Alexander Henry's
Travels and Adventures
Alexander Henry's
Travels and Adventures
;6
waar&.
WITH FRO MAP
R. P iJ-EY & SONS COMI
JH
Classics
Alexander Henry's
Travels and Adventures
in the Years 1760-1776
EDITED WITH
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
BY
MILO MILTON QUAIFE
WITH FRONTISPIECE AND MAP
2afef jibe press, Cfcica0o
R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY
CHRISTMAS, MCMXXI
' preface
TT^VROM time to time the preface to these
H volumes has taken on the form of an
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ganization of The Lakeside Press. Apropos
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The employees should be guaranteed as con-
tinuous employment as possible, an opportu-
' preface
nity to earn high wages in return for increased
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Labor unions to a great extent have become
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The Apprenticeship School, the Taylor
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Should the national unions in the printing
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pulsion and accept it only as a temporary
vii
' preface
truce in a perpetual warfare. The experience
of the last year has proven that the open shops
of the country had been secretly organized
and their production interrupted by the general
strike, while the shops that had been main-
tained on the non-union basis were undis-
turbed. Only- fair dealing can successfully
maintain a non-union shop, and the manage-
ment of The Lakeside Press, realizing their
trusteeship to the public and to their em-
ployees, have deliberately assumed the burden
of so treating their employees that they
neither need nor desire the interference of
labor unions;
This year we have taken for the subject
matter of the volume an early narrative of
travel centering around Mackinaw. Henry was
the first Englishman to venture out into the
wilderness after the French had been deposed
from its sovereignty. Outside of its interest
as a narrative of pure exploration, its chief
interest lies in the fact that the early history
of Chicago is so intimately connected with
that of Mackinaw. Mackinaw for a century
was the center of the fur trade of the Great
Northwest, and until the beginning of the
nineteenth century, all approach to Chicago
was through that trading center.
Mr. Quaife has again consented to act as
editor and to prepare the historical intro-
duction.
THE PUBLISHERS.
Christmas, 1921.
viii
Content*
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION xiii
PART ONE: ADVENTURES IN MICHIGAN, 1760-64 i
1 . Embarking upon the Fur Trade ... 3
2. The Voyage to Mackinac 15
3. Arrival at Mackinac 29
4. Reception at Mackinac ..... 39
5. The Winter at Mackinac 54
6. A Visit to SaultSte. Marie 59
7. Destruction of the Fort and Return to
Mackinac 63
8. The Gathering Storm 72
9. A Ball Game and a Massacre ... 78
10. First Days of Captivity 86
11. The Journey to Beaver Island ... 95
12. Rescued by Wawatam 101
13. The Adventure of the Bones . . . .107
14. The Arts of the Medicine Men . . . 113
15. Removal to the Au Sable 123
1 6. Lost in the Wilderness 130
17. A Bear Hunt . . . . . . . . 137
18. Death of a Child . ... . . . "143
ix
Content^
PAGE
19. Return to Mackinac 147
20. Flight to the Sault 153
21. Invoking the Great Turtle ....... 161
22. Voyage to Fort Niagara 167
23. The Return to Mackinac 174
PART Two: LAKE SUPERIOR AND THE CANADIAN
NORTHWEST, 1765-76 . . . .181
1. Journey to Chequamegon 183
2. The Winter at Chequamegon . . .189
3. Famine at the Sault 198
4. Legends of Nanibojou 203
5. A Tempestuous Voyage 209
6. The Island of Yellow Sands .... 215
7. Operations of the Copper Company . . 219
8. Journey to Lake Winnipeg . . . . 227
9. From Lake Winnipeg to Beaver Lake . 243
10. From Beaver Lake to the Prairies . . 257
11. A Journey on the Plains 268
12. Hospitality of the Assiniboin .... 275
13. Customs of the Red Men 284
14. The Return to Fort des Prairies . . . 298
15. Journey to Montreal 305
INDEX 321
Historical Introduction
XI
SJnttotiurtfott
IT is the year of our Lord, 1760. Under the
masterful leadership of William Pitt, the
British Empire is just bringing to a trium-
phant conclusion the terrible Seven Years'
War which for long has deluged a world with
blood. From a somewhat narrower point of
view this war has been but another round in
England's second Hundred- Year Duel with
France for the political dominance of the earth.
For almost two hundred years the rival mother
nations have been fostering in America a New
France and a New England. Stretched along
the Atlantic coastal plain from Maine to
Georgia is the thin line of colonies which go to
compose the latter. Encircling these, with one
center of settlement on the lower St. Lawrence
and the other at the mouth of the Mississippi,
two thousand miles away, are the imperial
possessions of New France. Although her
population is but a handful, and that of the
English colonies but a few hundred thousand,
around and between which stretches the in-
terminable wilderness sparsely inhabited by
scattered tribes of savages, long and repeat-
edly have the two countries quarreled over the
issue as to which shall control and develop that
wilderness.
xiii
^Pntrotwction
The Seven Years' War was the decisive
round in this long struggle for the domination
of the continent. It began in the backwoods of
America with a contest for the possession of
the Ohio Valley. It was ended when in the
autumn of 1759 a combined land and sea force of
twenty-seven thousand Englishmen conquered
the citadel of Quebec. The capture of Quebec
is one of the decisive struggles of military
history. It won for General Wolfe an early
grave and an immortal fame; it ended for all
time the dream of a greater France, while it
gave the future of North America into the
keeping of the Anglo-Saxon; it foreshadowed
the development of the British Empire on its
modern basis, and the birth of the United
States as an independent nation.
In the province of New Jersey in 1739 was
born a youth since known to fame by the name
of Alexander Henry. Of the first twenty years
of his life practically nothing is known. Of the
succeeding sixteen years, we have his own
record in the narrative which follows. The
slogan of recent years "Trade follows the
Flag" finds ready exemplification in the career
of Henry. When, in the summer of 1760,
General Amherst's army invaded Canada for
the purpose of reducing Montreal and thus
ending the war, Henry attached himself to the
expedition in a commercial capacity, and at
this point begins his narration of "travels and
adventures." Disaster promptly overtook him,
xiv
J^i^torical
his boats being wrecked and all his merchan-
dise lost in the rapids of the St. Lawrence.
Not long after, he encountered by chance a
Frenchman who had spent long years in the
Indian country as a trader; and the stories
he told of the wealth to be won in the fur
trade fired Henry with the determination to
proceed to Mackinac and from this center
begin the prosecution of this hazardous calling.
Doubly hazardous was it at the time Henry
proposed going into the Northwest. Although
New France had fallen, the Indian tribes had
not been conquered, and they viewed with
sullen hostility the approach of the represen-
tatives of the nation which had vanquished
their French "Father." Under the inspiration
and leadership of Pontiac, one of the greatest
figures in the history of the Indian race, they
rose against the English, and all along the
far-flung western frontier the scalping-knife
gleamed and the tomahawk descended. Thus
Henry, at Mackinac, found himself in the midst
of the conflict, and his story of what befell him
has been incorporated almost word for word by
the master historian, Parkman, in his narra-
tive of the Great Conspiracy.
The war ruined Henry but it did not break
his dauntless spirit or satiate his appetite for
adventure. Upon its conclusion, therefore, we
find him embarking upon the fur trade anew;
pioneering for copper in the Lake Superior
region, whence in a later century almost untold
XV
lijigtorical
wealth in mineral was to be drawn; resuming
again the fur trade, in pursuit of which he was
drawn to the utmost verge of the region
known to white men. The recital of these years
on Lake Superior and in the far Northwest
occupies the second part of our volume; it
constitutes a distinct narrative from that con-
tained in Part One, and the two might well
have appeared as separate volumes. But as
Henry himself put them together in his life-
time, so we reproduce them here, in a single
book of travel and adventure.
At the period when his narrative concludes,
Henry was a man of but thirty-seven. During
his years in the wilderness the quarrel between
the English colonies and the Mother Country
had arisen and progressed to its culmination at
Philadelphia, on the very day that Henry
set out upon his return to civilization, in the
Declaration of Independence and the birth
of the United States. From this succession
of events Henry had been as far removed as
though upon another planet. Reaching Mont-
real in the summer of 1776, he set out that
same year for England; crossing to France, he
was presented at court, and to the day of his
death almost half a century later he retained
a vivid recollection of the attention bestowed
upon him by the beautiful and unfortunate
queen, Marie Antoinette.
Thenceforth Montreal was Henry's home,
although he made two more voyages to Europe
^ntrotwction
and paid one or more visits to the Indian
country. From Montreal he prosecuted for
some years the fur trade, conducting, mean-
while, the business of a local merchant. He
remained one of the substantial citizens of the
place until his death in April, 1824. His
eldest son, William, was long prominent in the
Canadian fur trade; his second son, Charles,
was slain by natives on the Liard River of
northwestern Canada, while thus engaged;
and a nephew, likewise named Alexander
Henry, perished in the Columbia River, having
left behind a set of journals, which, unpub-
lished for almost a century, are among the
most valuable records of the time and place to
which they belong.
With this brief view of our author's career
taken, it remains to appraise his book. For
the record of the massacre at Mackinac and
its attendant events, Henry's work is our
only detailed narration. For the period of
northwestern trade and exploration described
in Part Two, Henry is an early and valuable,
although not unique, authority. Occupying
such a position in our historical literature, it
is obviously a matter of importance to deter-
mine what measure of credence may prop-
erly be accorded his narrative.
Henry himself offers perhaps the best method
of approach to this problem. In his preface
he informs us that " the details [of his fur-
trade career] from time to time committed to
xvii
pgtorical
paper, form the subject matter of the present
volume." It is obvious, -therefore, that the
author did not keep a day-by-day journal of
events; and that his narrative as it comes to us
is the fruit of his recollections set down at
different tunes during the period of his life
subsequent to the conclusion of the travels and
adventures which are so vividly described by
hmi. A record thus produced may possess
great value, but to all lawyers and all histo-
rians it is a commonplace that this value,
however great it may be, will be different in
quality from that attaching to a day-by-day
record of events. The human memory is at
best a fallible instrument. Men in later years
frequently recall events which never took place;
as frequently they transform, in memory,
the true character and circumstances attend-
ant upon the occurrence of events; and it is
sometimes even possible for an observer to
trace the progressive steps in the transfor-
mation.
With these considerations in mind, we will
not expect to find in Henry's story that ac-
curacy of detail which characterizes the jour-
nal of contemporary events. It will not be
strange to find that distances are sometimes
misstated, 1 that dates given are frequently
incorrect, and that the story is subject to
1 An additional reason for this is, of course, the fact
that Henry is commonly giving estimates made by eye,
xviii
^ntrotiuction
correction in various other respects. But the
more important consideration, in appraising
the narrative, pertains to quite another ques-
tion; did Henry desire to set down a truthful
record; and was he capable, in general, of
doing so ?
On this point two opinions have been ad-
vanced. In general, Henry's bona fides has
been accepted by scholars without qualifica-
tion, following the lead of Parkman. More
recently, however, Henry Bedford- Jones, in a
booklet published at Santa Barbara, has de-
livered a sweeping attack upon Henry. 2 The
spirit of the accusation is perhaps sufficiently
indicated in the following lines of verse which
preface the booklet:
Garrulous old trader, sitting with a jorum
Close beside your elbow, and tobacco bio wing free,
fc Easy 'tis to picture you, spinning to a quorum
Of pop-eyed New York burghers your tales of
deviltry!
How you must have made them palpitate and
shiver
As you warmed up to your narrative of blood
and massacree!
How you must have chortled as you saw 'em shake
and quiver
rather than the precise determinations which result
from scientific surveys.
2 The myth Wawatam or Alexander Henry Refuted,
Being an Exposure of certain Fictions Hitherto Unsus-
pected of the Public; with which are also found some
remarks upon the famous old Fort Michilimackinac * * *
(Santa Barbara, 1917.)
xix
introduction
To your tales of shocking escapades by trail and
lake and river
I'm afraid you were a liar, but you knew how to
deliver
Your auditors of Gotham from the shackles of
ennui! v
In support of this charge of willful mendacity
against Henry, the writer calls attention to
j certain erroneous statements of detail, a form
of criticism to which Henry's narrative is
clearly vulnerable; but so carelessly have the
accusations been drawn that it would be easy
to retort upon the critic the very charge he
brings against Henry. 3 Not to go farther
afield, the sole factual basis for the verse pic-
turing the "garrulous old trader" engaged in
spinning his yarns for the entertainment of
an audience of "pop-eyed New York burghers"
is the single circumstance .that his book was
published by a New York printer. There is
no hint in it or elsewhere to the present
writer's knowledge that Henry ever lived in
New York, or indeed that he ever saw that
city.
3 Thus, Henry's account (in Part One, chap. VII)
of his trip from Mackinac to the Sop is described as
"ludicrously inaccurate; and from Point Detour, find-
ing the lake open, our hero pushes on and sends back
aid but fails to say how he crossed the open straits."
But on turning to Henry's account we find that after
the party reached Point Detour a delay of more than a
week ensued, as to part of which it is expressly stated
that the weather was "exceedingly cold." Only a hyper-
critic could require further explanation than this as to
how Henry crossed the "open straits."
xx
Details aside, the most important accusa-
tion made by Mr. Jones is that the entire story
of Henry's relations with Wawatam and Chief
Minavavana is a myth, and that these charac-
ters never in fact existed. If this charge be
true, then indeed all confidence in Henry's
narrative becomes impossible. Looking to the
evidence in support of these assertions, how-
ever, we find that it practically reduces to
this, that Minavavana is unknown outside the
pages of Henry. "A son of Matchekewis,
captor of Mackinac," says the critic, "told
Schoolcraft that the name was entirely strange
to him." But when we turn to Schoolcraft for
confirmation, we find that his witness was
suspicious and unwilling to talk, and that
Schoolcraft expressly cites the incident as an
illustration of the difficulty of a white man's
getting the truth from an Indian!
Criticism of such character as this reveals
itself to be is of the stuff of which dreams are
made, and unworthy of serious consideration; 4
and a more candid and capable critic must enter
the lists before the historical repute of Henry's
narrative can be seriously shaken. For my-
self, I see no sufficient reason for doubting
Henry's honesty, and his narrative itself
4 1 have noticed it thus far only because, as far as my
knowledge goes, it is the latest publication on the sub-
ject of Henry's book, and as yet has evoked no notice
or answer. In editing a new edition of Henry, there-
fore, it seems proper to place his critic's attack in its
proper setting.
xxi
discloses internal evidence of shrewdness and
insight on the part of its author. Necessarily,
since it is a personal narration, his own doings
and point of view receive constant emphasis.
For this the intelligent reader will make due
allowance, as he will for such errors of precise
detail as may disclose themselves. That these
should occur in the recital of sixteen years of
travel and adventure is inevitable. Equally
inevitable is it that the author could not have
abandoned himself to willful mendacity with-
out leaving evidences of the habit which would
be patent to the scholar who follows on his
trail; and when such a scholar as Francis
Parkman accords to Henry a certificate of good
faith we may be sure that his book is some-
thing other than a collection of yarns spun
for the delectation of a group of "pop-eyed
New York burghers."
From quite another point of view Henry's
narrative deserves attention. It is evident
that Henry must have received some educa-
tion, but hi his twenty-first year he plunged
into the wilderness, not to emerge therefrom
for sixteen long years. Such a career is not in
close accord with the curriculum laid down in
the schools for the training of him who aspires
to become a writer. Yet in some mysterious
manner Henry had become a master of Eng-
lish and this, his sole production, is literature
in the best sense of the term. The shelves of
our libraries are loaded down with books, dry
xxii
l^igtorical
as the desert of Sahara, whose authors have
devoted their lives to the professed pursuit of
learning. But here is a man whose formal
education could scarcely have gone beyond the
stage of the modern common school, and who
for a decade and a half lived in an environ-
ment of savagery wherein his life was at no
time worth an hour's purchase; yet he has
written a book instinct with literary charm
and artistry. How was the miracle wrought?
I do not profess to know, but I rejoice in the
opportunity which is afforded me of helping to
give Henry's narrative a wider circulation
than it has hitherto had, and of bringing it to a
fresh circle of readers.
Henry's book was first published at New
York in 1809 with the title "Travels and Ad-
ventures in Canada and the Indian Territories
Between the years 1760 and 1776. How large the
edition was we have no information. Copies
of it have now become so rare as to be prac-
tically inaccessible to most readers. In 1901
a reprint edition of 700 copies was brought out
at Boston and Toronto under the scholarly
editing of James Bain. In this reprint the
typographical and other peculiarities of the
original edition were carefully preserved, so
that the text is "almost a facsimile" of the
earlier volume. In editing the narrative for
the Lakeside Classics I have thought proper to
adopt a different procedure. While faithfully
preserving the author's text and footnotes, no
XX111
i|)itorical 3 nttotmcticm
effort has been made to repeat the typograph-
ical peculiarities of the original edition, for
which, presumably, the printer, rather than the
author, was responsible. On the contrary, the
punctuation, chapter heads, and other typo-
graphical details of this edition are the work of
the present editor; and in a few instances,
where propriety clearly dictated this course,
obvious errors in the text have been corrected.
This procedure will not, of course, commend
the book to professional scholars, but these
have, or can readily gain, access to the original
edition; the Lakeside Classics are issued for
the delectation of a different class of readers.
The footnotes of the original edition are dis-
tinguished from those supplied by the editor
by the signature "author" or "editor" (as the
case may be) appended to each note.
MILO M. QUAIFE.
Madison, Wisconsin.
xxiv
TRAVELS
AND ADVENTURES
IN
CANADA
AND
THE INDIAN TERRITORIES
BETWEEN
THE YEARS 1760 AND 1776
IN Two PARTS
By ALEXANDER HENRY, ESQ.
NEW YORK
Printed and Published by I. Riley
1809
DISTRICT OF NEW YORK, ss.
BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the
twelfth day of October, in the thirty-
fourth year of the Independence of the
United States of America, ISAAC RILEY, of
the said district, hath deposited in this office
the title of a book, the right whereof he claims
as proprietor, in the words following, to wit:
"Travels and Adventures in Canada and the
Indian Territories, between the years 1760 and
1776. In two parts. By ALEXANDER HENRY,
Esq."
IN CONFORMITY to the act of the Con-
gress of the United States, entitled, "An act
for the encouragement of learning, by securing
the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the
authors and proprietors of such copies, during
the tunes therein mentioned"; and to an
act, entitled, "An act, supplementary to an act,
entitled, an act for the encouragement of
learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts
and books, to the authors and proprietors of
such copies, during the times therein mentioned,
and extending the benefits thereof to the arts
of designing, engraving and etching historical
and other prints."
CHARLES CLINTON,
Clerk of the District of New York.
xxvii
To
The Right Honourable
SIR JOSEPH BANKS, BARONET;
Knight - Companion
of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath;
one of His Majesty's
Most Honourable Privy Council;
President of the Royal Society, F. S. A.
Sec. &c. &c.
THIS VOLUME
with great deference,
is most respectfully dedicated,
By
his very devoted,
and very humble servant,
ALEXANDER HENRY
Montreal, October zoth, 1809.
preface
\ PREMATURE attempt to share in the
/"\ fur trade of Canada, directly on the con-
quest of the country, led the author of the
following pages into situations of some danger
and singularity; and the pursuit, under better
auspices, of the same branch of commerce,
occasioned him to visit various parts of the
Indian Territories.
These transactions occupied a period of
sixteen years, commencing nearly with the
author's setting out in life. The details, from
time to time committed to paper, form the sub-
ject matter of the present volume.
The heads, under which, for the most part,
they will be found to range themselves, are
three: first, the incidents or adventures in
which the author was engaged; secondly, the
observations, on the geography and natural
history of the countries visited, which he was
able to make, and to preserve; and, thirdly,
the views of society and manners, among a
part of the Indians of North America, which it
has belonged to the course of his narrative to
develop.
Upon the last, the author may be permitted
to remark, that he has by no means undertaken
to write the general history of the American
mi
preface
Indians, nor any theory of their morals, or
their merits. With but few exceptions, it has
been the entire scope of his design, simply to
relate those particular facts, which are either
identified with his own fortunes, or with the
truth of which he is otherwise personally con-
versant. All comment, therefore, in almost all
instances, is studiously avoided.
MONTREAL, October 2oth t 1809.
XXXll
PART ONE
ADVENTURES IN MICHIGAN, 1760-64
EMBARKING UPON THE FUR TRADE
IN the year 1760, when the British arms
under General Amherst were employed in
the reduction of Canada, I accompanied
the expedition which subsequently to the sur-
render of Quebec l descended from Oswego on
Lake Ontario against Fort de Levi, one of the
upper posts situate on an island which lies on
the south side of the great river St. Lawrence,
at a short distance below the mouth of
the Oswegatchie. 2 Fort de Levi surrendered
on the twenty-first day of August, seven
days after the commencement of the siege;
and General Amherst continued his voyage
1 Quebec surrendered on the eighteenth of September,
1759. Author.
2 Following the capture of Quebec by General Wolfe,
the French forces still remaining in the field retired upon
Montreal. To complete the conquest of Canada, the
British directed, in the summer of 1760, three simul-
taneous converging expeditions against Montreal.
The most formidable of these, led by Amherst, the
commander-in-chief, proceeded 'from Lake Ontario
down the St. Lawrence River an army of about
11,000 men embarked in 800 bateaux and whale-boats.
Fort LeVis, near modern Ogdensburgh, N.Y., built by
the French in 1759 to guard the western entrance to
the St. Lawrence, and garrisoned by 300 men, was
taken on August 25 after a brief siege. Editor.
Slcraufccr
down the stream, carrying his forces against
Montreal.
It happened that in this voyage one of the
few fatal accidents which are remembered to
have occurred in that dangerous part of the
river below Lake St. Francais, called the
Rapides des Cadres, befell the British army.
Several boats loaded with provisions and
military stores were lost, together with up-
ward of a hundred men. I had three boats
loaded with merchandise, all of which were
lost; and I saved my life only by gaining the
bottom of one of my boats, which lay among
the rocky shelves, and on which I continued
for some hours, and until I was kindly taken
off by one of the General's aides-de-camp.
The surrender of Montreal, 3 and with it the
surrender of all Canada, followed that of Fort
de Levi at only the short interval of three
days, and proposing to avail myself of the new
market which was thus thrown open to British
adventure I hastened to Albany, where my
commercial connections were, and where I
procured a quantity of goods with which I set
out, intending to carry them to Montreal.
For this, however, the winter was too near ap-
proached; I was able only to return to Fort
deLevi (to which the conquerors had now given
the name of Fort William Augustus) and where
I remained until the month of January in the
following year.
3 Montreal surrendered September 8, 1760. Editor.
anti 3ltibcnturc
At this time, having disposed of my goods
to the garrison and the season for traveling
on the snow and ice being set in, I prepared to
go down to Montreal. The journey was to be
performed through a country inhabited only by
Indians and by beasts of the forest, and which
presented to the eye no other change than
from thick woods to the broad surface of a
frozen river. It was necessary that I should
be accompanied as well by an interpreter as by
a guide, to both of which ends I engaged the
services of a Canadian, named Jean Baptiste
Bodoine.
The snow which lay upon the ground was by
this time three feet in depth. The hour of de-
parture arriving, I left the fort on snowshoes,
an article of equipment which I had never used
before, and which I found it not a little dif-
ficult to manage. I did not avoid frequent
falls; and when down I was scarcely able to
rise.
At sunset on the first day we reached an
Indian encampment of six lodges and about
twenty men. As these people had been very
recently employed offensively against the
English, in the French service, I agreed but
reluctantly to the proposal of my guide and
interpreter, which was nothing less than that
we should pass the night with them. My fears
were somewhat lulled by his information that
he was personally acquainted with those who
composed the camp, and by his assurances
that; no danger was to be apprehended; and
being greatly fatigued, I entered one of the
lodges, where I presently fell asleep.
Unfortunately Bodoine had brought upon
his back a small keg of rum, which, while I
slept, he opened, not only for himself but for
the general gratification of his friends; a cir-
cumstance of which I was first made aware in
being awakened by a kick on the breast from
the foot of one of my hosts, and by a yell or
Indian cry which immediately succeeded. At
the instant of opening my eyes I saw that
my assailant was struggling with one of his
companions, who, in conjunction with several
women, was endeavoring to restrain his
ferocity. Perceiving, however, in the coun-
tenance of my enemy the most determined mis-
chief, I sprung upon my feet, receiving in so
doing a wound in my hand from a knife which
had been raised to give a more serious wound.
While the rest of my guardians continued their
charitable efforts for my protection, an old
woman took hold of my arm, and making signs
that I should accompany her, led me out of the
lodge, and then gave me to understand that
unless I fled or could conceal myself I should
certainly be killed.
My guide was absent, and without his direc-
tion I was at a loss where to go. In all the sur-
rounding lodges there was the same howling
and violence as in that from which I had es-
caped. I was without my snowshoes, and had
only so much clothing as I had fortunately left
upon me when I lay down to sleep. It was now
one o'clock in the morning in the month of
January, and in a climate of extreme rigor.
I was unable to address a single word in her
own language to the old woman who had thus
befriended me; but on repeating the name of
Bodoine, I soon found that she comprehended
my meaning; and having first pointed to a
large tree, behind which she made signs that
until she could find my guide I should hide
myself, she left me on this important errand.
Meanwhile, I made my way to the tree and
seated myself in the snow. From my retreat
I beheld several Indians running from one
lodge to another, as if to quell the disturbance
which prevailed.
