LIFE OF WILSON. 
cxli 
sullen and silent. On this plain are beds of shells, of a large 
species of clam, some of which are almost entire. I this day 
stopt at the house of a white man, who had two Indian wives, 
and a hopeful string of young savages, all in their fig-leaves; 
not one of them could speak a word of English. This man 
was by birth a Virginian, and had been forty years among the 
Chickasaws. His countenance and manners were savage and 
worse than Indian. I met many parties of boatmen to-day, 
and crossed a number of bad swamps. The woods continued 
to exhibit the same open luxuriant appearance, and at night I 
lodged at a white man’s, who has also two wives, and a nume- 
rous progeny of young savages. Here I met with a lieutenant 
of the United States army, anxiously inquiring for General 
Hampton. On Friday the same open woods continued; I met 
several parties of Indians, and passed two or three of their 
hamlets. At one of these were two fires in the yard, and at 
each, eight or ten Indians, men and women, squat on the 
ground. In these hamlets there is generally one house built of 
a circular form, and plastered thickly all over without and 
within with clay. This they call a hot house, and it is the 
general winter quarters of the hamlet in cold weather. Here 
they all kennel, and having neither window nor place for the 
smoke to escape, it must be a sweet place while forty or fifty 
of them have it in occupancy. Round some of these hamlets 
were great droves of cattle, horses, and hogs. I lodged this 
night on the top of a hill far from water, and suffered severely 
for thirst. On Saturday I passed a number of most execrable 
swamps, the weather was extremely warm, and I had been at- 
tacked by something like the dysentery, which occasioned a 
constant burning thirst, and weakened me greatly. I stopt 
this day frequently to wash my head and throat in the water, 
to allay the burning thirst, and putting on my hat, without 
wiping, received considerable relief from it. Since crossing 
the Tennessee the woods have been interspersed with pine, 
and the soil has become more sandy. This day I met a Cap- 
tain Hughes, a traveller, on his return from Santa Fee. My 
