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Show 152 Early Western Travels [ VoL 3* city below, of the broad American Bottom, with its bluffs in the distance, and a beautiful extent of natural scenery in the rear. Along the brow of this eminence once stood a line of military works, erected for the defence of the old town in 1780 by Don Francois de Cruzat, lieutenant governor " de la partie occidentale des Illinois" as the ancient chronicles style the region west of the Mississippi. 107 These fortifications consisted of several circular towers of stone, forty feet in diameter and half as many in altitude, planted at intervals in a line of stoccade, besides a small fort, embracing four demilunes and a parapet of mason- work. For many years these old works were in a dismantled and deserted state, excepting the fort, in one building of which was held [ 124] the court, and another superseded the necessity of a prison. Almost every vestige is now swept away. The great earthquakes of 1811 essentially assisted in toppling the old ruins to the ground. The whole city was powerfully shaken, and has since been subject to occasional shocks. 19* It is in the northern suburbs of the city that are to be seen those singular ancient mounds for which St Louis is so celebrated; and which, with others in the vicinity, form, as it were, a connecting link between those of the north, commencing in the lake counties of Western New- York, and those of the south, extending deep within the boundaries lfT Lieutenant- Colonel Francisco Cruzat, who succeeded ( May, 1775) Captain Don Pedro Piernas, the first lieutenant- governor of Upper T/ niitiana, followed the liberal policy of his predecessor and was highly esteemed by his people. He was followed in 1778 by Captain Fernando de Leyba, who was sadly lacking in tact and political ability; he was displaced for incompetency after the Indian attack of May 26,1780. Cruzat was reappointed in September and served until November, 1787. One of the first acts of his second administration was to direct Auguste Chouteau to make plans for the fortification of St Louis; see note 76, ante.- ED. m One, which occurred during the summer of the present year, was extensively felt. In the vicinity of this fortification, to the south, was an extensive burial-ground; and many of its slumbering tenants, in the grading of streets and excavating of cellars, have been thrown up to the light after a century's sleep.- FLAOO. |