ut in the hunting-ground; and our
great chief ordered me to start with five hundred warriors, and never
return until the Caddoes should have no home, and wander like deer and
starved wolves in the open prairie.

"I followed the track. First, I burnt their great villages in the Cross
Timbers, and then pursued them in the swamps and cane-breaks of the
East, where they concealed themselves among the long lizards of the
water (the alligators). We, however, came up with them again, and they
crossed the Sabine, to take shelter among the Yankees, where they had
another village, which was their largest and their richest. We
followed; and on the very shores of their river, although a thousand
miles from our own country, and where the waters are dyed with the red
clay of the soil, we encamped round their wigwams and prepared to
conquer.

"It was at the gloomy season, when it rains night and day; the river was
high, the earth damp, and our young braves shivering, even under their
blankets. It was evening, when, far to the south, above one of the
windings of the stream, I saw a thick black smoke rising as a tall pine
among the clouds, and I watched it closely. It came towards us; and as
the sky darkened and night came on, sparks of fire showed the progress
of the strange sight. Soon noises were heard, like those of the
mountains when the evil spirits are shaking them; the sounds were awful,
solemn, and regular, like the throbs of a warrior's heart; and now and
then a sharp, shrill scream would rend the air and awake other terrible
voices in the forest.

"It came, and deer, bears, panthers were passing among us madly flying
before the dreaded unknown. It came, it flew, nearer and nearer, till
we saw it plainly with its two big mouths, spitting fire like the
burning mountains of the West. It rained very hard, and yet we saw all.
It was like a long fish, shaped like a canoe, and its sides had many
eyes, full of bright light as the stars above.

"I saw no one with the monster; he was alone, breaking the waters and
splashing them with his arms, his legs, or his fins. On the top, and it
was very high, there was a square lodge: Once I thought I could see a
man in it, but it was a fancy; or perhaps the soul of the thing,
watching from its hiding place for a prey which it might seize upon;
happily it was dark, very dark, and being in a hollow along the banks,
we could not be perceived; and the dreadful thing passed.

"The Cad