Two folding gates in the front and
rear, swinging on prodigious wooden hinges, gave egress and ingress to
men and teams in times of security.
In periods of alarm a trusty sentinel on the roof of the building was so
stationed, as to be able to descry every suspicious object while yet in
the distance. The gates were always firmly barred by night; and
sentinels took their alternate watch, and relieved each other until
morning. Nothing in the line of fortification can be imagined more easy
of construction, or a more effectual protection against a savage enemy,
than this simple erection. Though the balls of the smallest dimensions
of cannon would have swept them away with ease, they were proof against
the Indian rifle, patience, and skill. The only expedient of the red men
was to dig under them and undermine them, or destroy them by fire; and
even this could not be done without exposing them to the rifles of the
flankers. Of course, there are few recorded instances of their having
been taken, when defended by a garrison, guided by such men as Daniel
Boone.
Their regular form, and their show of security, rendered these walled
cities in the central wilderness delightful spectacles in the eye of
immigrants who had come two hundred leagues without seeing a human
habitation. Around the interior of these walls the habitations of the
immigrants arose, and the remainder of the surface was a clean-turfed
area for wrestling and dancing, and the vigorous and athletic amusements
of the olden time.
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