Feb. 1686 Lewis. Thus it pleas'd God that he who was to be one of the Murderers of Monsieur de la Sale, should come off safe, and surmount almost infinite Dangers.
This Account, which seem'd to carry the Face of Probability, prevail'd with me to receive the Sieur Duhaut, and in Reality I could do no otherwise, and I made it my Business to examine into his Behaviour, but could find Nothing to lay to his Charge. We continued some Time longer as we had been before; during the which, I caus'd another little Wooden Structure to be made, of Timber, I had got together, and in it I lodg'd the Women and Maidens by themselves. Having hitherto said Nothing of the Situation of our Dwelling of St. Lewis, nor of the Nature of the Country we were in, I will here venture upon a plain but true Description.
Description of the Country and Dwelling at St. Lewis. We were in about the 27th Degree of North Latitude, two Leagues up the Country, near the Bay of St. Lewis and the Bank of the River aux Bœufs, on a little Hillock, whence we discover'd vast and beautiful Plains, extending very far to the Westward, all level and full of Greens, which afford Pasture to an infinite Number of Beeves and other Creatures.
The Land. Turning from the West to the Southward, there appear'd other Plains adorn'd with several little Woods of several Sorts of Trees. Towards the South and East was the Bay, and the Plains that hem it in from the East; to the Northward, was the River running along by a little Hill,[1]C. C. edit.]
- ↑ Fr. "On voyoit du Côté du midy, & vers l'Orient, la Baye, & les campagnes qui la bordent, de l'Orient au Septentrion, la Riviere se presentoit le long d'un petit costan,"—To the southward and eastward stretched the Bay and the fields which border it, from the east to the north, the river appeared along a gentle slope,—[The phrase, "From the east to the north" squints both ways; the reader must determine the meaning. Perhaps, in the editor's translation, the comma after the words "border it" should be removed, so as to make the phrase "from the east to the north" qualify the verb "border." Although the editor's studies have not qualified him to express an authoritative opinion upon this point of historical geography, he hazards the guess that this river is one of those flowing into Galveston Bay.
