( 98 ) 



The river of St. Jofeph has more than an hun- 

 dred leagues of courfe, its fource being at no great 

 diftance from lake Erie ; it is navigable for four- 

 icore leagues, and on the 25th as I was failing up to- 

 wards the fort, I faw nothing but excellent lands co- 

 vered with trees of a prodigious height, under 

 which there grows in fome places very fine capil- 

 laire. I was two days in getting hither, but on 

 the evening of the firft day 1 run a very great rifque 

 of putting an end to all my travels ; I was taken 

 for a bear, and had very near been killed on this 

 footing by one of my conductors : it happened in 

 this manner. 



After fupper and prayers were over, it being very 

 not, I went to take a walk along the banks of the 

 river. A fpaniel which followed me wherever I 

 went, happened to plunge into the water in queft 

 of fomething I had thrown into it without thinking; 

 my people who believed me retired to reft, and the 

 more fo as it was very late and the night dark, 

 hearing the noife this creature made, took it into 

 their head, that it was a roebuck fwimming acrofs 

 the river, two of them immediately fet out with 

 their mufkets loaded •, by good luck for me, one 

 of the two who was a hair-brained fellow was 

 called back by the reft for fear he mould caufe 

 them mifs their prey, but his hair-brainednefs 

 might very eafily have caufed him not to mifa 

 me. 



The other advancing (lowly perceived me at 

 the diftance of twenty paces from him, and made 

 no doubt that it was a bear {landing on its hind 

 legs, as thefe animals always do on their hearing 

 any noife. With this notion the huntfman cocks 

 his piece in which he had put three balls, and 



couching 



