Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/289

 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 229 appeared, having been carried away by the river. Both of these bayous, St. James and St. John's, were named by Francois and Jo- seph LeSieur. The next stream east of St. John's bayou was Little river, called by the French Eiviere Petite. It was about seven miles west of New Madrid. About eight miles above New Mad- rid it flowed for a distance of a mile from a ledge strewn with boulders of bog ore. It received the following tributaries from the east: Otter bayou, which drained the lakes in the north part of the district ; the Decypri, a cypress swamp which leaves the Mississippi river at New Madrid and flows into cypress lakes and then into Little river. Two miles South of New Madrid, Bayou Fourche left the Mississippi river, entered Lakes St. Marie and St. Ann, then flowed past La Grande Cote or the Big Mound, and entered Little river. In the early days a ferry across this stream w-as maintained near this mound. Four miles further south. Bayou Portage flowed out from the Mississippi river, running to the south- west and entering Little river one mile south of Weaverville. This bayou was fi-equently used for the purposes of transportation. 2 o'clock in the morning, occurred a heavy shock of an earthquake. The house where I was stopping was partl.y of wood and partly of brick structure; the brick portion all fell, but I and the family all fortunately escaped luihurt. At the still greater shock, about 2 o'clock in the morning of the 7th of February, 1812, I was in New Madrid, when nearly two thousand people of all ages, fled in terror from their falling dwellings in that place and the surroiuiding country, and directed their course north about thirty miles to Tywappity Hill, on the western bank of the Mississippi, and about seven miles back from the river. Barges and keel-boats were accustomed to come up the St. Francois and Little rivers to Weaverville and then pass up through Bayou Portage to the Mississippi. In time of low water it was necessary to make a carry across the ridge which separated a part of the bayou from the Mississippi. This carry was usually made to a point on the river where there was an Indian village; this place was afterward called Point Pleasant. This strip of high ground over which the carry was made came to be called the Poi-tage also. Four miles south of Point Pleasant a low place in the banks of the river allowed the water to flow into a lake which, from its grassy banks, was called Cushion lake. The outlet from Cush- ion lake to Bayou Portage was called Portage bay. It is upon the bank of this bay that the present town of Portageville is situated. Between Cushion lake and the next large bayou there were a number of small tribu- taries which flowed from cypress lakes into Little river. Pemiscot bayou drained the lakes and swamps of Pemiscot county and also received water in three difl^ereut places from the Mississippi river, and finally flowed into Little river. This was the first high groimd above New Madrid and here the fugitives formed an en- campment. It was proposed that all should kneel and engage in supplicating God 's mercy and all simultaneously — Catholic and Protes- tant — Imelt and offered solemn prayer to their Creator. "About twelve miles back towards New IMadrid a young woman about seventeen years of age, named Betsy Masters, had been left by her parents and family, her leg having been broken below the knee by the falling of one of the weight poles of the roof of the cabin, and although a total stranger I was the