“The business of war being so different from that of writing,” he said, “I have not the ability to make a portrait of a country so worthy of a better pen than mine; but since you have directed me to render an account of it, I will do so.” He described the river and then continued: “Its borders are so many vast prairies, and the freshness of the beautiful waters keeps the banks always green. The prairies are bordered by long and broad rows of fruit trees which have never felt the hand of the vigilant gardener. Here also orchards, young and old, soften and bend their branches, under the weight and quantity of their fruit, towards the mother earth which has produced them. It is in this land, so fertile, that the ambitious vine, which has never wept under the knife of the vine-dresser, builds a thick roof with its large leaves and heavy clusters, weighing down the top of the tree which receives it, and often stifling it with its embrace. “Under these broad walks one sees assembled by hundred the timid deer and fawn, also the squirrel bounding in his eagerness to collect the apples and plums with which the earth is covered. Here the cautious turkey calls and conducts her numerous brood to gather the grapes, and here also their mates come to fill their large and gluttonous crops. Golden pheasants, the quail, the partridge, woodcock, and numerous doves swarm in the woods and cover the country, which is dotted and broken with thickets and high forests of full-grown trees.... There are ten species of forest trees, among them are the walnut, white oak, red oak, the ash, the pine, whitewood and cotton-wood; straight as arrows, without knots, and almost without branches, except at the very top, and of prodigious size.... The fish here are nourished and bathed by living water of crystal clearness, and their great abundance renders them none the less delicious. Swans are so numerous that one would take for lilies the reeds in which they are crowded together. The gabbling goose, the duck, the widgeon [a kind of duck], and the bustard are so abundant that to give an idea of their numbers I must use the expression of a savage whom I asked before arriving if there was much game. ‘So much,’ he said, ‘that they draw up in lines to let the boats pass through.’... In a word, the climate is temperate, and the air purified through the day and night by a gentle breeze. The skies are always serene and spread sweet and fresh influence which makes one enjoy a tranquil sleep.”