Having progressed some way in the Missouri Territory, I again crossed the river, and entered the Indian Village at one of the Chickasaw Bluffs. The settlement here is considerable; and the Chickasaws, being friendly to the United States, evince in their appearance, the beneficial consequences of a peaceful policy. White men of little or no reputation frequently intermarry with this tribe; and the Indians are much pleased with the connexion. On this Bluff is situated Fort Pickering.[150]
The evenings in this part of the country are delightful; especially in the woods, far from the haunts of men. The aspect of the heavens is here {204} peculiarly serene; and the human mind is disposed to dwell upon the power, wisdom, and goodness of God; the station of man in the scale of being; his probationary state, with all its relations and events; and his hopes of happiness beyond the grave.
The traveller, in proceeding from a cold to a warm climate, is forcibly impressed by a sense of the revolutions of the seasons; especially if he commences his tour in the midst of winter. Those who are acquainted with astronomy, who know what are the effects of the annual motion of the earth; and particularly the beneficial consequences of its declination, will, if they have any sense of moral power and goodness, unite with Milton in his sublime fiction:—
"Some say He bid his angels turn askanse
The poles of earth, twice ten degrees and more,
From the sun's axle; they, with labour,
Push'd oblique the central globe."
The remembrance of those aspects in nature, which are peculiar to the various seasons of the year, are delightfully
- [Footnote: money, their routes were beset by robbers who could, undoubtedly, have explained
many a grave on these lonely roads.—Hulbert, Historic Highways of America, ix, pp. 125, 126.—Ed.]
