xciv LIFE OF WILSON. 



encnmped about sunset near a small brook, where I shot a turkey, and on 

 returning to my fire found four boatmen, who stayed with me all night, and 

 helped to pick the bones of the turkey. In the morning I heard the turkeys 

 gobbling all round me, but not wishing to leave my horse, having no great 

 faith in my guests' honesty, I proceeded on my journey. 



" This day (Wednesday) I passed through the most horrid swamps I had 

 ever seen. These are covered with a prodigious growth of canes, and high 

 woods, which together, shut out almost the whole light of day for miles. The 

 banks of the deep and sluggish creeks, that occupy the centre, are precipitous, 

 where I had often to plunge my horse seven feet down, into a bed of deep clay 

 up to his belly ; from which nothing but great strength and exertion could 

 have rescued him; the opposite shore was equally bad, and beggars all descrip- 

 tion. For an extent of several miles, on both sides of these creeks, the dark- 

 ness of night obscures every object around. On emerging from one of the 

 worst of these, I met General Wade Hampton, with two servants, and a pack- 

 horse, going, as he said, towards Nashville. I told him of the mud campaign 

 immediately before him ; I was covered with mire and wet, and I thought he 

 looked somewhat serious at the difficulties he was about to engage. lie has 

 been very sick lately. About half an hour before sunset, being within sight 

 of the Indian's where I intended to lodge, the evening being perfectly clear 

 and calm, I laid the reins on my horse's neck, to listen to a Mocking-bird, the 

 first I had heard in the western country, which, perched on the top of a dead 

 tree before the door, was pouring out a torrent of melody. I think I never 

 heard .so excellent a performer. I had alighted, and was fastening my horse, 

 when hearing the report of a rifle immediately beside me, I looked up and saw 

 the poor Mocking-bird fluttering to the ground. One of the savages had marked 

 his elevation, and barbarously shot him. I hastened over into the yard, and 

 walking up to him, told him that was bad, very bad ! That this poor bird had 

 come from a far distant country to sing to him, and that in return he had 

 cruelly killed him. I told him the Great Spirit was offended at such cruelty, 

 and that he would lose many a deer for doing so. The old Indian, father-in- 

 law to the bird-killer, understanding by the negro interpreter what I said, 

 replied, that when these birds come singing and making a noise all day near 

 the house, somehody will surely die — which is exactly what an old superstitious 

 German, near Hampton in Virginia, once told me. This fellow had married 

 the two eldest daughters of the old Indian, and presented one of them \Vith the 

 bird he had killed. 



" The next day I pa.ssed through the Chickasaw Big-tou-n, which stands on 

 the high open plain, that extends through their country, three or four miles in 

 breadth, by fifteen in length. Here and there j'ou perceive little groups of 

 miserable huts, formed of saplings, and plastered with mud and clay ; about 

 these are generally a few peach and plum trees. Many ruins of others stand 

 scattered about, and I question whether there were twenty inhabited huts 

 within the whole range of view. The ground was red with strawberries ; and 

 the boatmen were seen in straggling parties feasting on them. Now and then 

 a solitary Indian, wrapped in his blanket, passed sullen and silent. On this 

 [ilain are beds of shells, of a large species of clam, some of which are almost 



