( rgS J 



We were a little comforted for this inconvenienre 

 by the extreme plenty of game on the river and its 

 banks, which were fattened by the wild oacs then 

 in their maturity. I likewife gathered fome ripe 

 grapes, of the fize and figure of a mufket-ball, and 

 fufficiently tender, but of a bad relifh. Thefe are, 

 to all appearance, the fame with what are called 

 Prune Grapes in Louifiana. The river, by degrees, 

 takes a ftraiter courfe, but its banks are not plea- 

 fant till at the diftance of fifty leagues from its 

 fource. It is even throughout that whole fpace 

 very narrow, and as it is bordered with trees which 

 have their roots in the water, when any one hap- 

 pens to fall it bars up the whole river, and a great 

 deal of time is loft in clearing a pafTage for a 

 canoe. 



All thefe difficulties being paired the river at the 

 diftance of fifty leagues from its fource, forms a 

 fmall lake, after which it grows considerably broader. 

 The country becomes beautiful, confifting of un- 

 bounded meadows, where buffaloes are to be feen 

 grazing in herds of two or three hundred ; but here 

 it is neceffary to keep a good look out, for fear of 

 being furprized by the Sioux and Outagamies, whom 

 the neighbourhood of the Illinois, their mortal ene- 

 mies draws hither, and who give no more quarter 

 to thole French whom they happen to meet in their 

 way. The misfortune is, that the Theakiki lofes 

 in depth, in proportion as it encreafes in breadth, 

 fo that we were often obliged to unload the canoe 

 and travel on foot, which is never done without fome" 

 danger, by which means T mould have been greatly 

 embarraffed, if I had not been furniftied with an 

 efcorte at the river St. Jofeph. 



I was- 



