quadrangle; the sides of the exterior polygon are 490 feet. It is built of stone, is plastered over, and is only designed as a defence against the Indians The walls are two feet two inches thick, and are pierced with loop-holes at regular distances, and with two port-holes for cannon in the faces, and two in the flanks of each bastion. The ditch has never been finished. The entrance to the fort is through a very handsome rustic gate. Within the walls is a banquette raised three feet, for the men to stand on when they fire through the loopholes. The buildings within the fort are-a commandant's and a commissary's house, the magazine of stores, corps de garde and two barracks; these occupy the square. Within the gorges of the fort are a powder - magazine, a bakehouse and a prison, in the lower floor of which are four dungeons, and in the upper, two rooms, and an out-house belonging to the commandant. The commandant's house is thirty-two yards long, and ten broad, &c. The commissary's house (now occupied by officers) is built on the same line as this, and its proportion and the distribution of its apartments are the same. Opposite these are the store-house and the guard-house; they are each thirty yards long and eight broad. The former consists of two large store-rooms (under which is a large vaulted cellar, a large room, a bed-chamber, and a closet for the store-keeper; the latter, of a soldiers' and officers' guard-room, a chapel, a bed-chamber, a closet for the chaplain and an artillery store-room. The lines of barracks have never been finished; they at present consist of two rooms each for officers, and three rooms each for soldiers. They are each twenty feet square, and have betwixt them a small passage. There are five spacious lofts over each building, which reach from end to end; these are made use of to lodge regimental stores, working and entrenching tools, &c. It is generally believed that this is the most convenient and best-built fort in North America."

In 1756, Fort Chartres was rebuilt by order of the French Government, in view of the war with England. It was then

half-a-mile from the Mississippi. In 1766 it was but eighty yards from the bank. In 1768, Captain Pitman writes:

"The bank of the Mississippi, next the fort, is continually falling in, being worn away by the current, which has been. turned from its course by a sand-bank, now increased to a considerable island, covered with willows. Many experiments have been tried to stop this growing evil, but to no purpose. Eight years ago the river was fordable to the island; the channel is now forty feet deep.

"In the year 1761, there were about forty families in the village near the fort, and a parish church, served by a Franciscan friar, dedicated to Ste. Anne. In the following year, when the English took possession of the country, they abandoned their houses, except three or four poor families, and settled in the villages on the west side of the Mississippi, choosing to continue under the French Government."

In 1772, the channel of the river reached the fort and the wall, and two bastions upon the west side were undermined, and fell, and the British garrison abandoned the place, and Kaskaskia became the Seat of Government for the Illinois country.*

"The Village of Notre Dame de Cascasquias is by far the most considerable settlement in the country of Illinois, as well from its number of inhabitants, as from its advantageous situation.

"Mons. Paget was the first who introduced water-mills in this country, and he constructed a very fine one on the river Cascasquias, which was both for grinding corn and sawing boards. It lies about one mile from the village. The mill proved fatal to him, being killed as he was working in it, with two negroes, by a party of Cherokees, in 1764.

* For a very minute and interesting description of Fort Chartres, see Dr. Beck's Gazeteer of Illinois, 1820: “Over the whole Fort, there is a considerable growth of trees, and in the hall of the houses, there is an oak about eighteen inches in diameter. Trees more than three feet in diameter are within the walls. It is a ruin in the midst of a dense forest, and did we not know its history, it might furnish a fruitful theme for antiquarian speculation.

"The principal buildings are the church and Jesuits'house, which has a small chapel adjoining it; these, as well as some other houses in the village, are built of stone, and, considering this part of the world, make a very good appearance. The Jesuits' plantation consisted of two hundred and forty arpents of cultivated land, a very good stock of cattle, and a brewery which was sold by the French commandant, after the country was ceded to the English, for the Crown, in consequence of the suppression of the Order.

"Mons. Beauvais was the purchaser, who is the richest of the English subjects of this country. He keeps eighty slaves; he furnishes eighty-six thousand weight of flour to the King's magazine, which was only a part of the harvest he reaped in one year.

