A trader's life, though one of danger and especially of hardships, rewarded usually with poverty, was not without its lure. James Adair, for forty years a trader among the Cherokee and Chickasaw Indians, typified the fascination of the southern wilderness for those who had once followed its paths in the legend of Major Herbert's spring. There were even rude comforts to be had in the Indian towns, which abounded, Adair wrote, 'with hogs, poultry, and every thing sufficient for the support of a reasonable life.' Most traders took Indian wives, who dressed their victuals and taught them the Indian tongue. 'Such a man,' said Lawson, 'gets a great Trade with the Savages.' Among the Indians the traders enjoyed an influence which tempted some to play the petty tyrant, with disastrous results. But so long as 'they kept them busily employed, and did not make themselves too cheap, the Indians,' by Adair's account, 'bore them good-will and respect.'69 [Note 69: James Adair, History of the American Indians, 1775]