“When the fort was begun, in the year 1756,” he wrote, “it was a good half mile from the water side; in the year 1766 it was but eighty paces; eight years ago the river was fordable to the island; the channel is now forty feet deep.” In the year 1764 there were about forty families in the village near the fort and a parish church served by a Franciscan friar. In the following year, when the English took possession of the country, they abandoned their houses, except three or four poor families, and settled at the village on the west side of the Mississippi, choosing to continue under the French government. An English visitor who saw Fort Chartres in 1766, when it was still in its prime, wrote of his impressions: “The headquarters of the English commanding officer is now here, who in fact is the arbitrary governor of the country. The fort is an irregular quadrangle; the side of the exterior polygon is 490 feet. It is built of stone plastered, and is only designed as a defense against the Indians, the wall being two feet two inches thick, and pierced with loopholes at regular distances, and with two portholes for cannon in the face and two in the flank of each bastion. “It is generally agreed that this is the most commodious and best built fort in America.” In 1772 a flood washed away part of the fort, on which a million dollars had been spent—a large amount for that day. The garrison fled north to Kaskaskia, where another fortress was built. More than sixty years later the _Illinois Gazetteer_ said: “The prodigious military work is now a heap of ruins. Many of the stones have been removed by the people of Kaskaskia. On the whole fort is a considerable growth of trees.” But the Mississippi relented in its approach to Fort Chartres. A bit of the old fort still stands—the powder magazine and bits of the old wall. Fortunately, in 1778, Congress withdrew from entry or sale a tract of land a mile square, including the site of the fort. Thus the way was opened for the acquirement of the property by Illinois, which has made of it a state park. The fort is to be rebuilt in accordance with the original plans, which have been discovered in France. Transcriber’s Notes —Silently corrected a few typos. —Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook is public-domain in the country of publication. —In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by _underscores_.