ALEXANDER WILSON. xcv 



have a yard or two of blue cloth wrapt round by way of a petticoat, 

 that reaches to their knees. The boys were generally naked, except 

 a kind of bag of blue cloth, by way of a fig leaf. Some of the 

 women have short jackets, with sleeves, drawn over their naked 

 body, and the rag of a blanket is a general appendage. I met 

 to-day two officers of the United States army, who gave me a better 

 account of the road than I had received. I passed through many 

 bad swamps to-day, and, at about five in the evening, came to the 

 banks of the Tennessee, which was swelled by the rains, and is 

 about half a mile wide thirty miles below the mussel shoals, and 

 just below a long island laid down in your small map. A growth 

 of canes, of twenty and thirty feet high, covers the low bottoms ; 

 and these cane swamps are the gloomiest and most desolate-looking 

 places imaginable. I hailed for the boat as long as it was light 

 without effect. I then sought for a place to encamp, kindled a 

 large fire, stripped the canes for my horse, ate a bit of supper, and 

 lay down to sleep, listening to the owls and the chuck-will's- 

 widow, a kind of whip-poor-will that is very numerous here. I 

 got up several times during the night to recruit my fire, and see 

 how my horse did, and, but for the gnats, would have slept toler- 

 ably well. These gigantic woods have a singular effect by the 

 light of a large fire, the whole scene being circumscribed by impene- 

 trable darkness, except that in front, where every leaf is strongly 

 denned, and deeply shaded. In the morning, I hunted until about 

 six, when I again renewed my shouting for the boat, and it was 

 not until it was near eleven that it made its appearance. I was so 

 enraged with this delay, that had I not been cumbered with 

 baggage, I believe I should have ventured to swim the river. I 

 vented my indignation on the owner of the boat, who is a half- 

 breed, threatening to publish him in the papers, and advise every 

 traveller I met to take the upper ferry. This man charges one 

 dollar for man and horse, and thinks, because he is a chief, he may 

 do in the way what he pleases. The country now assumed a new 

 appearance ; no brushwood — no fallen or rotten timber ; one could 

 see a mile through the woods, which were covered with high grass, 

 fit for mowing. These woods are burnt every spring, and thus are 

 kept so remarkably clean, that they look like the most elegant 

 nobleman's parks. A profusion of flowers altogether new to me. 



