erland route we were following.

"During days and weeks, we had to march slowly and tediously through
endless forests, cutting our way across undergrowth so thick, as to be
almost impervious to light, brushwood where a cruel enemy might lay
concealed in ambush to murder us, for we were now in the very heart
of the Indian country, and the savages followed us, stealthily, day
and night. We could see them with their tattooed faces and hideous
headgear of feathers, frightful in appearance, lurking around in the
forest, and watching our movements. We were always on the alert,
expecting an attack at any moment, for we could distinctly hear their
whoops and fierce yells.

"Ah! Petiots, it was then that our mental and bodily anguish became
extreme, and that the stoutest heart grew faint under the pressure of
such accumulated woes. Our nights were sleepless, and, careworn and on
the verge of starvation, we moved steadily onward, the very picture
of dejection and of despair. Thus we toiled on day after day, and
night after night, during two long weary months on our seemingly
endless journey, until, disspirited and disheartened, our courage
failed us.

"It was a dark hour, full of alarming forebodings, and we witnessed
the depression of our brother exiles with sorrow and apprehension.

"But a kind Providence watched over us. God tempereth the wind to
the shorn lamb. The hope of finding our lost kindred stimulated our
drooping spirits. We had been told that Louisiana was a land of
enchantment, where a perpetual spring reigned. A land where the soil
was extremely fertile; where the climate was so genial and temperate,
and the sky so serene and azure, as to justly deserve the name of Eden
of America. It smiled to us in the distance like the promised land,
and toward that land we bent our weary steps, longing for the day when
we would tread its soil, and breathe once more the pure air in which
floated the banner of France.

"At last we reached the Tennessee river, where it curves gracefully
around the base of a mountain looming up hundreds of feet. Its banks
were rocky and precipitous, falling straight down at least fifty
feet, and we could see, in the chasm below, its waters that flowed
majestically on in their course toward the grand old Meschacebe. It
was out of the question to cross the river there, and we followed the
roadway on its banks around the mountain, advancing cautiously to
avoid the danger that threatened us at ev