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#9 boat—- devoured by the mosquitoes through the night. Note-— This was the Vigil of Whitsunday, a fast-day. The 1st of June we arrived at Oumas, a French plantation, where we found enough ground not overflowed to erect our cabins. We remained there during the next day to give rest to our crew. In the evening, Father Dumas and I embarked in a boat which during the night was to go the same distance we should otherwise have to accomplish on the next day. By this means we avoided the intense heat. On the 3rd we arrived, early in the morning indeed, at Bayapoulas (the destroyed nation), at the house of M. du Buisson, director of the grant of the Messieurs Paris. Here we found some beds, which we had almost forgotten how to use, and during the morning took that repose which the mosquitoes had not permitted us to gain during the night. M. du Buisson omitted nothing which could add to ourcoomfort, and regaled us with a wild turkey. (This is in every respect like the domestic turkey, except that the taste is finer.) The grant appeared to us well arranged and in good condition. It would have been worth still more if it had always had as good a director. Our people arrived in the evening, and the next day we left the Bayagoulas, charmed with the pleasant manners and civilities of M. du Buisson. Framboise, Chief of the Sitimachas, who had been a slave to M. de Bienville, had come hither to see us, and had invited us to dine at his home, which we should have to pass about noon. He had before given the same invitation when he descended with his tribe to New Orleans to chant the calumet before the new Governor. This gave occasion to an adventure, which we were glad to get through with, and the recital of which you will perhaps be equally glad to get through reading; but n'importe, I will give it you. The inundation had obliged the Sitimachas to penetrate deeply into the wood, and we therefore fired off a gun to announce our arrival. The sound of a gun in the woods of Mississippi is like a clap of thunder, and immediately afterwards a little Indian presented himself before us. We had a young man with us who was acquainted with the language; he therefore questioned him, and told us in reply, that the little Indian was sent to conduct us, and that the village was not for distant. It is necessary to observe, in passing, that this young man had an excellent appetite, and that he was well aware we should not be able to do any cooking where we then were, on account of the water. Trusting to his word we set out in an Indian boat which happened to be there, the child guiding us. We had not gone far when the water for our boat failed, an