Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 3).djvu/221

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  • rens; and to my great satisfaction I got into the woods.[46]

Nothing can be more tiresome than the doleful uniformity of these immense meadows where there is nobody to be met with; and where, except a great number of partridges, we neither see nor hear any species of living beings, and are still more isolated than in the middle of the forests.

The first plantation that I reached on entering Tennessea belonged to a person of the name of Checks, of whom I entertained a very indifferent opinion, by the conversation that he was holding with seven or eight of his neighbours, with whom he was drinking whiskey. Fearing lest I should witness some murdering scene or other, which among the inhabitants of this part of the country is frequently the end of intoxication, produced by this kind of spirits, I quickly took my leave, and put up at an inn about three miles farther off, where I found every accommodation. The late Duke of Orleans' son lodged at this house a few years before.[47] On the {148} day following I arrived at Nasheville, after having travelled twenty-seven miles.

The Barrens, or Kentucky Meadows, comprise an extent from sixty to seventy miles in length, by sixty miles in breadth. According to the signification of this word, I conceived I should have had to cross over a naked space,