cultivation. A
small steamboat was procured, and its command offered to Finn, who thus
became a captain. Although the boat could not proceed higher than Lost
Prairie, the result of the survey induced hundreds of planters to settle
upon the banks of the river, and Captain Finn lived to become rich and
honoured by his countrymen; his great spirit of enterprise never
deserted him, and it was he who first proposed to the government to cut
through the great rafts which impeded the navigation. His plans were
followed, and exploring steam-boats have since gone nearly a thousand
miles above Captain Finn's plantation at Lost Prairie.

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Note 1. Rafts are an assemblage of forest trees, which have been washed
down to the river, from the undermining of its banks. At certain points
they become interlaced and stationary, stretching right across the
river, preventing the passage of even a canoe.

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Note 2. A cow is a kind of floating raft peculiar to the western rivers
of America, being composed of immense pine-trees tied together, and upon
which a log cabin is erected.

CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.

The next morning our American companions bade us farewell, and resumed
their journey; but Captain Finn insisted that Gabriel, Roche, and I
should not leave him so soon. He pointed out that my steed would not be
able to travel much farther, if I did not give him at least two or three
days' repose; as for the horses of my two companions, they had become
quite useless, and our host charged himself with procuring them others,
which would carry them back to the Comanches.

Captain Finn's hospitality was not, however, so heavily taxed, for
during the day a flotilla of fifteen canoes stopped before the
plantation, and a dozen of French traders came up to the house. They
were intimate friends of the captain, who had known them for a long
time, and it fortunately happened that they were proceeding with goods
to purchase the furs of the Pawnee Picts. They offered a passage to
Gabriel and Roche, who, of course, accepted the welcome proposition.
They embarked their saddles with sundry provisions, which the good Mrs
Finn forced upon them, while her hospitable husband, unknown to them,
put into the canoes a bale of such articles as he thought would be
useful to them during their long journey. The