—Sir Isaac Newton, Hypothesis of Light 1675 EMPIRE OF UNREASON At a certain time, the Earth opened in the West, where its mouth is. The earth opened and the Cussitaws came out of its mouth and settled near by. But the earth became angry and ate up their children; therefore, they moved further West. —Chekilli, Emperor of the Coweta, 1735 1. Fort Moore The sky gathered its strength, the dark furnaces of the clouds burning fitfully violet and crimson. The wind they drove before them was thick and wet, perfumed with bruised leaves and burnt air. Below Franklin, cornstalks bent like rows of gaunt penitents, and the giant trees of the primeval forest beyond the fields grappled with the sky. Lightning streamed in the distance. “We reached this fortification none too soon, it seems,” Voltaire remarked. He stood next to Franklin on the narrow wooden battlements of Fort Moore. In Europe, the structure would hardly be considered redoubt—a wooden stockade a hundred or so feet on a side, a motley collection of log buildings within.
