LIFE OF "WILSON. xcvii 



of heaven. At this moment, while I write, a terrific thunder storm, with all 

 its towering assemblage of black alpine clouds, discharging lightning in every 

 direction, overhangs this vast level, and gives a magnificence and sublime efibct 

 to the whole." 



The foregoing letters present us with an interesting account of our author's 

 journey, until his arrival at Natchez, on the seventeenth of May. In his 

 diary he says — " This journey, four hundred and seventy-eight miles from 

 Nashville, I have performed alone, through difficulties, which those who have 

 never passed the road could not have a conception of." We may readily sup- 

 pose that he had not only difficulties to encounter, encumbered as he neces 

 sarily was with his shooting apparatus, and bulky baggage, but also dangers, 

 in journeying through a frightful wilderness, where almost impenetrable cane- 

 swamps and morasses present obstacles to the progress of the traveller, which 

 require all his resolution and activity to overcome. Superadded to which, as 

 we are informed, he had a severe attack of the dysentery, when remote from 

 any situation which could be productive of either comfort or relief; and he 

 was under the painful necessity of trudging on, debilitated and dispirited with 

 a disease, which threatened to put a period to his exiptence. An Indian, hav- 

 ing been made acquainted with his situation, recommended the eating of straw- 

 berries, which were then fully ripe, and in great abundance. On this delight- 

 ful fruit, and newly laid eggs, taken raw, he wholly lived for several days; and 

 he attributed his restoration to health to these simple remedies. 



On the sixth of June our traveller reached New Orleans, distant from Nat- 

 chez two hundred and fifty-two miles. As the sickly season was fast approach- 

 ing, it was deemed advisable not to tarry long in this place; and his afiairs 

 being despatched, he sailed on the twenty-fourth in a ship bound to New York, at 

 which place he arrived on the thirtieth of July; and soon reached Philadelphia, 

 enriched with a copious stock of materials for his work, including several 

 beautiful and hitherto unknown birds.* , 



In the newly settled country through which Wilson had to pass in his last 

 journey, it was reasonable not to expect much encouragement in the way of 



* The editor of Wilson's Poems, which were published at Paisley in 1816, gives what 

 he states to be an extract from one of our author's letters to his father, wherein it is said 

 that he had travelled through West Florida to New Orleans, and had "sailed thence to 

 East Florida, furnished with a letter to the Spanish governor." This passage needs ex- 

 planation. Wilson was never either in East or West Florida (except a small part of the 

 latter province, through which the road to New Orleans passed) ; but, in the event of his 

 going thither, had provided himself with a letter of introduction from Don Luis de Onis, 

 the Spanish ambassador to the United States, to Don Enrique White, Governor of East 

 Florida, and another to Don Vincente Folche, Governor of West Florida. In his pass- 

 age from New Orleans to New York, he merely landed, for a few minutes, upon one~or 

 two desert islands lying in the Florida Gulf. 



He departed from Philadelphia on the thirtieth of January, 1810 ; and returned on the 

 second of August, of the same year. It is stated in his diary that the total amount of his 

 expenses, until his arrival in New York, was the sum of four hundred and fifty-five dol- 

 lars. This particular is given as a proof of how much may be performed, by a good eco- 

 nomist, with slender means. 



Vol. I.— G 