The coldness of the atmosphere congealed
the blood about my wound and prevented fur-
ther bleeding; and the anxious state of my
mind rendered me almost insensible to bodily
suffering. At the end of half an hour I heard
myself called by Bodoine, whom, on going to
him, I found as much intoxicated and as much
a savage as the Indians themselves; but he was,
nevertheless, able to fetch my snowshoes from
the lodge in which I had left them, and to
point out to me a beaten path, which presently
entered a deep wood, and which he told me I
must follow.
After walking about three miles I heard, at
length, the footsteps of my guide, who had now
overtaken me. I thought it most prudent to
abstain from all reproof; and we proceeded on
our march till sunrise, when we arrived at
a solitary Indian hunting-lodge, built with
branches of trees, and of which the only in-
habitants were an Indian and his wife. Here
the warmth of a large fire reconciled me to a
second experiment on Indian hospitality. The
result was very different from that of the one
which had preceded it; for after relieving my
thirst with melted snow and my hunger with a
plentiful meal of venison, of which there was a
great quantity in the lodge, and which was
liberally set before me, I resumed my journey,
full of sentiments of gratitude, such as almost
obliterated the recollection of what had be-
fallen me among the friends of my benefactors.
From the hunting lodge I followed my guide
till evening, when we encamped on the banks
of the St. Lawrence, making a fire and supping
on the meat with which our wallets had been
filled in the morning.
While I indulged myself in rest my guide
visited the shore, where he discovered a bark
canoe which had been left there in the be-
ginning of the winter by some Indian way-
farers. We were now at the head of the Longue
Sault, one of those portions of the river in
which it passes over a shallow, inclining, and
rocky bed, and where its motion consequently
prevents it from freezing, even in the coldest
part of the year; and my guide, as soon as he
anfc
had made his discovery, recommended that
we should go by water down the rapids, as
the means of saving time, of shortening our
journey, and of avoiding a numerous body
of Indians then hunting on the banks below.
The last of these arguments was with me so
powerful that though* a bark canoe was a
vehicle to which I was altogether a stranger,
though this was a very small one of only six-
teen or eighteen feet in length 4 and much out
of repair, and though the misfortune which I
had experienced in the navigation of these
rocky parts of the St. Lawrence when de-
scending with the army naturally presented
itself to my mind as a still further discourage-
ment, yet I was not long in resolving to under-
take the voyage.
Accordingly, after stopping the leaks as
completely as we were able we embarked and
proceeded. My fears were not lessened by per-
ceiving that the least unskilful motion was
sufficient to overset the ticklish craft into
which I had ventured; by the reflection that a
shock comparatively gentle from a mass of
rock or ice was more than its frail material
could sustain; nor by observing that the ice,
which lined the shores of the river, was too
strong to be pushed through and at the same
time too weak to be walked upon, so that in
the event of disaster it would be almost im-
possible to reach the land. In fact, we had not
4 There are still smaller. Author.
lijenrp
proceeded more than a mile when our canoe
became full of water, and it was not till after a
long search that we found a place of safety.
Treading once more upon dry ground, I
should willingly have faced the wilderness and
all its Indians rather than embark again; but
my guide informed me that I was upon an
island, and I had therefore no choice before
me. We stopped the leaks a second time and
recommenced our voyage, which we performed
with success, but sitting all the way in six
inches of water. In this manner we arrived
at the foot of the rapids, where the river was
frozen all across. Here we disembarked upon
the ice, walked to the bank, made a fire, and
encamped; for such is the phrase employed in
the woods of Canada.
At daybreak the next morning we put on our
snowshoes and commenced our journey over
the ice; and at ten o'clock arrived in sight of
Lake St. Francais, which is from four to six
miles in breadth. The wind was high and the
snow, drifting over the expanse, prevented us
at times from discovering the land, and con-
sequently (for compass we had none) from
pursuing with certainty our course.
Toward noon the storm became so violent
that we directed our steps to the shore on the
north side by the shortest route we could; and
making a fire, dined on the remains of the
Indian hunter 's bounty. At two o'clock in the
afternoon, when the wind had subsided and
10
Crafcrig anti
the atmosphere grown more clear, I discerned
a cariole, or sledge, moving our way, and im-
mediately sent my guide to the driver with a
request that he would come to my encamp-
ment. On his arrival I agreed with him to
carry me to Les Cedres, a distance of eight
leagues, for a reward of eight dollars. The
driver was a Canadian who had been to the
Indian village of St. Regis, and was now on his
return to Les Cedres, then the uppermost
white settlement on the St. Lawrence.
Late in the evening I reached Les Cedres,
and was carried to the house of M. Leduc, its
seignior, by whom I was politely and hospi-
tably received. M. Leduc being disposed to
converse with me, it became a subject of re-
gret that neither party understood the lan-
guage of the other; but an interpreter was
fortunately found in the person of a Serjeant
of His Majesty's Eighteenth Regiment of
Foot.
I now learned that M. Leduc in the earlier
part of his life had been engaged in the fur
trade with the Indians of Michilimackinac and
Lake Superior. He informed me of his ac-
quaintance with the Indian languages and his
knowledge of furs, and gave me to understand
that Michilimackinac was richer in this com-
modity than any other part of the world. He
added that the Indians were a peaceable race
of men, and that an European might travel
from one side of the continent to the other
without experiencing insult. Further, he men-
tioned that a guide who lived at no great dis-
tance from his house could confirm the truth
of all that he had advanced.
I, who had previously thought of visiting
Michilimackinac with a view to the Indian
trade, gave the strictest attention to all that
fell on this subject from my host; and in order
to possess myself as far as possible of all that
might be collected in addition, I requested that
the guide should be sent for. This man arrived,
and a short conversation terminated in my
engaging him to conduct myself, and the
canoes which I was to procure, to Michili-
mackinac in the month of June following.
There being at this time no goods in Mont-
real adapted to the Indian trade, my next
business was to proceed to Albany to make my
purchases there. This I did in the beginning
of the month of May, by the way of Lake
Champlain; and on the fifteenth of June ar-
rived again in Montreal, bringing with me my
outfits. As I was altogether a stranger to the
commerce in which I was engaging, I confided
in the recommendations given me of one Eti-
enne Campion, 5 as my assistant; a part which
5 Etienne Campion, a native of Montreal, was for
several decades a prominent trader in the western
country. During the Revolution he was an active
British partisan in the Northwest. When, in Decem-
ber, 1780, the little raiding party of Cahokians fell
upon St. Joseph, Michigan, and plundered the traders
there, Campion led the party of pursuers that was
12
anfr
he uniformly fulfilled with honesty and fidelity.
His Excellency, General Gage, who now
commanded in chief in Canada, very reluc-
tantly granted me the permission at this time
requisite for going to Michilimackinac. No
treaty of peace had yet been made between
the English and the Indians, which latter were
in arms under Pontiac, an Indian leader of
more than common celebrity, and General
Gage was therefore strongly and (as it became
manifest) but too justly apprehensive that
both the property and lives of His Majesty's
subjects would be very insecure in the Indian
countries. But he had already granted such
permission to a Mr. Bostwick, 6 and this I was
able to employ as an argument against his
refusal in respect to myself. General Gage
complied, and on the third day of August,
hastily formed and in the battle which ensued, Decem-
ber 5, 1780, somewhere in the vicinity of South Chicago,
all but three of the raiders were killed or captured.
Campion's name appears in numerous Mackinac doc-
uments coming down to the year 1 794. Editor.
6 This was Henry Bostwick, the first English trader
to go to Mackinac after the surrender of Montreal.
Although in August, 1761, he is reported as being at
Detroit (Diary of Sir William Johnson), he seems to
have made Mackinac his permanent headquarters.
He was captured here by the Chippewa, in June, 17631
and carried by the Ottawa to Montreal for ransom.
Various documents show his residence at Mackinac in
the following years; among others, he was a signer in
1781 of the treaty whereby Governor Patrick Sinclair
purchased Mackinac Island from the natives. Editor.
13
1761, after some further delay in obtaining a
passport from the town-major, I dispatched
my canoes to Lachine, there to take in their
lading.
THE VOYAGE TO MACKINAC
inland navigation from Montreal
to Michilimackinac may be performed
either by the way of Lakes Ontario and
Erie, or by the river Des Outaouais, Lake
Nipisingue, and the river Des Francais, 7 for
as well by one as the other of these routes
we are carried to Lake Huron. The second is
the shortest and that which is usually pursued
by the canoes employed in the Indian trade.
The canoes which I provided for my under-
taking were, as is usual, five fathoms and a half
in length and four feet and a half in their ex-
treme breadth, and formed of birch-tree bark
a quarter of an inch in thickness. The bark
is lined with small splints of cedar- wood; and
the vessel is further strengthened with ribs
of the same wood, of which the two ends are
fastened to the gunwales; several bars, rather
than seats, are also laid across the canoe, from
gunwale to gunwale. The small roots of the
spruce tree afford the wattap, with which
the bark is sewed; and the gum of the pine
tree supplies the place of tar and oakum.
Bark, some spare wattap, and gum are always
7 The Ottawa River, Lake Nipissing and French
River. Editor.
Sllejcantier Ijjeturp
carried in each canoe for the repairs which
frequently become necessary.
The canoes are worked, not with oars but
with paddles, and occasionally with a sail.
To each canoe there are eight men; and to
every three or four canoes, which constitute a
brigade, there is a guide or conductor. Skilful
men, at double the wages of the rest, are placed
in the head and stern. They engage to go
from Montreal to Michilimackinac and back
to Montreal again, the middle-men at one
hundred and fifty livres and the end-men at
three hundred livres each. 8 The guide has the
command of his brigade and is answerable for
all pillage and loss; and in return every man's
wages is answerable to him. This regulation
was established under the French government.
The freight of a canoe of the substance and
dimensions which I have detailed consists in
sixty pieces, or packages of merchandise, of
the weight of from ninety to a hundred pounds
each, and provisions to the amount of one
thousand weight. To this i to be added the
weight of eight men and of eight bags weighing
forty pounds each, one of which every man is
privileged to put on board. The whole weight
must therefore exceed eight thousand pounds,
or may perhaps be averaged at four tons.
The nature of the navigation which is to be
8 These particulars may be compared with those of a
more modern date, given in the Voyages of Sir Alex-
ander Mackenzie. Author.
16
ant!
described will sufficiently explain why the
canoe is the only vessel which can be em-
ployed along its course. The necessity, indeed,
becomes apparent at the very instant of our
departure from Montreal itself.
The St. Lawrence for several miles immedi-
ately above Montreal descends with a rapid
current over a shallow, rocky bed; insomuch
that even canoes themselves, when loaded,
cannot resist the stream, and are therefore
sent empty to Lachine, where they meet the
merchandise which they are to carry, and
which is transported thither by land. 9 La-
chine is about nine miles higher up the river
than Montreal, and is at the head of the
Sault de St. Louis, which is the highest of
the saults, falls, or leaps in this part of the
St. Lawrence.
On the third of August I sent my canoes to
Lachine, and on the following morning em-
barked with them for Michilimackinac. The
river is here so broad as to be denominated a
lake, by the title of Lake St. Louis; the pros-
pect is wide and cheerful; and the village has
several well-built houses.
In a short time we reached the rapids and
carrying-place of St. Anne, two miles below
9 La Chine, or China, has always been the point of
departure for the upper countries. It owes its name to
the expeditions of M. de la Salle which were fitted out
at this place for the discovery of a northwest passage
to China. Author.
17
the upper end of the island of Montreal; and it
is not till after passing these that the voyage
may be properly said to be commenced. At
St. Anne's the men go to confession, and at
the same time offer up their vows; for the
saint from whom this parish derives its name
and to whom its church is dedicated, is the
patroness of the Canadians in all their travels
by water. 10
There is still a further custom to be observed
on arriving at St. Anne's, and which is that
of distributing eight gallons of rum to each
canoe (a gallon for each man) for consumption
during the voyage; nor is it less according to
custom to drink the whole of this liquor upon
the spot. The saint, therefore, and the priest
were no sooner dismissed than a scene of intox-
ication began in which my men surpassed, if
possible, the drunken Indian in singing, right-
ing, and the display of savage gesture and con-
ceit. In the morning we reloaded the canoes
10 Peter Pond, a Connecticut Yankee who went out
to the western country as a trader in 1773, thus quaintly
describes this aspect of the journey: "As you Pass
the End of the Island of Montreal to Go in a Small
Lake Cald the Lake of the [Two] Mountains thare
stans a Small Roman Church Aganst a Small Raped.
This Church is Dedacated to St. Ann who Protects all
Voigers. Heare is a small Box with a Hole in the top
for ye Reseption of a Little Money for the Hole Father
or to say a small Mass for those Who Put a small Sum
in the Box. Scars a Voiger but stops hear and Puts in
his mite and By that Meanes thay Suppose thay are
Protected." Wis. Hist. Colls., XVIII, 326. Editor.
18
Cratoelg an&
and pursued our course across the Lake des
Deux Montagnes.
This lake, like that of St. Louis, is only a
part of the estuary of the Outaouais, which
here unites itself with the St. Lawrence, or
rather, according to some, the Cataraqui;
for, with these, the St. Lawrence is formed
by the confluence of the Cataraqui and Out-
aouais. 11
At noon we reached the Indian Mission of
the Seminary of St. Sulpice, situate on the
north bank of the lake, with its two villages,
Algonquin and Iroquois, in each of which was
reckoned an hundred souls. Here we received
a hospitable reception and remained during
two hours. I was informed by one of the mis-
sionaries that since the conquest of the country
the unrestrained introduction of spirituous liq-
uors at this place, which had not been allowed
under the former government, had occasioned
many outrages.
At two o'clock in the afternoon we prose-
cuted our voyage; and at sunset disembarked
and encamped at the foot of the Longue Sault.
There is a Longue Sault both on this river and
on the St. Lawrence.
At ten leagues above the island of Montreal
I passed the limits of the cultivated lands on
the north bank of the Outaouais. On the
11 This is the Utawas of some writers, the Ottaway of
others, etc., etc., etc. It is also called the Grand River
la Grande Riviere. Author.
19
south, the farms are very few in number, but
the soil has every appearance of fertility. 12
In ascending the Longue Sault, a distance of
three miles, my canoes were three times unladen,
and together with their freight carried on the
shoulders of the voyageurs. The rocky carry-
ing-places are not crossed without danger of
serious accidents by men bearing heavy burdens.
The Longue Sault being passed, the Outa-
ouais presented on either side only scenes of
primitive forest, the common range of the
deer, the wolf, the bear, and the Indian. The
current is here gentle. The lands upon the
south are low, and when I passed them were
overflowed; but on the northern side the banks
are dry and elevated, with much meadow land
at their feet. The grass in some places was
high. Several islands are in this part of the
river. Among the fish, of which there are
abundance, are catfish of a large size.
At fourteen leagues above the Longue
Sault we reached a French fort, or trading
house, surrounded by a stockade. Attached
was a small garden from which we procured
some vegetables. The house had no inhabitant.
At three leagues farther is the mouth of the
Hare River, which descends from the north,
and here we passed another trading house.
At a few leagues still higher on the south bank
is the mouth of a river four hundred yards
12 Numerous and thriving colonists are now enjoying
that fertility 1809. Author.
anfc
wide, and which falls into the Outaouais per-
pendicularly from the edge of a rock forty feet
high. The appearance of this fall has procured
for it the name of the rideau, or curtain; and
hence the river itself is called the Rideau, or
Riviere du Rideau. The fall presented itself to
my view with extraordinary beauty and mag-
nificence, and decorated with a variety of colors.
Still ascending the Outaouais, at three
leagues from the fall of the Rideau is that of
La Grande Chaudiere, 13 a phenomenon of a
different aspect. Here, on the north side of the
river, is a deep chasm running across the chan-
nel for about two hundred yards, from twenty-
five to thirty feet in depth and without appar-
ent outlet. In this receptacle a large portion
of the river falls perpendicularly with a loud
noise, and amid a cloud of spray and vapor,
but embellished from time to time with the
bright and gorgeous rainbow. The river at
this place is a mile in width. In the rainy
season the depth of the fall is lessened by reason
of the large quantity of water which is received
into the chasm, and which for want, as it
would seem, of a sufficient drain, in part, fills
it up. At such times an eddy and an accumu-
lation of foam at a particular chasm have led
me to suspect the existence of an opening be-
neath through which the water finds a sub-
terranean passage. The rock which forms the
13 La Grande Chaudiere, i. e. the Great Kettle
Author.
21
bed of the river appears to be split in an ob-
lique direction from one shore to the other;
and the chasm on the north side is only a more
perfect breach.
The fall of La Grande Chaudiere is more
than twenty leagues above the Longue Sault.
Its name is justified both by its form and by
the vapor, or steam, which ascends from it.
Above it there are several islands, of which the
land is higher at the upper than at the lower
extremities. The carrying-place is not more
than a quarter of a mile in length, over a
smooth rock, and so near the fall that the men
in passing are wetted by the spray. From
this carrying-place to another of rather more
length, called the Portage de la Chaudiere and
sometimes the Second Chaudiere, is only three
miles.
In this part of the voyage I narrowly escaped
a fatal accident. A thunder-gust having
obliged us to make the shore, the men went
into the woods for shelter while I remained in
my canoe under a covering of bark. The canoe
had been intended to be sufficiently drawn
aground; but to my consternation it was not
long before, while thus left alone, I perceived
it to be adrift and going with the current to-
ward La Grande Chaudiere. Happily I made
a timely discovery of my situation, and getting
out: in shallow water was enabled by the
assistance of the men, who soon heard my
call, to save my property along with my life.
22
anfc
At twelve miles from the second Portage de
la Chaudiere there is a third Chaudiere, but
also called the Portage des Chenes. The
name of this carrying-place is derived from the
oak trees with which it abounds. It is half a
mile in length, level, and of an agreeable
aspect.
The bed of the river is here very broad for a
space of twelve leagues, or thirty-six miles;
and in this part of its course it is called Lake
des Chaudieres, a name derived from the falls
below. The current in this place is scarcely
perceptible. The lands on either side are high
and the soil is good. At the head of Lake des
Chaudieres is the Portage des Chats. The
carrying-place is a high, uneven rock of diffi-
cult access. The ridge of rock crosses the
stream and occasions not only one but nu-
merous falls, separated from each other by
islands and affording a scene of very pleasing
appearance. At the distance of a mile seven
openings present themselves to the eye along a
line of two miles, which at this point is the
breadth of the river. At each opening is a fall
of water of about thirty feet in height, and
which from the whiteness of its foam might be
mistaken for a snowbank. Above, for six
miles there are many islands, between which
the current is strong. To overcome the diffi-
culties of this part of the navigation the canoes
first carry one-half of their loading, and at a
second trip the remainder.
23
Above the islands the river is six miles in
width, and is called Lake des Chats. The lake,
so called, is thirty miles long. The lands
about the lake are like those of Lake des
Chaudieres; but higher up they are both high
and rocky, and covered with no other wood
than spruce and stunted pine.
While paddling against the gentle current of
Lake des Chats we met several canoes of
Indians returning from their winter's hunt to
their village at the Lake des Deux Monta-
gnes. I purchased some of their maple sugar
and beaver skins in exchange for provisions.
They wished for rum, which I declined to sell
them; but they behaved civilly, and we parted
as we had met, in a friendly manner. Before
they left us they inquired of my men whether
or not I was an Englishman, and being told
that I was, they observed that the English
were mad in their pursuit of beaver, since they
could thus expose their lives for it; "for," add-
ed they, "the Upper Indians will certainly kill
him," meaning myself. These Indians had
left their village before the surrender of Mon-
treal and I was the first Englishman they had
seen.
In conversation with my men I learned that
the Algonquins of the Lake des Deux Mon-
tagnes, of which description were the party
that I had now met, claim all the lands on the
Outaouais as far as Lake Nipisingue; and that
these lands are subdivided between their
24
anfc
several families upon whom they have de-
volved by inheritance. I was also informed
that they are exceedingly strict as to the rights
of property in this regard, accounting an in-
vasion of them an offense sufficiently great to
warrant the death of the invader.
We now reached the channels of the Grand
Calumet, which lie amid numerous islands,
and are about twenty miles in length. In
this distance there are four carrying-places, 14
besides three or four decharges, 15 or discharges,
which are places where the merchandise only
is carried, and are therefore distinguishable
from portages, or carrying-places where the
canoe itself is taken out of the water and trans-
ported on men 's shoulders. The four carrying-
places included in the channels are short, with
the exception of one, called the Portage de la
Montagne, at which, besides its length, there
is an acclivity of a hundred feet.
On the tenth of July 16 we reached the Port-
age du Grand Calumet, which is at the head of
the channels of the same name, and which
name is derived from the pierre d Calumet, 17
or pipe-stone, which here interrupts the river,
14 Portage Dufort, etc. Author.
15 Decharge des Sables, etc. Author.
16 The month was now August. Editor.
17 The pierre a Calumet is a compact limestone,
yielding easily to the knife, and therefore employed for
the bowls of tobacco pipes, both by the Indians and
Canadians . Author.
25
&lejcanfcer
occasioning a fall of water. This carrying-place
is long and arduous, consisting in a high steep
hill, over which the canoe cannot be carried
by fewer than twelve men. The method of
carrying the packages, or pieces, as they are
called, is the same with that of the Indian
women, and which indeed is not peculiar even
to them. One piece rests and hangs upon the
shoulders, being suspended in a fillet, or fore-
head-band; and upon this is laid a second,
which usually falls into the hollow of the neck,
and assists the head in its support of the
burden.
The ascent of this carrying-place is not more
fatiguing than the descent is dangerous; and
in performing it accidents too often occur,
producing strains, ruptures, and injuries for
life. 18
The carrying-place and the repairs of our
canoes, which cost us a day, detained us till the
thirteenth. It is usual for the canoes to leave
the Grand Calumet in good repair; the rapids,
or shallow rocky parts of the channel (from
which the canoes sustain the chief injury)
being now passed, the current becomes gentle,
and the carrying-places less frequent. The
lands above the carrying-places and near the
water are low, and in the spring entirely
inundated.
18 A charitable fund is now established in Montreal
for the relief of disabled and decayed voyageurs.
Author.
26
auto &tifccnture
On the morning of the fourteenth we reached
a trading fort, or house, surrounded by a stock-
ade, which had been built by the French, and
at which the quantity of peltries received was
once not inconsiderable. For twenty miles
below this house the borders of the river are
peculiarly well adapted to cultivation. From
some Indians who were encamped near the
house I purchased fish, dried and fresh.,
At the rapids called Des Allumettes are
two short carrying-places, above which is the
Riviere Creuse, 19 twenty-six miles in length,
where the water flows with a gentle current
at the foot of a high, mountainous, barren and
rocky country on the north, and has a low and
sandy soil on the south. On this southern side
is a remarkable point of sand, stretching far
into the stream, and on which it is customary
to baptize novices. Above the River Creuse
are the two carrying-places of the length of
half a mile e'ach, called the Portages des Deux
Joachins; and at fifteen miles farther, at the
mouth of the River Du Moine is another fort,
or trading-house, where I found a small
encampment of Indians called Maskegons, and
with whom I bartered several articles for furs.
They anxiously inquired whether or not the
English were in possession of the country
below, and whether or not, if they were, they
would allow traders to come to that trading-
house; declaring that their families must starve
19 Called by the English Deep River. Author.
27
unless they should be able to procure ammuni-
tion and other necessaries. I answered both
these questions in the affirmative, at which
they expressed much satisfaction. Above the
Moine are several strong and dangerous rapids,
reaching to the Portage du Roche Capitaine, a
carrying-place of three-quarters of a mile in
length, mountainous, rocky, and wooded only
with stunted pine trees and spruce. Above
this is the Portage des Deux Rivieres, so
called from the two small rivers by which it is
intersected; and higher still are many rapids
and shoals, called by the Indians matawa.
Here the river, called by the French Petite
Riviere, and by the Indians Matawa Sipi, 21 falls
into the Outaouais. We now left the latter
of these rivers and proceeded to ascend the
Matawa.
20 Mataouan (Matawan); Charlevoix; Matawoen.
Mackenzie 's Voyages. Author.
21 Modern Matawan River. Editor.
28
Chapter 3
ARRIVAL AT MACEJNAC
OUR course in ascending the Outaouais
had been west-northwest; but on enter-
ing the Matawa our faces were turned
to the southwest. This latter river is com-
puted to be fourteen leagues in length. In the
widest parts it is a hundred yards broad, and
in others not more than fifty. In ascending
it there are fourteen carrying-places and dis-
charges, of which some are extremely difficult.
Its banks are almost two continuous rocks,
with scarcely earth enough for the burial of a
dead body. I saw Indian graves, if graves
they might be called, where the corpse was
laid upon the bare rock and covered with
stones. In the side of a hill on the north
side of the river there is a curious cave con-
cerning which marvelous tales are related
by the voyageurs. Mosquitoes and a minute
species of black fly abound on this river,
the latter of which are still more trouble-
some than the former. To obtain a respite
from their vexations we were obliged at the
carrying-places to make fires and stand in
the smoke.
On the twenty-sixth of August we reached
the Portages a la Vase, three in number, and
29
each two miles in length. Their name 22 de-
scribes the boggy ground of which they consist.
