e sailing from England they had
often heard persons who had crossed the Atlantic mention this
circumstance, but they suspected them of exaggeration until they witnessed
it themselves.

It was their intention to visit a distant tract of country, of which
nothing was known except vague reports of sheets of water so immense that,
but for the circumstance of their being fresh, might have led them to
suppose they were on an island. These reports were for the most part
gathered from the Indians, on whose testimony little reliance could be
placed, as none of their informers could speak from their own knowledge.

Into the Wilderness.

To aid them in their pursuit, they were provided with compasses and armed
with fowling-pieces. They, directing their course toward the place to
which most of the Indians alluded, had, it is true, but slight grounds on
which to rest their hopes of success; animated, however, with the desire
of fulfilling what they had undertaken, they thought little of the
difficulties which might attend it: accordingly, it was without regret
that they were now leaving the settled part of the country.

Having traveled several days without seeing anything worthy of notice,
they arrived at the ultimate farm they could expect to meet with before
their return. After remaining there for the night, they continued their
journey through the forest, which had most likely never been previously
trodden by the feet of civilized man. The startled deer frequently crossed
their path, and a few birds were the only objects that varied the silent
solitude around.

Guided by their compasses, they continued their progress many days until
they arrived at the banks of a large and rapid river, which they in vain
attempted to pass, as its breadth and swiftness precluded the hope of
their being able to swim across it.

After proposing many expedients, all of which they soon found to be
impracticable, they determined on trusting themselves to some one of the
many fallen trees which lay in every eddy along its banks; and having
selected one whose branches lay in such a manner as would prevent it from
turning over, they entwined boughs to form a small kind of basket, into
which, having provided themselves with stout poles, they entered, taking
care that neither their guns nor ammunition suffered from the water; they
then steadily pushed it from the shore into the stream, and continued
doing so until the water grew so deep that the pol