THE AMERICANS AND THE ABORIGINES. 371 



for a week together over the rivers and lakes of 

 Louisiana. In -the county town of Opelousas there 

 was a great and unusual crowd. It seemed astonish- 

 ing how so many people could have been got together 

 in that thinly populated neighbourhood, and a per- 

 son who had suddenly arrived in the midst of the 

 concourse, would have been sorely puzzled to con- 

 jecture its occasion. To judge from the drinking, 

 dancing, fighting, and pranks of all sorts that went 

 on, a festival was celebrating; but weapons were 

 also to be seen ; men were formed up by companies, 

 and nearly everybody had something more or less 

 military in his equipment. Some wore uniforms 

 that had served in the revolutionary war, and were 

 consequently more than thirty years old ; others, 

 armed Avith rifles, ranged themselves in rank and file, 

 and, by a lieutenant of their own election, were 

 manoeuvred into a corner, out of which no word of 

 command that he was acquainted with was sufficient 

 to bring them. Another corps had got a band of 

 music, consisting of one fiddler, who marched along 

 at the side of the captain, sawing his catgut with 

 might and main. Those individuals who had not 

 yet attached themselves to any particular corps, 

 shouldered rifles, fowling-pieces, or, in some instan- 

 ces, an old horse-pistol, with nothing wanting but 

 the lock ; and the few who had no firearms, had 

 provided themselves with stout bludgeons. 



These, however, were merely the outposts. In the 