In passing one of them we saw many beaver
houses and dams; and by breaking one of the
dams we let off water enough to float our
canoes down a small stream which would not
otherwise have been navigable. These car-
rying-places and the intermediate navigation
brought us at length to the head of a small
river which falls into Lake Nipisingue. We
had how passed the country of which the
streams fall northeastward into the Outaouais,
and entered that from which they flow in a
contrary direction toward Lake Huron. On
one side of the height of land, which is the
reciprocal boundary of these regions, we had
left Lake aux Tourtres and the River Matawa;
and before us on the other was Lake Nipi-
singue. The banks of the little river by which
we descended into the lake, and more especially
as we approached the lake, were of an exceed-
ingly delightful appearance, covered with high
grass and affording an extensive prospect.
Both the lake and river abound hi black bass,
sturgeon, pike, and other fish. Among the pike
is to be included the species called by the
Indians masquinonge. In two hours with the
22 Vase is the French equivalent of mud or slime.
Editor.
23 Known to sportsmen of the present day as the
Muskellunge. Editor.
30
an&
assistance of an Indian we took as much fish
as all the party could eat.
Lake Nipisingue is distant two hundred
leagues from Montreal. Its circumference is
said to measure one hundred and fifty miles,
and its depth is sufficient for vessels of any
burden. On our voyage along its eastern banks
we met some canoes of Indians, who said they
lived on the northwestern side. My men in-
formed me that they were Nipisingues, a
name which they derive from the lake. Their
language is a dialect of the Algonquin; and by
nation they are a mixture of Chippewa and
Maskegons. They had a large quantity of furs,
part of which I purchased. The animals which
the country affords them are the beaver,
marten, bear and o'tic, a'tic, or caribou, a
species of deer, by some called the reindeer.
They wished for rum, but I avoided selling or
giving them any.
Leaving the Indians, we proceeded to the
mouth of the lake at which is the carrying-
place of La Chaudiere Francaise, 24 a name
part of which it has obtained from the holes
in the rock over which we passed; and which
holes, being of the kind which is known to
be formed by water with the assistance of
pebbles, demonstrate that it has not always
been dry as at present it is, but the phenom-
enon is not peculiar to this spot, the same
being observable at almost every carrying-
24 Or, la Chaudiere des Fran^ais. Author.
place on the Outaouais. At the height of a
hundred feet above the river I commonly
found pebbles worn into a round form like
those upon the beach below. Everywhere the
water appears to have subsided from its
ancient levels; and imagination may anticipate
an era at which even the banks of Newfound-
land will be left bare.
The southern shores of Lake Nipisingue are
rocky, and only thinly covered with pine trees
and spruce, both, as in several instances al-
ready mentioned, of a small stature. The
carrying-place of La Chaudiere Franchise is
at the head of the River des Francais, and
where the water first descends from the level
of Lake Nipisingue toward that of Lake Huron.
This it does not reach till it has passed down
many rapids, full of danger to the canoes and
the men, after which it enters Lake Huron by
several arms, flowing through each as through
mill-race. The River des Francais 25 is twenty
leagues in length and has many islands in its
channel. Its banks are uniformly of rock.
Among the carrying-places at which we suc-
cessively arrived are the Portage des Pins, or
du Pin; de la Grande Faucille; 26 de la Petite
FauciUe; and du Sault du Recolet. 27 Near the
25 Modern French River. Editor.
26 Faucille, Fr. a sickle. Author.
27 So called, perhaps, on account of the resemblance
of this Sault to that of the Sault du Recolet, between
32
anfc
mouth of the river a meadow, called La Prairie
des Franf ais, varies for a short space the rocky
surface which so generally prevails; and on
this spot we encamped and repaired our canoes.
The carrying-places were now all passed, and
what remained was to cross the billows of
Lake Huron, which lay stretched across our
horizon like an ocean.
On the thirty-first day of August we entered
the lake, the waves running high from the
south, and breaking over numerous rocks. At
first I thought the prospect alarming; but the
canoes rode on the water with the ease of a
sea-bird, and my apprehensions ceased. We
passed Point aux Grondines, so called from the
perpetual noise of the water among the rocks.
Many of these rocks are sunken and not with-
out danger when the wind, as at this time it
was, is from the south.
We coasted along many small islands, or
rather rocks, of more or less extent, either
wholly bare or very scantily covered with
scrub pine trees. All the land to the northward
is of the same description as high as Cha'ba'-
Bou'an'ing, where verdure reappears.
On the following day we reached an island
called La Cloche, because there is here a rock
standing on a plain, which, being struck, rings
like a beU.
the islands of Montreal and Jesus, and which has its
name from the death of a Recolet or Franciscan friar,
who was there drowned. Author:
33
I found the island inhabited by a large
village of Indians, whose behavior was at first
full of civility and kindness. I bartered away
some small articles among them in exchange
for fish and dried meat; and we remained upon
friendly terms till, discovering that I was an
Englishman, they told my men that the
Indians at Michilimackinac would not fail to
kill me, and that therefore they had a right to
a share of the pillage. Upon this principle, as
they said, they demanded a keg of rum, adding
that if not given them they would proceed to
take it. I judged it prudent to comply; on
condition, however, that I should experience at
this place no further molestation.
The condition was not unfaithfully observed;
but the repeated warnings which I had now re-
ceived of sure destruction at Michilimackinac
could not but oppress my mind. I could not
even yield myself, without danger, to the
course suggested by my fears; for my provisions
were nearly exhausted and to return was,
therefore, almost impracticable.
The hostility of the Indians was exclusively
against the English. Between them and my
Canadian attendants there appeared the most
cordial good-will. This circumstance suggested
one means of escape, of which by the advice
of my friend Campion I resolved to attempt
availing myself; and which was that of putting
on the dress usually worn by such of the Cana-
dians as pursue the trade into which I had
34
anti
entered and assimilating myself as much as I
was able to their appearance and manners. To
this end I laid aside my English clothes and
covered myself only with a cloth passed about
the middle, a shirt hanging loose, a molton, or
blanket coat, and a large, red, milled worsted
cap. The next thing was to smear my face and
hands with dirt and grease; and this done, I
took the place of one of my men, and when
Indians approached, used the paddle with as
much skill as I possessed. I had the satisfac-
tion to find that my disguise enabled me to
pass several canoes without attracting the
smallest notice.
In this manner I pursued my voyage to the
mouth, or rather mouths, of the Missisaki, a
river which descends from the north, and of
which the name imports that it has several
mouths, or outlets. From this river all the
Indians inhabiting the north side of Lake
Huron are called Missisakies. There is here a
plentiful sturgeon fishery, by which those that
resort to it are fed during the summer months.
On our voyage we met several Missisakies of
whom we bought fish, and from whose stock
we might easily have filled all our canoes.
From the Missisaki, which is on the north
shore of Lake Huron, to Michilimackinac,
which is on the south, is reckoned thirty
leagues. The lake, which here approaches
Lake Superior, is now contracted in its breadth,
as well as filled with islands. From the mouth
35
of the River des Franf ais to the Missisaki is
reckoned fifty leagues, with many islands along
the route. The lands everywhere from the
Island of La Cloche are poor, with the excep-
tion of those of the Island of Manitoualin, a
hundred miles, in length, 28 where they are
generally good. On all the islands the Indians
cultivate small quantities of maize.
From the Missisaki we proceeded to the
O'tossalon 29 and thence across the lake,
making one island after another, at intervals
of from two to three leagues. The lake, as far
as it could be seen, tended to the westward and
became less and less broad.
The first land which we made on the south
shore was that called Point du Detour, 30 after
28 The Isle Manitoualin was formerly so described.
It is now known that there is no island in Lake Huron
of a hundred miles in length, and that the Manitoualin
are a chain of islands. The French writers on Canada
speak of the Isle Manitoualin as inhabited in their
time by the Amikoues (Amicways, Amicwac), whom
they called a family (and sometimes a nation), deriving
its origin from the Great Beaver, a personage of myth-
ological importance. The name Manitoualin implies
the residence of Manitoes, or genii, a distinction very
commonly attributed to the islands, and sometimes to
the shores, of Lakes Huron and Superior, and of which
further examples will present themselves in the course
of these pages. Author.
29 Also written Tessalon, Thessalon, and des Tessa-
Ions. Author.
30 Point du Detour, or Grand Detour, is the eastern
extremity of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Isle
aux Outardes is modern Goose Island. Editor.
36
anfc 3ttitoenture
which we passed the island called Isle aux
Outardes, and then leaving on the right the
deep bay of Boutchitaouy came to the island
of Michilimackinac, distant from Isle aux
Outardes three leagues. On our way a sudden
squall reduced us to the point of throwing over
the cargoes of our canoes to save the latter
from filling; but the wind subsided and we
reached the island in safety.
The land in the center of this island is high
and its form somewhat resembles that of a
turtle's back. Mackinac, or Mickinac, sig-
nifies a turtle, and michi (mishi), or missi,
signifies great, as it does also several, or many.
The common interpretation of the word Michi-
limackinac is the Great Turtle. It is from this
island that the fort, commonly known by the
name of Michilimackinac, has obtained its
appellation. 31
On the island, as I had been previously
taught to expect, there was a village of
31 This is, perhaps, debatable. It is important for the
modern reader to remember that the term Mackinac
has been applied at different times to different points
in the region adjoining the head of Lake Michigan. In
the time of Marquette, Mackinac was on the north side
of the strait, upon Point St. Ignace. From 1712 to 1781
it was on the south side of the strait, in the immediate
vicinity of modern Mackinaw City. In 1781 Governor
Sinclair established his British garrison on the island of
Mackinac, where the modern resort city stands. Thus
the Mackinac to which Henry came in 1761, and where
the massacre occurred in 1763, was on the southern
mainland near modern Mackinaw City. Editor.
37
Chippewa, said to contain a hundred warriors.
Here I was fearful of discovery and consequent
ill-treatment, but after inquiring the news, and
particularly whether or not any Englishman
was coming to Michilimackinac, they suffered
us to pass uninjured. One man, indeed,
looked at me, laughed, and pointed me out
to another. This was enough to give me
some uneasiness; but whatever was the sin-
gularity he perceived in me, both he and his
friend retired without suspecting me to be an
Englishman.
Chapter 4
RECEPTION AT MACKINAC
EAVING as speedily as possible the
island of Michilimackinac I crossed the
strait and landed at the fort of the same
name. The distance from the island is about
two leagues. I landed at four o'clock in the
afternoon.
Here I put the entire charge of my effects
into the hands of my assistant, Campion,
between whom and myself it had been pre-
viously agreed that he should pass for the
proprietor; and my men were instructed to
conceal the fact that I was an Englishman.
Campion soon found a house to which I
retired, and where I hoped to remain in privacy;
but the men soon betrayed my secret, and
I was visited by the inhabitants with great
show of civility. They assured me that I
could not stay at Michilimackinac without the
most imminent risk; and strongly recommended
that I should lose no time in making my escape
to Detroit.
Though language like this could not but
increase my uneasiness it did not shake my
determination to remain with my property and
encounter the evils with which I was threatened;
and my spirits were in some measure sustained
39
by the sentiments of Campion in this regard;
for he declared his belief that the Canadian
inhabitants of the fort were more hostile than
the Indians as being jealous of English traders,
who like myself were penetrating into the
country.
Fort Michilimackinac was built by order of
the governor-general of Canada, and garrisoned
with a small number of militia, who, having
families, soon became less soldiers than set-
tlers. Most of those whom I found in the fort
had originally served in the French army.
The fort stands on the south side of the
strait which is between Lake Huron and Lake
Michigan. It has an area of two acres, and
is enclosed with pickets of cedar wood; 32 and
it is so near the water's edge that when the
wind is in the* west the waves break against the
stockade. On the bastions are two small
pieces of brass English cannon taken some
years since by a party of Canadians who went
on a plundering expedition against the posts of
Hudson's Bay, which they reached by the
route of the River Churchill.
Within the stockade are thirty houses, neat
in then* appearance, and tolerably commodious;
and a church in which mass is celebrated by
a Jesuit missionary. The number of families
may be nearly equal to that of the houses;
and their subsistence is derived from the Indian
traders who assemble here in their voyages to
32 Thuya occidentalis. Author.
40
anfc
and from Montreal. Michilimackinac is the
place of deposit and point of departure be-
tween the upper countries and the lower. Here
the outfits are prepared for the countries of
Lake Michigan and the Mississippi, Lake
Superior, and the Northwest; and here the
returns in furs are collected and embarked for
Montreal.
I was not released from the visits and ad-
monitions of the inhabitants of the fort before
I received the equivocal intelligence that the
whole band of Chipewa from the island of
Michilimackinac was arrived with the inten-
tion of paying me a visit.
There was in the fort one Farley, an inter-
preter, lately in the employ of the French
commandant. He had married a Chipewa
woman and was said to possess great influence
over the nation to which his wife belonged.
Doubtful as to the kind of visit which I was
about to receive I sent for this interpreter and
requested first that he would have the kindness
to be present at the interview, and secondly
that he would inform me of the intentions of
the band. M. Farley agreed to be present; and
as to the object of the visit, replied that it was
consistent with uniform custom that a stranger
on his arrival should be waited upon and wel-
comed by the chiefs of the nation, who on their
part always gave a small present, and always ex-
pected a large one; but as to the rest, declared
himself unable to answer for the particular
views of the Chipewa on this occasion, I
being an Englishman, and the Indians having
made no treaty with the English. He thought
that there might be danger, the Indians having
protested that they would not suffer an
Englishman to remain in their part of the
country. This information was far from agree-
able; but there was no resource, except in
fortitude and patience.
At two o'clock in the afternoon the Chip-
pewa came to my house, about sixty in num-
ber, and headed by Minavavana, their chief.
They walked in single file, each with his toma-
hawk in one hand and scalping knife in the
other. Their bodies were naked from the waist
upward, except in a few examples where
blankets were thrown loosely over the shoul-
ders. Their faces were painted with charcoal,
worked up with grease; their bodies with
white clay in patterns of various fancies.
Some had feathers thrust through their noses,
and their heads decorated with the same. It
is unnecessary to dwell on the sensations with
which I beheld the approach of this uncouth,
if not frightful assemblage.
The chief entered first, and the rest followed
without noise. On receiving a sign from the
former, the latter seated themselves on the floor.
Minavavana 33 appeared to be about fifty
years of age. He was six feet in height, and
33 This chief, who figures so prominently in Henry's
story, has commonly been identified by historians as
42
had in his countenance an indescribable mix-
ture of good and evil. Looking steadfastly at
me where I sat in ceremony, with an interpreter
on either hand, and several Canadians behind
me, he entered at the same time into conver-
sation with Campion, inquiring how long it was
since I left Montreal, and observing that the
English, as it would seem, were brave men and
not afraid of death, since they dared to come
as I had done fearlessly among their enemies.
The Indians now gravely smoked their
pipes, while I inwardly endured the tortures of
suspense. At length the pipes being finished, as
well as the long pause by which they were
succeeded, Minavavana, taking a few strings
of wampum in his hand, began the following
speech:
"Englishman, it is to you that I speak, and
I demand your attention!
"Englishman, you know that the French king
is our father. He promised to be such; and we
in return promised to be his children. This
promise we have kept.
"Englishman, it is you that have made war
with this our father. You are his enemy; and
how then could you have the boldness to
venture among us, his children? You know
that his enemies are ours.
"Englishman, we are informed that our father,
the King of France, is old and infirm; and that
the Grand Sauteur, an encounter with whom in 1767
is described by Jonathan Carver. Editor.
43
being fatigued with making war upon your
nation, he is fallen asleep. During his sleep
you have taken advantage of him and possessed
yourselves of Canada. But his nap is almost at
an end. I think I hear him already stirring
and inquiring for his children, the Indians; and
when he does awake, what must become of you?
He will destroy you utterly!
"Englishman, although you have conquered
t}ie French, you have not yet conquered us!
We are not your slaves. These lakes, these
woods and mountains were left to us by our
ancestors. They are our inheritance; and we
will part with them to none. Your nation
supposes that we, like the white people, cannot
live without bread and pork and beef! But
you ought to know that He, the Great Spirit
and Master of Life, has provided food for us
in these spacious lakes and on these woody
mountains.
"Englishman, our father, the King of France,
employed our young men to make war upon
your nation. In this warfare many of them
have been killed, and it is our custom to retal-
iate until such time as the spirits of the slain
are satisfied. But the spirits of the slain are
to be satisfied in either of two ways; the first
is by the spilling of the blood of the nation by
which they fell; the other by covering the
bodies of the dead, and thus allaying the resent-
ment of their relations. This is done by making
presents.
44
anti
"Englishman, your king has never sent us any
presents, nor entered into any treaty with us,
wherefore he and we are still at war; and until
he does these things we must consider that
we have no other father, nor friend among the
white men than the King of France; but for
you we have taken into consideration that you
have ventured your life among us in the ex-
pectation that we should not molest you. You
do not come armed with an intention to make
war; you come in peace to trade with us and
supply us with necessaries of which we are in
much want. We shall regard you, therefore, as
a brother; and you may sleep tranquilly,
without fear of the Chipewa. As a token
of our friendship we present you with this pipe
to smoke. "
As Minavavana uttered these words an
Indian presented me with a pipe, which, after
I had drawn the smoke three times, was carried
to the chief, and after him to every person in
the room. This ceremony ended, the chief
arose and gave me his hand in which he was
followed by all the rest.
Being again seated, Minavavana requested
that his young men might be allowed to taste
what he called my English milk (meaning
rum) observing that it was long since they
had tasted any, and that they were very de-
sirous to know whether or not there were any
difference between the English milk and the
French.
45
&lejcanfcer
My adventure on leaving Fort William
Augustus had left an impression on my mind
which made me tremble when Indians asked
for rum; and I would therefore willingly have
excused myself in this particular; but being
informed that it was customary to comply
with the request, and withal satisfied with the
friendly declarations which I had received, I
promised to give them a small cask at parting.
After this, by the aid of my interpreter I
made a reply to the speech of Minavavana,
declaring that it was the good character which
I had heard of the Indians that had alone
emboldened me to come among them; that their
late father, the King of France, had surrendered
Canada to the King of England, whom they
ought now to regard as their father, and who
would be as careful of them as the other had
been; that I had come to furnish them with
necessaries, and that their good treatment of
me would be an encouragement to others.
They appeared satisfied with what I said,
repeating eh! (an expression of approbation)
after hearing each particular. I had prepared
a present which I now gave them with the ut-
most good will . At their departure I distributed
a small quantity of rum.
Relieved as I now imagined myself from all
occasion of anxiety as to the treatment which
I was to experience from the Indians, I as-
sorted my goods, and hired Canadian inter-
preters and clerks, in whose care I was to send
4 6
Cratoelg attfc
them into Lake Michigan and the River
St. Pierre, in the country of the Nadowessies; 34
into Lake Superior among the Chipewa, and
to the Grand Portage for the Northwest.
Everything was ready for their departure
when new dangers sprung up and threatened
to overwhelm me.
At the entrance of Lake Michigan and at
about twenty miles to the west of Fort Michi-
limackinac is the village of L'Arbre Croche,
inhabited by a band of Ottawa boasting of two
hundred and fifty fighting men. L'Arbre
Croche is the seat of the Jesuit mission of St.
Ignace de Michilimackinac, and the people are
partly baptized, and partly not. 35 The rnis-
sionary resides on a farm attached to the
mission and situated between the village and
the fort, both of which are under his care.
The Ottawa of L'Arbre Croche, who when
compared with the Chipewa appear to be a
much advanced in civilization, grow maize
for the market of Michilimackinac, where this
34 The "Nadowessies" are the Dakota or Sioux
Indians. The "St. Pierre" is the modern Minnesota
River, which empties into the Mississippi between St.
Paul and Minneapolis. Editor.
35 L'Arbre Croche, on the north shore of Little Tra-
verse Bay near modern Harbor Springs, was founded as
a mission village in 1742, and has ever since remained
a center for Catholic mission Indians. It is more nearly
south than west of old Mackinaw, and the distance by
water is about forty miles. Editor.
47
commodity is depended upon for provisioning
the canoes.
The new dangers which presented themselves
came from this village of Ottawa. Everything
as I have said was in readiness for the de-
parture of my goods when accounts arrived of
its approach; and shortly after, two hundred
warriors entered the fort and billeted them-
selves in the several houses among the Cana-
dian inhabitants. The next morning they
assembled in the house which was built for the
commandant, or governor, and ordered the
attendance of myself and of two other mer-
chants still later from Montreal, namely
Messrs. Stanley Goddard and Ezekiel Solo-
mons. 36
After our entering the council room and
taking our seats one of the chiefs commenced
an address:
"Englishmen," he said, "we, the Ottawas
were some time since informed of your arrival
36 These men were, with Henry, among the earliest
British traders to reach the upper country. James
Stanley Goddard accompanied Lieutenant Gorrell to
Green Bay, being driven from here by the uprising of
1763. Upon the restoration of British authority he re-
turned to the Northwest, where he was for many years
a prominent merchant. About the year 1 777 he became
government storekeeper at Montreal, and this position
he continued to hold as late as 1795. Ezekiel Solomon,
like Goddard, was driven out of the upper country in
1763 but later he returned, and in 1778 we find him
preparing a trading outfit to winter on the north shore
of Lake Superior. Editor.
48
atifc
in this country, and of your having brought
with you the goods of which we have need. At
this news we were greatly pleased, believing
that through your assistance our wives and
children would be enabled to pass another
winter; but what was our surprise, when a few
days ago we were again informed that the
goods which as we had expected were intended
for us were on the eve of departure for distant
countries, of which some are inhabited by our
enemies! These accounts being spread, our
wives and children came to us crying and
desiring that we should go to the fort to learn
with our own ears their truth or falsehood.
We accordingly embarked almost naked as
you see; and on our arrival here we have
inquired into the accounts and found them
true. We see your canoes ready to depart and
find your men engaged for the Mississippi
and other distant regions.
"Under these circumstances we have con-
sidered the affair; and you are now sent for
that you may hear our determination, which
is that you shall give to each of our men, young
and old, merchandise and ammunition to the
amount of fifty beaver skins on credit, and for
which I have no doubt of their paying you
in the summer, on their return from their
wintering. "
A compliance with this demand would have
stripped me and my fellow merchants of all our
merchandise; and what rendered the affair still
49
more serious, we even learned that these
Ottawa were accustomed never to pay for
what they received on credit. In reply, there-
fore, to the speech which we had heard, we
requested that the demand contained in it
might be diminished; but we were answered
that the Ottawa had nothing further to say
except that they would allow till the next day
for reflection; after which, if compliance was
not given, they would make no further appli-
cation, but take into their own hands the prop,
erty which they already regarded as their own-
as having been brought into their country be-
fore the conclusion of any peace between them-
selves and the English.
We now returned to consider of our situa-
tion; and in the evening Farley, the interpreter,
paid us a visit, and assured us that it was the
intention of the Ottawa to put us that night
to death. He advised us, as our only means of
safety, to comply with the demands which had
been made; but we suspected our informant of
a disposition to prey upon our fears with a view
to induce us to abandon the Indian trade, and
resolved however this might be, rather to
stand on the defensive than submit. We
trusted to the house in which I lived as a fort,
and armed ourselves and about thirty of our
men with muskets. Whether or not the Otta-
wa ever intended violence we never had an
opportunity of knowing; but the night passed
quietly.
5
ratoelg anfc
Early the next morning a second council was
held, and the merchants were again summoned
to attend. Believing that every hope of re-
sistance would be lost, should we commit our
persons into the hands of our enemies, we sent
only a refusal. There was none without in
whom we had any confidence, except Campion.
From him we learned from time to time what-
ever was rumored among the Canadian inhabi-
tants as to the designs of the Ottawa; and
from him toward sunset we received the gratify-
ing intelligence that a detachment of British
soldiery, sent to garrison Michilimackinac, was
distant only five miles and would enter the
fort early the next morning.
Near at hand, however, as relief was reported
to be, our anxiety could not but be great; for
a long night was to be passed, and our fate
might be decided before the morning. To
increase our apprehensions, about midnight we
were informed that the Ottawa were holding
a council, at which no white man was per-
mitted to be present, Farley alone excepted;
and him we suspected, and afterward positively
knew, to be our greatest enemy. We, on our
part, remained all night upon the alert; but
at daybreak to our surprise and joy we saw the
Ottawa preparing to depart. By sunrise not
a man of them was left in the fort; and indeed
the scene was altogether changed. The inhabi-
tants, who, while the Ottawa were present,
had avoided all connection with the English
51
traders, now came with congratulations. They
related that the Ottawa had proposed to
them that if joined by the Canadians they
would march and attack the troops which were
known to be advancing on the fort; and they
added that it was their refusal which had
determined the Ottawa to depart.
At noon three hundred troops of the Sixtieth
Regiment, under the command of Lieutenant
Lesslie, marched into the fort; and this arrival
dissipated all our fears from whatever source
derived. 37 After a few days detachments were
sent into the Bay des Puants 38 by which is the
route to the Mississippi and at the mouth of
37 The last French commander of Mackinac Beau-
jeau de Villemonde, brother of him who fell gloriously
while leading his men against Braddock's doomed army
in 1755 - abandoned the post in the autumn of 1760,
and retired by way of Wisconsin to the Illinois country.
Not until September 28, 1761, did a British detachment
arrive to -take possession of Mackinac. The leader of
the English force was Captain Henry Balfour of the
Eightieth Regiment, better known, perhaps, as Gage's
Light Infantry. With Balfour, however, was Lieu-
tenant William Leslie of the Sixtieth Regiment the
Royal Americans who was left at Mackinac with a
garrison of twenty-eight men, while Balfour with the
remainder of his force went on to take possession of the
remaining French posts in the Upper Country. The
following year Leslie asked to be "relieved from this
disagreeable station," but instead the post was rein-
forced by Captain George Etherington, Leslie remain-
ing as second in command. Editor.
