I 5 2 
TRAVELS IN 
velvet black, like the eye in the feathers of a pea- 
cock's train. He is a fifh of prodigious ftrength 
and activity in the water ; a warrior in a gilded coat 
of mail ; and gives no reft or quarter to fmall fifh, 
which he preys upon. They are delicious food and 
in great abundance. 
The orange grove is but narrow, betwixt the 
river banks and ancient Indian fields, where there 
are evident traces of the habitations of the ancients, 
furrounded with groves of live oak, laurel magno- 
lia, zanthoxylon, liquidambar, and others. 
How harmonious and foothing is this native fyl- 
van mufic now at ft ill evening ! inexpreflibly tender 
are the refponfive cooings of the innocent dove, in 
the fragrant zanthoxylon groves, and the variable 
and tuneful warblings of the nonpareil, with the 
more fprightly and elevated (trains of the blue lin- 
net and golden icterus : this is indeed harmony, 
even amidft the incefTant croaking of the frogs : the 
fhades of filent night are made more cheerful, with 
the thrill voice of the whip-poor-will * and active 
mock-bird. 
My fituation high and airy: a brifk and cool breeze 
fteadily and inceflantly palling over the clear waters 
of the lake, and fluttering over me through the fur- 
rounding groves, wings its way to the moon-light 
favannas, while I repofe on my fweet and healthy 
couch of the foft tillandfia 'ufnea-adfcites, and the 
latter gloomy and (till hours of night pafs rapidly 
away as it were in a moment. I arofe, ftrength- 
* Caprimulgus rufus, called chuck-will' s-wirioxv, from a fancied re- 
femblance of his notes to thefe words : it inhabits the maritime parts of 
Carolina and Florida, and is more than twice the fize of the night hawk or 
whip-poor-will. 
ened 
