cx l LIFE OF WILSON. 



fore him; I was covered with mire and wet, and I thought he 

 looked somewhat serious at the difficulties he was about to en- 

 gage. He has been very sick lately. About half an hour be- 

 fore sunset, being within sight of the Indian's where I intended 

 to lodge, the evening being perfectly clear and calm, I laid the 

 reins on my horse's neck, to listen to a Mocking-bird, the 

 first I had heard in the Western country, which, perched on 

 the top of a dead tree before the door, was pouring out a tor- 

 rent of melody. I think I never heard so excellent a performer. 

 I had alighted, and was fastening my horse, when hearing the 

 report of a rifle immediately beside me, I looked up and saw 

 the poor Mocking-bird fluttering to the ground. One of the 

 savages had marked his elevation, and barbarously shot him. 

 I hastened over into the yard, and walking up to him, told 

 him that was bad, very bad ! That this poor bird had come 

 from a far distant country to sing to him, and that in return he 

 had cruelly killed him. I told him the Great Spirit was of- 

 fended at such cruelty, and that he would lose many a deer for 

 doing so. The old Indian, father-in-law to the bird-killer, un- 

 derstanding by the negro interpreter what I said, replied, that 

 when these birds come singing and making a noise all day 

 near the house, somebody will surely die which is exactly 

 what an old superstitious German, near Hampton in Virginia, 

 once told me. This fellow had married the two eldest daugh- 

 ters of the old Indian, and presented one of them with the bird 

 he had killed. The next day I passed through the Chickasaw 

 Big-town, which stands on the high open plain, that extends 

 through their country, three or four miles in breadth, by fif- 

 teen in length. Here and there you perceive little groups of 

 miserable huts, formed of saplings, and plastered with mud and 

 clay; about these are generally a few peach and plum trees. 

 Many ruins of others stand scattered about, and I question 

 whether there were twenty inhabited huts within the whole 

 range of view. The ground was red with strawberries; and 

 the boatmen were seen in straggling parties feasting on them. 

 Now and then a solitary Indian, wrapt in his blanket, passed 