38 Modern Green Bay: the post was on the site of the
modern city of that name. Editor.
52
Cratoelg anti &&toetttitre
the St. Joseph 39 which leads to the Illinois.
The Indians from all quarters came to pay
their respects to the commandant; and the
merchants dispatched their canoes, though
it was now the middle of September, and
therefore somewhat late in the season.
39 Fort St. Joseph stood in the outskirts of modern
Niles, Michigan, some thirty miles inland from the
mouth of the river. The old fort site is now covered by
water, due to the building in recent years of a dam
across the river at Niles for purposes of power develop-
ment. Editor.
53
5
THE WINTER AT MACKINAC
THE village of L'Arbre Croche supplies, as
I have said, the maize, or Indian corn,
with which the canoes are victualled. This
species of grain is prepared for use by boiling
it in a strong lye, after which the husk may be
easily removed; and it is next mashed and
dried. In this state it is soft and friable like
rice. The allowance for each man on the
voyage is a quart a day; and a bushel with two
pounds of prepared fat is reckoned to be a
month's subsistence. No other allowance is
made of any kind, not even of salt; and bread
is never thought of. The men, nevertheless,
are healthy and capable of performing their
heavy labor. This mode of victualling is
essential to the trade, which being pursued at
great distances, and in vessels so small as
canoes, will not admit of the use of other food.
If the men were to be supplied with bread
and pork the canoes could not carry a suffi-
ciency for six months; and the ordinary
duration of the voyage is not less than four-
teen. The difficulty which would belong to an
attempt to reconcile any other men than Cana-
dians to this fare seems to secure to them and
their employers the monopoly of the fur trade.
54
anfc
The sociable disposition of the commandant
enabled us to pass the winter at Michili-
mackinac in a manner as agreeable as cir-
cumstances would permit. The amusements
consisted chiefly in shooting, hunting, and
fishing. The neighboring woods abounded in
partridges 40 and hares, the latter of which
is white in winter; and the lake is filled with
fish, of which the most celebrated are trout,
whitefish, and sturgeon.
Trout are taken by making holes in the ice
in which are set lines and baits. These are
often left for many days together, and in some
places at the depth of fifty fathoms; for the
trout having swallowed the bait, remains fast
and alive till taken up. This fish, which is
found of the weight of from ten to sixty pounds
and upward, constitutes the principal food
of the inhabitants. When this fails they have
recourse to maize, but this is very expensive.
I bought more than a hundred bushels at forty
livres per bushel. Money is rarely received
or paid at Michilimackinac, the circulating
medium consisting in furs and peltries. In
this exchange a pound of beaver skin is
reckoned at sixty sols, an otter skin at six
livres, and marten skins at thirty sols each. 41
40 In North America there is no partridge; but the
name is given to more than one species of grouse. The
birds here intended are red grouse. Author.
41 After the English conquest of Canada the value of
the livre was fixed at one shilling Canadian currency.
55
This is only one-half of the real value of the
furs; and it is therefore always agreed to pay
either in furs at their actual price at the fort,
or in cash to double the amount, as reckoned
in furs.
At the same time that I paid the price which
I have mentioned for maize I paid at the rate
of a dollar per pound for the tallow, or pre-
pared fat to mix with it. The meat itself was
at the same price. The Jesuit missionary
killed an ox which he sold by the quarter,
taking the weight of the meat in beaver skin.
Beaver skin as just intimated, was worth a
dollar per pound.
These high prices of grain and beef led me
to be very industrious in fishing. I usually set
twenty lines and visited them daily, and
often found at every visit fish enough to feed
a hundred men. Whitefish, which exceed
the trout as a delicious and nutritive food, are
here in astonishing numbers. In shape they
somewhat resemble the shad, but their flavor
is perhaps above all comparison whatever.
Those who live on them for months together
preserve their relish to the end. This cannot
be said of the trout.
The whitefish is taken in nets which are set
under the ice. To do this several holes are
made in the ice, each at such distance from
that behind it as that it may be reached under
Twenty-five sols were equal to one shilling one penny
sterling. Editor.
S6
anti
the ice by the end of a pole. A line of sixty
fathoms in length is thus conveyed from hole
to hole till it is extended to the length desired.
This done, the pole is taken out, and with it
one end of the line, to which the end is then
fastened. The line being now drawn back by
an assistant who holds the opposite extremity,
the net is brought under and a large stone is
made fast to the sinking line at each end and
let down to the bottom; and the net is spread
in the water by lighters on its upper edge,
sinkers on its lower, in the usual manner. The
fish, running against the net, entangle their
gills in the meshes and are thus detained till
taken up. Whitefish is used as a bait for trout.
They are much smaller than the trout, but
usually weigh, at Michilimackinac, from three
to seven pounds.
During the whole winter very few Indians
visited the fort; but two families, one of which
was that of a chief, had their lodges on a river
five leagues below us, and occasionally brought
beaver flesh for sale.
The chief was warmly attached to the Eng-
lish. He had been taken prisoner by Sir
William Johnson at the siege of Fort Niagara,
and had received from that intelligent officer
his liberty, the medal usually presented to a
chief, and the British flag. Won by these
unexpected acts of kindness, he had returned to
Michilimackinac full of praises of the English,
and hoisting his flag over his lodge. This
57
latter demonstration of his partiality had
nearly cost him his life; his lodge was broken
down and his flag torn to pieces. The pieces
he carefully gathered up and preserved with
pious care; and whenever he came to the fort
he drew them forth and exhibited them. On
these occasions it grew into a custom to give
him as much liquor as he said was necessary
to make him cry over the misfortune of losing
his flag. The commandant would have given
hmi another, but he thought that he could not
accept it without danger.
The greatest depth of snow throughout the
season was three feet. On the second day of
April 'the ice on the lake broke up and the
navigation was resumed; and we immediately
began to receive from the Indians around us
large supplies of wild fowl.
A VISIT TO SAULT STE. MARIE
BEING desirous of visiting the Sault de
Ste. Marie I left Michilimackinac on the
fifteenth of May in a canoe. The Sault
de Ste. Marie is distant from Michilimack-
inac thirty leagues and lies in the strait which
separates Lake Huron from Lake Superior.
Having passed Le Detour, a point of land at
the entrance of the strait, our course lay among
numerous islands, some of which are twenty
miles in length. We ascended the rapid of
Miscoutinsaki, a spot well adapted for mill
seats, and above which is the mouth of the
river of the same name. The lands on the south
shore of this river are excellent. The lake is
bordered by meadows, and at a short distance
back are groves of sugar maple. From this
river to the Sault de Ste. Marie is one con-
tinued meadow.
On the nineteenth I reached the Sault. Here
was a stockaded fort in which under the French
government there was kept a small garrison,
commanded by an officer who was called the
governor, but was in fact a clerk who managed
the Indian trade here on government account.
The houses were four in number, of which
the first was the governor's, the second the
59
glleranttrr
interpreter's, and the other two, which were
the smallest, had been used for barracks. The
only family was that of M. Cadotte, the inter-
preter, 42 whose wife was a Chipewa.
The fort is seated on a beautiful plain of
about two miles in circumference, and covered
with luxuriant grass; and within sight are
the rapids in the strait, distant half a mile.
The width of the strait, or river, is about
half a mile. The portage, or carrying-place,
commences at the fort. The banks are rocky,
and allow only a narrow footpath over them.
Canoes, half loaded, ascend on the south side
and the other half of the load is carried on
men's shoulders.
These rapids are beset with rocks of the most
dangerous description; and yet they are the
scene of a fishery in which all their dangers are
braved and mastered with singular expertness.
They are full of whitefish much larger and more
excellent than those of Michilimackinac, and
42 This was Jean Baptiste Cadotte, Sr., who came into
the Northwest toward the middle of the eighteenth
century. In accordance with the custom of his time he
lived with a Chippewa woman, and in 1756 the couple
were legally married by the Jesuit father at Mackinac.
Cadotte made Sault Ste. Marie his headquarters, and
from here pursued the Indian trade in the Lake Su-
perior region until in 1796, induced by the advance of
old age, he made over his property to his two sons, Jean
Baptiste and Michel. Both of these men married Chip-
pewa women, and both became prominent in the trad-
ing annals of the Northwest. The elder Cadotte died
in 1803. Editor.
60
Cratoelg anb
which are found here during the greater part
of" the season, weighing in general from six
pounds to fifteen.
The method of taking them is this: each
canoe carries two men, one of whom steers
with a paddle, and the other is provided with a
pole ten feet in length, and at the end of which
is affixed a scoop-net. The steersman sets the
canoe from the eddy of one rock to that of
another; while the fisherman in the prow, who
sees through the pellucid element the prey
of which he is in pursuit, dips his net and
sometimes brings up at every succeeding dip
as many as it can contain. The fish are often
crowded together in the water in great numbers,
and a skilful fisherman in autumn will take
five hundred in two hours.
This fishery is of great moment to the sur-
rounding Indians, whom it supplies with a
large proportion of their winter's provision;
for having taken the fish in the manner de-
scribed, they cure them by drying in the smoke,
and lay them up in large quantities.
There is at present a village of Chipewa of
fifty warriors seated at this place; but the in-
habitants reside here during the summer only,
going westward in the winter to hunt. The
village was anciently much more populous.
At the south are also seen a few of the wan-
dering O'pimittish Ininiwac, literally Men of
the Woods, otherwise called Wood Indians and
Gens de Terres a peaceable and inoffensive
61
race, but less conversant with some of the arts
of first necessity than any of their neighbors.
They have no villages, and their lodges are
so rudely fashioned as to afford them but
very inadequate protection against inclement
skies. The greater part of their year is spent
in traveling from place to place in search of
food. The animal on which they chiefly depend
is the hare. This they take in springes. Of
the skin they make coverings with much ingen-
uity, cutting it into narrow strips, and weaving
these into a cloth of the shape of a blanket, and
of a quality very warm and agreeable.
The pleasant situation of the fort, and still
more the desire of learning the Chipewa
language, led me to resolve on wintering in it.
In the family of M. Cadotte no other language
than the Chipewa was spoken.
During the summer the weather was some-
times exceedingly hot. Mosquitoes and black
flies were so numerous as to be a heavy counter-
poise to the pleasure of hunting. Pigeons were
in great plenty; the stream supplied our drink;
and sickness was unknown.
In the course of the season a small detach-
ment of troops under the command of Lieu-
tenant Jemette tt arrived to garrison the fort.
43 This was Ensign John Jamet of the Sixtieth Reg-
iment, who came to Mackinac with Captain Ethering-
ton in the autumn of 1760. He was the first victim of
the massacre when Mackinac was taken by the Chip-
pewa in June, 1763. Editor.
62
DESTRUCTION OF THE FORT AND RETURN TO
MACKINAC
IN the beginning of October the fish as is
usual was in great abundance at the Sault;
and by the fifteenth day of the month I had
myself taken upward of five hundred. These
I caused to be dried in the customary manner
by suspending them in pairs, head downward,
on long poles laid horizontally for that pur-
pose and supported by two stakes driven
into the ground at either end. The fish
are frozen the first night after they are
taken; and by the aid of the severe cold of
the winter they are thus preserved in a state
perfectly fit for use even till the month of
April.
Others were not less successful than myself;
and several canoe-loads of fish were exported
to Michilimackinac, our commanding officer
being unable to believe that his troops would
have need to live on fish during the winter;
when, as he flattered himself, a regular supply
of venison and other food would reach the
garrison through the means of the Indians,
whose services he proposed to purchase out of
the large funds of liquor which were subject
to his orders.
63
But all these calculations were defeated by
the arrival of a very serious misfortune. At
one o'clock in the morning of the twenty-
second day of December ** I was awakened by
an alarm of fire, which was actually raging
in the houses of the commandant and others.
On arriving at the commandant 's I found that
this officer was still within side; and being
acquainted with the window of the room in
which he slept I procured it to be broken in in
time for his escape. I was also so fortunate as
to save a small quantity of gunpowder only a
few moments before the fire reached all the
remainder. A part of the stockade, all the
houses, M. Cadotte's alone excepted, all the
provisions of the troops, and a considerable
part of our fish were burnt.
On consultation the next day it was agreed
that the only means which remained at this
late period of the season to preserve the garri-
son from famine was that of sending it back to
Michilimackinac. This was itself an under-
taking of some peril; for, had the ice prevented
their reaching the place of destination, starving
would have become as inevitable elsewhere
as it threatened to be at the Sault de Ste.
Marie. The soldiers embarked and happily
reached Michilimackinac on the thirty-first
day of the month. On the very next morning
the navigation was wholly closed.
"The fort was destroyed December 10, 1762.
Editor.
64
anfc
The commandant and all the rest now lived
in one small house, subsisting only by hunting
and fishing. The woods afforded us some
hares and partridges, and we took large trout
with the spear. In order to spear trout under
the ice, holes being first cut of two yards in
circumference, cabins of about two feet in
height are built over them of small branches of
trees; and these are further covered with skins
so as wholly to exclude the light. The design
and result of this contrivance is to render it
practicable to discern objects in the water at a
very considerable depth; for the reflection of
light from the water gives that element an
opaque appearance and hides all objects from
the eye at a small distance beneath its surface.
A spear head of iron is fastened on a pole of
about ten feet in length. This instrument is
lowered into the water; and the fisherman, lying
upon his belly, with his head under the cabin
or cover, and therefore over the hole, lets down
the figure of a fish in wood and filled with lead.
Round the middle of the fish is tied a small
packthread; and when at the depth of ten
fathoms where it is intended to be employed, it
is made, by drawing the string and by the
simultaneous pressure of the water, to move
forward after the manner of a real fish. Trout
and other large fish, deceived by its resem-
blance, spring toward it to seize it; but by a dex-
terous jerk of the string it is instantly taken
out of their reach. The decoy is now drawn
6s
&iejcantier
nearer to the surface, and the fish takes some
time to renew the attack, during which the
spear is raised and held conveniently for strik-
ing. On the return of* the fish the spear is
plunged into its back; and, the spear being
,barbed, it is easily drawn out of the water.
So completely do the rays of the light pervade
the element that in three fathoms of water I have
often seen the shadows of the fish on the bot-
tom, following them as they moved; and this
when the ice itself was two feet in thickness.
By these pursuits and others of a similar
kind we supported ourselves for two months,
that is until the twentieth of February, when
we imagined the lake to be frozen and Michi-
limackinac therefore accessible; and the com-
mandant wishing to go to that fort, M. Ca-
dotte, myself, two Canadians, and two Indians,
agreed to accompany him. The Canadians
and Indians were loaded with some parched
maize, some fish, a few pieces of scorched pork,
which had been saved from the fire, and a
few loaves of bread made of flour which was
also partly burnt.
We walked on snowshoes, a mode of travel-
ing sufficiently fatiguing to myself, but of
which the commandant had had no previous
experience whatever. In consequence our
progress was slow, wearisome, and disastrous.
On the seventh day of our march we had only
reached Point du Detour which lies half way
between the Sault and Michilimackinac; and
66
Cratoelg anb 2tiitocnturc
here to our mortification and dismay we found
the lake still open and the ice drifting. Our
provisions, too, on examination, were found to
be nearly expended; and nothing remained for
us to do but to send back the Canadians and
Indians, whose motions would be swift, for an
additional supply.
In their absence the commandant, M. Ca-
dotte, and myself, three persons in number,
were left with about two pounds of pork and
three of bread for our subsistence during the
three days and perhaps four, which they would
require for a journey of ninety miles. Being
appointed to act the part of commissary, I
divided the provisions into four parts, one for
each day; and to our great happiness at ten
o'clock on the fourth day our faithful servants
returned. Early in the morning of the fifth we
left our encampment and proceeded. The
weather this day was exceedingly cold.
We had only advanced two leagues when the
commandant found it almost wholly impos-
sible to go further, his feet being blistered by
the cords of the snowshoes. On this account
we made short marches for three days; and
this loss of time threatened us anew with
famine. We were now too far from the Sault to
send back for a supply; and it was therefore
determined that myself, accompanied by *one
of the Canadians, should go as speedily as
possible to Michilimackinac, and there inform
the commanding officer of the situation of
67
Jjjettrp
those behind. Accordingly the next morning
at break of day I left my fellow sufferers, and at
three o'clock in the afternoon had the pleasure
of entering the fort, whence a party was sent
the next morning with provisions. This -party
returned on the third day, bringing with it
Lieutenant Jemette and the rest, in safety.
Major Etherington, of the Sixtieth Regiment,
who had arrived in the preceding autumn, now
commanded at the fort.
I remained at Michilimackinac until the
tenth of March, on which day I set out on my
return to the Sault, taking the route of the
Bay of Boutchitaouy 45 which the ice had now
rendered practicable. From the bottom of the
bay the course lies in a direct line through the
woods, a journey I performed in two days,
though I was now troubled with a disorder,
called the snowshoe evil, proceeding from an
unusual strain on the tendons of the leg,
occasioned by the weight of the snowshoe and
which brings on inflammation. The remedy pre-
scribed in the country is that of laying a piece
of lighted touchwood on the part and leaving it
there till the flesh is burnt to the nerve; but
this experiment, though I had frequently seen
it attended with success in others, I did not
think proper to make upon myself.
45 Modern St. Martin Bay, which indents the Upper
Peninsula of Michigan due north of Mackinac Island.
Editor.
68
anfc
The lands between the Bay of Boutchitaouy
and the Sault are generally swampy, excepting
so much of them as compose a ridge, or
mountain, running east and west, and which
is rocky and covered with the rock or sugar
maple, or sugar wood. 46 The season for making
maple sugar was now at hand; and shortly
after my arrival at the Sault I removed with
the other inhabitants to the place at which we
were to perform the manufacture.
A certain part of the maple woods having
been chosen, and which was distant about
three miles from the fort, a house twenty feet
long and fourteen broad was begun in the
morning, and before night made fit for the
comfortable reception of eight persons and
their baggage. It was open at top, had a door
at each end, and a fireplace in the middle run-
ning the whole length.
The next day was employed in gathering
the bark of white birch trees with which to
make vessels to catch the wine or sap. The
trees were now cut or tapped, and spouts or
ducts introduced into the wound. The bark
vessels were placed under the ducts; and as
they filled, the liquor was taken out in buckets
and conveyed into reservoirs or vats of moose
skin, each vat containing a hundred gallons.
From these we supplied the boilers, of which
we had twelve of from twelve to twenty gal-
lons each, with fires constantly under them
46 Acer saccharinum. Author.
day and night. While the women collected
the sap, boiled it, and completed the sugar, the
men were not less busy in cutting wood, mak-
ing fires, and in hunting and fishing in part of
our supply of food.
The earlier part of the spring is that best
adapted to making maple sugar. The sap
runs only in the day; and it will not run unless
there has been a frost the night before. When
in the morning there is a clear sun and the night
has left ice of the thickness of a dollar the
greatest quantity is produced.
On the twenty-fifth of April our labor ended,
and we returned to the fort, carrying with
us as we found by the scales, sixteen hundred-
weight of sugar. We had besides thirty-six
gallons of syrup; and during our stay in the
woods we certainly consumed three hundred-
weight. Though, as I have said, we hunted
and fished, yet sugar was our principal food
during the whole month of April. I have
known Indians to live wholly upon the same
and become fat.
On the day of our return to the fort there
arrived an English gentleman, Sir Robert
D overs, 47 on a voyage of curiosity. I accom-
panied this gentleman on his return to Michi-
limackinac, which we reached on the twen-
tieth of May. My intention was to remain
47 Sir Robert Davers of Suffolk, England, came to
America, apparently in the spring of 1761 on a tour of
observation. He was at Detroit in the spring of 1762,
70
ant*
there till after my clerks should have come in
from the interior, and then to go back to the
Sault de Ste. Marie.
In the beginning of May the geese and
ducks made their appearance, in their progress
northward.
whence he left for a tour of the' Upper Lakes. He was
again at Detroit during the winter of 1762-63, and in
May of the latter year was slain, the first victim of
Pontiac's uprising. His body was eaten by the Indians.
It is apparent that Henry is in error as to the date
here given. Editor.
Chapter 8
THE GATHERING STORM
T "T THEN I reached Michilimackinac I
y y found several other traders who had
arrived before me from different parts of
the country, and who in general declared the
dispositions of the Indians to be hostile to the
English, and even apprehended some attack.
M. Laurent Ducharme 48 distinctly informed
Major Etherington that a plan was absolutely
conceived for destroying him, his garrison and
all the English in the upper country; but the
commandant, believing this and other reports
to be without foundation, proceeding only
from idle or ill-disposed persons, and of
a tendency to do mischief, expressed much
displeasure against M. Ducharme, and threat-
ened to send the next person who should
bring a story of the same kind a prisoner to
Detroit.
The garrison at this time consisted of ninety
privates, two subalterns and the commandant;
and the English merchants at the fort were
48 Laurent Ducharme was a resident of Mackinac at
least as early as 1758. At the time of the American
Revolution he seems to have been stationed at Mil-
waukee. A cousin, Jean Marie Ducharme, was a prom-
inent fur trader in the Northwest in this period.
Editor.
72
Crafcelg and &Dtornturc$
four in number. 49 Thus strong, few entertained
anxiety concerning the Indians, who had no
weapons but small arms.
Meanwhile the Indians from every quarter
were daily assembling in unusual numbers,
but with every appearance of friendship,
frequenting the fort, and disposing of their
peltries in such a manner as to dissipate
almost every one's fears. For myself, on one
occasion I took the liberty of observing to
Major Etherington that in my judgment no
confidence ought to be placed in them, and
that I was informed no less than four hundred
lay around the fort.
In return the Major only rallied me on my
timidity; and it is to be confessed that if this
officer neglected admonition on his part, so did
I on mine. Shortly after my first arrival at
Michilimackinac in the preceding year a
Chipewa named Wawatam began to come
often to my house, betraying in his demeanor
strong marks of personal regard. After this
had continued for some time he came on a
certain day, bringing with him his whole
49 Here, as often, Henry's figures are erroneous. In-
stead of ninety, the garrison numbered thirty-five.
Francis Parkman suggests that Henry meant to include
"all the inhabitants of the fort, both soldiers and
Canadians" in his enumeration; but his language
plainly does not admit this interpretation. The four
merchants were Solomon, Bostwick, Henry, and one
Tracy. Of the latter, who was killed in the massacre,
I have learned no more than Henry himself sets forth.
Editor.
73
family, and at the same time a large present,
consisting of skins, sugar, and dried meat.
Having laid these in a heap he commenced a
speech in which he informed me that some
years before he had observed a fast, devoting
himself according to the custom of his nation
to solitude and to the mortification of his body
in the hope to obtain from the Great Spirit
protection through all his days; that on this
occasion he had dreamed of adopting an
Englishman as his son, brother, and friend;
that from the moment in which he first beheld
me, he had recognized me as the person whom
the Great Spirit had been pleased to point out
to him for a brother; that he hoped that
I would not refuse his present, and that he
should forever regard me as one of his family.
I could do no otherwise than accept the
present and declare my willingness to have so
good a man as this appeared to be for my
friend and brother. I offered a present in
return for that which I had received, which
Wawatam accepted, and then thanking me for
the favor which he said that I had rendered
him, he left me and soon after set out on his
winter's hunt.
Twelve months had now elapsed since the
occurrence of this incident, and I had almost
forgotten the person of my brother, when on
the second day of June, Wawatam came again
to my house in a temper of mind visibly
melancholy and thoughtful. He told me that
74
anti
he had just returned from his wintering
ground, and I asked after his health; but
without answering my question he went on to
say that he was very sorry to find me returned
from the Sault ; that he had intended to go to
that place himself immediately after his
arrival at Michilimackinac; and that he wished
me to go there, along with him and his family,
the next morning. To all this he joined an
inquiry whether or not the commandant had
heard bad news, adding that during the winter
he had himself been frequently disturbed with
the noise of evil birds; and further suggesting
that there were numerous Indians near the
fort, many of whom had never shown themselves
within it. Wawatam was about forty-five
years of age, of an excellent character among
his nation, and a chief.
Referring much of what I heard to the
peculiarities of the Indian character, I did not
pay all the attention which they will be found
to have deserved to the entreaties and remarks /
of my visitor. I answered that I could not
think of going to the Sault so soon as the next
morning, but would follow him there after the
arrival of my clerks. Finding himself unable
to prevail with me he withdrew for that day;
but early the next morning he came again,
bringing with him his wife and a present of
dried meat. At this interview, after stating
that he had several packs of beaver for which
he intended to deal with me, he expressed
75
a second time his apprehensions from the
numerous Indians who were round the fort,
and earnestly pressed me to consent to an im-
mediate departure for the Sault. As a reason
for this particular request he assured me that
all the Indians proposed to come in a body
that day to the fort to demand liquor of the
commandant, and that he wished me to be
gone before they should grow intoxicated.
I had made, at the period to which I am now
referring, so much progress in the language in
which Wawatam addressed me as to be able
to hold an ordinary conversation in it; but the
Indian manner of speech is so extravagantly
figurative that it is only for a very perfect
master to follow and comprehend it entirely.
