ADVENTURES IN LOUISIANA. 197 



almighty beautiful piece of land. And what's more, 

 Asa, I for one won't go back up the omnipotent dirty 

 Mississippi ; and that's a fact.' 



" ' But if a hundred Spanish soldiers come ? ' said 

 Asa, ' and I reckon they will come.' 



" ' Build the blockhouse, man, to defend yourselves ; 

 and when our people up at Salt Eiver and Cumber- 

 land hear that the Spaniards are quarrelling with us, 

 I guess they won't keep their hands crossed before 

 them.' 



" So, seeing us all, even the women, so determined, 

 Asa gave in to our way of thinking, and the very 

 same day we began the blockhouse you see before 

 you. The walls were all of young cypress-trees, and 

 we would fain have roofed it with the same wood ; 

 but the smallest of the cypresses were five or six feet 

 thick, and it was no easy matter to split them. So 

 we were obliged to use fir, which, when it is dried 

 by a few days' sun, bums like tinder. But we little 

 thought, when we did so, what sorrow those cursed fir 

 planks would bring us. 



" When all was ready, well and solidly nailed and 

 hammered together, we made a chimney, so that the 

 women might cook if necessary, and then laid in a 

 good store of hams and dried bear's flesh, filled the 

 meal and whisky tubs, and the Avater - casks, and 

 brought our plough and what we had most valuable 

 into the blockhouse. We then planted the palisades, 

 securing them strongly in the ground, and to e,ach 



