[113] Several fruitless attempts were made to establish a city at the confluence of the two rivers. Trinity, long time a rival of Cairo, was first settled in 1817 at Cache River. Shortly afterwards Shadrach Bond, John Comyges, and others entered a land claim for eighteen hundred acres between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and incorporated it as the City and Bank of Cairo. At Comyges's death, however, the claim was allowed to lapse. In the same year William Bird occupied three hundred and sixty acres at the extreme point of the peninsula, and named his proposed city Bird's Point. A few houses were built; but during the War of Secession were removed to the Missouri side. In 1828 John and Thompson Bird built the first houses on the present site of Cairo. Here boats were long accustomed to stop for supplies. In 1835, Sidney Breeze, Baker Gilbert, and others re-entered the forfeited land of the City and Bank of Cairo, and two years later obtained its incorporation as Cairo City and Canal Company. Speculation followed; the company purchased at a high price ten thousand acres, comprising all the territory between the Ohio, Mississippi, and Cache rivers, including Bird's Point. Plans for extensive improvements were made. D. B. Holbrook, one of the leading promoters, sold in Europe two million dollars in bonds. Sharp reverses followed and Cairo was not incorporated as a city until 1858.—Ed.
[114] The steamboat "O'Connell" was built at Pittsburg in 1833.—Ed.
[115] Commerce, on the Missouri side thirty miles above Cairo, was a trading post, as early as 1803. It was laid out in 1822, incorporated in 1857, and made the seat of Scott County in 1864. See Campbell, Gazetteer of Missouri (St. Louis, 1875).—Ed.
[116] For the early history of Cape Girardeau, see A. Michaux's Travels, in our volume iii, p. 80, note 154. Devil's Island, less than three miles in length, is near the Illinois side four miles above Cape Girardeau. Bainbridge, Missouri, twelve miles above the town of Cape Girardeau, was on the road from Kentucky and Illinois to the White River and Arkansas. Hamburg (not Harrisburg), in Calhoun County, Illinois, is directly across the river from Bainbridge, and at the time of Maximilian's visit was a new landing. The Devil's Tea Table is on the Missouri side eighteen miles above Cape Girardeau. For more particulars concerning the places between St. Louis and the mouth of the Ohio, see Flagg's Far West, in our volume xxvi, pp. 50-83 (original pagination), and footnotes to the same.—Ed.
[117] See Plate 9, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.—Ed.
[118] It is well known that the whole tract contains shell limestone. Mr. Lesueur has made important collections of this kind on the Tower Rock at Vicksburg, Natchez, and other places on the banks of the Mississippi, of part of which he has made descriptions and drawings. He has accurately stated the several strata, with the shells of animals and fishbones occurring in them. The shells are very friable when taken out of the rock—afterwards, and especially if washed in water, they are firmer. Mr. Lesueur has sent large collections of these things to France.—Maximilian.
[119] St. Mary's River rises in Perry County, Illinois, and enters the Mississippi six miles below the mouth of the Kaskaskia. Chester is the seat of Randolph County, seventy-six miles below St. Louis. Large quantities of bituminous coal and building stone are in the vicinity. For the early history of Kaskaskia, see A. Michaux's Travels, in our volume iii, p. 69, note 132.—Ed.
[120] An account of the founding of Ste. Geneviève is given in Cuming's Tour in our volume iv, p. 266, note 174.—Ed.
[121] The mines here referred to are the Mine La Mothe and the Mine á Burton; a more extended account of these will be given in Flagg's Far West, in our volume xxvi.—Ed.
[122] For the history of Fort Chartres, see A. Michaux's Travels, in our volume iii, p. 71, note 136.—Ed.