cx li v LIFE OF WILSON. 



gun-boats, anchored at equal distances along the stream, with 

 their ensigns displayed, add to the effect. A few scattered 

 houses are seen on the low opposite shore, where a narrow 

 strip of cleared land exposes the high gigantic trunks of some 

 deadened timber that bound the woods. The whole country 

 beyond the Mississippi, from south round to west, and north, 

 presents to the eye one universal level ocean of forest, bounded 

 only by the horizon. So perfect is this vast level, that not a 

 leaf seems to rise above the plain, as if shorn by the hands of 

 heaven. At this moment, while I write, a terrific thunder 

 storm, with all its towering assemblage of black alpine clouds, 

 discharging lightning in every direction, overhangs this vast le- 

 vel, and gives a magnificence and sublime effect to the whole." 

 The foregoing letters present us with an interesting ac- 

 count of our author's journey, until his arrival at Natchez, on 

 the seventeenth of May. In his diary he says " This jour- 

 ney, four hundred and seventy-eight miles from Nashville, I 

 have performed alone, through difficulties, which those who 

 have never passed the road could not have a conception of. " 

 We may readily suppose that he had not only difficulties to 

 encounter, encumbered as he necessarily was with his shoot- 

 ing apparatus, and bulky baggage, but also dangers, in journey- 

 ing through a frightful wilderness, where almost impenetrable 

 cane-swamps and morasses present obstacles to the progress of 

 the traveller, which require all his resolution and activity to 

 overcome. Superadded to which, as we are informed, he had 

 a severe attack of the dysentery, when remote from any situa- 

 tion which could be productive of either comfort or relief; and 

 he was under the painful necessity of trudging on, debilitated 

 and dispirited with a disease, which threatened to put a period 

 to his existence. An Indian, having been made acquainted 

 with his situation, recommended the eating of strawberries, 

 which were then fully ripe, and in great abundance. On this 

 delightful fruit, and newly laid eggs, taken raw, he wholly 

 lived for several days; and he attributed his restoration to health 

 to these simple remedies. 