Had I been further advanced in this respect
I think that I should have gathered so much
information from this my friendly monitor as
would have put me into possession of the de-
sign of the enemy, and enabled me to save as
well others as myself; as it was, it unfortunately
happened that I turned a deaf ear to every-
thing, leaving Wawatam and his wife, after
long and patient, but ineffectual efforts, to
depart alone with dejected countenances, and
not before they had each let fall some tears.
In the course of the same day I observed
that the Indians came in great numbers into
the fort, purchasing tomahawks (small axes of
one pound weight) and frequently desiring to
see silver arm bands and other valuable orna-
76
anti
ments, of which I had a large quantity for
sale. These ornaments, however, they in no
instance purchased; but after turning them
over, left them, saying that they would call
again the next day. Their motive, as it after-
ward appeared, was no other than the very
artful one of discovering, by requesting to see
them, the particular places of their deposit
so that they might lay their hands on them in
the moment of pillage with the greater cer-
tainty and dispatch.
At night I turned in my mind the visits
of Wawatam; but though they were calculated
to excite uneasiness nothing induced me to be-
lieve that serious mischief was at hand. The
next day being the fourth of June was the
King's birthday. 50
60 Contemporary documents show that the massacre
occurred on June 2 instead of June 4. See letters of
Captain Etherington in Wis. Hist. Colls., VII, 162-63,
and XVIII, 253-54. Editor.
77
A BALL GAME AND A MASSACRE
THE morning was sultry. A Chipewa
came to tell me that his nation was going
to play at baggatiway with the Sacs or
Saakies, another Indian nation, for a high wager.
He invited me to witness the sport, adding that
the commandant was to be there, and would
bet on the side of the Chipewa. In conse-
quence of this information I went to the com-
mandant and expostulated with him a little,
representing that the Indians might possibly
have some sinister end in view; but the com-
mandant only smiled at my suspicions.
Baggatiway, called by the Canadians le jeu
de la crosse, is played with a bat and ball. The
bat is about four feet in length, curved, and
terminating in a sort of racket. Two posts are
planted in the ground at a considerable distance
from each other, as a mile or more. Each party
has its post, and the game consists in throwing
the ball up to the post of the adversary. The
ball, at the beginning, is placed in the middle
of the course and each party endeavors as
well to throw the ball out of the direction of
its own post as into that of the adversary's.
I did not go myself to see the match which
was now to be played without the fort, because
78
anfc
there being a canoe prepared to depart on the
following day for Montreal I employed myself
in writing letters to my friends; and even when
a fellow trader, Mr. Tracy, happened to call
upon me, saying that anotner canoe had just
arrived from Detroit, and proposing that I
should go with him to the beach to inquire the
news, it so happened that I still remained to
finish my letters, promising to follow Mr. Tracy
in the course of a few minutes. Mr. Tracy
had not gone more than twenty paces from my
door when I heard an Indian war cry and a
noise of general confusion.
Going instantly to my window I saw a crowd
of Indians within the fort furiously cutting
down and scalping every Englishman they
found. In particular I witnessed the fate of
Lieutenant Jemette.
I had in the room in which I was a fowling
piece, loaded with swan-shot. This I imme-
diately seized and held it for a few minutes,
waiting to hear the drum beat to arms. In this
dreadful interval I saw several of my country-
men fall, and more than one struggling be-
tween the knees of an Indian, who, holding
him in -this manner, scalped him while yet
living.
At length, disappointed in the hope of seeing
resistance made to the enemy, and sensible, of
course, that no effort of my own unassisted
arm could avail against four hundred Indians,
I thought only of seeking shelter. Amid the
79
SUejeanfcer
slaughter which was raging I observed many
of the Canadian inhabitants of the fort calmly
looking on, neither opposing the Indians, nor
suffering injury; and from this circumstance I
conceived a hope of finding security in their
houses.
Between the yard door of my own house and
that of M. Langlade, my next neighbor, 51
51 This was Charles Langlade, one of the most re-
markable men in the history of the Northwest. Born
at Mackinac in 1729 of a French father and a native
mother, he was bred to war from childhood, and is said
to have participated in ninety-nine battles and skir-
mishes. In 1752 Langlade led a band of northwestern
Indians in the descent upon the English at Pickawillany
and there struck what was virtually the first blow in
the Seven Years' War. Three years later he led his
northern tribesmen to the overthrow of General Brad-
dock's army, and there is strong reason for thinking
that it was Langlade who planned this affair. At the
siege of Quebec in 1759, his quick eye caught the Eng-
lish army in a position where an attack would have
proved fatal to it, and he begged his French superiors
for the men necessary to make it. But Langlade was a
militiaman and a halfbreed, and the regular officers
gave no heed to his appeal; the opportunity passed
unutilized; Wolfe took the city, and New France be-
came a memory. When Montreal surrendered to Gen-
eral Amherst in September; 1760, Beaujeau, at Mack-
inac, departed for the Illinois in advance of the coming
of the English troops, leaving Langlade in charge, with
such authority as he might be able to wield, and he it
was who turned the place over to Captain Balfour a
year later. He seems loyally to have accepted the con-
sequences of French defeat, and for the remainder of
his active career was a partisan of Great Britain. After
the massacre of 1763, Captain Etherington authorized
80
anti
there was only a low fence, over which I easily
climbed. At my entrance I found the whole
family at the windows, gazing at the scene of
blood before them. I addressed myself im-
mediately to M. Langlade, begging that he
would put me into some place of safety until
the heat of the affair should be over; an act
of charity by which he might perhaps pre-
serve me from the general massacre; but while
I uttered my petition M. Langlade, who had
looked for a moment at me, turned again to
the window, shrugging his shoulders and in-
timating that he could do nothing for me:
"Que voudriez-vous que j'en ferais?"
This was a moment for despair; but the next
a Pani woman, 52 a slave of M. Langlade's,
beckoned me to follow her. She brought me
to a door which she opened, desiring me to
enter, and telling me that it led to the garret,
Langlade to assume charge of affairs at Mackinac.
Soon after the Pontiac War he moved to Green Bay,
where he lived until his death in the year 1800. In the
Revolution he was a staunch upholder of British in-
terests, leading his red followers repeatedly against the
Americans. Editor.
62 The Panics are an Indian nation of the south.
Author.
This is quite true, but the term pani as here used
meant simply an Indian slave, without regard to his
tribal origin. It is a curious fact that as in Europe the
word slave, originally a national name, was degraded to
its present significance of bondman, so among the red
men of North America the name of an Indian tribe
came to have a like significance. Editor.
81
where I must go and conceal myself. I joy-
fully obeyed her directions; and she, having
followed me up to the garret door, locked it
after me and with great presence of mind
took away the key.
This shelter obtained, if shelter I could hope
to find it, I was naturally anxious to know
what might still be passing without. Through
an aperture which afforded me a view of the
area of the fort I beheld, in shapes the foulest
and most terrible, the ferocious triumphs of
barbarian conquerors. The dead were scalped
and mangled; the dying were writhing and
shrieking under the unsatiated knife and
tomahawk; and from the bodies of some, ripped
open, their butchers were drinking the blood,
scooped up in the hollow of joined hands and
quaffed amid shouts of rage and victory. I was
shaken not only with horror, but with fear.
The sufferings which I witnessed I seemed
on the point of experiencing. No long time
elapsed before every one being destroyed who
could be found, there was a general cry of
" All is finished! " At the same instant I heard
some of the Indians enter the house in which
I was.
The garret was separated from the room
below only by a layer of single boards, at once
the flooring of the one and the ceiling of the
other. I could therefore hear everything that
passed; and the Indians no sooner came in than
they inquired whether or not any Englishman
82
anfc
were in the house. M. Langlade replied that
he could not say he did not know of any
answers in which he did not exceed the truth,
for the Pani woman had not only hidden me
by stealth, but kept my secret and her own.
M. Langlade was therefore, as I presume, as far
from a wish to destroy me as he was careless
about saving me, when he added to these
answers that they might examine for them-
selves, and would soon be satisfied as to the
object of their question. Saying this, he
brought them to the garret door. 53
63 It seems apparent that Henry was in no position
to estimate properly the motives which actuated the
conduct of Langlade. He possessed great influence over
these tribesmen, whom he had often led to war against
the English; although he had made his peace with the
latter, his red followers had not done so, as Henry's
own account sufficiently shows. Even today in civilized
America a frenzied mob intent on shedding blood will
frequently ignore the appeals for peace and mercy made
to it by a sheriff or other constituted authority. In
Indian warfare mercy to the conquered was a thing un-
thought of. Thus Samuel Hearne, pleading with his
Indian friends to spare the life of an Eskimo girl, was
answered with ridicule and contempt. John Kinzie
possessed influence enough with the Indians to pass un-
scathed, with all his family, through the Fort Dearborn
massacre, but he had no influence to save the women
and children, his neighbors, who were slaughtered in
his presence. Captain Etherington testifies that Lang-
lade was "very instrumental" in saving his own life
and those of the soldiers after the massacre. It seems
reasonable to conclude that he recognized the futility
of any resistance to the Indians, as Henry himself had
done a few minutes before; and that under the cir-
83
The state of my mind will be imagined.
Arrived at the door some delay was occasioned
by the absence of the key and a few moments
were thus allowed me in which to look around
for a hiding place. In one corner of the garret
was a heap of those vessels of birch bark used
in maple sugar making as I have recently
described.
The door was unlocked, and opening, and
the Indians ascending the stairs, before I had
completely crept into a small opening, which
presented itself at one end of the heap. An
instant after four Indians entered the room,
all armed with tomahawks, and all besmeared
with blood upon every part of their bodies.
The die appeared to be cast. I could scarcely
breathe; but I thought that the throbbing of
my heart occasioned a noise loud enough to
betray me. The Indians walked in every
direction about the garret, and one of them ap-
proached me so closely that at a particular
moment, had he put forth his hand, he must
have touched me. Still I remained undiscov-
ered, a circumstance to which the dark color
of my clothes and the want of light in a room
which had no window, and in the corner in
which I was, must have contributed. In a word,
after taking several turns in the room, during
which they told M. Langlade how many they
had killed and how many scalps they had
cumstances the course he adopted was the wisest one
open to him. Editor.
84
and &&toentureg
taken, they returned down stairs, and I with
sensations not to be expressed, heard the door,
which was the barrier between me and my
fate, locked for the second time.
There was a feather bed on the floor, and
on this, exhausted as I was by the agitation of
my mind, I threw myself down and fell asleep.
In this state I remained till the dusk of the
evening, when I was awakened by a second
opening of the door. The person that now
entered was M. Langlade's wife, who was much
surprised at finding me, but advised me not to
be uneasy, observing that the Indians had
killed most of the English, but that she hoped I
might myself escape. A shower of rain having
begun to fall, she had come to stop a hole in the
roof. On her going away, I begged her to
send me a little water to drink, which she did.
As night was now advancing I continued to
lie on the bed, ruminating on my condition,
but unable to discover a resource from which I
could hope for life. A flight to Detroit had no
probable chance of success. The distance
from Michilimackinac was four hundred miles;
I was without provisions; and the whole
length of the road lay through Indian countries,
countries of an enemy in arms, where the first
man whom I should meet would kill me. To
stay where I was threatened nearly the same
issue. As before, fatigue of mind, and not
tranquillity, suspended my cares and procured
me further sleep.
85
10
FIRST DAYS OF CAPTIVITY
rTT^HE game of baggatiway, as from the
description above will have been per-
ceived, is necessarily attended with much
violence and noise. In the ardor of contest the
ball, as has been suggested, if it cannot be
thrown to the goal desired, is struck in any
direction by which it can be diverted from that
designed by the adversary. At such a moment,
therefore, nothing could be less liable to excite
premature alarm than that the ball should be
tossed over the pickets of the fort, nor that
having fallen there, it should be followed on
the instant by all engaged in the game, as well
the one party as the other, all eager, all strug-
gling, all shouting, all in the unrestrained pur-
suit of a rude athletic exercise. Nothing could
be less fitted to excite premature alarm
nothing, therefore, could be more happily
devised, under the circumstances, than a strat-
agem like this; and this was in fact the
stratagem which the Indians had employed,
by which they had obtained possession of the
fort, and by which they had been enabled to
slaughter and subdue its garrison and such of
its other inhabitants as they pleased. To be
still more certain of success they had prevailed
86
Cratoelg anti &trtmtturcis?
upon as many as they could by a pretext the
least liable to suspicion to come voluntarily
without the pickets, and particularly the com-
mandant and garrison themselves.
The respite which sleep afforded me during
the night was put an end to by the return of
morning. I was again on the rack of appre-
hension. At sunrise I heard the family stirring,
and presently after, Indian voices informing
M. Langlade they had not found my hapless
self among the dead, and that they supposed
me to be somewhere concealed. M. Lang-
lade appeared from what followed to be by
this time acquainted with the place of my re-
treat, of which no doubt he had been informed
by his wife. The poor woman, as soon as
the Indians mentioned me, declared to her
husband in the French tongue that he should
no longer keep me in his house, but deliver
me up to my pursuers, giving as a reason for
this measure that should the Indians discover
his instrumentality in my concealment, they
might revenge it on her children, and that
it was better that I should die than they.
M. Langlade resisted at first this sentence of
his wife's; but soon suffered her to prevail,
informing the Indians that he had been told
I was in his house, that I had come there
without his knowledge, and that he would put
me into their hands. This was no sooner ex-
pressed than he began to ascend the stairs, the
Indians following upon his heels.
87
I now resigned myself to the fate with which
I was menaced; and regarding every attempt
at concealment as vain, I arose from the bed
and presented myself full in view to the Indians
who were entering the room. They were all
in a state of intoxication, and entirely naked,
except about the middle. One of them, named
Wenniway, whom I had previously known,
and who was upward of six feet in height, had
.his entire face and body covered with charcoal
and grease, only that a white spot of two inches
in diameter encircled either eye. This man,
walking up to me, seized me with one hand by
the collar of the coat, while in the other he held
a large carving knife, as if to plunge it into my
breast; his eyes, meanwhile, were fixed stead-
fastly on mine. At length, after some seconds
of the most anxious suspense, he dropped his
arm, saying, "I won't kill you!" To this he
added that he had been frequently engaged in
wars against the English, and had brought
away many scalps; that on a certain occasion
he had lost a brother whose name was Musini-
gon, and that I should be called after him.
A reprieve upon any terms placed me among
the living, and gave me back the sustaining
voice of hope; but Wenniway ordered me down-
stairs, and there informing me that I was to be
taken to his cabin, where, and indeed every-
where else, the Indians were all mad with
liquor, death again was threatened, and not as
possible only, but as certain. I mentioned my
88
anfc
fears on this subject to M. Langlade, begging
him to represent the danger to my master.
M. Langlade in this instance did not withhold
his compassion, and Wenniway immediately
consented that I should remain where I was
until he found another opportunity to take me
away.
Thus far secure I reascended my garret
stairs in order to place myself the furthest
possible out of the reach of insult from drunken
Indians; but I had not remained there more
than an hour, when I was called to the room
below in which was an Indian who said that
I must go with him out of the fort, Wenniway
having sent him to fetch me. This man, as
well as Wenniway himself, I had seen before.
In the preceding year I had allowed him to
take goods on credit, for which he was still in
my debt; and some short time previous to the
surprise of the fort he had said upon my up-
braiding him with want of honesty that he
would pay me before long. This speech now
came fresh into my memory and led me to
suspect that the fellow had formed a design
against my life. I communicated the suspicion
to M. Langlade; but he gave for answer that
I was not now my own master, and must do as
I was ordered.
The Indian on his part directed that before
I left the house I should undress myself, de-
claring that my coat and shirt would become
him better than they did me. His pleasure in
89
this respect being complied with, no other
alternative was left me than either to go out
naked, or to put on the clothes of the Indian,
which he freely gave me in exchange. His
motive for thus stripping me of my own ap-
parel was no other as I afterward learned than
this, that it might not be stained with blood
when he should kill me.
I was now told to proceed; and my driver
followed me close until I had passed the gate
of the fort, when I turned toward the spot
where I knew the Indians to be encamped.
This, however, did not suit the purpose of my
enemy, who seized me by the arm and drew me
violently in the opposite direction to the dis-
tance of fifty yards above the fort. Here,
finding that I was approaching the bushes and
sand hills, I determined to proceed no farther,
but told the Indian that I believed he meant
to murder me, and that if so he might as well
strike where I was as at any greater distance.
He replied with coolness that my suspicions
were just, and that he meant to pay me in
this manner for my goods. At the same time
he produced a knife and held me in a position
to receive the intended blow. Both this and
that which followed were necessarily the affair
of a moment. By some effort, too sudden and
too little dependent on thought to be ex-
plained or remembered, I was enabled to arrest
his arm and give him a sudden push by which I
turned him from me and released myself from
90
anti tobenturc$
his grasp. This was no sooner done than I ran
toward the fort with all the swiftness in my
power, the Indian following me, and I expect-
ing every moment to feel his knife. I succeeded
in my flight; and on entering the fort I saw
Wenniway standing in the midst of the area,
and to him I hastened for protection. Wenni-
way desired the Indian to desist; but the latter
pursued me round him, making several strokes
at me with his knife, and foaming at the mouth
with rage at the repeated failure of his pur-
pose. At length Wenniway drew near to
M. Langlade's house; and, the door being
open, I ran into it. The Indian followed me;
but on my entering the house he voluntarily
abandoned the pursuit.
Preserved so often and so unexpectedly as it
had now been my lot to be, I returned to my
garret with a strong inclination to believe that
through the will of an overruling power no
Indian enemy could do me hurt; but new trials,
as I believed, were at hand when at ten o'clock
in the evening I was roused from sleep and
once more desired to descend the stairs. Not
less, however, to my satisfaction than sur-
prise, I was summoned only to meet Major
Etherington, Mr. Bostwick, and Lieutenant
Lesslie, who were in the room below.
These gentlemen had been taken prisoners
while looking at the game without the fort and
immediately stripped of all their clothes. They
were now sent into the fort under the charge
91
of Canadians, because, the Indians having re-
solved on getting drunk, the chiefs were
apprehensive that they would be murdered
if they continued in the camp. Lieutenant
Jemette and seventy soldiers had been killed;
and but twenty Englishmen, including sol-
diers, were still alive. 54 These were all within
the fort, together with nearly three hundred
Canadians. 56
These being our numbers, myself and
others proposed to Major Etherington to make
an effort for regaining possession of the fort
and maintaining it against the Indians. The
Jesuit missionary was consulted on the project;
but he discouraged us by his representations,
not only of the merciless treatment which we
must expect from the Indians should they
regain their superiority, but of the little
dependence which was to be placed upon our
Canadian auxiliaries. Thus the fort and
prisoners remained in the hands of the Indians,
though through the whole night the prisoners
and whites were in actual possession, and they
were without the gates.
That whole night, or the greater part of it,
was passed in mutual condolence* and my
fellow prisoners shared my garret. In the
54 Captain Etherington, in a letter to his superior
officer at Detroit, June 12, 1763, states that sixteen
soldiers and the trader Tracy were killed in the mas-
sacre, and two soldiers wounded; and that of those taken
prisoners on June 2, five had since been killed. Editor.
55 Belonging to the canoes, etc. Author.
92
morning, being again called down, I found my
master, Wenniway, and was desired to follow
him. He led me to a small house within the
fort, where in a narrow room and almost dark
I found Mr. Ezekiel Solomons, an Englishman
from Detroit, and a soldier, all prisoners.
With these I remained in painful suspense
as to the scene that was next to present
itself till ten o'clock in the forenoon, when
an Indian arrived, and presently marched us to
the lakeside where a canoe appeared ready
for departure, and in which we found that we
were to embark.
Our voyage, full of doubt as it was, would
have commenced immediately, but that one
of the Indians who was to be of the party was
absent. His arrival was to be waited for; and
this occasioned a very long delay during which
we were exposed to a keen northeast wind.
An old shirt was all that covered me; I suf-
fered much from the cold; and in this extremity
M. Langlade coming down to the beach, I
asked him for a blanket, promising if I lived to
pay him for it at any price he pleased; but the
answer I received was this, that he could let
me have no blanket unless there were some one
to be security for the payment. For myself,
he observed, I had no longer any property in
that country. I had no more to say to M.
Langlade; but presently seeing another Cana-
dian, named John Cuchoise, I addressed to him
a similar request and was not refused. Naked
93
as I was, and rigorous as was the weather, but
for the blanket I must have perished. At noon
our party was all collected, the prisoners all
embarked, and we steered for the Isles du
Castor 56 in Lake Michigan.
56 The Beaver Islands in northern Lake Michigan,
almost due west of Mackinac. They are chiefly notable
in history as the seat of the Mormon kingdom of
St. James, founded about 1850 by James Jesse Strang.
Big Beaver Island, some twelve or fifteen miles long,
has at its northern end an excellent harbor, long known
to the sailors by the name of Paradise Bay. Here
Strang established his capital, named in his honor,
St. James. Around the islands are today the best fish-
ing grounds on Lake Michigan; and St. James, a village
of several hundred people, is chiefly supported by this
industry. Editor.
94
THE JOURNEY TO BEAVER ISLAND
F | ^HE soldier who was our companion in
misfortune was made fast to a bar of the
canoe by a rope tied round his neck, as is
the manner of the Indians in transporting
their prisoners. The rest were left unconfined;
but a paddle was put into each of our hands
and we were made to use it. The Indians in
the canoe were seven in number, the prisoners
four. I had left, as it will be recollected,
Major Etherington, Lieutenant Lesslie, and
Mr. Bostwick at M. Langlade's, and was now
joined in misery with Mr. Ezekiel Solomons,
the soldier, and the Englishman who had newly
arrived from Detroit. This was on the sixth
day of June. The fort was taken on the fourth;
I surrendered myself to Wenniway on the
fifth; and this was the third day of our distress.
We were bound, as I have said, for the Isles
du Castor which lie in the mouth of Lake
Michigan; and we should have crossed the lake,
but that a thick fog came on, on account of
which the Indians deemed it safer to keep the
shore close under their lee. We therefore ap-
proached the lands of the Ottawa and their
village of L'Arbre Croche already mentioned
as lying about twenty miles to the westward of
95
Michilimackinac on the opposite side of the
tongue of land on which the fort is built.
Every half hour the Indians gave their war
whoops, one for every prisoner in their canoe.-
This is a general custom, by the aid of which
all other Indians within hearing are apprised
of the number of prisoners they are carrying.
In this manner we reached Wagoshense, 67
a long point stretching westward into the lake
and which the Ottawa make a carrying-place
to avoid going round it. It is distant eighteen
miles from Michilimackinac. After the Indi-
ans had made their war whoop as before an
Ottawa appeared upon the beach, who made
signs that we should land.
In consequence we approached. The Ottawa
asked the news and kept the Chipewa in
further conversation till we were within a few
yards of the land and in shallow water. At
this moment a hundred men rushed upon us from
among the bushes and dragged all the prisoners
out of the canoes amid a terrifying shout.
We now believed that our last sufferings
were approaching; but no sooner were we
fairly on shore and on our legs than the chiefs
of the party advanced and gave each of us
their hands, telling us that they were our
friends, and Ottawa, whom the Chipewa
had insulted by destroying the English with-
out consulting with them on the affair. They
added that what they had done was for the
67 i. e., Fox Point. Author.
96
anfc
purpose of saving our lives, the Chipewa
having been carrying us to the Isles du Castro
only to kill and devour us.
The reader's imagination is here distracted
by the variety of our fortunes, and he may well
paint to himself the state of mind of those who
sustained them; who were the sport, or the
victims, of a series of events more like dreams
than realities, more like fiction than truth! It
was not long before we were embarked again
in the canoes of the Ottawa, who, the same
evening, re-landed us at Michilimackinac,
where they marched us into the fort in view of
the Chipewa, confounded at beholding the
Ottawa espouse a side opposite their own.
The Ottawa, who had accompanied us in
sufficient numbers, took possession of the fort.
We, who had changed masters but were still
prisoners, were lodged in the house of "the
commandant and strictly guarded.
Early the next morning a general council
was held, in which the Chipewa complained
much of the conduct of the Ottawa in robbing
them of their prisoners, alleging that all the
Indians, the Ottawa alone excepted, were at
war with the English; that Pontiac had taken
Detroit; that the King of France had awoke,
and repossessed himself of Quebec and Mon-
treal; and that the English were meeting
destruction, not only at Michilimackinac, but
in every other part of the world. From all this
they inferred that it became the Ottawa to
97
restore the prisoners and to join in the war;
and the speech was followed by large presents,
being part of the plunder of the fort, and
which was previously heaped in the center of
the room. The Indians rarely make their
answers till the day after they have heard the
arguments offered. They did not depart from
their custom on this occasion, and the council
therefore adjourned.
We, the prisoners, whose fate was thus in
controversy, were unacquainted at the time
with this transaction, and therefore enjoyed
a night of tolerable tranquillity, not in the least
suspecting the reverse which was preparing for
us. Which of the arguments of the Chipewa,
or whether or not all were deemed valid by the
Ottawa, I cannot say; but the council was
resumed at an early hour in the morning and
after several speeches had been made in it the
prisoners were sent for and returned to the
Chipewa.
The Ottawa, who now gave us into the
hands of the Chipewa, had themselves de-
clared that the latter designed no other than to
kill us and make broth of us. The Chipewa,
as soon as we were restored to them, marched
us to a village of their own, situate on the
point which is below the fort, and put us into a
lodge already the prison of fourteen soldiers,
tied two and two, with each a rope about his
neck, and made fast to a pole which might be
called the supporter of the building. .
