ezvous was appointed, dinner being laid in
another of the suite of apartments appropriated to public purposes. We
mustered about a hundred strong, and a more creditable set of children
no saint ever had to his back. About midnight the party broke up, and,
despite the rain, the shamrog had never presided over a gayer table.

_18th._--A glorious morning; paid my visits, made adieus; and after,
rode out to the lake by the canal and _Bayou St. John_. But what a
change had taken place since my last ride here, just three days back!
then all was torpid, decayed, and dead; the forest was voiceless, and
the waters oily and stagnant as though never intended for the use of
living thing. On this day all nature appears awakened, as if by magic,
and vegetation actually seems to proceed before our eyes; in every dyke
the water-snakes are gliding about with their graceful crests reared
above the surface, and on lake and lagoon bask shoals of mullet,
rejoicing in the warm waters of the swamp. The lazy alligator is
dragging himself across the path, newly roused from his winter lair. The
cardinal, the mocking-bird, and the gaudy red-bird, are all darting to
and fro, in pursuit of the various insects that flutter about the air.
The very swamp is putting on a face of beauty, and all nature appears to
hail the arrival of spring. Never was change so complete, so sudden, and
so attractive.

Returning, halted by a camp of Choctaws, consisting of a dozen huts,
about which crawled or ran as many children of all ages, looking
remarkably healthy and well-formed. In a hut, larger and better made
than any other, sat the chief and his squaw, upon whose lap lay
numberless strings of blue and white beads, which she was admiring and
arranging with as much delight as a London girl would her first suite of
pearl.

The chief himself was a stout, honest-faced fellow, and I suppose an
active hunter, for the sides of the hut, which was open in front, were
hung with various skins, and the earth was closely carpeted with the
like trophies: several clean-looking baskets were hanging about the
back of the hut; over the fire, in front, was suspended an iron pot, and
to attend to this seemed the present business of the chief.

This was a portion of a tribe or nation, once very powerful and numerous
in the South; it is now, however, scattered and broken up; many families
under their several chiefs have departed for the Western wilderness,
many more for the tomb.