LIFE OF WILSON. CXXXvii 



Grinder money to put a post fence round it, to shelter it from 

 the hogs, and from the wolves; and he gave me his written 

 promise he would do it. I left this place in a very melancholy 

 mood, which was not much allayed by the prospect of the 



gloomy and savage wilderness which I was just entering alone. 



* * * * 



" I was roused from this melancholy reverie by the roaring 

 of Buffalo river, which I forded with considerable difficulty. 

 I passed two or three solitary Indian huts in the course of the 

 day, with a few acres of open land at each; but so wretchedly 

 cultivated, that they just make out to raise maize enough to 

 keep in existence. They pointed me out the distances by 

 holding up their fingers. This is the country of the Chicka- 

 saws, though erroneously laid down in some maps as that of 

 the Cherokees. I slept this night in one of their huts; the In- 

 dians spread a deer skin for me on the floor, I made a pillow 

 of my portmanteau, and slept tolerably well; an old Indian 

 laid himself down near me. On Monday morning I rode fif- 

 teen miles, and stopt at an Indian's to feed my horse. The 

 sight of my paroquet brought the whole family around me. 

 The women are generally naked from the middle upwards; 

 and their heads, in many instances, being rarely combed, look 

 like a large mop; they have a yard or two of blue cloth wrapt 

 round by way of petticoat, that reaches to their knees the 

 boys were generally naked; except a kind of bag of blue cloth, 

 by way of jig-leaf. Some of the women have a short jacket, 

 with sleeves, drawn over their naked body, and the rag of a 

 blanket is a general appendage. I met to-day two officers of 

 the United States army, who gave me a better account of the 

 road than I had received. I passed through many bad swamps 

 to-day; and at about five in the evening came to the banks of 

 the Tennessee, which was swelled by the rains, and is about 

 half a mile wide thirty miles below the Muscle shoals, and just 

 below a long island laid down in your small map. A growth 

 of canes, of twenty and thirty feet high, covers the low bot- 

 toms; and these cane swamps are the gloomiest and most deso- 

 VOL. i. s 



