall youth had grown up in a wild country in which the Indians fought among themselves as well as with the settlers. He was probably an expert with the rifle and the

1 Thomas Allen Glenn, William Churchill Houston 1746-1788. (Privately printed, Morristown, Pa., 1903.)