poor girl's mother lies buried here, and we often visit it when disposed to sorrow, or when events bring her strongly to our recollection."

I respected such an evidence of affliction and tenderness too much to give it interruption; and, therefore, turned through the garden, and made preparations to depart. In a short time I took a friendly leave of the gentlemen of the garrison, and pursued my voyage, much pleased and refreshed by my stay at the fort. I had not passed some islands which lie immediately below the bluffs ten minutes, before very strong demonstrations of a hurricane appeared. The wind suddenly died away; the sun assumed a deep red, and glowed with unusual fury; the atmosphere was sensibly discomposed; the spring of the air relaxed to cause a difficulty of breathing; and nature reposed in a calm, in order to gather strength for some in

tended work of desolation and ruin. I benefited by the fortunate interval, and pulled into the eastern shore, where I secured my boat, and waited, with deep emotion, the event of the approaching storm. A small cloud announced its intention of coming from the west. That cloud soon dilated its volume to an immense expanse, and moved with astonishing velocity towards me. The noise it made in the woods was like that of the sea in its utmost rage; and the havoc it made, was dreadful. The beasts of the forest rushed howling to the water's edge; and the birds flew agitated and screaming over it. The trees were heard to crackle and fall; and as the storm reached the river, I could plainly perceive that it travelled in a direct line, leaving after it a strait avenue of several miles extent, in which nothing could be seen but prostrate trees, and the stumps and scattered limbs of those it

had broken. On striking the water, into which it hurled every tree on the banks, it made it labour like a vortex in commotion; and as it passed over the eastern shore, it again renewed its dreadful operation, driving all before it, rending up the heaviest timber by the roots, and carrying in its convulsed bosom birds, plants, and shrubs.

The

effect on my boat was terrible: it drove her into the mud-banks, half way across her breadth, filled her with water, and covered her over with branches and wood, propelled from the opposite side; in fine, she appeared no better than a wreck. During the action of the tempest on the river, the men and I had to jump in the water, not being able to hold on to the boat. The cloud, rapidly moving, having arrived at its destination, or having performed its office of decomposing the air of such places as occasioned it to possess most gravity, varied

its course, and rushed to the southward with increased violence and velocity. After varying from point to point, it ascended the river, and forced its way northwardly; in which direction, I perceived another cloud forming of equal magnitude, and as capable of filling the mind with solicitude and terror. This latter cloud descended the river. However, as the first hurricane had restored to the air, between the two clouds, its elastic and repulsive power, and true gravity, they could not approach each other but by very slow degrees, subject to pauses of considerable length, silence, and terrible solemnity. Two hours elapsed before they came into contact. Theawful event was announced by vivid flashes of lightning, unceasing peals of thunder, and the precipitation of the watery parts in streams and torrents of rain. But when the two clouds rushed into the same circle, and formed but one

immense globe, in the dark bosom of which the electric fluid began its direful operation, my reason stood apalled, and I thought the gates of chaos, hell, and confusion were opened wide above me. The lightning which before flashed in fine lambent flames and intermittent flakes, now took eccentric, hostile, and zigzag shapes, which perpetually traversed and opposed each other, or else it formed balls of fire which shot in all directions through the air, rolled along the ground, or hissed over the surface of the water; and the thunder, which commenced by single peals, continued with constant and dreadful clamour. The explosions never died, and the everberations appeared to vie with them in impetuosity and power. After an hour's contest, disputed in a stile of sublime greatness, the northern cloud proved victorious, and descended the river, fertilized its burning banks, and reanimated a droop