[211] Loftus Heights was so named from the Indian attack made therefrom in 1764, upon the British troops under Major Loftus, who were going to secure the Illinois country. The detachment was obliged to retire to New Orleans. Fort Adams was built by the orders of Wilkinson in 1798, and the American troops from Natchez and Vicksburg removed thither.—Ed.
[212] Curran, in one of his celebrated speeches, thus beautifully described the native hospitality of his country:
“The hospitality of other countries is a matter of necessity, or convention; in savage nations, of the first; in polished, of the latter: but the hospitality of an Irishman is not the running account of posted and ledgered courtesies, as in other countries; it springs like all his other qualities, his faults, his virtues, directly from the heart. The heart of an Irishman is by nature bold, and he confides; it is tender, and he loves; it is generous, and he gives; it is social, and he is hospitable.”—Cramer.
CHAPTER LII
Enter West Florida—Fine country—Don Juan O’Connor—A whimsical egarement—Capt. Percy—Bayau Sarah—Doctor Flowers—Don Thomas Estevan—Mr. Perrie’s—Thompson’s creek—Bad road—Beautiful plain—Montesano.
A mile and a half farther, in a S. E. direction, the road crossed the demarkation line, which divides {304} the Mississippi territory from the Spanish province of West Florida, at the first house from Pinckneyville, and the last subject to the United States. The line runs along the parallel of the 31st degree of north latitude. It was cut forty feet wide, but it is now scarcely perceptible, from the rapid growth of trees and shrubs, in the short space of seven or eight years since it was opened, under the direction of Mr. Ellicot, commissioner on the part of the United States, and major Minor on the part of Spain.[213]
I was now in the district of New Feliciana, in the Spanish province of West Florida. A wagon road through a naturally fine country, with some small plantations at distances from half a mile to a mile, brought me in eight miles to Don Juan O’Connor’s. This respectable old gentleman, to whom I carried a letter of introduction, has a fine estate, and is building a very large and commodious house, which, when finished, he intends for the residence of his family now in Philadelphia. He is held in great estimation by the government, and throughout the country, where he many years exercised the office of Alcalde, or chief magistrate of the district; but resigning it on account of his increasing age, he has been succeeded by his neighbour, Capt. Robert Percy, formerly of the British navy, a gentleman perfectly well qualified to execute the office with becoming dignity and propriety.
I remained three days with Mr. O’Connor, at his friendly solicitation, visited by, and visiting the neighbouring gentry of this rich and hospitable country, during which time a laughable incident happened.
Accompanying Mr. O’Connor to Capt. Percy’s, a distance of only two miles, through the lands of the two gentlemen, Mr. O’C. conducted me through the woods by a bridle path, instead of keeping the main road, for the purpose of seeing some of his people, who were sawing timber. After riding in different {305} directions for some time without finding them, he at last gave up the attempt, saying we would now take a path which would soon bring us into the road. The sun being overcast, the old gentleman soon lost his direction in a labyrinth of cattle paths, by which we got involved sometimes in a thick cane brake, and sometimes in a copse of briars. I saw he was astray, but without seeming to perceive it, I followed him, chattering on indifferent subjects. At last despair of extricating us conquering his shame of acknowledging himself lost in his own woods—he suddenly exclaimed, “Where is your pocket compass?”—I answered that accompanying him so short a distance on his own ground, I had not thought it necessary to bring it. “You should always carry it in this country,” exclaimed he, a little pettishly. “What course do you wish to go?” said I—“N. E.” replied he, “ought to bring us into the main road.”—“Well,” said I, “let us leave the mossy side of the trees on our left shoulder.”
Following my advice, we soon heard some one at a distance singing loudly. We took the direction of the voice, and soon afterwards found the wagon road, after wandering above two hours in search of it. Mr. O’Connor’s relating the story good humouredly at Capt. Percy’s did not prevent his being rallied a good deal about it, and it spreading, became a standing subject of laugh against him, among his surrounding friends. The day after this, as I was accompanying Mr. O’C. and some of his neighbours to a militia muster, my horse took fright, at my suddenly raising my umbrella during a shower, and plunging violently, he threw me on my head, but without doing me any other injury than dirtying me all over.