The smell of the wood came to them, and a little trail of sweet smoke was left behind as the canoe swiftly passed into the mist on the other side and was gone.
It had been seen vaguely.

No one spoke, no one challenged; it had come and gone like a dream.

What it was, no one, not even Iberville, could guess, though he thought it a pilgrimage of burial, such as was sometimes made by distinguished members of Indian tribes.

Or it may have been--which is likely--a dead priest being carried south by Indian friends.
The impression left upon the party was, however, characteristic.

There was none but, with the smell of the censers in his nostrils, made the sacred gesture; and had the Jesuit Silvy or the Abbe de Casson been so disposed, the event might have been made into the supernatural.
After a time the mist cleared away, and nothing could be seen on the path they had travelled but the plain of clear water and the distant shore they had left.
Ahead of them was another shore, and they reached this at last.