weather was
mild, game abundant, and, as he had his gun with him, he did not want
for food. Cheered by his return, they rejoicingly entered their canoes,
and, with cloudless skies overarching them, pushed out into the rapid
current, to be swept along through realms to them entirely unknown, and
to a point they knew not where.

It was a singular and a beautiful spectacle, which was presented by
this _flock_ of large birch canoes, eight or ten in number, filled
with Indians, and Frenchmen in Indian costume, gliding down the broad,
swift current of the river. The paddles glistened with the reflected
rays of the sun. All were in health. There was no toil. New scenes of
marvellous desolation, or beauty, or grandeur, were continually opening
before them. They were well fed. The mind was kept in a state of
delightful excitement. The French are proverbially good-natured and
mirthful. Each night's encampment presented a scene of feasting,
bonfires and innocent joyous revel. These were indeed sunny days, and
this was the poetry of travelling.

The 3d of March, 1682, came. They had then descended the river, as they
judged, about one hundred and twenty miles below the mouth of the Ohio.
They were approaching, though they knew it not, a large village of the
Arkansas Indians, situated on the western banks of the Mississippi. It
was concealed from them by a bluff, and by a turn in the stream. An
Indian, upon the lookout on the bluff, caught sight of the formidable
looking fleet, far up the river, and, supposing it to be filled with
hostile savages on the war-path, gave the alarm.

The whole village was instantly thrown into a state of great
excitement. The women and children fled back into the forest. The
warriors grasped their arms and rallied for battle. As the fleet drew
near, all unconscious of the commotion it had excited, the voyagers,
not seeing a single Indian, were surprised to hear, on the other side
of the bluff, the yells of apparently hundreds of savages. Their
piercing war-whoops were blended with the loud beatings of a kind of
drum which they had fabricated.

Warned by these hostile demonstrations, La Salle guided his canoes to
the other side of the river, which was here about a mile in width. He
landed in direct view of the village. With his customary caution, he
immediately threw up some intrenchments, behind which his men, with
their guns, could beat off almost any number of savages. He knew not
but that hundre