64 



THE HISTORY 0? 



they keep commonly to the northward of thirty-seven degrees, as the buffa- 

 loes, for the most part, confine themselves to the southward of that latitude. 

 The elk is Ml as big as a horse, and of the deer kind. The stags only have 

 horns, and those exceedingly large and spreading. Their colour is some- 

 thing lighter than that of the red deer, and their flesh tougher. Their swift- 

 est speed is a large trot, and in that motion they turn their horns back upon 

 their necks, and cock their noses aloft in the air. Nature has taught them 

 this attitude to save their antlers from being entangled in the thickets, which 

 they always retire to. They are very shy, and have the sense of smelling so 

 exquisite that they wind a man at a great distance. For this reason they are 

 seldom seen but when the air is moist, in which case their smell is not so 

 nice. They commonly herd together, and the Indians say, if one of the 

 drove happen by some wound to be disabled from making his escape, the 

 rest will forsake their fears to defend their friend, M'hich they will do with 

 great obstinacy, till they are killed upon the spot. Though, otherwise, they 

 are so alarmed at the sight of a man, that to avoid him they will sometimes 

 throw themselves down very high precipices into the river. 



A misadventure happened here, which gave us no small perplexity. One 

 of the commissioners was so imlucky as to bruise his foot against a stump, 

 which brought on a formal fit of the gout. It must be owned there could 

 not be a more unseasonable time, nor a more improper situation, for any one 

 to be attacked by that cruel distemper. The joint was so inflamed that he 

 could neither draw shoe nor boot upon it ; and to ride without either would 

 have exposed him to so many rude knocks and bruises, in those rough woods, 

 as to be intolerable even to a stoic. It was happy, indeed, that we were to 

 rest here the next day, being Sunday, that there might be leisure for trying 

 some speedy remedy. Accordingly he was persuaded to bathe his foot in 

 cold water, in order to repel the humour and assuage the inflammation. This 

 made it less painful, and gave us hopes, too, of reducing the swelling in a 

 short time. 



Our men had the fortune to kill a brace of bears, a fat buck, and a wild 

 turkey, all which paid them with interest for yesterday's abstinence. This 

 constant and seasonable supply of our daily wants made us reflect thankfully 

 on the bounty of Providence. And that we might not be unmindful of being 

 all along fed by Heaven in this great and solitary wilderness, we agreed to 

 wear in our hats the maosti, which is, in Indian, the beard of a wild turkey- 

 cock, and on our breasts the figure of that fowl with its wings extended, and 

 , holding in its claws a scroll, with this motto, " Vice coturnicum," meaning that 

 we had been supported by them in the wilderness in the room of qnails. 



27th. This being Sunday we were not wanting in our thanks to Heaven 

 for the constant support and protection we had been favoured with. Nor 

 did our chaplain fail to put us in mind of our duty by a sermon proper for 

 the occasion. We ordered a strict inquiry to be made into the quantity of 

 bread we had left, and found no more than would subsist us a fortnight at 

 short allowance. We made a fair distribution of our whole stock, and at 

 the same time recommended to the men to manage this, their last stake, to the 

 best advantage, not knowing how long they would be obliged to live upon it. 

 We likewise directed them to keep a watchful eye upon their horses, that 

 none of them might be missing the next morning, to hinder our return. 

 There fell some rain before noon, which made our camp more a bog than it 

 was before. This moist situation began to infect some of the men with fevers, 

 and some with fluxes, wliich however we soon removed with Peruvian bark 

 and ipocoacanah. In the afternoon we marched up again to the top of 

 the hill to entertain our eyes a second time with the view of the mountains, 

 but a perverse' fog arose that hid them from our sight. In the evening we 



