THE AMERICANS AND THE ABORIGINES. 377 



might have shown had they entered a thicket expect- 

 ing to find a fat deer, and encountered in its stead a 

 growling bear. 



" I should think you've looked at me enough," said 

 the stranger at last, in good English, and in a sort of 

 half-humorous, half-petulant tone ; at the same time 

 delivering a blow, with the flat of his knife, upon the 

 horny hand of a backwoodsman, who had again at- 

 tempted to lift his cap with a view to examine his 

 hair. 



It was, as the reader will already have conjectured, 

 our young Englishman, who, having been guided by 

 the Indian runner into the path to the Coshattoes, 

 had at last succeeded in making his way over and 

 through the innumerable SAvamps, rivers, and forests 

 with which that district is so superabundantly blessed. 

 The comparative coolness of the season, and the shal- 

 lowness of the swamps and rivers, of the former of 

 which many were entirely dried up and converted 

 into meadows, had favoured his journey, or else he 

 would scarcely have succeeded in reaching the banks 

 of the Atchafalaya. Eor the preceding three weeks 

 he had lived upon wild geese and ducks, which he 

 had killed and roasted as the Indians had taught 

 him. He had now just emerged from the wilderness, 

 and however great his wish undoubtedly was to find 

 himself once more in civilised society, the grim aspect 

 of the Goliath-like backwoodsmen, their keen eyes 

 and sun-burnt visages, and long horn-handled knives, 



