This fort, it seems, was not constructed that year, but in 1679, Major Lawrence Smith, upon his own suggestion, was authorized to settle or "seate down at or near said fort by the last day of March, 1681," which we are informed he did, and to have in readiness, on all occasions at the beating of a drum, fifty able men, well armed, with sufficient ammunition, and two hundred more within the space of a mile along the river, prepared always to march twenty miles in any direction from the fort; and it was stipulated that should they be obliged to go more than twenty miles distance, they were to be paid for their time thus employed at the rate paid to other "soulders." He was also empowered "to execute Martiall discipline" among the fifty "souldiers so put in arms," both in times of war and peace, and with "two others of said privileged place," he was to hear and determine all cases, civil and criminal, that should arise in said limits, as a county court might do, and to make by-laws for the same. These military settlers were privileged from arrest for any debts except those due the King and those contracted among themselves, and were free from taxes and levies except from those laid within their own limits. This fort was not named by the act authorizing its construction, and if any was given it after its completion, it does not appear in the histories or records at our disposal. It is quite likely it had some designation, if nothing more than the Rappahannock fort--Smith's fort on the Rappahannock--and it may have been known by one or the other until the place was laid out for a town and received its present name. Or it may have been known as "The Lease Land," the designation it had when it was incorporated forty-six years afterwards. It has been suggested, and believed by some few to be true, that this fort was built at Germanna, about eighteen miles above the Rappahannock falls, but this claim cannot be maintained. It is known that all of these plantations and military stations were located on navigable rivers and were reached and communicated with mostly, if not exclusively, by sail vessels, and it is not reasonable to suppose that this fort was located eighteen miles above tidewater, where it could not be reached by such vessels. In addition to this objection, it may be added that the "gallant cavalier, Governor Spotswood, at the head of the chivalry of Virginia," never made his dash above the falls to the "blue ridge of mountains" until the year 1720[7] [1716 is the correct date], nearly fifty years after the construction of the fort at or near the falls.