Prefatory.

ix

which work his familiarity with Indian character eminently fitted him.

In 1802 he lived with his son James, to whom he had conveyed the copyright and the remaining copies of his work, and also twenty acres of land, for which the son had agreed "to decently support his father during his lifetime."

On his return from one of his missionary excursions into Tennessee, he found that his son James had during his absence joined the Shakers, and had gone with his family to a settlement which that sect had just formed on Tm*tle Creek, Ohio (near Lebanon). He followed, "to see what sort of people they were," lived with them only a short time, but long enough to be disgusted with the whole fraternity. His son James, who before joining the Shakers "was naturally friendly, a dutiful son, a kind husband and a tender father,'' seems to have changed his whole nature, and "appeared to be divested of natural affection toward his wife Polly and other connections." She, on going to visit some relatives with her father-in-law, was advertised by her husband as having left his "house and hoard without any just cause;" and on her return, at the instigation of the elders, he refused to receive her, or allow her to see her children, "without she would receive their testimony." Thus driven from the settlement, and from her husband and children, she returned to her friends in Kentucky. Col. Smith was greatly exasperated at the conduct of his son, and opened his batteries on the. leaders of the Shakers, exposing them socially, theologically, and politically, in a pamphlet entitled

"Remarkable Occurrences lately discovered among the People called Shakers: of a Treasonable and barbarous nature; or, Shakerism Developed. By James Smith. Paris (Ky.).   Printed by Joel R. Lyle."   (1810.) pp.24.