The circumstances which brought him into this relation are thus narrated by Mr.J.H.

Barrett: "While there was snow on the ground, at the close of the year 1830, or early in 1831, a man came to that part of Macon County where young Lincoln was living, in pursuit of hands to aid him in a flatboat voyage down the Mississippi.

The fact was known that the youth had once made such a trip, and his services were sought for this occasion.

As one who had his own subsistence to earn, with no capital but his hands, he accepted the proposition made him.
Perhaps there was something of his inherited and acquired fondness for exciting adventure impelling him to this decision.

With him were also employed his former fellow-laborer, John Hanks, and a son of his step-mother named John Johnston.