Here are very extensive old fields, the abandoned plantations and commons of the old town, on the east side of the river; but the settlement is removed, and the new town now stands on the opposite shore, in a charming fruitful plain, under an elevated ridge of hills, the swelling beds or bases of which are covered with a pleasing verdure of grass; but the last ascent is steeper, and towards the summit discovers shelving rocky cliffs, which appear to be continually splitting and bursting to pieces, scattering their thin exfoliations over the tops of the grassy knolls beneath. The plain is narrow where the town is built: their houses are neat commodious buildings, a wooden frame with plaistered walls, and roofed with Cypress bark or shingles; every habitation consists of four oblong square houses, of one story, of the same form and dimensions, and so situated as to form an exact square, encompassing an area or court yard of about a quarter of an acre of ground, leaving an entrance into it at each corner. Here is a beautiful new square or areopagus, in the centre of the new town; but the stores of the principal trader, and two or three Indian habitations, stand near the banks of the opposite shore on the site of the old Coolome town. The Tallapoose river is here three hundred yards over, and about fifteen or twenty feet deep: the water is very clear, agreeable to the taste, esteemed salubrious, and runs with a steady, active current.
Being now recruited and refited, having obtained a guide to set us in the great trading path for West Florida, early in the morning we sat off for Mobile: our progress for about eighteen miles was through a magnificent forest, just without or skirting on the Indian plantations, frequently having a view of their distant towns, over plains or old fields; and at evening came to camp under shelter of a grove of venerable spreading oaks, on the verge of the great plains; their enormous limbs loaded with Tillandsia usneadscites, waving in the winds; these Oaks were some shelter to us from the violence of an extraordinary shower of rain, which suddenly came down in such floods as to inundate the earth, and kept us standing on our feet the whole night, for the surface of the ground was under water almost till morning. Early next morning, our guide having performed his duty, took leave, returning home, and we continued on our journey, entering on the great plains. We had not proceeded far before our people roused a litter of young wolves, to which giving chase, we soon caught one of them, it being entangled in high grass, one of our people caught it by the hind legs, and another beat out its brains with the but of his gun,—barbarous sport!—This creature was about half the size of a small cur-dog, and quite black.
We continued over these expansive illumined grassy plains, or native fields, above twenty miles in length, and in width eight or nine, lying parallel to the river, which was about ten miles distance; they are invested by high forests, extensive points or promontories, which project into the plains on each side, dividing them into many vast fields opening on either hand as we passed along, which presents a magnificent and pleasing sylvan landscape of primitive, uncultivated nature. Crossed several very considerable creeks, their serpentine courses being directed across the plain by gently swelling knolls, perceptible at a distance, but which seem to vanish or disappear as we come upon them; the creeks were waters of the Alabama, the name of the east arm of the Mobile below the confluence of the Tallapoose. These rivulets were ornamented by groves of various trees and shrubs, which do not spread far from their banks. I observed amongst them the wild Crab (Pyrus coronaria) and Prunus Indica or wild Plumb, Cornus Florida, and on the grassy turf adjoining grew abundance of Strawberry vines: the surface of the plains or fields is clad with tall grass, intermixed with a variety of herbage. The most conspicuous, both for beauty and novelty, is a tall species of Silphium; the radical leaves are large, long and lightly sinuated, but those which garnish the stem are few and less sinuated; these leaves with the whole plant, except the flowers, appear of a whitish green colour, which is owing to a fine soft silky down or pubescence; the flower stem, which is eight or ten feet in length when standing erect, terminates upwards with a long heavy spike of large golden yellow radiated flowers; the stem is usually seen bowing on one side or other, occasioned by the weight of the flowers, and many of them are broken, just under the pannicle or spike, by their own weight, after storms and heavy rains, which often crack or split the stem, from whence exudes a gummy or resinous substance, which the sun and air harden into semi-pellucid drops or tears of a pale amber colour. This resin possesses a very agreeable fragrance and bitterish taste, somewhat like frankincense or turpentine; it is chewed by the Indians and traders, to cleanse their teeth and mouth, and sweeten their breath.
The upper stratum or vegetative mould of these plains is perfectly black, soapy and rich, especially after rains, and renders the road very slippery; it lies on a deep bed of white, testaceous, limestone rocks, which in some places resemble chalk, and in other places are strata or subterrene banks of various kinds of sea shells, as ostrea, &c. these dissolving near the surface of the earth, and mixing with the superficial mould, render it extremely productive.
