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Show yS Early Western Travels [ VoL 26 Fort Massac, once a French military post of importance. 4* There is a singular legend respecting this fort still popular among the inhabitants of the neighbouring region, die outlines of which [ 47] are the following: The fortress was erected by the French while securing possession of the Western Valley, and, soon after, hostilities arising between them and the natives, the latter contrived a stratagem, in every respect worthy the craft and subtlety of the race, to obtain command of this stronghold. Early one morning a body of Indians, enveloped each in a bearskin, appeared upon the opposite bank of the Ohio. Supposing them the animal so faithfully represented, the whole French garrison in a mass sallied incontinently forth, anticipating rare sport, while the remnant left behind as a guard gathered themselves upon the glacis as spectators of die scene. Meanwhile, a large body of Indians, concealed in rear of the fort, slipped silently from their ambush, and few were there of the French who escaped to tell the tale of the scene that ensued. They were massacred almost to a man, and hence the name of Massac to the post. During the war of the revolution a garrison was stationed upon the spot for some years, but the structures are now in ruins. A few miles below is a small place consisting of a few farmhouses, called Wilkin-sonville," on the site where Fort Wilkinson once stood; just opposite, along the shore, commences the " Grand Chain " of rocks so famous to the Ohio pilot, extending four miles. The little village of Caledonia is here laid off among the * On Fort Massac, see A. Michaux's Travels, in our volume iii, p. 73, note 139.- ED. *• Wilkinsonville, named for General James Wilkinson, was a small hamlet located on the site of the Fort Wilkinson of 1812, twenty- two mites above Cairo. Two or three farm houses are today the sole relics of this place; see Thwaites, On the Storied Ohio, p. 391. Caledonia is still a small village in Pulaski County, Illinois. Its post- office is Olmstead.- ED. |