It was late in the dusk of evening when tom walker reached the old fort, and he paused there awhile to rest himself. anyone but he would have felt unwilling to linger in this lonely, melancholy place, for the common people had a bad opinion of it, from the stories handed down from the time of the indian wars; when it was asserted that the savages held incantations here, and made sacrifices to the evil spirit.” they feared that indian uprisings would soon take place in the region. they believed indians to be primitive people with superstitious beliefs and practices. they believed it was foolish to go out into the surrounding forests and swamps alone.