L O U I S I A N A. 335 



in the neceflary provifion of frefh water, re- 

 turned on board without the young officers, who 

 were not yet returned. 



The captain is impatient, weighs anchor and 

 lets fail, leaving the five pafiengers on fhore. 

 Their agitation and anxiety,' when they re- 

 turned to the fhore and found the boat and fhip 

 gone, may well be imagined. Thus being aban- 

 doned in an unknown country, they erred for a 

 long time upon the defart coaft, having the fea 

 on one fide, and a country inhabited by a nation 

 of cannibals on the other. They did not ven- 

 ture to ^quit the marfhy fhores of the fea •, they 

 were in fuch defpair of finding a remedy for 

 their misfortunes that they knew not what to 

 do : this alone was capable to make them lofe 

 their fenfes ; and then the thought of falling 

 into the hands of cannibals, troubled the ima- 

 gination of thefe young Europeans. They went 

 along the fhore in the miflaken opinion, that the 

 Ihip was gone to the weft, imploring divine 

 mercy, and complaining of their unh^.ppy fate. 

 They lived upon infedts and herbs, not knowing 

 whether they were good or bad ; what was moll 

 troublefome to them was the abundance of gnats 

 in that place, as they had nothing to defend 

 themfelves againft them. They continued fe- 



verarl 



