THE RIVER AND ITS EXPLORERS. 17

ploration of the mighty river, occurred, by accident, in one and the
same place. It is a most curious distinction, when one comes to look
at it and think about it. France stole that vast country on that
spot, the future Napoleon; and by and by Napoleon himself was to
give the country back again!—make restitution, not to the owners,
but to their white American heirs.

CONSECEATING- THE BOBBERY.
The voyagers journeyed on, touching here and there; ' passed the
sites, since become historic, of Vicksburg and Grand Gulf;' and
visited an imposing Indian monarch in the Teche country, whose
capital city was a substantial one of sun-baked bricks mixed with
straw—better houses than many that exist there now. The chiefs
house contained an audience room forty feet square; and there he
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