stripped of their verdure, I could not help raising my eyes towards their tops and admiring their grandeur. The largesycamores with white bark formed a lively contrast with the canes beneath them; and the thousands ofparoquets that came to roost in their hollow trunks at night were to me objects of interest and curiosity. About fifty families of ShawneeIndians had moreover chosen this spot for an encampment, to reap the benefit of a good harvest of pecan nuts; and to hunt the innumerable deer, bears and raccoons which the same cause had congregated there. These were not the first natives (for I cannot, like many Europeans, call them savages) that I had seen; I understand their habits and a few words of their language, and as many of them spoke French passably, I easily joined both their “talks” and their avocations.
An apparent sympathy connects those fond of the same pursuit, with a discernment almost intuitive, whatever be their nation. All those hunters who loved fishing and pursuits of enterprise ere long crowded round me; and as soon as they learned my anxiety for curiosities of natural history, they discovered the most gratifying anxiety to procure them for me. Even the squaws set small trapsfor the smaller animals, and when, in return, I presented them with a knife, a pair of scissors, &c., they expressed their gratitude as gracefully as the most educated female would have done. My friendFerdinand Rozier, neither hunter nor naturalist, sat in the boat all day, brooding in gloomy silence over the loss of time &c. entailed by our detention. The Count kept a valuable journal, since published, hunted a great deal, and was as careless of the weather as myself; but his companion and father-in-law, like my partner, sat in his boat, pining with chagrin and ennui. Their case, however, was hopeless; here we were, and were forced to remain, until liberated by a thaw.
On the second morning after our arrival I heard a movement in the Indian camp, and having hastily risen and dressed myself, I discovered that a canoe containing half a dozen squaws and as many hunters was about to leave the Illinois for the Tennessee side of the river. I learned also that their object was to proceed to a large lake opposite, to which immense flocks ofswans resorted every morning. These flocks were so numerous and strong that it is, however incredible it may at first seem, a well-known fact that they keep the lakes which they frequent open merely by swimming upon them night and day.
Having obtained permission to join the party, I seated myself in the canoe, well supplied with ammunition and whiskey. In a few moments the paddles were at work and we swiftly crossed to the opposite shore. I was not much astonished during our passage to see all the labor of paddling performed by the squaws, for this feature of Indian manners was not new to me; but I was surprised to see that upon entering the canoe the hunters laid down and positively slept during the whole passage. On landing, the squaws, after securing the boat, proceeded to search for nuts, while the
gentlemen
hunters made the best of their way through the “thick and thin” to the lake.
Those who have never seen anything of what I call “thick and thin” may perhaps think I allude to something like the furze which covers some of the moors of Scotland. But they must imagine the shores of the Ohio, at its junction with the great muddy river called the Mississippi, to be fairly overgrown with a kind of thick-set cotton tree [i.e., willows] that rise as closely from the muddy soilof the bank as can well be conceived. They are not to be beaten down; you must slide yourself between them, and in summer you have a pretty task to keep off the mosquitoes that abound amongst them. After these thickets there are small nasty lagoons, which you must either swim across, jump over or leap into and be drowned, according to your taste or capability.
But when the task of reaching the
An apparent sympathy connects those fond of the same pursuit, with a discernment almost intuitive, whatever be their nation. All those hunters who loved fishing and pursuits of enterprise ere long crowded round me; and as soon as they learned my anxiety for curiosities of natural history, they discovered the most gratifying anxiety to procure them for me. Even the squaws set small trapsfor the smaller animals, and when, in return, I presented them with a knife, a pair of scissors, &c., they expressed their gratitude as gracefully as the most educated female would have done. My friendFerdinand Rozier, neither hunter nor naturalist, sat in the boat all day, brooding in gloomy silence over the loss of time &c. entailed by our detention. The Count kept a valuable journal, since published, hunted a great deal, and was as careless of the weather as myself; but his companion and father-in-law, like my partner, sat in his boat, pining with chagrin and ennui. Their case, however, was hopeless; here we were, and were forced to remain, until liberated by a thaw.
On the second morning after our arrival I heard a movement in the Indian camp, and having hastily risen and dressed myself, I discovered that a canoe containing half a dozen squaws and as many hunters was about to leave the Illinois for the Tennessee side of the river. I learned also that their object was to proceed to a large lake opposite, to which immense flocks ofswans resorted every morning. These flocks were so numerous and strong that it is, however incredible it may at first seem, a well-known fact that they keep the lakes which they frequent open merely by swimming upon them night and day.
Having obtained permission to join the party, I seated myself in the canoe, well supplied with ammunition and whiskey. In a few moments the paddles were at work and we swiftly crossed to the opposite shore. I was not much astonished during our passage to see all the labor of paddling performed by the squaws, for this feature of Indian manners was not new to me; but I was surprised to see that upon entering the canoe the hunters laid down and positively slept during the whole passage. On landing, the squaws, after securing the boat, proceeded to search for nuts, while the
gentlemen
hunters made the best of their way through the “thick and thin” to the lake.
Those who have never seen anything of what I call “thick and thin” may perhaps think I allude to something like the furze which covers some of the moors of Scotland. But they must imagine the shores of the Ohio, at its junction with the great muddy river called the Mississippi, to be fairly overgrown with a kind of thick-set cotton tree [i.e., willows] that rise as closely from the muddy soilof the bank as can well be conceived. They are not to be beaten down; you must slide yourself between them, and in summer you have a pretty task to keep off the mosquitoes that abound amongst them. After these thickets there are small nasty lagoons, which you must either swim across, jump over or leap into and be drowned, according to your taste or capability.
But when the task of reaching the
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