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.



LIFE OF WILSON.



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