THE AMERICANS AND THE ABORIGINES. 329 



dour of the rising 'sun, imparted an indescribable 

 solemnity and grandeur to the scene. Lower down 

 the river were detached groups of trees, amongst 

 which grazed deer, who, with wondering glances, 

 seemed to ask the wanderer whence he came ; and 

 after gazing at him for a while, tossed their antlers 

 proudly in the air, and, as if displeased at the intru- 

 sion upon their territory, paced slowly back into the 

 thicket. The whole landscape was dotted with dim- 

 inutive hillocks of a conical form, the habitations of 

 small brown animals, who sat in front of them with 

 their faces to the sun, making their breakfast on the 

 tender grass. 



The district just described is the western portion 

 of Louisiana, which, from the alluvial land of the 

 Mississippi, Eed Eiver, Atchafalaya, and other smaller 

 but deep streams, swells gradually upwards towards 

 the west, and ends in these vast and magnificent 

 savannas. The detached pictures that we have laid 

 before our readers, in the endeavour to convey to 

 them some idea of the whole, burst at once upon the 

 young Englishman ; and their view put him in much 

 the same state of mind with the seaman, who, having 

 left his ship during the night in a frail skiff, finds 

 himself in the morning alone upon the wide waters, 

 and hesitates whether he shall not, by one desperate 

 plunge, avoid the misery and suffering that await 

 him. This feeling of isolation and helplessness, like 

 the last grain thrown into the balance, suddenly ter- 



