ons, on the
thirteenth of July they resumed their journey for Mobile.

Beyond _Talasse_, a town on the Tallapoose river, they changed their
course to a southerly direction, and, not long afterwards, arrived at
_Coloome_, a settlement, where they continued two days. The houses of
this place are neat and commodious; each of the buildings consists of a
wooden frame with plastered walls, and is roofed with cypress bark or
shingles. Every habitation consists of four oblong square houses, of one
story, and so arranged as to form an exact square, encompassing an area
or court-yard of about a quarter of an acre of ground, and leaving an
entrance at each corner. There was a beautiful square, in the centre of
the new town; but the stores of the principal trader, and two or three
Indian habitations, stood near the banks of the opposite shore, on the
side of the old Coloome town. The Tallapoose river is here three hundred
yards wide, and fifteen or twenty feet deep.

Having procured a guide, to conduct them into the great trading path of
West Florida, they set out for Mobile. Their progress, for about
eighteen miles, was through a magnificent forest, which, at intervals,
afforded them a view of distant Indian towns. At night, they encamped
beneath a grove of oaks; but, shortly afterwards, there fell so
extraordinary a shower of rain, that, suddenly, the whole adjacent
ground was inundated, and they were obliged to continue standing through
the whole of the night. Early in the morning, the guide, having
performed his duty, returned home; and the travellers continued their
journey, over an extended series of grassy plains, more than twenty
miles in length, and eight or nine miles wide. These plains were bounded
by high forests, which, in some places, presented magnificent and
pleasing sylvan landscapes, of primitive and uncultivated nature. They
crossed several rivulets and creeks, branches of the _Alabama_, the
eastern arm of the Mobile. These rivulets were adorned with groves of
various trees and shrubs. Immediately beyond the plains, the travellers
entered a high, and grand forest; and the road, for several miles, led
them near the banks of the _Alabama_. The surface of the land was broken
into hills and vales; some of them of considerable elevation, and
covered with forests of stately trees.

After many miles' travelling, over a varied and interesting country,
they arrived at the eastern channel of the _river Mobile_, and, on t