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Sixty-five families reside in this village, besides merchants, other casual people and slaves. The fort, which was burnt down in October, 1766, stood on the summit of a high rock opposite the village, and on the opposite side of the Koskaskin river. It was an oblongular quadrangle, of which the exterior polygon measured two hundred and ninety feet by two hundred and fifty-one feet. It was built of very thick squared timber, and dovetailed at the angles. An officer and twenty soldiers are quartered in the village. The officer governs the inhabitants, under the direction of the commandant at Chartres. Here are also two companies of militia."

"LA PRARIE DE ROCHES is about seventeen miles from Cascasquias. It is a small village, consisting of twelve dwelling houses, all of which are inhabited by as many families. Here is a little chapel, formerly a chapel-of-ease to the church at Fort Chartres. The inhabitants here are very industrious, and raise a great deal of corn, and every kind of stock. The village is two miles from Fort Chartres. It takes its name from its situation, being built under a rock that runs parallel with the river Mississippi, at a league distance, for forty miles up. Here is a company of militia, the captain of which regulates the police of the village."

SAINT PHILLIPPE is a small village about five miles from Fort Chartres, on the road to Kaoquias. There are about sixteen houses and a small church standing, All the inhabitants, except the captain of the militia, deserted it, in 1765, and went to the French side. The captain of the militia has about twenty slaves, a good stock of cattle and a water-mill for corn and planks. This village stands in a very fine meadow, about one mile from the Mississippi."

"The village of SAINTE FAMILLE DE KAOQUIA (Cahokia) is generally reckoned fifteen leagues from Fort Chartres, and six leagues below the mouth of the Missouri. It stands near the side of the Mississippi, and is marked from the river by an island of two leagues long. The village is opposite to the centre of this island; it is long and straggling, being threequarters of a mile from one end to the other. It contains forty-five dwelling-houses, and a church near its centre. The situation is not well chosen, as in the floods it is generally overflowed two or three feet. This was the first settlement on the Mississippi. The land was purchased of the savages by a few Canadians, some of whom married women of the Kaoquias nation, and others brought wives from Canada, and then resided there, leaving their children to succeed them. The inhabitants of this place depend more on hunting, and their Indian trade, than on agriculture, as they raise scarcely corn enough for their own consumption; they have a great plenty of poultry, and good stocks of horned cattle. The Mission of St. Sulpice had a very fine plantation here, and an excellent house built on it. They sold this estate, and a very good mill for corn and planks, to a Frenchman who chose to remain under the English Government. They also disposed of thirty negroes, and a good stock of cattle to different people in the country, and returned to France in 1764. What is called the Fort, is a small house standing in the centre of the village. It differs nothing from the other houses, except in being one of the poorest. It was formerly enclosed with high palisades, but these were torn down and burnt. Indeed, a fort at this place could be of little use."

APPENDIX H.

EXTRACTS FROM THE DIARY OF COLONEL

COLONEL CROGHAN,. DEPUTY-SUPERINTENDENT OF THE NORTHERN INDIAN

DEPARTMENT.

Colonel George Croghan, the Commissioner of Sir William Johnson, went to the west to learn the disposition of the French inhabitants, and to secure, if possible, their adhesion to the English interest; and to prevent a second Indian war. He left Fort Pitt on the 15th of May, 1764, and was taken prisoner on the 8th of June by a party of Indians, and was carried to VINCENNES. He says: "On my arrival there, I found a village of about eighty or ninety French families settled on the east side of this river, being one of the finest situations that can be found. The country is level and clear, and the soil very rich, producing wheat and tobacco. I think the latter preferable to that of Maryland or Virginia. The French inhabitants hereabouts are an idle, lazy people, a parcel of renegaders from Canada, and are much worse than the Indians. They took a secret pleasure at our misfortunes, and the moment we arrived, they came to the Indians, exchanging trifles for their valuable plunder. As the savages took from me a considerable quantity of gold and silver in specie, the French traders extorted two half-johannes from them for one pound of vermilion.

Here is likewise an Indian village of the Pyankeshaws, who were much displeased with the party that took me, telling them, our chiefs and your chiefs have gone to make peace; and you have begun a war, for which our women and children will have reason to cry.' From this post, the Indians permitted me to write to the Commander, at Fort Chartres, but would not suffer me to write to anybody else (this, I apprehend, was a precaution of the French, lest their villainy should be perceived too soon), although the Indians had given me permission to write to Sir William Johnson and Fort Pitt