Immediately after leaving the plains we enter the grand high forests. There were stately trees of the Robinea pseudacacia, Telea, Morus, Ulmus, Juglans exaltata, Juglans nigra, Pyrus coronaria, Cornus Florida, Cercis, &c. Our road now for several miles led us near the Alabama, within two or three miles of its banks: the surface of the land is broken into hills and vales, some of them of considerable elevation, covered with forests of stately trees, such as already mentioned, but they are of a much larger growth than those of the same kind which grow in the Southern or inhabited parts of Georgia and Carolina. We now leave the river at a good distance, the Alabama bearing away Southerly, and entered a vast open forest which continued above seventy miles, east and west, without any considerable variation, generally a level plain, except near the banks of creeks that course through; the soil on the surface is a dusky brownish mould or sandy loam, on a foundation of stiff clay, and the surface pebbles or gravel mixed with clay on the summits of the ridges; the forests consist chiefly of Oak, Hickory, Ash, Sour Gum (Nyssa sylvatica), Sweet Gum (Liquidambar styraciflua), Beech, Mulberry, Scarlet maple, Black walnut, Dog-wood, Cornus Florida, Æsculus pavia, Prunus Indica, Ptelea, and an abundance of Chesnut (Fag. castanea) on the hills, with Pinus tæda and Pinus lutea. During our progress over this vast high forest, we crossed extensive open plains, the soil gravelly, producing a few trees and shrubs or undergrowth, which were entangled with Grape vines (Vitis campestris) of a peculiar species; the bunches (racemes) of fruit were very large, as were the grapes that composed them, though yet green and not fully grown, but when ripe are of various colours, and their juice sweet and rich. The Indians gather great quantities of them, which they prepare for keeping, by first sweating them on hurdles over a gentle fire, and afterwards dry them on their bunches in the sun and air, and store them up for provision. These Grape vines do not climb into high trees, but creep along from one low shrub to another, extending their branches to a great distance horizontally round about, and it is very pleasing to behold the clusters pendant from the vines, almost touching the earth, indeed some of them lie upon the ground.
We now enter a very remarkable grove of Dog wood trees (Cornus Florida), which continued nine or ten miles unalterable, except here and there a towering Magnolia grandiflora; the land on which they stand is an exact level; the surface a shallow, loose, black mould, on a stratum of stiff, yellowish clay. These trees were about twelve feet high, spreading horizontally; their limbs meeting and interlocking with each other, formed one vast, shady, cool grove, so dense and humid as to exclude the sun-beams and prevent the intrusion of almost every other vegetable, affording us a most desirable shelter from the fervid sun-beams at noon-day. This admirable grove by way of eminence has acquired the name of the Dog woods.
During a progress of near seventy miles, through this high forest, there constantly presented to view on one hand or the other, spacious groves of this fine flowering tree, which must, in the spring season, when covered with blosoms present a most pleasing scene; when at the same time a variety of other sweet shrubs display their beauty, adorned in their gay apparel, as the Halesia, Stewartia, Æsculus pavia, Æsc. alba, Æsc. Florid. ramis divaricatis, thyrsis grandis, flosculis expansis incarnatis, Azalea, &c. entangled with garlands of Bignonia crucigera, Big. radicans, Big. sempervirens, Glycine frutescens, Lonicera sempervirens, &c. and at the same time the superb Magnolia grandiflora, standing in front of the dark groves, towering far above the common level.
The evening cool, we encamped on the banks of a glittering rivulet amidst a spicy grove of the Illicium Floridanum.
Early next morning we arose, hunted up our horses and proceeded on, continuing about twenty miles, over a district which presented to view another landscape; expansive plains of Cane meadows, and detached groves, contrasted by swelling ridges, and vales supporting grand forests of the trees already noted, embellished with delightful creeks and brooks, their low grounds producing very tall canes, and their higher banks groves of the Illicium, Callicanthus, Stewartia, Halesia, Styrax and others, particulary Magnolia auriculata. In the evening we forded the river Schambe about fifty yards over, the stream active but shallow, which carries its waters into the bay of Pensacola. Came to camp on the banks of a beautiful creek, by a charming grove of the Illicium Floridanum; from this we travelled over a level country above fifty miles, very gently but perceptibly descending south-eastward before us; this district exhibited a landscape very different from what had presented to view since we left the nation, and not much unlike the low countries of Carolina; it is in fact one vast flat grassy savanna and Cane meadows, intersected or variously scrolled over with narrow forests and groves, on the banks of creeks and rivulets, or hommocks and swamps at their sources; with long leaved Pines, scatteringly planted, amongst the grass, and on the high sandy knolls and swelling ridges, Quercus nigra, Quercus flammula, Quercus incana, with various other trees and shrubs as already noted, inhabiting such situations. The rivulets however exhibited a different appearance, they are shallower, course more swift over gravelly beds, and their banks adorned with Illicium groves, Magnolias, Azaleas, Halesia, Andromedas, &c. The highest hills near large creeks afford high forests with abundance of Chesnut trees.
We now approached the bay of Mobile, gently ascending a hilly district, being the highest forest adjoining the extensive rich low lands of the river; these heights are somewhat encumbered with pebbles, fragments and cliffs of rusty ferruginous rocks; the stones were ponderous and indicated very rich iron ore; here was a small district of good land, on the acclivities and bases of these ridges, and a level forest below, watered by a fine creek, running into the Mobile. From hence we proceeded, again descending, and travelled about nine miles generally over a level country consisting of savannas, Cane swamps, and gently rising knolls, producing Pinus tæda, Nyssa sylvatica, Quercus rubra, Fagus castanea, Fraxinus, with other trees. Arrived at Taensa, a pretty high bluff, on the eastern channel of the great Mobile river, about thirty miles above fort Condé, or city of Mobile, at the head of the bay.