It began to rain an hour after I started but I was fortunate enough to pass Beechford and Rollingford. 13 Miles from Mackinsy’s. I was obliged to stop at the house of an inhabitant a Mile and a half from the crossing and the Rain compelled me to pass the night there. In the neighborhood there is _Liriodendron_ with yellow wood and in some parts _Liriodendron_ with white wood. The inhabitants prefer the yellow variety. Wednesday 10th of February 1796, I had supped the previous evening on Tea made from the shrub called Spice-wood. A handful of young twigs or branches is set to boil and after it has boiled at least a quarter of an hour sugar is added and it is drunk like real Tea. There was no Milk at the time and I was told that Milk makes it much more agreeable to the taste. This beverage restores strength and it had that effect for I was very tired when I arrived. This shrub is the _Laurus Benjoin Linn_. The Illinois French call it Poivrier and the hunters season their meat with some pieces of its wood. In the vicinity grows a plant[169] of the _Orchis_ family whose leaf remains all winter. There are seldom two; the form is oval, furrowed, entire; the root bears two or three very viscous bulbs. It is used in the Country to mend broken crockery. It is called _Adam and Eve_. This plant is more common in the rich low lands of the territory West of the Allegany Mountains. I have also seen it in Lower Carolina but it is very rare there. It is not rare in Illinois. Rain continued to fall all day and I was obliged to spend the night in a house near Nolin Creek because the river had overflowed its banks. The 11th arrived at Huggins’s 12 Miles from Rollinford. The 12th passed through a Country covered with grass and Oaks which no longer exist as forests, having been burned every year. These lands are called Barren lands although not really sterile. The grasses predominate: _Salix pumila_, _Quercus nigra_ and _Quercus alba_ called Mountain White Oak. _Gnaphalium dioicum_ also grows there in abundance. It is called by the Americans White Plantain. The same day 12th of February 1796 passed by Bacon Creek, a new settlement 19 Miles from Huggins Mill and arrived at Green river 9 Miles from Bacon Creek. Slept 3 Miles further on at the house of one Walter. The 13th of February traveled 37 Miles without seeing a House through the lands called Barren lands. The _Salix pumila_ that grows there in abundance is the same as that which is very common in the Illinois prairies as one leaves Vincennes Post to go to Kaskaskia. Slept beyond the Big Barren river. Sunday the 14th traveled about 30 Miles. In all the Houses the children were suffering from Hooping Cough. This disease probably results from a simple Cold but the reprehensible system of living continually on salt and smoked meat fried in the pan produces those acrid humors that render expectoration more difficult.