MERIWETHER LEWIS. 401 "ernor Lewis extremely indisposed, and he betrayed at "times considerable derangement of mind. Mr. Neely "kindly determined to accompany him and watch over "him. At their encampment, one day's journey beyond "the Tennessee River, they lost two horses, which obliged "Mr. Neely to halt for their recovery. Governor Lewis "proceeded under a promise to wait for him at the house "of the h'rst white inhabitant on the road. He stopped "at the house of Mr. Grinder, who was not at home. His "wife, alarmed at the symptoms of derangement, gave him "up the house and retired to an outhouse. About three "o'clock in the night he did the deed which plunged his "friends into affliction." Jefferson concludes, "I have only "to add that all the facts I have stated are either known "to myself, or were communicated to me by his family or "others, for whose truth I have no hesitation in making "myself responsible." The mother of Meriwether Lewis in 1820, stated that her son's letters before starting on his homeward journey were full of love and affection. She never believed that her son committed suicide. She firmly believed that he was murdered by his Spanish servant. One of the family said that after thirty years this servant sent a trunk of papers to Mary Garland Marks, in which one was a will of Governor Lewis devising his land in St. Louis to her. That she afterwards compromised her claim for the sum cf $6,000. Another relative recognized a gold watch of Meriwether Lewis's in the hands of a man on the Missis- sippi, and secured it, and supposed at the time that the man was Lewis's Spanish servant. . The report of the Lewis Monument Committee of Ten- nessee says that it seems to be more probable that Gov- ernor Lewis died at the hands of an assassin than that he committed suicide. James D. Park, a lawyer of Franklin, Tennessee, sa} T s that the firm belief of the people of that
