CHAP. XXXI.] THE DEVIL S SWAMP. 189 



a false turn in his canoe, entered, by mistake, a 

 neighbouring bayou. Every feature was so exactly 

 like the scene where he had been toiling for weeks, 

 that he could not question the identity of the spot. 

 He saw all the same bends, both in the larger and 

 smaller channels. He made out distinctly the same 

 trees, among others the very individual cypresses 

 which he had cut down. There they stood, erect 

 and entire, without retaining one mark of his axe. 

 He concluded that some evil spirit had, in a single 

 night, undone all the labour of many weeks ; and, 

 seized with superstitious terror, he fled from the 

 enchanted wood, never to return. 



In order that I might not spend an indefinite 

 time on the Mississippi, I determined to be prepared 

 for a start in the first chance steamer which might be 

 bound for Natchez, 140 miles distant, whenever an 

 opportunity should offer, whether by day or night. 

 I was told by my host that a trusty black ser 

 vant had been already appointed to look out for a 

 steamer, which was to convey some farm produce to 

 a proprietor far off on the Red River. He proposed, 

 therefore, to give orders to this negro to wake me if 

 any boat bound for Natchez should appear in sight 

 before morning. Accordingly, about an hour after 

 midnight, I was roused from my slumbers, and went 

 down over a sloping lawn to the steam -boat landing 

 on the river s bank. The sky was clear, and it was 

 bright moonlight, and the distant cries of the owls, 

 and other night-birds around Lake Solitude, were 

 distinctly heard, mingled with the chirping of myriads 

 of frogs. On the low bank my watchman had 



