358 FIRE ON THE PRAIRIE ! 



frightful music that ever kept awake a worn and weary man 

 all the tribe resumed their journey ; while we continued 

 to hunt, as on the day before, on the flanks of the caravan. 



This day we killed a great number of prairie-hens, a 

 kind of pheasant which swarms in the high grass, and 

 which rose before our dogs with as much nonchalance as 

 a hen rises in a poultry-yard. 



In the evening, when we returned to camp, we found 

 our allies sheltered by a wood of cotton-trees and dwarf 

 oaks, through which a streamlet forced its passage. 



In the middle of the night we were aroused by the 

 terrible cry of " Fire ! " We were all awakened by the 

 horrible howl ings of the Indians, who, in the greatest 

 confusion, hastened to fly towards the north, in the 

 direction of a lofty mountain, which raised its gaunt 

 form sheer up from the middle of a lake. In fact, at a 

 distance of only three miles in our rear, the prairie had 

 caught fire, and the flames were striding onward with the 

 rapidity of a horse at full gallop, driven by a wind which 

 threatened to develop into a tempest. Nothing can be 

 compared to the sublime horror of this spectacle ! Figure 

 to yourself a shroud of fire, a train of gunpowder lighting 

 up with a horrible crepitation, fantastic forms moving to 

 and fro, and animals of all species hastening to effect their 

 escape from death. 



When we arrived on the sandy shore of the lake, in 

 whose vicinity nothing combustible was growing, the fire 

 gained upon us ; and it was not without returning thanks 

 to Providence that we reached the other side of the pro- 

 tecting waters, which thus delivered an entire tribe from 

 a most terrible death. To be devoured alive by fire ! How 

 horrible a punishment ! 



