________________________________________The First Survey Through Hal's Lake Swamp Page 16
of our company) to be not more than five miles from James Powells, whither directing our course, we meet Mr. Dinsmoor, the Choctaw deputation, and our pack horsemen. After traveling about two miles, and returning with them to the Lake we encamp and get refreshment. The day has been clear and pleasant.91
On Sunday, October 15, 1809, Wailes left the survey in the hands of Mr. Dinsmoor, because of "domestic concerns requiring my absence for a few weeks".92
For about two days the group surveyed and camped on the north side of the Lake.
On October 17th Dinsmoor, searching for water, first found the Alabama River, where:
I meet some Alabama's [Indians] and contract for a passage to David Tates a quadroon of these [illegible], educated in England where I arrive about 10 o'clock.93
Spending the night, on the morning of October 18th -- "Foggy morning, clear day" -- he pumped Tate:
In a conversation with Mr. Tate and others I find he can give me very little information about the swamp, he says the Alabama is very crooked and its general course ascending is north and that the distance from our last post to Bates Place [sic: Lake?] cannot be great.94
Here leaveth this paper from the survey. Anybody wanting to trace the survey team north of Hal's Lake is welcome to ask to use one of the copes which the author has donated to the Clarke County Historical Society, one of which is kept at the Clarke County Museum in Grove Hill.
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91p. 176-77. This crossing place was probably immediately east of the Northern end of the bridge of the "Oil Well Road" crossing Hal's Lake.
92p. 177. This is the only thing close to a personal statement by Wailes in the Journal.
93p. 178. Tate was a college graduate, from Inverness College in Scotland, where Lachlan McGillivry lived in late life. L. THOMPSON, WILLIAM WEATHERFORD: HIS COUNTRY AND HIS PEOPLE 69. Tate was also William Weatherford's half-brother and best friend, but sided with the Whites in the Creek War. Tate's wife and most children died at Ft. Mims, though Tate himself was then at the "less safe" Ft. Pierce. Tate lived just a few miles from the Mims property, and owned a plantation at the brickyard, on which Weatherford and Weatherford's mother Sehoy are buried. His life is extensively noted in Thompson's excellent work. Tate died in 1828.
94p. 178.
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