Especially the birds, with their gay plumage and varied
melodies, inspired delight; every traveller expressed his pleasure in
listening to the mocking-bird, which carolled a thousand several tunes,
imitating and excelling the notes of all its rivals. The humming-bird,
so brilliant in its plumage, and so delicate in its form, quick in
motion, yet not fearing the presence of man, hunting about the flowers
like the bee gathering honey, rebounding from the blossoms into which
it dips its bill, and as soon returning "to renew its addresses to its
delightful objects," was ever admired as the smallest and the most
beautiful of the feathered race. The rattlesnake, with the terrors of
its alarms and the power of its venom; the opossum, soon to become as
celebrated for the care of its offspring as the fabled pelican: the
noisy frog, booming from the shallows like the English bittern; the
flying squirrel; the myriads of pigeons, darkening the air with the
immensity of their flocks, and, as men believed, breaking with their
weight the boughs of trees on which they alighted,--were all honored
with frequent commemoration, and became the subjects of the strangest
tales. The concurrent relation of all the Indians justified the belief
that, within ten days journey towards the setting of the sun, there
was a country where gold might be washed from the sand, and where the
natives themselves had learned the use of the crucible; but definite
and accurate as were the accounts, inquiry was always baffled; and the
regions of gold remained for two centuries an undiscovered land.
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