The view of this great fall at first made my hair stand on end, and my heart almost leap out of its place; but afterwards, before I left it, I had the courage to walk under it. Next day we took the shortest road to the Ohio; and my companion and I cutting down a tree on the banks of the river, we formed it into a pettiauger, which served to conduct me down the Ohio and the Mississippi; after which, with much difficulty, I went up our small river, and at length arrived safe among my relations, who were rejoiced to see me in good health. [Illustration: _The Plains of Abraham, near Quebec._ (_The spot where General Wolfe fell._)] “This journey, instead of satisfying, only served to excite my curiosity. Our old men, for several years, had told me that the _ancient speech_ informed them that the Red-men of the north came originally much higher and much farther than the source of the river Missouri; and as I had longed to see, with my own eyes, the land from whence our first fathers came, I took my precautions for my journey westwards. Having provided a small quantity of corn, I proceeded up along the eastern bank of the river Mississippi, till I came to the Ohio. I went up along the bank of this last river, about the fourth part of a day’s journey, that I might be able to cross it without being carried into the Mississippi. There I formed a _cayeux_, or raft of canes, by the assistance of which I passed over the river; and next day meeting with a herd of buffaloes in the meadows, I killed a fat one, and took from it the fillets, the bunch, and the tongue. Soon after I arrived among the Tamaroos, a village of the nation of the Illinois, where I rested several days, and then proceeded northwards to the mouth of the Missouri, which, after it enters the great river, runs for a considerable time without intermixing its muddy waters with the clear stream of the other. Having crossed the Mississippi, I went up the _Missouri_, along its northern bank; and after several days journey, I arrived at the nation of the Missouris, where I staid a long time, to learn the language that is spoken beyond them. In going along the Missouri, I passed through meadows a whole day’s journey in length, which were quite covered with buffaloes.