The reader will not here mistake so far as to suppose I mean to treat lightly domestic worship, an observance for which we should all be better, and for which I could not but respect my host, hoping he was sincere in it; nor should the traveller be soured by the charges after such _entertainment_, as he is too apt to be; but he should consider that he had met with the best reception in the power of the people to give: their only beds are given up for his convenience, while they probably sleep on a bench or on the ground, and if money is the view chiefly in all this, let money be freely given to discharge the obligation. I was angered with much more reason at my host's attempt to inveigle my man-servant from me with offers of twenty dollars per month, his board, &c.: these religious people are but too apt to disregard moral conduct as a thing altogether of {90} this world: many similar offers had I believe been made to him, which sufficiently proves the scarcity of active hands, and that such need not fear to want situations. Long before we approach the neighbourhood of Vincennes the woodland opens here and there into what are termed _barrens_; these are not generally flat but undulated, and covered with stunted oak, low beautifull shrubs, &c.; belted in with trees so fancifully disposed that one is apt to imagine the hand of art to have been employed: the land is not considered in general as of even second-rate quality, but it is dry and healthy, and, when cultivated, brings good corn if the summer is at all favourable; indeed, under the present drought I saw some fair crops at the few spots where _squatters_ had fixed themselves. These barrens increase in size and number as we proceed westward, until they end in the so much talked of _prairie_ or wild meadows; in the midst of one of which, and upon the Great Wabash river stands the pleasant town of Vincennes, upon a sandy gravel sub-soil with excellent springs of water. Before we arrived at Vincennes, however, an adventure awaited us. We had baited at a house which we were told was but six miles from the town, and forgetting there is in these latitudes no twilight, had {91} staid too long, and in consequence found ourselves in complete darkness just on entering upon a large prairie; the road, which was nothing more than wheel-tracks could no longer be discerned, and I was obliged to direct two of our party to precede the carriage and find the way by feeling, not by seeing the track. In this manner we had not gone far when the guides stopped, declaring they heard the growl of some wild beast before them,--bears, wolves, and panthers, all of which I had just heard of, immediately came to mind, and I pulled up the horses to listen; when a tremendous roar was heard directly, succeeded by another which brought our guides, who were females, back upon the waggons, declaring that the animal approached. Very unwilling for the engagement, I then cocked my