OCR Text |
Show 1836- 1837] FJagg's Far West 101 earthly dipper; and closing hermetically his lantern jaws, and resuming his infernal [ 72] labours, to which those of Alcmena's son or of Tartarean Sysiphus were trifles, I had the discretion to betake myself to the upper world. During the night, after passing Ste. Genevieve, our steamer landed at a woodyard in the vicinity of that celebrated old fortress, Fort Chartres, erected by the French while in possession of Illinois; once the most powerful fortification in North America, but now a pile of ruins.* 4 It is situated about three miles from Prairie de Rocher, a little antiquated French hamlet, the scene of one of Hall's Western Legends. •' We could see nothing of the old fort from our situation on the boat; but its vast ruins, though now a shattered heap, and shrouded with forest- trees of more than half a century's growth, are said still to proclaim in their finished and ponderous masonry its ancient grandeur and strength. In front stretches a large island in the stream, which has received from the old ruin a name. It is not a little surprising that there exists no description of this venerable pile worthy its origin and eventful history. Mississippi River. •* For a short account of Fort Chartres, see A. Michaiur* s Travels, in our volume iii, p. 71, note 136.- ED. • For Prairie du Rocher see A. Michaux's Travels, in our volume iii, p. 70, note 133. The legend referred to is, " Michel de Couce " by James Hall, in his Legends of the West. Contrary to Flagg's statement that there exists no description of Fort Chartres worthy of its history, Philip Pittman, who visited the place in 1766, gives a good detailed description of the fort in his Present State oj the European Settlements on the Missisippi ( London, 1770), pp. 45,46.- ED. |