ember that while I was travelling through the forests which still
cover the State of Alabama, I arrived one day at the log house of a
pioneer. I did not wish to penetrate into the dwelling of the American,
but retired to rest myself for a while on the margin of a spring, which
was not far off, in the woods. While I was in this place (which was
in the neighborhood of the Creek territory), an Indian woman appeared,
followed by a negress, and holding by the hand a little white girl of
five or six years old, whom I took to be the daughter of the pioneer.
A sort of barbarous luxury set off the costume of the Indian; rings
of metal were hanging from her nostrils and ears; her hair, which was
adorned with glass beads, fell loosely upon her shoulders; and I saw
that she was not married, for she still wore that necklace of shells
which the bride always deposits on the nuptial couch. The negress
was clad in squalid European garments. They all three came and seated
themselves upon the banks of the fountain; and the young Indian, taking
the child in her arms, lavished upon her such fond caresses as mothers
give; while the negress endeavored by various little artifices to
attract the attention of the young Creole.

The child displayed in her slightest gestures a consciousness of
superiority which formed a strange contrast with her infantine weakness;
as if she received the attentions of her companions with a sort of
condescension. The negress was seated on the ground before her mistress,
watching her smallest desires, and apparently divided between strong
affection for the child and servile fear; whilst the savage displayed,
in the midst of her tenderness, an air of freedom and of pride which was
almost ferocious. I had approached the group, and I contemplated them in
silence; but my curiosity was probably displeasing to the Indian woman,
for she suddenly rose, pushed the child roughly from her, and giving
me an angry look plunged into the thicket. I had often chanced to see
individuals met together in the same place, who belonged to the three
races of men which people North America. I had perceived from many
different results the preponderance of the whites. But in the picture
which I have just been describing there was something peculiarly
touching; a bond of affection here united the oppressors with the
oppressed, and the effort of nature to bring them together rendered
still more striking the immense distance placed between them