-TRAVELS IH 
15- 
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 frill evening 1 inexpreftibly 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 fp rightly and elevated (trains of the blue linnet 
and golden idterus : this is indeed harmony, even 
amidft the inceffant croaking of the frogs : the 
fhades of blent night are made more cheerful, with 
the fhrill voice of the whip-poor-will * and adtive 
mock-bird. 
•*. * ' • 
My fituation high and airy : a brifk and cool breeze 
fteadily and inceftantly pafTing 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 fpft tillandfia ufnea-adfcites, and the 
latter gloomy and ftiil hours of night pals rapidly 
away as it were in a moment. I arofe, ftrength- 
* Caprimulgus rufus, called chnck-will’s-vvidow, from a fancied refem- 
;t>lance of his notes to thefe words: it inhabits the maritime parts of Caro- 
lina and Florida, antf is more than twice the fize of the night hawk or 
whip-poor-will, 
ened 
