The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-11-19
Second Letter on Fort
 Jackson.
History of Fortiacation Now Lying in Ruins One of Love and Erag- edy-Indians Play Import-
 ant Part.
BY. WILL T. STEPHAN.

Jealousy DeLWeenfr tHRldnQ anu r was at its highest. Waterloo was a hundred years in the guture, and fate was cherishing other wounds for the prestige of France. But her. colonial policy was then as important to the world and in truth more important than that of England.
 But the years that followed were kinder to Englan ethan to France, and EngIand's colonial possessions widened with the cycles. while France could only knit her brow and see her prestige suf- fer. M
 Jealously watching over each other, and keenfy playing for an advantage in the perennial rivalry, the little strip of land between the Coosa and the Tal~ Iapoosa Rivers, eight miles from Mont gomery, became pawn in the game of statecraft. Bienville first saw its ad- vantage. While he all but failed in the tasks he undertook as the Royal Lieu tenant of the French crown in Ala bama. he fell short of his aims through no fault of his own. His career. inn partially considered. establishes his right to be considered great con- structive statesman.
 At the baxinning of the eighteenth century he had founded New Orleans and Mobile. and he had grappled with the great problem of making the American province of Louisiana pride and an ornament of the French crown.
 The King of England had granted to Sir John Heath the territory along the Atlantic Coast and 1t was called the Carolina. Georgia was in that terri tory at that time. The English on the east were a menace and danger to the French. Bienville was quick to see this. English agents were pushing through Georgia to eastern Alabama and winning the trade and friendship of the Creek Indians The menace to French prestige grew more ominous.
 BGenv1Ile Begins Plans. Bienville, as early as 1702, began his campaign with the kings ministers in Paris to secure authority for the erec- ton of fort and trading post among the upper Creeks. The kings cabinet was indifferent about it, and Bienville's hope Of a counter-infiuence to the tn- fiuence of the English in the Upper Creek Nation was baked of fulhllment for dozen years.
 In the meanwhile, Crozat, the famous Parisian merchant had been granted his monopoly of trade and control of the Louisiana colony. For sufficient financial consideration Crozat and his directors were put in absolute control of the colony. They very wisely re- tained Bienville as the local head of affairs in the eastern end of the pos session. Impressed by his arguments for a trading and military post among the Upper Creeks, Crozat and his di- rectors endorsed the project, and a start to it's building was made in the year TIA.
 In his valuable history of Colonial Mobile" Peter J. Hamilton has writ l ten from the French records in Mo | bile and in Paris an account of Bien- ville's voyage up the Alabama River, and not only an accurate account of the voyage of construction, but a his- tory of the fort as long as 1t was in charge of the French.
 Bienville and the party he headed to build the important strategic for., made the voyage in two small sailing vessels | which were transformed into river ves- | sels for the trip. In the far-off year of 1714, late in spring, Bienyille's ad- vance guard of civilization passed un- l der the bluffs upon which the city of | Montgomery now stands-passed it un- | noticed, for there was only a. wilder ness on the river banks. He made his way little further up the river to the | important Indian town of Coosawda, the site of which today, on the banks of the Alabama. a mile from the mod
 ern railroad station of Coosada. is one
 of the most beautiful spots in the State
 Site is Selected
 Nothing evidences the Indians love of nature more than his choice for the
 sites of his towns, and no site is faireT
 than the level green sward on which old Coosawda once stood. In the hey day of the old towns Indian glory Bienville brought his party, and there
 he was met and welcomed by the prin- cipal chiefs of the Creeks, for the In- dians knew and trusted the French Header.
 Stopping at coosada for few days, Bienville devoted his time to the ex- pIoration of the fair country in his search for the best site for the fort. Nor was he long in choosing thepoint at which the Coosa and the Tauapoosa curved towards each other to within distance of 500 yards as a site for the fertilization.
 In May, with a priest at the head of the party. bearing a crucifiX. the agents of civilization left their boats and mounted the high plateau which had been selected for the fort. Before a foot of earth was overturned, the spot was dedicated with solemn reli- gious ceremonies.
 Helped by the Indians, the French went to work on the fort. They built 1t with four bastions, and in each
 bastion two cannon were mounted and
 about the place deep entrenchments were dug. Bienville to reinforce the paramount influence of the French among the Creeks. visited Tookahatch- ie and other Indian towns in what is now Middle Alabama
 l One of those eight cannon brought up by Bienville and established int the
 treasured relic at the State Captol. It