LOUISIANA. iij 



Illinois^ you fee, in the day-time, whole clouds of 

 turtle-doves or wood-pigeons. A circumftance 

 that will perhaps be incredible, is, that they 

 often eclipfe the fun •, thefe birds, living mere- 

 ly upon acorns and the feeds of beech-trees, in 

 the woods, are excellent in autumn -, fometimes 

 eighty of them are killed at one Ihot. What a 

 pity that fo fine a country is not inhabited, or is 

 on)y inhabited by brutes ! 



M. de Macarty^ an Irifhman, and comman- 

 der of the convoy, having had fome fits of the 

 gout, and fearing to be obliged to winter on the 

 road, refolved to go before the reft, when we 

 were at the jundure of the Ohio with the Miffi- 

 ftp-pi^ thirty leagues from the Illinois. He took 

 the beft rowers out of all the boats, and put 

 them on board his boat, and, without troubling 

 himfelf about the others, he left them behind, 

 contrary to M. de FaudreuiVs injunctions -, how- 

 ever, the law of nature didlates to every body the 

 order of affifting others mutually, in cafe of an 

 attack from an enemy, or fome other accident, 

 fuch as happened to the boat St. Louis, on board 

 of which 1 was. It got upon a fand-bank, and 

 they were obliged to unload it almoft entirely 

 before they could fet it a-float again, which made 



Vol. I. I me 



