[185]. See Cuming’s Tour, notes 188, 189, for information regarding these bluffs.—Ed.
[186]. An interesting description of these Southern Indian tribes may be found in Roosevelt, Winning of the West (New-York, 1889), i, pp. 49–69. See also, brief notes in our volumes i, pp. 34, 75; iv, p. 287.—Ed.
[187]. Fort Pike was maintained for only a few years. The location proving undesirable, the troops were removed to Fort Pickering.—Ed.
[188]. In the day of the flatboat, a craft which went down stream and never returned, it was customary for the boatmen to return by land. This journey was often undertaken at unhealthy seasons of the year, and the death of boatmen and raftsmen was common. As the travellers usually carried large sums of money, their routes were beset by robbers who could, undoubtedly, have explained many a grave on these lonely roads.—Hulbert, Historic Highways of America, ix, pp. 125, 126.—Ed.
[189]. For Fort Pickering, see Cuming’s Tour, note 192.—Ed.
[190]. Fort Stoddard was built in 1799 by Captain Shaumburg, U. S. A., on the Mobile River, at the Spanish boundary line provided in the treaty of 1795, and was named in honor of the acting secretary of war. It was a port of entry until Mobile became part of the United States.—Ed.
[191]. For the early history of the city of Natchez, see F. A. Michaux’s Travels, vol. iii of our series, note 53.
The Natchez Indians, of Maskoki stock, were first encountered by the French near the present city of their name. In 1729 they fell upon the French garrison and massacred them all. The following year the French army took a terrible revenge, a remnant only of the tribe escaping. For full account, see Gayarré, History of Louisiana (rev. ed., New-Orleans, 1903), i, pp. 396–440.—Ed.
[192]. The cotton-wood is a member of the poplar family, the scientific name being Populus monilifera.—Ed.
[193]. The China tree (Melia azedarach) is a native of India, and much cultivated in the Southern states for its shade.—Ed.