LIFE OF WILSON. 
cxxxvii 
Grinder money to put a post fence round it, to shelter it from 
the hogs, and from the wolves; and he gave me his written 
promise he would do it. I left this place in a very melancholy 
mood, which was not much allayed by the prospect of the 
gloomy and savage wilderness which I was just entering alone. 
* * * 
I was roused from this melancholy reverie by the roaring 
of Buffalo river, which I forded with considerable difficulty. 
I passed two or three solitary Indian huts in the course of the 
day, with a few acres of open land at each; but so wretchedly 
cultivated, that they just make out to raise maize enough to 
keep in existence. They pointed me out the distances by 
holding up their fingers. This is the country of the Chicka- 
saws, though erroneously laid down in some maps as that of 
the Cherokees. I slept this night in one of their huts; the In- 
dians spread a deer skin for me on the floor, I made a pillow 
of my portmanteau, and slept tolerably well; an old Indian 
laid himself down near me. On Monday morning I rode fif- 
teen miles, and stopt at an Indian’s to feed my horse. The 
sight of my paroquet brought the whole family around me. 
The women are generally nailed from the middle upwards; 
and their heads, in many instances, being rarely combed, look 
like a large mop; they have a yard or two of blue cloth wrapt 
round by way of petticoat, that reaches to their knees — the 
boys were generally naked ; except a kind of bag of blue cloth, 
by way of jig-leaf. Some of the women have a short jacket, 
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 Muscle 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 bot- 
toms; and these cane swamps are the gloomiest and most deso- 
VOL. I. — s 
