[123] For accounts of General Henry Atkinson and of Council Bluffs, see Maximilian's Travels, in our volume xxii, p. 229, note 152, and p. 275, note 231, respectively.—Ed.
[124] The cave described here is Cliff or Indian Cave, more than two miles below Jefferson Barracks on the Missouri side.—Ed.
[125] River des Pères is a small stream rising in the central portion of St. Louis County, flowing southeast, and entering the Mississippi at the southern extremity of South St. Louis, formerly Carondelet.—Ed.
[126] This is an historical error. La Salle did not build a fort at this place, nor did he here take possession of Louisiana.—Ed.
[127] Pittsburg, laid out in 1836, is a hamlet in Cahokia Precinct, St. Clair County. A railroad six miles in length was constructed (1837) between Pittsburg and a point opposite St. Louis.—Ed.
[128] This group of Indian mounds, probably the most remarkable in America, is on the American Bottom, along the course of Canteen Creek, which rises in the southern portion of Madison County, Illinois, flows west, and enters Cahokia Creek. Monk, or Cahokia, Mound, about eight miles from St. Louis, is the most important of the group. William McAdams, who made a careful survey of this mound, wrote a good description of it in his Records of Ancient Races in the Mississippi Valley (St. Louis, 1887); also E. G. Squier and E. H. Davis, "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, comprising the Result of extensive original Surveys and Explorations," in Smithsonian Contributions, i.—Ed.
[129] The monastery of La Trappe was founded in 1122 (sometimes incorrectly given as 1140). Originally affiliated with the order of Fontrevault, it was made a branch of the Cistercian order (1148). Contrary to Flagg's account, La Trappe did not have a separate existence until the time of Rançe, who was made abbot in 1664. The account of Rançe's conversion given here by Flagg, is recognized by historians as merely popular tradition. See Gaillardin, Les Trappistes (Paris, 1844), and Pfaunenschmidt, Geschichte der Trappisten (Paderborn, 1873).—Ed.
[130] The Trappists went to Gethsemane, Nelson County, Kentucky, in 1805. Three or four years later they moved to Missouri, but almost immediately recrossed the Mississippi and built the temporary monastery of Notre Dame de Bon Secours on Cahokia Mound, given to them by Major Nicholas Jarrot. For a description of this establishment by an eye witness, see H. M. Brackenridge, Views of Louisiana (Pittsburg, 1814), appendix 5. New Melleray, a Trappist monastery twelve miles southwest of Dubuque, Iowa, was commenced in 1849 and completed in 1875. For its history, together with a short account of the Trappists' activity, see William Rufus Perkins, History of the Trappist Abbey of New Melleray (Iowa City, 1892).—Ed.
[131] Father Urbain Guillet is recorded as having officiated several times in the Catholic church at St. Louis.—Ed.
[132] Thomas Kirkpatrick, of South Carolina, made the first settlement on the site of Edwardsville (1805). During the Indian troubles preceding the War of 1812-15, he built a block-house, known as Thomas Kirkpatrick's Fort. When Madison County was organized (1812), Kirkpatrick's farm was chosen as its seat. He made the survey for the town plat in 1816, and named the place in honor of Ninian Edwards. See W. R. Brink and Company, History of Madison County, Illinois (Edwardsville, 1882).—Ed.