No. III. Map No. III is six miles farther south and six miles farther west than No. II, and is likewise a copy of a photograph of the Original Government Survey, made in 1833–34, so far as roads and Indian settlements are concerned. A new road was laid out when the Government Land Office was established at Pontotoc, leading from there to Cotton Gin Port, which passes across the south-west corner of the map, some eight miles south-west of Tupelo. This map shows some of the many Indian villages along the Old Natchez Trace, and between Tupelo and Pontotoc. The larger and more numerous of these Chickasaw towns, however, are found on Map No. II, in Township 9, Range 5. Mr. Soule Kilpatrick, a prominent citizen of Lee County, now living at Verona, and about ninety years of age, says certain portions of Natchez Trace were used by the public, when he first saw the road in 1844. No. IV. Map No. IV shows the highways used by Indians and pioneers in Township 12, Range 6, in Monroe County, within 31⁄2 miles of Cotton Gin Port to which they all converged. Levi Colbert's home, where he entertained travelers, is here laid down. Colbert's first home was near the Council Tree, just on the bluff one mile west of Cotton Gin Port, and near a good spring of water. It burned down, when Colbert rebuilt at the site noted on the map six miles west of Cotton Gin Port. Colbert was a chief, and with other members of his family was prominent in the Chickasaw Nation. The Pontotoc road again comes into view. Mr. Soule Kilpatrick of Verona, a gentleman of excellent memory and fine intelligence, tells the writer that this road was opened and laid off forty feet wide by the Government, when the Land Office at Pontotoc was established. This is doubt |