THE AMERICANS AND THE ABORIGINES. 315 



II. 



At a short distance from the scene of the adven- 

 ture above narrated, was a wide clearing, extending 

 for about three miles along the shore. It had origin- 

 ally been part of a palmetto field covering the bank 

 of the river for the breadth of half a mile, at which 

 distance a limit was put to it by the colossal stems of 

 the aboriginal forest. The clearing had been made by 

 the burning of the palmettos, in whose place a carpet 

 of luxuriant grass had sprung up, dotted with groups 

 of magnificent trees, and intersected by natural 

 hedges of myrtle, mangrove, palm, and tulip trees, 

 giving to the whole tract of land the appearance of 

 a beautiful artificial park. Here and there, through 

 the branches of the sycamore and cotton trees, small 

 swirls of smoke were seen curling upwards, telling of 

 the presence of man, and on nearer inspection there 

 became visible, under various groups of trees, one or 

 more huts, surrounded by little plantations of Indian 

 corn and tobacco, and forming collectively a scattered 

 hamlet of some fifty habitations. 



No particular rule had been observed in the archi- 

 tecture of these modest dwellings, whose builders had 

 been more remarkable for indolence than for refine- 

 ment of taste, and had carefully avoided overworking 

 themselves during their construction. The simplest 

 materials had sufficed, and had been used in the same 



