302 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



the stream, in whose waters the mangrove and cypress 

 dip their drooping foliage. 



It was an afternoon of that magnificent latter 

 autumn known as the Indian summer, and the sun, 

 golden and glorious, as it is only to be seen in that 

 country and at that season, was declining behind the 

 summits of the trees which fringe the western shore 

 of the Natchez. Its beams already assumed that rich 

 variety of tint, so beautiful to behold, varying from 

 bright green to golden, from purple to orange, as the 

 rays passed between the leaves of the myrtle, the 

 palma-christi, or some other variety of the surround- 

 ing foliage. Not a cloud was in the heavens, the air 

 was balm itself, the soft evening stillness was only 

 now and then broken by some babbling parroquet, by 

 the whistling tones of the mocking-bird, or the sudden 

 rising of a flock of water-fowl, thousands of which 

 floated on the broad bosom of the Natchez, and 

 dressed their plumage for their winter flight. Along 

 a narrow path between the forest and the palmetto 

 field above referred to, a female figure was seen trip- 

 ping towards a small opening in the wood, formed by 

 the uprooting of a mighty sycamore. On reaching 

 the prostrate tree she leaned against a branch, appar- 

 ently to take breath. She was a young girl of about 

 twenty years of age, whose complexion denoted In- 

 dian parentage, but whose countenance had something 

 in the highest degree interesting, even noble, in its 

 expression. Her forehead was well formed, her black 



