414 MURAT ON AMERICA. 



obtruded on the reader's attention in the course of his work. Had he 

 been less chary in this respect, the book would have been at once more 

 attractive and more valuable. His opinions, however, although not 

 always supported by the soundest reasoning, are expressed without fear 

 or favour, and where they relate to subjects on which he has had better 

 opportunities of being well informed than ourselves, 'we are bound to 

 receive them, at least, without prejudice. In (f diminution of the 

 record," however, as to the style of parliamentary eloquence in England 

 and America, it may not be unfair to suggest, that as our critic's 

 knowledge of the English language was acquired on the other side of 

 the Atlantic, he could scarcely be sensible of those blemishes of style 

 which are peculiar to the New World, and, on the other hand, it is not 

 perhaps impossible that when he heard the language spoken in its 

 purity, he may have mistaken that very purity for error, because it did 

 not coincide with the models which his previous education had formeu 

 for him. 



Our author's professional duties were not so overwhelming as to 

 prevent his making a campaign against the Indians, in the capacity of 

 aide-de-camp to a General of Brigade, who marched against the red 

 people at the head of a corps of three hundred mounted riflemen. He 

 tells us that he alone formed the whole staff of the army, and that he 

 returned from the campaign with the rank of Colonel, but probably 

 without finding his finances much improved by the acquisition. Of 

 these sharpshooters he speaks in terms of the highest commendation. 

 They are men, he says, inured to every sort of hardship and privation. 

 Each mounted on his own horse, every pace of which he knows, and 

 armed with his faithful carabine, to which himself and his family have 

 often been indebted for a dinner in time of need, he treats a campaign 

 as a party of pleasure, and makes light of every species of fatigue. His 

 dog assists him in following the track either of a stag or of an enemy, 

 and he is himself so well acquainted with the woods that he can find his 

 way through them guided only by the sun, or by the bark of the 

 trees. He wears no uniform, but joins his corps in his ordinary dress, 

 made of stuff which has probably been spun and woven by his wife, 

 from the produce of his farm. An otter skin, skilfully folded and 

 sewed, contains his store of amunition and tobacco, the means of striking 

 a light and making a fire. A wallet behind his saddle contains a supply 

 of provender for himself and his horse, the steed being as little of an 

 epicure in his tastes as his master. A few handfuls of Indian corn is all 

 that the horse requires during the day. On reaching the place of 

 encampment at night he is disencumbered of his accoutrements, and two 

 of his feet being tied together, he is let loose into the wood, where he 

 makes a frugal supper of the grass which there abounds. The discipline 

 of such a corps is not, of course, very rigorous. Each man makes war 

 on his own account, and as if by instinct, in a sort of hunting party on 

 a large scale. It was troops of this species, however, that most distin- 

 guished themselves at the battle of New Orleans. 



" I shall never forget," says M. Murat, " the midnight passage of the 

 ford of Whitthlicootchie, lighted up by our camp fires, and by the 

 brighter but more distant blaze of the wood, which the Indians had 

 ignited to cover their retreat. This great river, in all the majesty 

 of virgin nature, flowed between two perpendicular banks of rock, 

 nearly sixty feet in height. A steep and narrow path led from each 



