The point widens below the town, and embraces a large tract of immensely fertile land, mostly common, covered with plumb, grape, pecan trees, and other of the richest productions of nature. Here a number of horses, turned loose by the first settlers, increased to large droves of animals, as wild as the original stock. They have now been in a state of nature for more than a century. The inhabitants catch and tame them when wanted for use; and the แ "point horses," though small, are celebrated for their spirit and hardiness. The site of the town is on a level alluvial plain, composed of a deep and extremely rich soil. On the opposite side of the Kaskaskia river, the land is high and broken. This river is 350 feet wide opposite the town, and preserves a considerable width and depth, with a scarcely perceptible current, uninterrupted by an obstruction for more than fifty miles upwards; beyond that, the current is still gentle, and the stream would be navigable for small boats, in high water, to Vandalia, distant ninety-five miles by land, and more than two hundred by the meanders of the river, if a few obstructions, consisting entirely of fallen timber, should be removed.

This village still retains many striking evidences of its origin, and of the peculiar character of its inhabitants. Many of the old houses remain, and afford curious specimens of the architecture of the people and the period. Some of them were built of stone, others were of framed timber, with the interstices filled with cement. They were usually plastered over with a hard mortar and white-washed. The

gable ends are often placed to face the streets, and the great roofs exhibited a heavy and singular construction. The houses were generally but one story high, and spread out so as to occupy a large surface; and those of the better order were surrounded by piazzas, a comfortable fashion still retained in the dwellings of the planters in Louisiana. To almost all the houses, large gardens were attached, enclosed with high stone walls, or by picketing, composed of large stakes planted perpendicularly in the ground. The inhabitants cultivated a great profusion of fruits and flowers; and, although abstemious in their diet, lived in ease and comfort.

The old church at Kaskaskia, is a venerable pile, which, although more than a century old, is still in a tolerable state of preservation, and is used as a place of worship by the Catholic inhabitants. It is very large, and is built in a quaint old-fashioned style. The construction of the roof is a great curiosity; its extensive and massy surface being supported by an immense number of pieces of timber, framed together with great neatness and accuracy, and crossing each other at a variety of different angles, so that no part of the structure can by any possibility sink until the whole shall fall together. In this church are several valuable old records, and among others a baptismal register, containing the generations of the French settlers from about the year 1690.

In 1763, France ceded her possessions east of the Mississippi, to England. Captain Philip Pittman of the English army, visited "the country of Illinois," in 1770, and published an account of it, from which

we glean the following particulars. Kaskaskia contained at that time, according to Captain Pittman, sixty-five families, besides merchants, casual people, and slaves, an enumeration which we have reason to suppose fell greatly short of the truth. The fort, which was burnt down in 1766, stood on the summit of a high rock, opposite the town, on the other side of the Kaskaskia river. Its shape was an oblong quadrangle, of which, the exterior polygon measured 290 by 251 feet. It was built of very thick squared timber, dovetailed at the angles. An officer and twenty soldiers were quartered at the village in 1770, and the inhabitants were formed into two companies of militia. The officer governed the village, under the direction of the commandant at Fort Chartres.

La Prairie de Rocher, thirteen miles from Kaskaskia, is described as being, at that time, a "small village, with twelve dwelling-houses." The number must certainly have been much greater, as there were two hundred inhabitants in 1820, when the village had fallen to decay. Here was a little chapel, formerly a chapel of ease to the church at Fort Chartres. The village was distant from the fort seven miles, and took its name from its situation, being built at the base of a high parapet of rock, that runs parallel to the Mississippi.

"Saint Philippe," says Captain Pittman," 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 militia, deserted it in 1765, and went to the French side. The captain of militia has about

twenty slaves, a good stock of cattle, and a watermill. This village stands in a very fine meadow, about one mile from the Mississippi."

"The village of Saint Famille de Kaoquias," says the same writer," contains forty-five dwellings, and a church near its centre. The situation is not well chos en, being overflowed. It 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. The inhabitants depend more on hunting and their Indian trade, than agriculture, as they scarce raise corn enough for their own consumption. They have a great deal of poultry, and good stocks of horned cattle. The mission of Saint Sulpice had a fine plantation here, and a good house on it. They sold this estate, and a very good mill for corn and planks, to a Frenchman, who chose to remain here under the English government. What is called the fort, is a small building in the centre of the village, which differs nothing from the other houses, except being the meanest. It was enclosed with palisades, but these are rotted or burnt. There is no use for a fort here."

Fort Chartres, when it belonged to France, was the seat of government of the Illinois country. It was afterwards the head quarters of the English commanding officer, who was in fact the arbitrary governor of this region. The shape of the fort was an irregular quadrangle, with four bastions. The sides of the exterior polygon were about 490 feet in extent. It was designed only as a defence against Indians.

The walls, which were of stone and plastered over, were two feet two inches thick, and fifteen feet high, with loop-holes at regular distances, and two portholes for cannon in each face, and two in the flanks of each bastion. The ditch was never finished. The entrance was through a handsome rustic gate. Within the wall was a small banquette, raised three feet, for the men to stand upon when they fired through the loop-holes. Each port or loop-hole, was formed of four solid blocks of rock, of freestone, worked smooth. All the cornices and casements about the gate and buildings were of the same material, and appeared to great advantage.

The buildings within the fort, were the commandant's and commissary's houses, the magazine of stores, corps de guarde, and two barracks, occupying the square. Within the gorges of the bastions were a powder magazine; a bake-house; a prison, in the lower floor of which were four dungeons, and in the upper two rooms; and some smaller buildings. The commandant's house was ninety-six feet long and thirty deep, containing a dining-room, a bed-chamber, a parlor, a kitchen, five closets for servants, and a cellar. The commissary's house was built in a line with this, and its proportions and distribution of apartments were the same. Opposite these, were the storehouse and guard-house; each ninety feet long by twenty-four deep. The former contained two large store rooms, with vaulted cellars under the whole, a large room, a bed-chamber, and a closet for the keeper; the latter, soldiers' and officers' guard rooms, a chapel, a bed-chamber, and closet for the chaplain,