L O tJ I S I A N A* 227 



league. Ic is impoflible to fail, on account of 

 the woods, the hills, and turnings of the river ^ 

 /and therefore we could do no otherwife than go 

 alohg the fhores. One day I had the misfortune 

 to fee my boat hemmed in by the branches of a 

 tree * that was fet under water : we were be- 

 nighted in this difagreeable fituation, and obli- 

 ged to wait for the break of day. But as this 

 river rifes and falls by the floods, I found my^ 

 felf now quite in the air in my boat. We were 

 twenty-iive leagues frorti the mouth of the river, 

 and the AMilia7i favages that accompanied me, 

 comforted me by the hope that the next tide 

 would fet me a-float again ; and really the tide 

 mounting up the river from Mobile bay delivered 

 us from our uncomfortable fituation. You fee 

 by this, dear Sir, what a difference ic makes in 

 navigating an European and an American river. 



M. Auhert fell fick on the way, and I prevail* 



ed on him to flay at Mohile for the recovery of 



his health ; and fo he came from thence hither 



on horfeback, by crofling the fir-woods, which 



0^2 are 



* There are hereabouts cedar-trees of fo prodigious a li2e, 

 that ten men can fcarcely clafp them ; which eafily accounts 

 for the goodnefs and fertility of the country, and belidcs this 

 its climate is one of the mou healthy. 



