DISCOVERIES   IN  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.
9
gospel to these tribes for some years past, so that there are many good Christians among them.
The wild oats, from which they take their name, as they are found in their country, are a kind of grass which grows spontaneously in little rivers with slimy bottoms, and in marshy places ; they are very like the wild oats that grow up among our wheat. The ears are on stalks knotted at intervals ; they rise above the water about tbe month of June, and keep rising till they float about two feet above it. The grain is not thicker than our oats, but is as long again, so that the meal is much more abundant.
The following is the manner in which the Indians gather it and prepare it for eating. In the month of September, which is the proper time for this harvest, they go in canoes across these fields of wild oats, and shake the ears on their right and left into the canoe as they advance ; the grain falls easily if it is ripe, and in a little while their provision is made. To clear it from the chaff, and strip it of a pellicle in which it is enclosed, they put it to dry in the smoke on a wooden lattice, under which they keep up a small fire for several days. When the oats are well dried, they put them in a skin of the form of a bag, which is then forced into a hole made on purpose in the ground ; they then tread it out so long and so well, that the grain being freed from the chaff is easily winnowed ; after which they pound it to reduce it to meal, or even unpounded, boil it in water seasoned with grease, and in this way, wild oats are almost as palatable as rice would be when not better seasoned. j%
I informed these people of the Wild Oats of my design of going to discover distant nations to instruct them in the mysteries of our Holy Religion ; they were very much surprised, and did their best to dissuade me.   They told me, that I