Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 V13.djvu/185

 8th.] From the Cherokees I understood that there still exists some portion of the Natchez, who live with the Choctaws, near Mobile river. It would be interesting to learn, what affinities their language possesses with that of the existing nations. The Chetimachas of bayou Placquimine, said by Du Pratz to speak the same language, and to be a branch of the same people, might also afford some information concerning the Natchez and their connections.[147]

In the evening, we crossed to the right-hand cliff of the Dardanelle, where Mr. D. again renewed his trade with the Indians and their retailers. I embraced this opportunity to make one of my usual rambles, and found an extraordinary difference in the progress of vegetation here, exposed to the south and sheltered from the north-western wind. Proceeding leisurely towards the summit of the hill, I was amused by the gentle murmurs of a rill of pellucid water, which broke from rock to rock. The acclivity, through a scanty thicket, rather than the usual sombre forest, was already adorned with violets, and occasional clusters of the parti-coloured Collinsia. The groves and thickets were whitened with the blossoms of the Dog-*