A Visitor's Account

A Visitor's Account. . , "Hearing that a half-breed Cherokee named Hicks had put up some huts for the accommodation of strangers, we found him out, and he assigned us a hut to ourselves, the floor of which was strewed with nice dry pine leaves. It contained also two bedsteads, with pine branches as a substitute for beds, and some bed clothes of a strange fashion, but which were tolerably clean. Chairs we had none; and our first care was to get a sort of table carpentered up, and to place it in such a position that we could use our bedsteads for chairs when we wrote., Our log hut had been so hastily run up that it had neither a door nor bore evidence of an intention to add one to it, and its walls were formed of logs with interstices of at least six inches between them, so that we not only had the advantage of seeing everything that was going on out of doors, but of gratifying everybody outside who was desirous of seeing what was done within our hut, especially the Indians, who appeared extremely curious...., A most refreshing rain fell in the evening, and about 8 P.M., somewhat fatigued with the adventures of the day, I retired to our hut, from whence, through the interslices of the logs, I saw the fires of the Cherokees, who bivouacked in the woods, gleaming in every direction. Long after I had laid down, the voices of hundreds of the most pious amongst the who had assembled at the Council House to pray began their evening worship, came pealing in hymns through the now quiet forest, and instantly lulled me to sleep." , -George William Featherstonhaugh, [Caption:] , Page from a Cherokee hymn book authored by Elias Boudinot and Samuel A. Worcester, circa 1835. , Courtesy of Yale University Library