9 June: We had breakfast early at Mr. Twigg’s house. Mr. Lesueur went with me [in the carriage]; Messrs. Twigg and Bodmer made the trip on horseback. The whole area that we traveled through is uninterrupted forest, except very close to the Wabash near Vincennes. The settlers’ houses are located in [ the forest] on both sides of the roadway. [They are] mostly log houses, [but there are also] some better ones of wood, and now and then [of] brick. The fields are fenced in everywhere. The area quickly turned hilly; the soil is very fertile close to the Wabash. M5 In the great drought, the heat was [irritating,] the dust even more so. [However,] there was no lack of clear water to refresh ourselves on our way, because almost every house had a well or a spring. The coachmen watered their horses often. We usually mixed [our] water with some of the brandy we had brought along; however, [spirits] could also often be obtained along the way.

A traveler here [cannot help but] notice the costumes of the women in [such] small, poor huts. We frequently found [in them] a fashionably dressed lady—or at least [one] dressed in a manner that someone does not see in Europe, [even] in the (often far better) houses of rural people. Their houses are often only small cages. A colossal bed, with high corner posts, almost fills the whole room, where a fire burns in the fireplace. The doors and windows are almost always open. The women frequently ride sitting sideways on a saddle. They can be seen riding alone [at a] trot or gallop, arriving from a far distant [point]. At home they usually smoke their little pipes. These are the women of the so-called backwoodsmen of Indiana.

The field crops looked very good in this area, even though the spring had been very dry. The corn was still small. Many cattle grazed everywhere in the forest. The hogs were quite numerous. They are an important commodity in this area; their meat is sent down the Mississippi to New Orleans. We passed the Black River, a small brook. Many Libellula [dragonflies] of several different species inhabited its damp, shady banks.M6The woodland soil is fertile and black everywhere, except for a stretch of a few miles where sand suddenly begins. We noticed right away a complete change in vegetation. Mr. Lesueur, who has visited this area many times and knows it well, pointed it out to me as well. In place of the tall, diverse forest trees of Indiana, a blunt-lobed, low oak Quercus obtusiloba appears [in] the sandy soil; without doubt [this is] the same [tree] that grows on the prairie near St. Louis. Several beautifully blooming low plants [were here], such as [——].

We drove through a forest that was especially shady and consisted of tall, slender [Page 3:197][yet] colossal, trunks, particularly oak (Quercus nigra Willd.), walnut, tulip trees, Cercis, maple, sassafras, sweet gum (Liquidambar styraci fl ua), etc. The many toppled-over trunks [lent] a wild character to the forest. [The forest] floor showed a nice growth of plants, but flowers [were] few during this season.

About noon we reached Owensville in the tall forest, a small village of five to six widely scattered houses. We [paused] for lunch and gave our hot and thirsty horses some rest. The house where we stopped was surrounded by fields of blooming clover, around whose flowers the butterflies ([the same ones] seen earlier in Indiana) flew in great numbers, particularly the ajax and the beautiful blue and black philenor. The ajax is white with black stripes and spots and some red spots. In the afternoon we traveled again through tall forests where the tree frogs, Hyla squirella, were heard in large numbers. Our carriage broke down, and we were forced to stop.

We reached an area with many marshy spots and several creeks, or brooks, where we found some interesting birds, among them a Tanagra mississippiensis that was sitting quietly on one of the lower branches, like one of the larger Muscicapa or Tyrannus flycatchers, and showed [neither] liveliness nor timidity.

Before evening we reached Princetown, a town [built] around a large square where we stayed overnight in a good inn. Above the table in the dining room, a large wing of cloth, stretched on a frame, was mounted on the ceiling; [it] was moved by a Negro [pulling] on a cord to [fan] away the many flies. This contrivance is used in several places.