The second bluffs are about two miles long, and form the interior of a great bend of the river, which curves from S. W. by S. to N. W. where being narrowed to a quarter of a mile wide between the bluff and the island, (on which the passengers had bestowed the name of Cuming’s island) the current is so rapid and sets so strongly into the bend as to require the greatest exertion of the oars to keep the boat in the channel. The river then turns a little to the left, and keeping a W. by N. course for three or four miles, then resumes its general direction, meandering to the southward.
A mile and a half below the bluffs, island No. 35 commences, doubling over Cuming’s island, whose lower point is not in sight, being concealed by No. 35. The view of the river and islands from the top of the bluff must be very fine.
No. 35 is three miles long. From the lower end of this island we saw the Third Chickasaw Bluffs bearing east about six or seven miles distant, at the end of a vista formed by the left hand channel of island No. 36, and appearing to be a little higher than the First or Second Bluffs, but without any marked particularity at that distance.[188]
FOOTNOTES:
[186] On the Shawnee Indians, see Weiser’s Journal, vol. i of this series, p. 23, note 13.—Ed.
[187] The Choctaws lived in what is now Mississippi, south of the more important Chickasaw tribe. Their position between the Creeks, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Spaniards, and English led to much intriguing for their alliance. The custom which Cuming here notes is verified by Mississippi historians, and was utilized by the early justices of the country. See Claiborne, Mississippi, p. 505.—Ed.
[188] The third Chickasaw Bluff is the place where De Soto is said to have crossed the Mississippi River. Here also it is supposed that La Salle built Fort Prud’homme on his exploration of the river in 1682. The later historic significance was overshadowed by that of Fourth Chickasaw Bluff.—Ed.
{264} CHAPTER XLV
The Devil’s Race-ground—The Devil’s Elbow—Swans—Observations on game—Remarkable situation—Enormous tree—Join other boats—First settlements after the wilderness—Chickasaw Bluffs—Fort Pike—Chickasaw Indians—Fort Pickering.
Rowing into the right hand channel of No. 36, we entered the Devil’s Race-ground, as the sound is called between the island and the main, from the number of snags and sawyers in it, and the current setting strongly on the island, which renders it necessary to use the oars with continued exertion, by dint of which we got safely through this dangerous passage of three miles, leaving several newly deserted Indian camps on the right. At the end of the Devil’s Race-ground the river turns from S. W. by W. to N. N. W. and here opposite a small outlet of twenty yards wide on the left, we met a barge under sail, bound up the river.