h some miles
of broken ice, and continued their adventurous voyage. An American
military courier, less energetic, was detained three weeks by the
obstructions which the French party thus speedily overcame. At
Marietta, Ohio, they found another small village. Here they landed to
lay in supplies; and they spent some time in examining those Indian
mounds so profusely scattered there--interesting memorials of an
extinct race.

Continuing their voyage amidst the masses of ice which still
encumbered these northern waters, they one day, through the
negligence of their helmsman, ran against a branch of a tree, termed
a _snag_, and stove in their bows. The boat was immediately unloaded,
drawn upon the shore, and in twenty-four hours was so repaired as to
enable them to continue their journey. As they entered more southern
latitudes the floating ice disappeared, and the voyage became more
pleasant, as they rapidly floated down the tortuous stream, by
forests and headlands, and every variety of wild, sublime, and
beautiful scenery, until they reached New Orleans, on the 17th of
February, 1798.

Here they met with a very friendly welcome, not only from the
colonists generally, but from the Spanish governor, Don Gayoso. They
were detained in New Orleans five weeks, awaiting the arrival of the
corvette which was engaged in conveying passengers and light freight
from that port to Havana. Impatient of the delay, as the packet did
not arrive, they embarked in an American vessel. England was then
truly mistress of the seas. She made and executed her own laws,
regardless of all expostulations from other nations.

As the American vessel was crossing the Gulf of Mexico, she was
encountered by an English frigate, which, by firing several guns,
brought her to, and immediately boarded her. The British Government
had adopted the very extraordinary principle that an English ship
might stop a ship, of whatever nationality, on the seas, board her,
summon her passengers and crew upon the deck, and impress, to serve
as British seamen, any of those passengers or crew whom the officers
of the frigate might pronounce to be British subjects. From their
decision there was no appeal.

"The princes," says the Rev. G. N. Wright, "had an
opportunity of witnessing one of those violations of
international law which not only marked but degraded the
maritime history of that period, by the gross sacrifice of
public law and private liber