98
attfc
I was left untied; but I passed a night sleep-
less and full of wretchedness. My bed was the
bare ground, and I was again reduced to an
old shirt as my entire apparel; the blanket
which I had received through the generosity
of- M. Cuchoise having been taken from me
among the Ottawa when they seized upon
myself and the others at Wagoshense. I was,
besides, in want of food, having for two days
ate nothing.
I confess that in the canoe with the Chipe-
wa I was offered bread but bread with
what accompaniment! They had a loaf which
they cut with the same knives that they had
employed in the massacre knives still
covered with blood. The blood they moistened
with spittle, and rubbing it on the bread
offered this for food to their prisoners, telling
them to eat the blood of their countrymen.
Such was my situation on the morning of
the seventh of June, in the year one thousand
seven hundred and sixty- three; but a few hours
produced an event which gave still a new color
to my lot.
Toward noon, when the great war chief,
in company with Wenniway, was seated at
the opposite end of the lodge, my friend and
brother, Wawatam, suddenly came in. During
the four days preceding I had often wondered
what had become of him. In passing by he
gave me his hand, but went immediately to-
ward the great chief by the side of whom
99
Jjjenrp
and Wenniway he sat himself down. The most
uninterrupted silence prevailed; each smoked
his pipe; and this done, Wawatam arose and
left the lodge, saying to me as he passed,
"Take courage!"
100
12
RESCUED BY WAWATAM
AT hour elapsed, during which several
chiefs entered and preparations appeared
to be making for a council. At length
Wawatam reentered the lodge, followed by his
wife, and both loaded with merchandise which
they carried up to the chiefs and laid in a
heap before them. Some moments of silence
followed, at the end of which Wawatam pro-
nounced a speech, every word of which to
me was of extraordinary interest:
"Friends and relations," he began, "what
is it that I shall say? You know what I feel.
You all have friends and brothers and chil-
dren, whom as yourselves you love; and you
what would you experience, did you, like me
behold your dearest friend your brother
in the condition of a slave; a slave, exposed
every moment to insult, and to menaces of
death? This case, as you all know, is mine.
See there (pointing to myself) my friend and
brother among slaves himself a slave!
"You all well know that long before the war
began I adopted him as my brother. From
that moment he became one of my family, so
that no change of circumstances could break
the cord which fastened us together.
101
"He is my brother; and because I am your
relation he is therefore your relation, too:
and how, being your relation, can he be your
slave?
"On the day on which the war began you were
fearful lest on this very account I should reveal
your secret. You requested, therefore, that I
would leave the fort, and even cross the lake.
I did so; but I did it with reluctance. I
did it with reluctance, notwithstanding that
you, Menehwehna, who had the command in
this enterprise, gave me your promise that
you would protect my friend, delivering him
from all danger, and giving him safely to
me.
"The performance of this promise I now claim.
I come not with empty hands to ask it. You,
Menehwehna, best know whether or not, as it
respects yourself, you have kept your word,
but I bring these goods to buy off every claim
which any man among you all may have on
my brother, as his prisoner."
Wawatam having ceased, the pipes were
again filled; and after they were finished a fur-
ther period of silence followed. At the end of
this, Menehwehna arose and gave his reply:
"My relation and brother," said he, "what
you have spoken is the truth. We were ac-
quainted with the friendship which subsisted
between yourself and the Englishman in whose
behalf you have now addressed us. We knew
the danger of having our secret discovered,
102
Cratoelg anfc
and the consequences which must follow; and
you say truly that we requested you to leave the
fort. This we did out of regard for you and
your family; for if a discovery of our design
had been made, you would have been blamed,
whether guilty or not; and you would thus
have been involved in difficulties from which
you could not have extricated yourself.
"It is also true that I promised you to take
care of your friend; and this promise I per-
formed by desiring my son, at the moment of
assault, to seek him out and bring him to my
lodge. He went accordingly, but could not
find him. The day after I sent him to Lang-
lade's, when he was informed that your friend
was safe; and had it not been that the Indians
were then drinking the rum which had been
found in the fort he would have brought him
home with him, according to my orders.
"I am very glad to find that your friend has
escaped. We accept your present; and you
may take him home with you. "
Wawatam thanked the assembled chiefs,
and taking me by the hand, led me to his lodge,
which was at the distance of a few yards only
from the prison lodge. My entrance appeared
to give joy to the whole family; food was im-
mediately prepared for me; and I now ate the
first hearty meal which I had made since my cap-
ture. I found myself one of the family; and but
that I had still my fears as to the other Indi-
ans I felt as happy as the situation could allow.
103
In the course of the next morning I was
alarmed by a noise in the prison lodge; and
looking through the openings of the lodge in
which I was, I saw seven c(ead bodies of white
men dragged forth. Upon my inquiry into the
occasion I was informed that a certain chief
called by the Canadians Le Grand Sable had
not long before arrived from his winter's
hunt; and that he, having been absent when
the war begun, and being now desirous of
manifesting to the Indians at large his hearty
concurrence in what they had done, had gone
into the prison lodge, and there, with his
knife, put the seven men, whose bodies I had
seen, to death.
Shortly after two of the Indians took one of
the dead bodies which they chose as being the
fattest, cut off the head, and divided the whole
into five parts, one of which was put into each
of five kettles, hung over as many fires kindled
for this purpose at the door of the prison lodge.
Soon after things were so far prepared a
message came to our lodge with an invitation
to Wawatam to assist at the feast.
An invitation to a feast is given by him who
is the master of it. Small cuttings of cedar
wood, of about four inches in length, supply the
place of cards; and the bearer, by word of
mouth, states the particulars.
Wawatam obeyed the summons, taking with
him as is usual to the place of entertainment
dish and spoon.
104
anfc
After an absence of about half an hour he
returned bringing in his dish a human hand and
a large piece of flesh. He did not appear to
relish the repast, but told me that it was then
and always had been the custom among all the
Indian nations when returning from war, or on
overcoming their enemies, to make a war feast
from among the slain. This, he said, inspired
the warrior with courage in attack, and bred
him to meet death with fearlessness.
In the evening of the same day a large
canoe, such as those which came from Mon-
treal, was seen advancing to the fort. It was
full of men, and I distinguished several pas-
sengers. The Indian cry was made in the
village; a general muster ordered; and, to the
number of two hundred, they marched up to
the fort where the canoe was expected to land.
The canoe, suspecting nothing, came boldly
to the fort, where the passengers, as being
English traders, were seized, dragged through
the water, beat, reviled, marched to the prison
lodge, and there stripped of their clothes, and
confined.
Of the English traders that fell into the
hands of the Indians at the capture of the fort,
Mr. Tracy was the only one who lost his life.
Mr. Ezekiel Solomons and Mr. Henry Bost-
wick were taken by the Ottawa, and after the
peace, carried down to Montreal, and there
ransomed. Of ninety troops about seventy
were killed; the rest, together with those of
105
the posts in the Bay des Puants, and at the
River St. Joseph, were also kept in safety
by the Ottawa till the peace, and then either
freely restored, or ransomed at Montreal. 58
The Ottawa never overcame their disgust at
the neglect with which they had been treated
in the beginning of the war by those who
afterward desired their assistance as allies.
58 The garrison of Fort Edward Augustus at Green
Bay came at the summons of Captain Etherington to
join that officer at L 'Arbre Croche, being escorted across
Lake Michigan by a band of friendly Menominee. The
garrison at St. Joseph was massacred on May 25 by the
Potawatomi; the four survivors of this massacre were
carried to Detroit and there, on June 15, exchanged for
certain Indians then in the hands of the besieged gar-
rison at that place. Editor.
106
Cljaptct; 13
THE ADVENTURE OF THE BONES
IN the morning of the ninth of June a general
council was held, at which it was agreed
to remove to the island of Michilimackinac,
as a more defensible situation, in the event of
an attack by the English. The Indians had
begun to entertain apprehensions of want of
strength. No news had reached them from the
Potawatomi, in the Bay des Puants; and
they were uncertain whether or not the
Monomins 59 would join them. They even
feared that the Sioux would take the English
side.
This resolution fixed, they prepared for a
speedy retreat. At noon the camp was broken
up, and we embarked, taking with us the
prisoners that were still undisposed of. On our
passage we encountered a gale of wind, and
there were some appearances of danger. To
avert it, a dog, of which the legs were previously
tied together, was thrown into the lake; an
offering designed to soothe the angry passions
of some offended Manito.
59 Manomines or Malomines. In the first syllable the
substitution of / for n, and n for /, marks one of the
differences in the Chippewa and Algonquin dialects.
In the mouth of an Algonquin it is Michilimackinac; in
that of a Chippewa, Michinimackinac. Author.
107
As we approached the island two women in
the canoe in which I was began to utter melan-
choly and hideous cries. Precarious as my
condition still remained I experienced some
sensations of alarm from these dismal sounds,
of which I could not then discover the occa-
sion. Subsequently I learned that it is custom-
ary for the women on passing near the burial
places of relations never to omit the practice
of which I was now a witness, and by which
they intend to denote their grief.
By the approach of evening we reached the
island in safety, and the women were not long
in erecting our cabins. In the morning there
was a muster of the Indians, at which there
were found three hundred and fifty fighting men.
In the course of the day there arrived a canoe
from Detroit, with ambassadors, who en-
deavored to prevail on the Indians to repair
thither to the assistance of Pontiac; but fear
was now the prevailing passion. A guard was
kept during the day and a watch by night, and
alarms were very frequently spread. Had an
enemy appeared all the prisoners would have
been put to death; and I suspected that as an
Englishman I should share their fate.
Several days had now passed, when one
morning a continued alarm prevailed, and I
saw the Indians running in a confused manner
toward the beach. In a short time I learned
that two large canoes from Montreal were in
sight.
108
All the Indian canoes were immediately
manned, and those from Montreal were sur-
rounded and seized as they turned the point
behind which the flotilla had been concealed.
The goods were consigned to a Mr. Levy, and
would have been saved if the canoe men had
called them French property; but they were
terrified, and disguised nothing.
In the canoes was a large proportion of liquor,
a dangerous acquisition, and which threatened
disturbance among the Indians, even to the loss
of their dearest friends. Wawatam, always
watchful of my safety, no sooner heard the
noise of drunkenness, which in the evening did
not fail to begin, than he represented to me the
danger of remaining in the village, and owned
that he could not himself resist the temptation
of joining his comrades in the debauch. That
I might escape all mischief, he, therefore, re-
quested that I would accompany him to the
mountain, where I was to remain hidden till
the liquor should be drunk.
We ascended the mountain accordingly.
It is this mountain which constitutes that high
land in the middle of the island, of which I
have spoken before, as of a figure considered as
resembling a turtle, and therefore called michi-
limackinac. It is thickly covered with wood,
and very rocky toward the top. After walking
more than half a mile we came to a large rock
at the base of which was an opening, dark
within, appearing to be the entrance of a cave.
109
Here Wawatam recommended that I should
take up my lodging, and by all means to remain
till he returned.
On going into the cave, of which the entrance
was nearly ten feet wide, I found the farther
end to be rounded in its shape, like that of an
oven but with a further aperture, too small,
however, to be explored.
After thus looking around me I broke small
branches from the trees and spread them for a
bed; then wrapped myself in my blanket, and
slept till daybreak.
On awaking I felt myself incommoded by
some object upon which I lay; and removing it
found it to be a bone. This I supposed to be
that of a deer, or some other animal, and what
might very naturally be looked for in the place
in which I was; but when daylight visited my
chamber I discovered with some feelings of
horror that I was lying on nothing less than a
heap of human bones and skulls which covered
all the floor!
The day passed without the return of Wawa-
tam, and without food. As night approached
I found myself unable to meet its darkness in
the charnel house, which, nevertheless, I had
viewed free from uneasiness during the day.
I chose, therefore, an- adjacent bush for this
night's lodging, and slept under it as before;
but in the morning I awoke hungry and dis-
pirited, and almost envying the dry bones, to
the view of which I returned. At length the
no
Cratodg anfc
sound of a foot reached me, and my Indian
friend appeared, making many apologies for
his long absence, the cause of which was an
unfortunate excess in the enjoyment of his
liquor.
This point being explained, I mentioned the
extraordinary sight that had presented itself
in the cave to which he had commended my
slumbers. He had never heard of its existence
before; and upon examining the cave together
we saw reason to believe that it had been
anciently filled with human bodies.
On returning to the lodge I experienced a
cordial reception from the family, which con-
sisted of the wife of my friend, his two sons,
of whom the eldest was married, and whose
wife and a daughter of thirteen years of age,
completed the list.
Wawatam related to the other Indians the
adventure of the bones. All of them expressed
surprise at hearing it, and declared that they
had never been aware of the contents of this
cave before. After visiting it, which they im-
mediately did, almost every one offered a dif-
ferent opinion as to its history.
Some advanced that at a period when the
waters overflowed the land (an event which
makes a distinguished figure in the history of
their world) the inhabitants of this island had
fled into the cave, and been there drowned;
others, that those same inhabitants, when the
Huron made war upon them (as tradition
in.
says they did) hid themselves in the cave, and
being discovered, were there massacred. For
myself, I am disposed to believe that this cave
was an ancient receptacle of the bones of
prisoners sacrificed and devoured at war
feasts. I have always observed that the Indians
pay particular attention to the bones of sacri-
fices, preserving them unbroken, and deposit-
ing them in some place kept exclusively for
that purpose.
112
m
THE ARTS OF THE MEDICINE MEN
A FEW days after the occurrence of the
incidents recorded in the preceding
. chapter, Menehwehna, whom I now
found to be the great chief of the village of
Michilimackinac, came to the lodge of my
friend; and when the usual ceremony of smok-
ing was finished, he observed that Indians were
now daily arriving from Detroit, some of whom
had lost relations or friends in the war, and
who would certainly retaliate on any English-
man they found; upon which account his
errand was to advise that I should be dressed
like an Indian, an expedient whence I might
hope to escape all future insult.
I could not but consent to the proposal, and
the chief was so kind as to assist my friend
and his family in effecting that very day the
desired metamorphosis. My hair was cut off,
and my head shaved with the exception of a
spot on the crown of about twice the diameter
of a crown-piece. My face was painted with
three or four different colors, some parts of it
red, and others black. A shirt was provided
for me, painted with vermilion mixed with
grease. A large collar of wampum was put
round my neck, and another suspended on my
&lejtantier
breast. Both my arms were decorated with
large bands of silver above the elbows, be-
sides several smaller ones on the wrists; and my
legs were covered with mitasses, a kind of hose
made, as is the favorite fashion, of scarlet
cloth. Over all I was to wear a scarlet blanket
or mantle, and on my head a large bunch of
feathers.
I parted, not without some regret, with the
long hair which was natural to it and which I
fancied to be ornamental; but the ladies of the
family and of the village in general appeared
to think my person improved, and now con-
descended to call me handsome, even among
Indians.
Protected in a great measure by this dis-
guise, I felt myself more at liberty than before;
and the season being arrived in which my
clerks from the interior were to be expected
and some part of my property, as I had a right
to hope, recovered, I begged the favor of
Wawatam that he would enable me to pay a
short visit to Michilimackinac. He did not
fail to comply, and I succeeded in finding my
clerks; but, either through the disturbed state
of the country, as they represented to be the
case, or through their misconduct, as I had
reason to think, I obtained nothing; and noth-
ing, or almost nothing, I now began to think,
would be all that I should need during the rest
of my life. To fish and to hunt, to collect a
few skins, and exchange them for necessaries,
114
anfc
was all that I seemed destined to do and to
acquire for the future.
I returned to the Indian village where at
this time much scarcity of food prevailed. We
were often for twenty-four hours without
eating; and when in the morning we had n6
victuals for the day before us the custom was
to black our faces with grease and charcoal,
and exhibit through resignation a temper as
cheerful as if in the midst of plenty.
A repetition of the evil, however, soon in-
duced us to leave the island in search of food;
and accordingly we departed for the Bay of
Boutchitaouy, distant eight leagues, and where
we found plenty of wild fowl and fish.
While in the bay my guardian's daughter-
in-law was taken in labor of her first child.
She was immediately removed out of the com-
mon lodge; and a small one for her separate
accommodation was begun and finished by the
women in less than half an hour.
The next morning we heard that she was
very ill, and the family began to be much
alarmed on her account; the more so, no doubt,
because cases of difficult labor are very rare
among Indian women. In this distress, Wawa-
tam requested me to accompany him into the
woods; and on our way informed me that if
.he could find a snake he should soon secure
relief to his daughter-in-law.
On reaching some wet ground we speedily
obtained the object of our search in a small
"5
snake of the kind called the garter snake.
Wawatam seized it by the neck; and hold-
ing it fast while it coiled itself around his
arm, he cut off its head, catching the blood
in a cup that he had brought with him. This
done, he threw away the snake, and carried
home the blood, which he mixed with a quan-
tity of water. Of this mixture he adminis-
tered first one tablespoonful, and shortly after-
wards a second. Within an hour the patient
was safely delivered of a fine child : and Wa-
watam subsequently declared that the remedy
to which he had resorted was one that never
failed.
On the next day we left the Bay of Bout-
chitaouy; and the young mother, in high
spirits, assisted in loading the canoe, bare-
footed, and knee deep in the water.
The medical information, the diseases and
the remedies of the Indians, often engaged my
curiosity during the period through which
I was familiar with these nations; and I shall
take this occasion to introduce a few particulars
connected with their history.
The Indians are in general free from dis-
orders; and an instance of their being subject
to dropsy, gout, or stone, never came within
my knowledge. Inflammations of the lungs
are among their most ordinary complaints, and
rheumatism still more so, especially with the
aged. Their mode of life, in which they are so
much exposed to the wet and cold, sleeping on
116
anfc
the ground, and inhaling the night air, suffi-
ciently accounts for their liability to these dis-
eases. The remedies on which they most rely
are emetics, cathartics, and the lancet; but
especially the last. Bleeding is so favorite an
operation among the women that they never
lose an occasion of enjoying it, whether sick
or well. I have sometimes bled a dozen women
in a morning as they sat in a row along a fallen
tree, beginning with the first opening the vein
then proceeding to the second and so on,
having three or four individuals bleeding at
the same time.
In most villages, and particularly in those of
the Chipewa, this service was required of
me; and no persuasion of mine could ever
induce a woman to dispense with it.
In all parts of the country and among all
the nations that I have seen, particular in-
dividuals arrogate to themselves the art of
healing, but principally by means of pretended
sorcery; and operations of this sort are always
paid for by a present, made before they are
begun. Indeed, whatever, as an impostor, may
be the demerits of the operator, his reward
may generally be said to be fairly earned by
dint of corporal labor.
I was once present at a performance of this
kind in which the patient was a female child of
about twelve years of age. Several of the elder
chiefs were invited to the scene; and the same
compliment was paid to myself on* account of
117
the medical skill for which it was pleased to
give me credit.
The physician (so to call him) seated himself
on the ground; and before him on a new stroud
blanket was placed a basin of water in which
were three bones, the larger ones, as it appeared
to me, of a swan's wing. In his hand he had his
shishiquoi, or rattle, with which he beat time to
his medicine-song. The sick child lay on a blan-
ket near the physician. She appeared to have
much fever, and a. severe oppression of the
lungs, breathing with difficulty, and betraying
symptoms of the last stage of consumption.
After singing for some time the physician
took one of the bones out of the basin: the
bone was hollow; and one end being applied to
the breast of the patient, he put the other into
his mouth in order to remove the disorder by
suction. Having persevered in this as long
as he thought proper, he suddenly seemed to
force the bone into his mouth and swallow it.
He now acted the part of one suffering severe
pain; but presently finding relief, he made a
long speech, and after this returned to singing,
and to the accompaniment of his rattle. With
the latter, during his song, he struck his head,
breast, sides and back; at the same time strain-
ing as if to vomit forth the bone.
Relinquishing this attempt, he applied
himself to suction a second time, and with the
second of the three bones; and this also he
soon seemed to swallow.
118
anU
Upon its disappearance he began to distort
himself in the most frightful manner, using
every gesture which could convey the idea
of pain; at length he succeeded, or pretended
to succeed, in throwing up one of the bones.
This was handed about to the spectators, and
strictly examined; but nothing remarkable
could be discovered. Upon this he went back
to his song and rattle: and after some time
threw up the second of the two bones. In the
groove of this the physician, upon examination,
found and displayed to all present a small
white substance, resembling a piece of the
quill of a feather. It was passed round the
company from one to the other; and declared
by the physician to be the thing causing the
disorder of his patient.
The multitude believe that these physicians,
whom the French call jongleurs, or jugglers,
can inflict as well as remove disorders. They
believe that by drawing the figure of any per-
son in sand or ashes, or on clay, or by consider-
ing any object as the figure of a person and then
pricking it with a sharp stick or other sub-
stance, or doing in any other manner that
which done to a living body would cause pain
or injury, the individual represented, or sup-
posed to be represented, will suffer accordingly.
On the other hand the mischief being done,
another physician of equal pretension can by
suction remove it. Unfortunately, however,
the operations which I have described were
119
not successful in the instance referred to; for
on the day after they had taken place the girl
died.
With regard to flesh wounds the Indians
certainly effect astonishing cures. Here, also
much that is fantastic occurs, but the success
of their practice evinces something solid.
At the Sault de Ste. Marie I knew a man
who in the result of a quarrel received the
stroke of an axe in his side. The blow was so
violent and the axe driven so deep that the
wretch who held it could not withdraw it, but
left it in the wound and fled. Shortly after the
man was found and brought in to the fort where
several other Indians came to his assistance.
Among these, one, who was a physician, im-
mediately withdrew in order to fetch his
penegusan, or medicine bag, with which he soon
returned. The eyes of the sufferer were fixed,
his teeth closed, and his case apparently
desperate.
The physician took from his bag a small
portion of a very white substance, resembling
that of a bone; this he scraped into a little
water and forcing open the jaws of the patient
with a stick he poured the mixture down his
throat. What followed was that in a very
short space of time the wounded man moved
his eyes, and beginning to vomit threw up a
small lump of clotted blood.
The physician now, and not before, exam-
ined the wound from which I could see the
120
anti
breath escape, and from which a part of the
omentum depended. This the physician did
not set about to restore to its place; but cutting
it away, minced it into small pieces and made
his patient swallow it.
The man was then carried to his lodge where
I visited him daily. By the sixth day he was
able to walk about; and within a month he
grew quite well except that he was troubled
with a cough. Twenty years after his mis-
fortune he was still alive.
Another man, being on his wintering
ground and from home hunting beaver, was
crossing a lake covered with smooth ice with
two beavers on his back, when his foot slipped
and he fell. At his side in his belt was his axe,
the blade of which came upon the joint of his
wrist; and the weight of his body coming upon
the blade, his hand was completely separated
from his arm with the exception of a small
piece of the skin. He had to walk three miles to
his lodge which was thus far away. The skin,
which alone retained his hand to his arm, he
cut through with the same axe which had done
the rest; and fortunately having on a shirt, he
took it off, tore it up, and made a strong liga-
ture above the wrist, so as in some measure
to avoid the loss of blood. On reaching his
lodge he cured the wound himself by the mere
use of simples. I was a witness v to its perfect
healing.
I have said that these physicians, jugglers,
Dcnrp
or practitioners of pretended sorcery, are sup-
posed to be capable of inflicting diseases; and
I may add that they are sometimes themselves
sufferers on this account. In one instance I
saw one of them killed by a man who charged
him with having brought his brother to death
by malefic arts. The accuser in his rage thrust
his knife into the belly of the accused and
ripped it open. The latter caught his bowels in
his arms and thus walked toward his lodge,
gathering them- up from time to time as they
escaped his hold. His lodge was at no con-
siderable distance and he reached it alive and
died in it.
122
Chapter is
REMOVAL TO THE AU SABLE
OUR next encampment was on the Island
of Saint Martin, off Cape St. Ignace,
so called from the Jesuit mission of St.
Ignatius to the Hurons formerly established
there. Our object was to fish for sturgeon,
which we did with great success; and here in
the enjoyment of a plentiful and excellent sup-
ply of food we remained until the twentieth
day of August. At this time, the autumn being
at hand, and a sure prospect of increased
security from hostile Indians afforded, Wawa-
tam proposed going to his intended wintering
ground. The removal was a subject of the
greatest joy to myself on account of the fre-
quent insults to which I had still to submit
from the Indians of our band or village; and to
escape from which I would freely have gone
almost anywhere. At our wintering ground we
were to be alone; for the Indian families in the
countries of which I write separate in the
winter season for the convenience as well of
subsistence as of the chase, and re-associate in
the spring and summer.
In preparation our first business was to sail
for Michilimackinac, where, being arrived,
we procured from a Canadian trader on credit
123
some trifling articles together with ammuni-
tion and two bushels of maize. This done we
steered directly for Lake Michigan. At L'Ar-
bre Croche we stopped one day on a visit to
the Ottawas where all the people, and particu-
larly Okinochumaki, the chief, the same who
took me from the Chippewa, behaved with
great civility and kindness. The chief presented
me with a bag of maize. It is the Ottawa, it
will be remembered, who raise this grain for
the market of Michilimackinac.
Leaving L'Arbre Croche, we proceeded
direct to the mouth of the River Aux Sables 60
on the south side of the lake and distant about
a hundred and fifty miles from Fort Michili-
mackinac. On our voyage we passed several
deep bays and rivers, and I found the banks of
the lake to consist in mere sands without any
appearance of verdure, the sand drifting from
one hill to another like snow in winter. Hence
all the rivers which here entered the lake are as
much entitled to the epithet of sandy as that
60 There is a modern Big Sable River in northern
Mason County, Michigan, and near its mouth a head-
land known as Point Sable juts into Lake Michigan.
