| Summary: | Plate 26 from FORTY ETCHINGS: FROM SKETCHES MADE WITH THE CAMERA LUCIDA, IN NORTH AMERICA IN 1827 AND 1828 by Captain Basil Hall. From the author's description: "This Sketch shows the embryo Town of Columbus, on the left bank of the Chatahootchie River, which divides the State of Georgia from that of Alabama. The territory in which Columbus stood, or rather was intended to stand, had been recently acquired by Georgia from the Creek nation of Indians. According to the laws of that State, all the new country so obtained was divided amongst the citizens by lottery, excepting a certain spot on the left bank of the Chatahootchie River, five miles square, or about sixteen thousand acres, on which it was agreed by the State Government, to establish a city. Previous to the actual commencement of this undertaking, it was of course necessary to survey the ground, lay out the streets, give them names, and make other arrangements, to prevent confusion. But although six weeks or two months were still to elapse before a foot of the building-ground of the future city could be disposed of, a great number of persons had assembled from different parts of the United States, in order to select favourable spots for their future dwellings. Upwards of nine hundred souls were collected under the trees, and this Sketch represents the most populous and best cleared part of the city. The other streets were only just marked out by narrow lanes, a yard wide, cut through the brushwood by the surveyors. The principal avenue, I was told by one of the inhabitants, was to be one league in length and sixty yards wide, which he assured me, with the utmost gravity, would be completed in two or three years."
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