cxliv 
LIFE OF WILSON. 
gun-boats, anchored at equal distances along the stream, with 
their ensigns displayed, add to the effect. A few scattered 
houses are seen on the low opposite shore, where a narrow 
strip of cleared land exposes the high gigantic trunks of some 
deadened timber that bound the woods. The whole country 
beyond the Mississippi, from south round to west, and north, 
presents to the eye one universal level ocean of forest, bounded 
only by the horizon. So perfect is this vast level, that not a 
leaf seems to rise above the plain, as if shorn by the hands of 
heaven. At this moment, while I write, a terrific thunder 
storm, with all its towering assemblage of black alpine clouds, 
discharging lightning in every direction, overhangs this vast le- 
vel, and gives a magnificence and sublime effect to the whole.” 
The foregoing letters present us with an interesting ac- 
count of our author’s journey, until his arrival at Natchez, on 
the seventeenth of May. In his diary he says — “ This jour- 
ney, four hundred and seventy-eight miles from Nashville, I 
have performed alone, through difficulties, which those who 
have never passed the road could not have a conception of.” 
We may readily suppose that he had not only difficulties to 
encounter, encumbered as he necessarily was with his shoot- 
ing apparatus, and bulky baggage, but also dangers, in journey- 
ing through a frightful wilderness, where almost impenetrable 
cane-swamps and morasses present obstacles to the progress of 
the traveller, which require all his resolution and activity to 
overcome. Superadded to which, as we are informed, he had 
a severe attack of the dysentery, when remote from any situa- 
tion which could be productive of either comfort or relief; and 
he was under the painful necessity of trudging on, debilitated 
and dispirited with a disease, which threatened to put a period 
to his existence. An Indian, having been made acquainted 
with his situation, recommended the eating of strawberries, 
which were then fully ripe, and in great abundance. On this 
delightful fruit, and newly laid eggs, taken raw, he wholly 
lived for several days; and he attributed his restoration to health 
to these simple remedies. 