On D'Anville's map of North America, published in
1746, the Aux Sables River is represented correspond-
ing with modern Pentwater River. It is clear that
Henry 's wintering place was in the vicinity of modern
Ludington, Michigan, but whether on the Big Sable,
the Notepseakan, or the Pentwater River, is uncertain.
At the mouth of the Notepseakan (site of modern Lud-
ington) occurred the death of Father Marquette in
1675. Editor.
124
anti
to which we were bound. They are also dis-
tinguished by another particularity always
observable in similar situations. The current
of the stream being met when the wind is con-
trary by the waves of the lake, it is driven back,
and the sands of the shore are at the same time
washed into its mouth. In consequence the
river is able to force a passage into the lake,
broad only in proportion to its utmost strength;
while it hollows for itself behind the sandbanks
a basin of one, two, or three miles across. In
these rivers we killed many wild fowl and
beaver.
To kill beaver we used to go several miles
up the rivers before the approach of night,
and after the dusk came on, suffer the canoe
to drift gently down the current without
noise. The beaver in this part of the evening
come abroad to procure food or materials for
repairing their habitations; and as they are
not alarmed by the canoe, they often pass it
within gun shot.
While we thus hunted along our way I en-
joyed a personal freedom of which I had been
long deprived, and became as expert in the
Indian pursuits as the Indians themselves.
On entering the River Aux Sables, Wawatam
took a dog, tied its feet together, and threw it
into the stream, uttering at the same time a
long prayer which he addressed to the Great
Spirit, supplicating his blessing on the chase,
and his aid in the support of the family through
125
the dangers of a long winter. Our lodge was
fifteen miles above the mouth of the stream.
The principal animals which the country
afforded were the stag, or red deer, the com-
mon American deer, the bear, raccoon, beaver,
and marten.
The beaver feeds in preference on young
wood of the birch, aspen, and poplar tree: 61
but in defect of these, on any other tree, those
of the pine and fir kinds excepted. These latter
it employs only for building its dams and
houses. In wide meadows where no wood is to
be found it resorts for all its purposes to the
roots of the rush and water lily. It consumes
great quantities of food, whether of roots or
wood; and hence often reduces itself to the
necessity of removing into a new quarter. Its
house has an arched dome-like roof, of an
elliptical figure, and rises from three to four
feet above the surface of the water. It is
always entirely surrounded by water; but in
the banks adjacent the animal provides holes
or washes, of which the entrance is below
the surface, and to which it retreats on the
first alarm.
The female beaver usually produces two
young at a time, but not infrequently more.
During the first year the young remain with
their parents. In the second, they occupy an
adjoining apartment and assist in building and
n Popuhts nigra, called by the Canadians, Hard.
Author.
126
in procuring food. At two years old they part
and build houses of their own, but often rove
about for a considerable time before they fix
upon a spot. There are beavers called by the
Indians old bachelors, who live by themselves,
build no houses, and work at no dams, but
shelter themselves in holes. The usual method
of taking these is by traps, formed of iron or
logs, and baited with branches of poplar.
According to the Indians the beaver is much
given to jealousy. If a strange male approaches
the cabin a battle immediately ensues. Of
this the female remains an unconcerned spec-
tator, careless to which party the law of con-
quest may assign her. Among the beaver
which we killed those who were with me pre-
tended to show demonstrations of this fact,
some of the skins of the males, and almost all
of the older ones, bearing marks of violence,
while none were ever to be seen on the skins
of the females.
The Indians add that the male is as constant
as he is jealous, never attaching himself to
.more than one female; while the female on her
side is always fond of strangers.
The most common way of taking the beaver
is that of breaking up its house, which is done
with trenching tools during the winter, when
the ice is strong enough to allow of approaching
them, and when, also, the fur is in its most
valuable state.
Breaking up the house, however, is only a
127
preparatory step. During this operation the
family make their escape to one or more of
their washes. These are to be discovered by
striking the ice along the bank, and where the
holes are a hollow sound is returned. After
discovering and searching many of these in
vam we often found the whole family together
in the same wash. I was taught occasionally
to distinguish a full wash from an empty one
by the motion of the water above its entrance
occasioned by the breathing of the animals
concealed in it. From the washes they must
be taken out with the hands; and in doing this
the hunter sometimes receives severe wounds
from their teeth. While a hunter I thought
with the Indians that the beaver flesh was
very good; but after that of the ox was again
within my reach I could not relish it. The tail
is accounted a luxurious morsel.
Beavers, say the Indians, were formerly a
people endowed with speech, not less than with
the other noble faculties they possess; but the
Great Spirit has taken this away from them
lest they should grow superior in understand-
ing to mankind.
The raccoon was another object of our chase.
It was my practice to go out in the evening
with dogs, accompanied by the youngest son
of my guardian, to hunt this animal. The
raccoon never leaves its hiding place till after
sunset.
As soon as a dog falls on a fresh track of the
128
anti Slfctoentureg
raccoon he gives notice by a cry, and immediate-
ly pursues. His barking enables the hunter to
follow. The raccoon, which travels slowly and
is soon overtaken, makes for a tree on which
he remains till shot.
After the falling of the snow nothing more is
necessary for taking the raccoon than to follow
the track of his feet. In this season he seldom
leaves his habitation; and he never lays up any
food. I have found six at a time in the hollow
of one tree lying upon each other, and nearly
in a torpid state. In more than one instance
I have ascertained that they have lived six
weeks without food. The mouse is their prin-
cipal prey.
Raccoon hunting was my more particular and
daily employ. I usually went out at the first
dawn of day and seldom returned till sunset, or
till I had laden myself with as many animals as
I could carry. By degrees I became familiar-
ized with this kind of life ; and had it not been for
the idea of which I could not divest my mind,
that I was living among savages, and for the
whispers of a lingering hope that I should one
day be released from it or if I could have
forgotten that I had ever been otherwise than
as I then was I could have enjoyed as much
happiness in this as in any other situation.
129
16
LOST IN THE WILDERNESS
ONE evening on my return from hunting
I found the fire put out and the opening
in the top of the lodge covered over
with skins, by this means excluding as much
as possible external light. I further observed
that the ashes were removed from the fire-
place, and that dry sand was spread where they
had been. Soon after a fire was made without
side the cabin in the open air and a kettle hung
over it to boil.
I now supposed that a feast was in prepara-
tion. I supposed so only; for it would have
been indecorous to inquire into the meaning
of what I saw. No person among the Indians
themselves would use this freedom. Good
breeding requires that the spectator should
patiently wait the result.
As soon as the darkness of night had arrived
the family, including myself, were invited into
the lodge. I was now requested not to speak
as a feast was about to be given to the dead,
whose spirits delight in uninterrupted silence.
As we entered each was presented with his
wooden dish and spoon, after receiving which
we seated ourselves. The door was next shut,
and we remained in perfect darkness.
130
atifc
The master of the family was the master of
the feast. Still in the dark he asked every one
by turn for his dish and put into each two
boiled ears of maize. The whole being served,
he began to speak. In his discourse, which
lasted half an hour, he called upon the manes
of his deceased relations and friends, beseech-
ing them to be present to assist him in the
chase, and to partake of the food which he had
prepared for them. When he had ended we
proceeded to eat our maize, which we did with-
out other noise than what was occasioned by
our teeth. The maize was not half boiled, and
it took me an hour to consume my share. I
was requested not to break the spikes, 62 as
this would be displeasing to the departed
spirits of their friends.
When all was eaten Wawatam made another
speech, with which the ceremony ended. A
new fire was kindled with fresh sparks from
flint and steel; and the pipes being smoked, the
spikes were carefully buried in a hole made in
the ground for that purpose within the lodge.
This done, the whole family began a dance,
Wawatam singing and beating a drum. The
dance continued the greater part of the night,
to the great pleasure of the lodge. The night of
the feast was that of the first day of November.
On the twentieth of December we took an
account of the produce of our hunt and found
62 The grains of maize, called also Indian corn, grow
in compact cells round a spike. Author.
that we had a hundred beaver skins, as many
raccoons, and a large quantity of dried venison;
all which was secured from the wolves by
being placed upon a scaffold.
A hunting excursion into the interior of the
country was resolved on; and early the next
morning the bundles were made up by the
women for each person to carry. I remarked
that the bundle given to me was the lightest,
and those carried by the women the largest
and heaviest of the whole.
On the first day of our march we advanced
about twenty miles and then encamped. Being
somewhat fatigued, I could not hunt; but
Wawatam killed a stag not far from our en-
campment. The next morning we moved our
lodge to the carcass. At this station we re-
mained two days, employed in drying the
meat. The method was to cut it into slices
of the thickness of a steak, and then hang it
over the fire'in the smoke. On the third day
we removed and marched till two o'clock in the
afternoon.
While the women were busy in erecting and
preparing the lodges I took my gun and strolled
away, telling Wawatam that I intended to
look out for some fresh meat for supper. He
answered that he would do the same; and on
this we both left the encampment in different
directions.
The sun being visible I entertained no fear
of losing my way; but in following several
132
anti
tracks of animals in momentary expectation of
falling in with the game I proceeded to a
considerable distance, and it was not till near
sunset that I thought of returning. The sky,
too, had become overcast, and I was therefore
left without the sun for my guide. In this
situation I walked as fast as I could, always
supposing myself to be approaching our en-
campment, till at length it became so dark
that I ran against the trees.
I became convinced that I was lost; and I
was alarmed by the reflection that I was in a
country entirely strange to me, and in danger
from strange Indians. With the flint of my
gun I made a fire, and then laid me down to
sleep. In the night it rained hard. I awoke
cold and wet; and as soon as light appeared I
recommenced my journey, sometimes walking
and sometimes running, unknowing where to
go, bewildered, and like a madman.
Toward evening I reached the border of a
large lake of which I could scarcely discern
the opposite shore. I had never heard of a
lake in this part of the country, and therefore
felt myself removed further than ever from the
object of my pursuit. To tread back my steps
appeared to be the most likely means of deliver-
ing myself; and I accordingly determined to
turn my face directly from the lake, and keep
this direction as nearly as I could.
A heavy snow began to descend and night
soon afterward came on. On this I stopped
133
and made a fire, and stripping a tree of its
sheet of bark, lay down under it to shelter me
from the snow. All night at small distances
the wolves howled around; and to me seemed
to be acquainted with my misfortune.
Amid thoughts the most distracted I was able
at length to fall asleep; but it was not long
before I awoke, refreshed, and wondering at
the terror to which I had yielded myself. That
I could really have wanted the means of re-
covering my way appeared to me almost in-
credible; and the recollection of it like a dream,
or as a circumstance which must have pro-
ceeded from the loss of my senses. Had this
not happened I could never, as I now thought,
have suffered so long without calling to mind
the lessons which I had received from my
Indian friend for the very purpose of being
useful to me in difficulties of this kind. These
were that generally speaking the tops of pine
trees lean toward the rising of the sun; that
moss grows toward the roots of trees on the
side which faces the north; and that the limbs
of trees are most numerous and largest on that
which faces the south.
Determined to direct my feet by these
marks and persuaded that I should thus
sooner or later reach Lake Michigan, which I
reckoned to be distant about sixty miles, I
began my march at break of day. I had not
taken, nor wished to take, any nourishment,
since I left the encampment; I had with me my
134
attfc
gun and ammunition, and was therefore under
no anxiety in regard to food. The snow lay
about half a foot in depth.
My eyes were now employed upon the trees.
When their tops leaned different ways I looked
to the moss, or to the branches; and by connect-
ing one with another, I found the means of
traveling with some degree of confidence. At
four o'clock in the afternoon the sun, to my
inexpressible joy, broke from the clouds, and
I had now no further need of examining the
trees.
In going down the side of a lofty hill I saty
a herd of red deer approaching. Desirous of
killing one of them for food, I hid myself in the
bushes, and on a large one coming near, pre-
sented my piece, which missed fire on account
of the priming having been wetted. The animals
walked along without taking the least alarm;
and having reloaded my gun, I followed them
and presented a second time. But now a
disaster of the heaviest kind had befallen me;
for on attempting to fire I found that I had
lost the cock. I had previously lost the screw
by which it was fastened to the lock; and to
prevent this from being lost also I had tied it in
its place with a leather string: the lock, to
prevent its catching in the bows, I had carried
under my molton coat.
Of all the sufferings which I had experienced
this seemed to me the most severe. I was in a
strange country, and knew not how far I had
135
to go. I had been three days without food; I
was now without the means of procuring my-
self either food or fire. Despair had almost
overpowered me: but I soon resigned myself
into the hands of that Providence whose arm
had so often saved me, and returned on my
track in search of what I had lost. My search
was in vain, and I resumed my course, wet,
cold and hungry, and almost without clothing.
136
Chapter 17
A BEAR HUNT
fTAHE sun was setting fast when I descended
a hill at the bottom of which was a small
lake entirely frozen over. On drawing
near I saw a beaver lodge in the middle
offering some faint prospect of food; but I
found it already broken up. While I looked at
it, it suddenly occurred to me that I had seen
it before; and turning my eyes round the place
I discovered a small tree which I had myself
cut down in the autumn when in company with
my friends I had taken the beaver. I was no
longer at a loss, but knew both the distance
and the route to the encampment. The latter
was only to follow the course of a small stream
of water which ran from the encampment to
the lake on which I stood. An hour before
I had thought myself the most miserable of
men; and now I leaped for joy and called my-
self the happiest.
The whole of the night and through all of
the succeeding day I walked up the rivulet,
and at sunset reached the encampment, where
I was receiveol with the warmest expressions of
pleasure by the family, by whom I had been
given up for lost after a long and vain search
for me in the woods.
Jjjenrp
Some days elapsed, during which I rested
myself and recruited my strength: after this
I resumed the chase, secure that as the snow
had now fallen I could always return by the
way I went.
In the course of the month of January I
happened to observe that the trunk of a very
large pine tree was much torn by the claws of
a bear, made both in going up and down. On
further examination I saw that there was a
large opening in the upper part near which
the smaller branches were broken. From
these marks and from the additional circum-
stance that there were no tracks on the snow
there was reason to believe that a bear lay
concealed in the tree.
On returning to the lodge I communicated
my discovery; and it was agreed that all the
family should go together in the morning to
assist in cutting down the tree, the girth of
which was not less than three fathoms. The
women at first opposed the undertaking be-
cause our axes, being only of a pound and a
half weight, were not well adapted to so heavy
a labor; but the hope of finding a large bear
and obtaining from its fat a great quantity of
oil, an article at the time much wanted, at
length prevailed.
Accordingly in the morning we surrounded
the tree, both men and women, as many at a
time as could conveniently work at it; and
here we toiled like beaver till the sun went
138
anfr %frtenturcg
down. This day's work carried us about half
way through the trunk; and the next morning
we renewed the attack, continuing it till about
two o'clock in the afternoon, when the tree
fell to the ground. For a few minutes every-
thing remained quiet, and I feared that all our
expectations were disappointed; but as I
advanced to the opening there came out, to
the great satisfaction of all our party, a bear
of extraordinary size, which, before she had
proceeded many yards, I shot.
The bear being dead, all my assistants ap-
proached, and all, but more particularly my
old mother (as I was wont to call her), took her
head in their hands, stroking and kissing it
several times; begging a thousand pardons for
taking away her life: calling her their relation
and grandmother; and requesting her not to
lay the fault upon them, since it was truly an
Englishman that had put her to death.
This ceremony was not of long duration;
and if it was I that killed their grandmother
they were not themselves behindhand in what
remained to be performed. The skin being
taken off, we found the fat in several places
six inches deep. This being divided into two
parts, loaded two persons; and the flesh parts
were as much as four persons could carry.
In all, the carcass must have exceeded five
hundred-weight.
As soon as we reached the lodge the bear's
head was adorned with all the trinkets in the
139
possession of the family, such as silver arm
bands and wrist bands, and belts of wampum;
and then laid upon a scaffold, set up for its
reception within the lodge. Near the nose was
placed a large quantity of tobacco.
The next morning no sooner appeared than
preparations were made for a feast to the
manes. The lodge was cleaned and swept; and
the head of the bear lifted up, and a new stroud
blanket, which had never been used before,
spread under it. The pipes were now lit; and
Wawatam blew tobacco smoke into the nos-
trils of the bear, telling me to do the same, and
thus appease the anger of the bear on account
of my having killed her. I endeavored to
persuade my benefactor and friendly adviser
that she no longer had any life, and assured
him that I was under no apprehension from
her displeasure; but the first proposition ob-
tained no credit, and the second gave but little
satisfaction.
At length the feast being ready, Wawatam
commenced a speech resembling in many
things his address to the manes of his relations
and departed companions; but having this
peculiarity, that he here deplored the necessity
under which men labored thus to destroy their
friends. He represented, however, that the
misfortune was unavoidable, since without
doing so, they could by no means subsist.
The speech ended, we all ate heartily of the
bear's flesh; and even the head itself, after
140
Crabclg anfr %frbenturcg
remaining three days on the scaffold, was put
into the kettle.
It is only the female bear that makes her
winter lodging in the upper parts of trees, a
practice by which her young are secured from
the attacks of wolves and other animals. She
brings forth in the winter season; and remains
in her lodge till the cubs have gained some
strength.
The male always lodges in the ground under
the roots of trees. He takes to this habitation
as soon as the snow falls, and remains there
till it has disappeared. The Indians remark
that the bear comes out in the spring with the
same fat which he carried in in the autumn;
but after exercise of only a few days, becomes
lean. Excepting for a short part of the season,
the male lives constantly alone.
The fat of our bear was melted down, and
the oil filled six porcupine skins. 63 A part of the
meat was cut into strips, and fire dried, after
which it was put into the vessels containing
the oil, where it remained in perfect preserva-
tion until the middle of summer.
February, in the country and by the people
where and among whom I was, is called the
Moon of Hard, or Crusted Snow; for now the
snow can bear a man, or at least dogs, in
pursuit of animals of the chase. At this season
the stag is very successfully hunted, his feet
^The animal which, in America, is called a por-
cupine, is a hedge-hog or urchin. Author.
141
breaking through at every step, and the crust
upon the snow cutting his legs with its sharp
edges, to the very bone. He is consequently,
in this distress, an easy prey; and it frequently
happened that we killed twelve in the short
space of two hours. By this means we were
soon put into possession of four thousand
weight of dried venison, which was to be car-
ried on our backs, along with all the rest of our
wealth for seventy miles, the distance of
our encampment from that part of the lake
shore at which in the autumn we left our
canoes. This journey it was our next business
to perform.
142
Chapter is
DEATH OF A CHILD
OUR venison and furs and peltries were to
be disposed of at Michilimackinac, and
it was now the season for carrying them
to market. The women therefore prepared our
loads; and the morning of departure being
come, we set off at daybreak, and continued
our march till two o'clock in the afternoon.
Where we stopped we erected a scaffold on
which we deposited the bundles we had
brought, and returned to our encampment,
which we reached in the evening. In the
morning we carried fresh loads, which being
deposited with the rest, we returned a second
time in the evening. This we repeated till all
was forwarded one stage. Then removing our
lodge to the place of deposit, we carried our
goods with the same patient toil a second stage;
and so on, till we were at no great distance from
the shores of the lake.
Arrived here, we turned our attention to
sugar making, the management of which, as
I have before related, belongs to the women,
the men cutting wood for the fires, and hunting
and fishing. In the midst of this we were
joined by several lodges of Indians, most of
whom were of the family to which I belonged,
143
and had wintered near us. The lands belonged
to this family, and it had therefore the ex-
clusive right to hunt on them. This is accord-
ing to the custom of the people; for each
family has its own lands. I was treated very
civilly by all the lodges.
Our society had been a short time enlarged
by this arrival of our friends, when an accident
occurred which filled all the village with anxiety
and sorrow. A little child belonging to one of
our neighbors fell into a kettle of boiling syrup.
It was instantly snatched out, but with little
hope of its recovery.
So long, however, as it lived a continual feast
was observed; and this was made to the Great
Spirit and Master of Life, that he might be
pleased to save and heal the child. At this
feast I was a constant guest; and often found
difficulty in eating the large quantity of food,
which on such occasions as these is put upon
each man's dish. The Indians accustom them-
selves both to eat much and to fast much, with
facility.
Several sacrifices were also offered; among
which were dogs, killed and hung upon the
tops of poles, with the addition of stroud
blankets and other articles. These, also, were
given to the Great Spirit in humble hope
that he would give efficacy to the medicines
employed.
The child died. To preserve the body from
the wolves it was placed upon a scaffold, where
144
and
it remained till we went to the Jake, on the
border of which was the burial ground of the
family.
On our arrival there, which happened in the
beginning of April, I did not fail to attend the
funeral. The grave was made of a large size,
and the whole of the inside lined with birch
bark. On the bark was laid the body of the
child, accompanied with an axe, a pair of
snowshoes, a small kettle, several pairs of
common shoes, its own strings of beads, and
because it was a girl a carrying-belt and a
paddle. The kettle was filled with meat.
All this was again covered with bark; and
at about two feet nearer the surface logs were
laid across, and these again covered with bark,
so that the earth might by no means fall upon
the corpse.
The last act before the burial, performed by
the mother crying over the dead body of her
child, was that of taking from it a lock of hair
for a memorial. While she did this I endeav-
ored to console her by offering the usual ar-
guments, that the child was happy in being
released from the miseries of this present life,
and that she should forbear to grieve, because
it would be restored to her in another world,
happy and everlasting. She answered that she
knew it, and that by the lock of hair she should
discover her daughter; for she would take it
with her. In this she alluded to the day when
some pious hand would place in her own
145
grave, along with the carrying-belt and paddle,
this little relic, hallowed by maternal tears.
I have frequently inquired into the ideas and
opinions of the Indians in regard to futurity,
and always found that they were somewhat
different in different individuals.
Some suppose their souls to remain in this
world, although invisible to human eyes; and
capable, themselves, of seeing and hearing
their friends, and also of assisting them in
moments of distress and danger.
Others dismiss from the mortal scene the
unembodied spirit, and send it to a distant
world, or country, in which it receives reward
or punishment, according to the life which it
has led in its prior state. Those who have
lived virtuously are transported into a place
abounding with every luxury, with deer and all
other animals of the woods and water, and
where the earth produces, in their greatest
perfection, all its sweetest fruits. While, on the
other hand, those who have violated or neg-
lected the duties of this life are removed to
a barren soil, where they wander up and down
among rocks and morasses, and are stung by
gnats as large as pigeons.
146
is
RETURN TO MACKINAC
WHILE we remained on the border of the
lake a watch was kept every night in the
apprehension of a speedy attack from
the English, who were expected to avenge the
massacre of Michilimackinac. The immediate
grounds of this apprehension were the constant
dreams to this effect of the more aged women.
I endeavored to persuade them that nothing
of the kind would take place; but their fears
were not to be subdued.
Amid these alarms there came a report con-
cerning a real, though less formidable enemy,
discovered in our neighborhood. This was a
panther which one of our young men had seen
and which animal sometimes attacks and
carries away the Indian children. Our camp
was immediately on the alert, and we set off
into the woods, about twenty in number. We
had not proceeded more than a mile before
the dogs found the panther, and pursued him
to a tree, on which he was shot. He was of a
large size.
On the twenty-fifth of April we embarked
for Michilimackinac. At La Grande Traverse 64
we met a large party of Indians who appeared
64 Modern Grand Traverse Bay. Editor.
147
2Uejrant>er Jjjenrp
to labor, like ourselves, under considerable
alarm; and who dared proceed no farther, lest
they should be destroyed by the English.
Frequent councils of the united bands were
held; and interrogations were continually put
to myself as to whether or not I knew of any
design to attack them. I found that they be-
lieved it possible for me to have a foreknowl-
edge of events, and to be informed by dreams
of all things doing at a distance.
Protestations of my ignorance were received
with but little satisfaction, and incurred the
suspicion of a design to conceal my knowledge.
On this account therefore, or because I saw
them tormented with fears which had nothing
but imagination to rest upon, I told them at
length that I knew there was no enemy to
insult them; and that they might proceed
to Michilimackinac without danger from the
English. I further, and with more confidence,
declared that if ever my countrymen returned
to Michilimackinac I would recommend them
to their favor on account of the good treatment
which I had received from them. Thus en-
couraged they embarked at an early hour the
next morning. In crossing the bay we ex-
perienced a storm of thunder and lightning.
Our port was the village of L'Arbre Croche,
which we reached in safety, and where we
stayed till the following day. At this village
we found several persons who had been lately
at Michilimackinac, and from them we had
148
anfc
the satisfaction of learning that all was quiet
there. The remainder of our voyage was there-
fore performed with confidence.
In the evening of the twenty-seventh we
landed at the fort, which now contained only
two French traders. The Indians who had
arrived before us were very few in number; and
by all who were of our party I was used very
kindly. I had the entire freedom both of the
fort and camp.
