s, can be exterminated. The mosquito bids
defiance to all mortal powers. The Indians would build a scaffolding of
poles, a mere grate-work, which would give free passage to smoke. A few
pieces of bark, overhead, sheltered them from the rain, and the
excessive heat of the sun. Upon these poles they slept, kindling
smouldering fires beneath. They could better endure the suffocating
fumes which thus enveloped them and drove away their despicable
tormenters, than bear the poison of their stings. The voyagers were
greatly annoyed by these insects.

As they were thus swept down the infinite windings of the stream, day
after day, mostly at the will of the current, they perceived one
morning, much to their surprise, a small band of Indians on the shore,
armed with guns. The savages seemed very much at their ease, and waited
the approach of the canoes. Father Hennepin stood up and waved toward
them his peace calumet, with its imposing decoration of feathers. His
companions held their muskets in readiness to repel any assault.
Drawing near the shore, the father addressed them in the Huron
language. They did not understand him, but made friendly signs for the
party to land. The Indians led the Frenchmen into their wigwams and
feasted them upon buffalo steaks, with bear's fat, and some very
delicious wild plums.

It appeared that these Indians were a band of warriors, probably from
the Tuscarora nation. They had seen the Spaniards, on the Florida
coast, and had purchased of them guns, axes, and knives. They kept
their powder in strong glass bottles. From them they learned that a ten
days' voyage down the rapid current of the Mississippi would bring them
to the ocean. The indefatigable missionary endeavored to give them some
idea of God, and of salvation through Jesus Christ, who came to seek
and save the lost.

And now, with renewed courage, our adventurers entered their canoes and
resumed their paddles. The prairies, which had so long delighted their
eyes, gradually disappeared, and the dense forest lined both sides of
the stream. It was very evident, however, that upon the other side of
the forest-crowned eminences, the prairies continued to extend in all
their sublimity and beauty; for they often heard the bellowing, as the
roar of distant thunders, from thousands of wild cattle roving the
plains.

They had now descended to nearly the thirty-third degree of north
latitude, when they came to a large Indian village, situated