ADVENTURES IN LOUISIANA. 189 



the night, the light of the moon and stars, that gave 

 the prairie lying before us the appearance of a silvery 

 sea, the sombre forest on either side of the block- 

 house, of which the edges only were lighted up by 

 the moonbeams, the vague allusions our guide had 

 made to some fearful scene of strife and slaughter 

 that had been enacted in this now peaceful glade 

 all these circumstances combined, worked upon our 

 imaginations, and we felt unwilling to break the 

 stillness which added to the impressive beauty of the 

 forest scene. 



" Did you ever float down the Mississippi 1 " asked 

 Nathan abruptly. As he spoke he sat down upon 

 the bank, and made sign to us to sit beside him. 

 " Did you ever float down the Mississippi ? " 



" No ; we came up it from New Orleans hither." 

 " That is nothing ; the stream is not half so danger- 

 ous there as above Natchez. We came down, six 

 men, four women, and twice as many children, all 

 the way from the mouths of the Ohio to the Eed 

 River ; and bad work we had of it, in a crazy old 

 boat, to pass the rapids and avoid the sand-banks, 

 and snakes, and sawyers, and whatever the devil they 

 call them, that are met with. I calculate we weren't 

 sorry when we left the river and took to dry land 

 again. The first thing we did was to make a wigwam, 

 Injun fashion, with branches of trees. This was to 

 shelter the women and children. Two men remained 

 to protect them, and the other four divided into two 



