Page 15

#14 acquired a knowledge of any Indian language. We left Natchez on the 17th, and embarked, the Father Dumas and myself in a boat which went out on a hunting expedition. Our people had not yet prepared their provisions, that is to say, they had not purchased and pounded their corn. As the flats now began to be seen, we found there the eggs of the turtles, which were a new feast for us. These eggs are a little larger than pigeon's eggs, and are found in the sand of the flats, where the sun hatches them. The tracks which the turtles leave, enable us to discover the places where they have concealed their eggs. They are found in great quantities, and are made into omelettes, which are much relished by people who are accustomed to eat nothing but gru. They reckon the distance from New Orleans to Natchez at nearly a hundred leagues, and from Natchez to Yayous, at forty. We made this second passage without any other adventure, except that during one night we were overtaken by a violent storm, accompanied with thunder and lightning. You may judge whether a person is well protected from the rain under the covering of a single cloth. The next day an Indian who was ascending the river with us went on shore for the purpose of hunting. We continued our route, but had scarcely gone half a league when he appeared on the bank with a deer on his shoulders. We there- fore cabined on the first flat we came to, for the purpose of drying our clothes and making a great feast. These repasts, whick take place after a good chase, are perfectly savage in the way they are conducted, though nothing can be more pleasant. The animal is in pieces in a moment; nothing is lost; our voyagers place it on the fire or in the pot, each one according to his taste; their fingers and some little sticks supply the place of all kinds of utensils for cooking and for the table. To see them covered only with a cloth round the loins, more athletic, more browned than the Indians themselves, stretched out on the sand or squatting down like monkeys, and eating what they hold in their hands, one can scarcely know whether it is a troop of gipsies, or of poeple who are assisting at a witch festival. On the 23d we arrived at Yayous, a French post within two leagues of the mouth of the river of that name, which empties into the Mississippi. There is an officer with the title of Commander, together with a dozen soldiers, and three or four planters. The grant of M. le Blanc was at this place, but it has gone to ruin like the others. The ground is elevated by mounds, little of it is cleared, and the air is, they say, unwholesome. The Commander, in honor of our arrival fired off all the artillery of the fort, which consists of two pieces of very small cannon