which they would avoid the most watercourses. We know from Mr. H.C.
Whitney that the travellers reached Macon County from the south, for
once when he was in Decatur with Mr. Lincoln the two strolled out for
a walk, and when they came to the court-house, "Lincoln," says Mr.
Whitney, "walked out a few feet in front, and after shifting his
position two or three times, said, as he looked up at the building,
partly to himself and partly to me: 'Here is the exact spot where I
stood by our wagon when we moved from Indiana twenty-six years ago;
this isn't six feet from the exact spot.'... I asked him if he, at
that time, had expected to be a lawyer and practise law in that
court-house; to which he replied: 'No; I didn't know I had sense
enough to be a lawyer then.' He then told me he had frequently
thereafter tried to locate the route by which they had come; and that
he had decided that it was near to the line of the main line of the
Illinois Central Railroad."

[Illustration: LINCOLN, OFFUTT, AND GREEN ON THE FLATBOAT AT NEW
SALEM.

From a painting in the State Capitol, Springfield, Illinois. This
picture is crude and, from a historic point of view, inaccurate. The
celebrated flatboat built by Lincoln and by him piloted to New
Orleans, was a much larger and better craft than the one here
portrayed. The little structure over the dam is meant for the Rutledge
and Cameron mill, but the real mill was a far more pretentious affair.
There was not only a grist-mill, but also a saw-mill which furnished
lumber to the settlers for many miles around. The mill was built in
1829. March 5, 1830, we find John Overstreet appearing before the
County Commissioners' Court at Springfield and averring upon oath
"that he is informed and believes that John Cameron and James Rutledge