Page:A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana.djvu/119

111 principally on buffaloe meat, and rarely kill a deer. The men go naked, except their breech flap, and the women wear only a short coat of dressed leather, tied round the waist. These Indians are at perpetual war with the Osage nation.

Black river, a large branch of Red river, has already been mentioned. Coming from a northern direction, it enters Red river about thirty miles above its mouth. The course of Black river is nearly parallel with Mississippi, at a distance of about forty miles. Between these rivers the land is overflowed when the Mississippi is high. At the time this immense cypress swamp is flooded, it exhibits the appearance of a vast number of large trees, standing in a lake, or a bay of the sea. The name of black river, at the distance of sixty miles, is changed, and it is then called the Washata river. Here the course of the river tends to the westward, and the land becomes sufficiently high to admit of cultivation near the bank of the river. At the mouth of the Washata, and near lake Cattahoola, is a small settlement, where the settlers have raised an embankment to prevent inundation when the water is high. Above this settlement, at the distance of about one hundred and seventy miles, is an excellent tract of land, extending on the river, about forty miles. Here the much famed Aaron Burr pretended to have made an extensive purchase; to commence the settlement was the