Wawatam and myself settled our stock and
paid our debts; and this done, I found that my
share of what was left consisted in a hundred
beaver skins, sixty raccoon skins, and six otter,
of the total value of about one hundred and
sixty dollars. With these earnings of my
winter's toil I proposed to purchase some
clothes of which I was much in need, having
been six months without a shirt; but on in-
quiring into the prices of goods I found that
all my funds would not go far. I was able,
however, to buy two shirts at ten pounds of
beaver each; a pair of leggings, or pantaloons,
of scarlet cloth, which with the ribbon to
garnish them fashionably, cost me fifteen
pounds of beaver; a blanket, at twenty pounds
of beaver; and some other articles at propor-
tionable rates. In this manner my wealth
was soon reduced; but not before I had laid in a
good stock of ammunition and tobacco. To
the use of the latter I had become much at-
tached during the winter. It was my principal
149
recreation after returning from the chase; for
my companions in the lodge were unaccustomed
to pass the time in conversation. Among the
Indians the topics of conversation are but few,
and limited for the most part to the transac-
tions of the day, the number of animals which
they have killed, and of those which have
escaped their pursuit; and other incidents of
the chase. Indeed, the causes of taciturnity
among the Indians may be easily understood
if we consider how many occasions of speech,
which present themselves to us, are utterly
unknown to them; the records of history, the
pursuits of science, the disquisitions of phil-
osophy, the systems of politics, the business
and the amusements of the day, and the trans-
actions of the four corners of the world.
Eight days had passed in tranquillity when
there arrived a band of Indians from the Bay
of Saguenaum. 65 They had assisted at the
siege of Detroit, and came to muster as many
recruits for that service as they could. For
my own part, I was soon informed that as I
was the only Englishman in the place they
proposed to kill me in order to give their
friends a mess of English broth to raise their
courage.
This intelligence was not of the most agrae-
able kind; and in consequence of receiving it,
I requested my friend to carry me to the Sault
de Ste. Marie, at which place I knew the
66 Modern Saginaw Bay. Editor.
150
Crafccitf att& tiftcnturr
Indians to be peaceably inclined, and that
M. Cadotte enjoyed a powerful influence over
their conduct. They considered M. Cadotte
as their chief; and he was not only my friend,
but a friend to the English. It was by him
that the Chipewa of Lake Superior were
prevented from joining Pontiac.
Wawatam was not slow to exert himself for
my preservation; but, leaving Michilimackinac
in the night, transported myself and all his
lodge to Point St. Ignace, on the opposite
side of the strait. Here we remained till day-
light, and then went into the Bay of Bout-
chitaouy, in which we spent three days in
fishing and hunting, and where we found
plenty of wild fowl. Leaving the bay we made
for the Isle aux Outardes, where we were
obliged to put in on account of the wind's
coming ahead. We proposed sailing for the
Sault the next morning.
But when the morning came Wawatam's
wife complained that she was sick, adding that
she had had bad dreams, and kjiew that if we
went to the Sault we should all be destroyed.
To have argued at this time against the in-
fallibility of dreams would have been extremely
inadvisable, since I should have appeared to
be guilty, not only of an odious want of faith
but also of a still more odious want of sensi-
bility to the possible calamities of a family
which had done so much for the alleviation of
mine. I was silent; but the disappointment
seemed to seal my fate. No prospect opened
to console me. To return to Michilimackinac
could only ensure my destruction; and to
remain at the island was to brave almost equal
danger, since it lay in the direct route between
the fort and the Missisaki, along which the
Indians from Detroit were hourly expected to
pass on the business of their mission. I
doubted not but, taking advantage of the
solitary situation of the family, they would
carry into execution their design of killing me.
152
20
FLIGHT TO THE SAULT
UNABLE, therefore, to take any part in
the direction of our course, but a prey
at the same time to the most anxious
thoughts as to my own condition, I passed all
the day on the highest part, to which I could
climb, of a tall tree, and whence the lake on
both sides of the island lay open to my view.
Here I might hope to learn at the earliest pos-
sible moment the approach of canoes, and by this
means be warned in time to conceal myself.
On the second morning I returned as soon
as it was light to my watch-tower, on which I
had not been long before I discovered a sail
coming from Michilimackinac.
The sail was a white one, and much larger
than those usually employed by the northern
Indians. I therefore indulged a hope that it
might be a Canadian canoe, on its voyage to
Montreal; and that I might be able to prevail
upon the crew to take me with them and thus
release me from all my troubles.
My hopes continued to gain strength; for
I soon persuaded myself that the manner in
which the paddles were used on board the
canoe was Canadian, and not Indian. My
spirits were elated; but disappointment had
become so usual with me that I could not suffer
myself to look to the event with any strength
of confidence.
Enough, however, appeared at leijgth to
demonstrate itself to induce me to descend
the tree and repair to the lodge, with my tidings
and schemes of liberty. The family congrat-
ulated me on the approach of so fair an oppor-
tunity of escape; and my father and brother
(for he was alternately each of these) lit his
pipe and presented it to me saying, " My son,
this may be the last time that ever you and I
shall smoke out of the same pipe! I am sorry
to part with you. You know the affection which
I always have borne you, and the dangers to
which I have exposed myself and family
to preserve you from your enemies; and I am
happy to find that my efforts promise not to
have been in vain. " At this time a boy came
into the lodge, informing us that the canoe had
come from Michilimackinac and was bound to
the Sault de Ste. Marie. It was manned by
three Canadians, and was carrying home
Madame Cadotte, the wife .of M, Cadotte
already mentioned.
My hopes of going to Montreal being now
dissipated, I resolved on accompanying Ma-
dame Cadotte, with her permission, to the Sault.
On communicating my wishes to Madame Ca-
dotte, she cheerfully acceded to them. Ma-
dame Cadotte, as I have already mentioned,
was an Indian woman of the Chippewa
anfr %frfrcntureg
nation; and she was very generally respected.
My departure fixed upon, I returned to the
lodge, where I packed up my wardrobe, con-
sisting of my two shirts, pair of leggings, and
blanket. Besides these I took a gun and am-
munition, presenting what remained further
to my host. I also returned the silver arm-
bands with which the family had decorated me
the year before.
We now exchanged farewells, with an emo-
tion entirely reciprocal. I did not quit the
lodge without the most grateful sense of the
many acts of goodness which I had experienced
in it, nor without the sincerest respect for the
virtues which I had witnessed among its
members. All the family accompanied me to
the beach; and the canoe had no sooner put off,
than Wawatam commenced an address to the
Kichi Manito, beseeching him to take care
of me, his brother, till we should next meet.
This, he had told me, would not be long, as he
intended to return to Michilimackinac for a
short time only, and would then follow me to
the Sault. We had proceeded to too great a
distance to allow of our hearing his voice,
before Wawatam had ceased to offer up his
prayers. 66
66 Thus appropriately Wawatam disappears alike
from Henry's tale and from recorded history. Some
fifty years later Henry R. Schoolcraft sought diligently
to discover trace of him or of his family, but in vain.
H. Bedford- Jones, whose criticisms of Henry's narra-
tive have been noted in our introduction, advances the
Being now no longer in the society of Indians
I laid aside the dress, putting on that of a
Canadian; a molton, or blanket coat, over my
shirt, and a handkerchief about my head, hats
being very little worn in this country.
At daybreak on the second morning of our
voyage we embarked, and presently perceived
several canoes behind us. As they approached,
we ascertained them to be the fleet bound for
the Missisaki, of which I had been so long in
dread. It amounted to twenty sail.
On coming up with us and surrounding our
canoe, and amid general inquiries concerning
the news, an Indian challenged me for an
Englishman and his companions supported
him by declaring that I looked very like one;
but I affected not to understand any of the
questions which they asked me, and Madame
Cadotte assured them that I was a Canadian
whom she had brought on his first voyage from
Montreal.
The following day saw us safely landed at
the Sault, where I experienced a generous
welcome from M. Cadotte. There were thirty
warriors at this place, restrained from joining
in the war only by M. Cadotte 's influence.
Here for five days I was once more in
possession of tranquillity; but on the sixth a
young Indian came into M. Cadotte's saying
that a canoe full of warriors had just arrived
opinion that Wawatam, like Minavavana, was but a
"creation of [Henry's] fancy. "Editor.
156
anfr %frfrentureg
from Michilimackinac ; that they had inquired
for me; and that he believed their intentions
to be bad. Nearly at the same time a message
came from the good chief of the village desiring
me to conceal myself until he should discover
the views and temper of the strangers.
A garret was a second time my place of
refuge; and it was not long before the Indians
came to M. Cadotte's. My friend immediately
informed Mutchikiwish, 67 their chief, who was
related to his wife, of the design imputed to
them of mischief against myself. Mutchiki-
wish frankly acknowledged that they had had
such a design; but added that if displeasing
to M. Cadotte, it should be abandoned. He
then further stated that their errand was to
raise a party of warriors to return with them to
67 Mutchikiwish, or Matchekewis, was the chief who
had led the braves in the massacre of June 2. In 1866
Chief Alexander Robinson of C hicago gave Lyman
Draper this account of Chief Matchekewis: He was a
Chippewa, and lived at a place near Mackinac, called
Cheboygan. He took Mackinac Fort in Pontiac's War,
and when the British reoccupied that post Matchekewis
and two or three other ringleaders in that attack were
taken, sent to Quebec, and imprisoned awhile. But
the British authorities at length released Matchekewis,
as well as the others, gave him a medal, flag, and other
presents, and he returned home with increased honors.
He was with the Indians at the battle of Fallen Tim-
bers in 1794 and signed Wayne's treaty the following
year. He was a large, tall chief, and weighed over two
hundred pounds; and was a man of great distinction
among his people. He died about 1806, quite aged,
perhaps about seventy. Wis. Hist. Colls., VII, 18990.
iS7
Detroit; and that it had been their intention
to take me with them.
In regard to the principal of the two objects
thus disclosed, M. Cadotte proceeded to as-
semble all the chiefs and warriors of the vil-
lage; and these, after deliberating for some
time among themselves, sent for the strangers,
to whom both M. Cadotte and the chief of the
village addressed a speech. In these speeches,
after recurring to the designs confessed to have
been entertained against myself, who was now
declared to be under the immediate protection
of all the chiefs, by whom any insult I might
sustain would be avenged, the ambassadors
were peremptorily told that they might go
back as they came, none of the young men of
this village being foolish enough to join them.
A moment after, a report was brought that a
canoe had just arrived from Niagara. As this
was a place from which everyone was anxious
to hear news, a message was sent to these fresh
strangers requesting them to come to the
council.
The strangers came accordingly, and being
seated, a long silence ensued. At length one of
them, taking up a belt of wampum, addressed
himself thus to the assembly:
"My friends and brothers, I am come, with
this belt, from our great father, Sir William
Johnson. 68 He desired me to come to you as
68 Sir William Johnson was a native of Ireland (born
1715) who came to America at an early age. Settling in
158
anti
his ambassador, and tell you that he is making
a great feast at Fort Niagara; that his kettles
are all ready, and his fires lit. He invites you
to partake of the feast, in common with your
friends, the Six Nations, which have all made
peace with the English. He advises you to
seize this opportunity of doing the same, as you
cannot otherwise fail of being destroyed; for
the English are on their march with a great
army, which will be joined by different nations
of Indians. In a word, before the fall of the
leaf they will be at Michilimackinac, and the
Six Nations 69 with them. "
The tenor of this speech greatly alarmed the
Indians of the Sault, who after a very short
consultation agreed to send twenty deputies
to Sir William Johnson at Niagara. This was
a project highly interesting to me, since it
offered me the means of leaving the country.
I intimated this to the chief of the village, and
the Mohawk Valley, he was adopted by the Iroquois,
over whom he acquired great influence, becoming the
most noted and successful Indian agent in British
America. Johnson played an active and notable part in
the Seven Years' War, and in 1761, upon the fall of
Montreal, journeyed to Detroit to reconcile the western
tribesmen to the British cause. It was from this coun-
cil that the troops were sent out to garrison Mackinac
and the other posts around the Lakes. Johnson died at
his home, "Johnson Hall," in 1774. Editor.
69 These were the confederated tribes of the Iroquois,
ancient and inveterate enemies of the Chippewa.
Editor.
159
received his promise that I should accompany
the deputation.
Very little time was proposed to be lost in
setting forward on the voyage; but the occa-
sion was of too much magnitude not to call
for more than human knowledge and dis-
cretion; and preparations were accordingly
made for solemnly invoking and consulting the
Great Turtle. 70
70 The Great Turtle was the chief among the guardian
spirits of the Chippewa. Editor.
1 60
Chapter 21
INVOKING THE GREAT TURTLE
T"""Y)R invoking and consulting the Great
|H Turtle the first thing to be done was the
building of a large house or wigwam, within
which was placed a species of tent for the use
of the priest and reception of the spirit. The
tent was formed of moose-skins, hung over a
framework of wood. Five poles, or rather
pillars, of five different species of timber,
about ten feet in height and eight inches in
diameter were set in a circle of about four feet
in diameter. The holes made to receive them
were about two feet deep; and the pillars being
set, the holes were filled up again, with the
earth which had been dug out. At top the
pillars were bound together by a circular hoop,
or girder. Over the whole of this edifice were
spread the moose-skins, covering it at top and
round the sides, and made fast with thongs of
the same; except that on one -side a part was
left unfastened, to admit of the entrance of the
priest.
The ceremonies did not commence but with
the approach of night. To give light within the
house several fires were kindled round the
tent. Nearly the whole village assembled in
the house, and myself among the rest. It was
161
not long before the priest appeared almost in a
state of nakedness. As he approached the tent
the skins were lifted up as much as was neces-
sary to allow of his creeping under them on
his hands and knees. His head was scarcely
within side when the edifice, massy as it has
been described, began to shake; and the skins
were no sooner let fall than the sounds of
numerous voices were heard beneath them,
some yelling, some barking as dogs, some
howling like wolves; and in this horrible concert
were mingled screams and sobs, as of despair,
anguish, and the sharpest pain. Articulate
speech was also uttered, as if from human lips;
but in a tongue unknown to any of the
audience.
After some time these confused and frightful
noises were succeeded by a perfect silence;
and now a voice not heard before seemed to
manifest the arrival of a new character in the
tent. This was a low and feeble voice, resem-
bling the cry of a young puppy. The sound
was no sooner distinguished, than all the
Indians clapped their hands for joy, exclaiming
that this was the Chief Spirit, the Turtle, the
spirit that never lied. Other voices which they
had discriminated from time to time they had
previously hissed, as recognizing them to
belong to evil and lying spirits, which deceive
mankind.
New sounds came from the tent. During
the space of half an hour, a succession of songs
162
anfc
were heard, in which a diversity of voices met
the ear. From his first entrance till these songs
were finished we heard nothing in the proper
voice of the priest; but now he addressed
the multitude, declaring the presence of the
Great Turtle and the spirit's readiness to an-
swer such questions as should be proposed.
The questions were to come from the chief
of the village, who was silent, however, till
after he had put a large quantity of tobacco
into the tent, introducing it at the aperture.
This was a sacrifice, offered to the spirit; for
spirits are supposed by the Indians to be as
fond of tobacco as themselves. The tobacco
accepted, he desired the priest to inquire
whether or not the English were preparing to
make war upon the Indians ? and whether or
not there were at Fort Niagara a large number
of English troops ?
These questions having been put by the
priest, the tent instantly shook; and for some
seconds after it continued to rock so violently
that I expected to see it levelled with the
ground. All this was a prelude, as I supposed,
to the answers to be given; but a terrific cry
announced, with sufficient intelligibility, the
departure of the Turtle.
A quarter of an hour elapsed in silence, and
I waited impatiently to discover what was to
be the next incident in this scene of imposture.
It consisted in the return of the spirit, whose
voice was again heard, and who now delivered
163
Jjjenrp
a continued speech. The language of the Great
Turtle, like that which we had heard before,
was wholly unintelligible to every ear, that of
his priest excepted; and it was, therefore, that
not till the latter gave us an interpretation,
which did not commence before the spirit had
finished, that we learned the purport of this
extraordinary communication.
The spirit, as we were now informed by the
priest, had during his short absence crossed
Lake Huron and even proceeded as far as
Fort Niagara, which is at the head of Lake
Ontario, and thence to Montreal. At Fort
Niagara he had seen no great number of
soldiers; but on descending the St. Lawrence as-
low as Montreal, he had found the river
covered with boats and the boats filled with
soldiers, in number like the leaves of the trees.
He had met them on their way up the river,
coming to make war upon the Indians.
The chief had a third question to propose,
and the spirit, without a fresh journey to Fort
Niagara, was able to give it an instant and
most favorable answer: "If," said the chief,
"the Indians visit Sir William Johnson, will
they be received as friends?"
"Sir William Johnson," said the spirit
(and after the spirit, the priest) "Sir William
Johnson will fill their canoes with presents;
with blankets, kettles, guns, gunpowder and
shot, and large barrels of rum such as the
stoutest of the Indians will not be able to lift;
164
anfc
and every man will return in safety to his
family."
At this the transport was universal; and
amid the clapping of hands, a hundred voices
exclaimed, " I will go, too ! I will go, too ! "
The question of public interest being re-
solved, individuals were now permitted to
seize the opportunity of inquiring into the
condition of their absent friends, and the fate
of such as were sick. I observed that the
answers given to these questions allowed of
much latitude of interpretation*
Amid this general inquisitiveness I yielded
to the solicitations of my own anxiety for the
future, and having first, like the rest, made
my offering of tobacco, I inquired, whether or
not I should ever revisit my native country.
The question being put by the priest, the tent
shook as usual; after which I received this
answer: That I should take courage and
fear no danger, for that nothing would happen
to hurt me; and that I should in the end reach
my friends and country in safety. These
assurances wrought so strongly on my gratitude
that I presented an additional and extra
offering of tobacco.
The Great Turtle continued to be consulted
till nearly midnight, when all the crowd dis-
persed to their respective lodges. I was on the
watch through the scene I have described to
detect the particular contrivances by which
the fraud was carried on; but such was the skill
165
I^enrp
displayed in the performance, or such my de-
ficiency of penetration, that I made no dis-
coveries, but came away as I went, with no
more than those general surmises which will
naturally be entertained by every reader. 71
On the tenth of June I embarked with the
Indian deputation, composed of sixteen men.
Twenty had been the number originally de-
signed; and upwards of fifty actually engaged
themselves to the council for the undertaking,
to say nothing of the general enthusiasm at
the moment of hearing the Great Turtle's
promises. But exclusively of the degree of
timidity which still prevailed, we are to take
into account the various domestic calls, which
might supersede all others, and detain many
with their families.
71 M. de Champlain has left an account of an exhibi-
tion of the nature here described, which may be seen in
Charlevoix's Histoire el Description Generate de la
Nouvelle France, Livre IV. This took place in the year
1609, and was performed among a party of warriors
composed of Algonquin, Montagnez, and Hurons.
Carver witnessed another among the Cristinaux. In
each case the details are somewhat different, but the
outline is the same. M. de Champlain mentions that
he saw the jongleur shake the stakes or pillars of the
tent. I was not so fortunate; but this is the obvious
explanation of that part of the mystery to which it
refers. Captain Carver leaves the whole in darkness.
Author.
166
Chapter 22
VOYAGE TO FORT NIAGARA
IN the evening of the second day of our
voyage we reached the mouth of the Missi-
saki, where we found about forty Indians,
by whom we were received with abundant
kindness, and at night regaled at a great feast,
held on account of our arrival. The viand was
a preparation of the roe of the sturgeon, beat up
and boiled, and of the consistence of porridge.
After eating, several speeches were made to
us, of which the general topic was a request
that we should recommend the village to Sir
William Johnson. This request was also spe-
cially addressed to me, and I promised to
comply with it.
On the fourteenth of June we passed the
village of La Cloche, of which the greater part
of the inhabitants were absent, being already
on a visit to Sir William Johnson. This cir-
cumstance greatly encouraged the companions
of my voyage, who now saw that they were
not the first to run into danger.
The next day about noon, the wind blowing
very hard, we were obliged to put ashore at
Point aux Grondines, a place of which some
description has been given above. 72 While
72 See ante, p. 33. Editor.
167
the Indians erected a hut, I employed myself
in making a fire. As I was gathering wood,
an unusual sound fixed my attention for a
moment; but as it presently ceased, and as I
saw nothing from which I could suppose it to
proceed, I continued my employment, till,
advancing farther, I was alarmed by a repeti-
tion. I imagined that it came from above
my head; but after looking that way in vain, I
cast my eyes on the ground and there dis-
covered a rattlesnake, at not more than two
feet from my naked legs. The reptile was
coiled, and its head raised considerably above
its body. Had I advanced another step before
my discovery I must have trodden upon it.
I no sooner saw the snake than I hastened
to the canoe, in order to procure my gun; but
the Indians, observing what I was doing, in-
quired the occasion, and being informed,
begged me to desist. At the same time they
followed me to the spot, with their pipes and
tobacco-pouches in their hands. On returning,
I found the snake still coiled.
The Indians on their part surrounded it, all
addressing it by turns, and calling it their
grandfather; but yet keeping at some distance.
During this part of the ceremony they filled
their pipes; and now each blew the smoke
toward the snake, who, as it appeared to me,
really received it with pleasure. In a word,
after remaining coiled and receiving incense
for the space of half an hour, it stretched itself
168
anti
along the ground in visible good humor. Its
length was between four and five feet. Having
remained outstretched for some time, at last
it moved slowly away, the Indians following it
and still addressing it by the title of grand-
father, beseeching it to take care of their
families during their absence, and to be pleased
to open the heart of Sir William Johnson so
that he might show them charity and fill their
canoe with rum.
One of the chiefs added a petition that the
snake would take no notice of the insult which
had been offered him by the Englishman, who
would even have put him to death but for the
interference of the Indians, to whom it was
hoped he would impute no part of the
offense. They further requested that he would
remain and inhabit their country, and not
return among the English; that is, go east-
ward.
After the rattlesnake was gone, I learned
that this was the first time that an individual
of the species had been seen so far to the north-
ward and westward of the River Des Francais,
a circumstance, moreover, from which my
companions were disposed to infer that this
manito had come, or been sent, on purpose to
meet them; that his errand had been no other
than to stop them on their way; and that con-
sequently it would be most advisable to return
to the point of departure. I was so fortunate,
however, as to prevail with them to embark,
169
and at six o'clock in the evening we again
encamped. Very little was spoken of through
the evening, the rattlesnake excepted.
Early the next morning we proceeded. We
had a serene sky and very little wind, and the
Indians, therefore, determined on steering
across the lake to an island which just appeared
in the horizon; saving, by this course, a dis-
tance of thirty miles, which would be lost in
keeping the shore. At nine o'clock, A. M., we
had a light breeze astern, to enjoy the benefit of
which we hoisted sail. Soon after the wind
increased and the Indians, beginning to be
alarmed, frequently called on the rattlesnake
to come to their assistance. By degrees the
waves grew high; and at eleven o'clock it blew
a hurricane and we expected every moment to
be swallowed up. From prayers the Indians
now proceeded to sacrifices, both alike offered
to the god-rattlesnake, or manito-kinibic. One
of the chiefs took a dog, and after tying its
fore-legs together threw it overboard, at the
same time calling on the snake to preserve us
from being drowned, and desiring him to sat-
isfy his hunger with the carcass of the dog.
The snake was unpropitious, and the wind
increased. Another chief sacrificed another
dog, with the addition of some tobacco. In
the prayer which accompanied these gifts he
besought the snake, as before, not to avenge
upon the Indians the insult which he had
received from myself, in the conception of a
170
design to put him to death. He assured the
snake that I was absolutely an Englishman,
and of kin neither to him nor to them.
At the conclusion of this speech an Indian,
who sat near me, observed that if we were
drowned it would be for my fault alone, and
that I ought myself to be sacrificed to appease
the angry manito; nor was I without appre-
hensions that in case of extremity this would
be my fate; but happily for me the storm at
length abated, and we reached the island
safely.
The next day was calm and we arrived at the
entrance 73 of the navigation which leads to
Lake aux Claies. 74 We presently passed two
short carrying-places, at each of which were
several lodges of Indians, 75 containing only
women and children, the men being gone to
the council at Niagara. From this, as from a
former instance, my companions derived new
courage.
On the eighteenth of June we crossed Lake
aux Claies, which appeared to be upward
of twenty miles in length. At its farther end
73 This is the Bay of Matchedash, or Matchitashk.
Author.
74 This lake, which is now called Lake Simcoe, lies
between Lakes Huron and Ontario. Author.
75 These Indians are called Chippewas, of the par-
ticular description called Missisakies; and from
their residence at Matchedash, or Matchitashk,
also called Matchedash or Matkitashk Indians.
Author.
171
we came to the carrying-place of Toranto. 76
Here the Indians obliged me to carry a burden
of more than a hundred pounds weight. The
day was very hot and the woods and marshes
abounded with mosquitoes; but the Indians
walked at a quick pace, and I could by no
means see myself left behind. The whole
country was a thick forest, through which our
only road was a footpath, or such as in America
is exclusively termed an Indian path.
Next morning at ten o'clock we reached the
shore of Lake Ontario. Here we were employed
two days in making canoes out of the bark of
the elm tree in which we were to transport
ourselves to Niagara. For this purpose the
Indians first cut down a tree; then stripped off
the bark in one entire sheet of about eighteen
feet in length, the incision being lengthwise.
The canoe was now complete as to its top, bot-
tom, and sides. Its ends were next closed by
sewing the bark together; and a few ribs and
bars being introduced, the architecture was
finished. In this manner we made two canoes,
of which one carried eight men and the other
nine.
On the twenty-first we embarked at Toranto
76 Toranto, or Toronto, is the name of a French trad-
ing-house on Lake Ontario, built near the site of the
present town of York, the capital of the province of
Upper Canada. Author.
"The present town of York" has since become, by a
happy transformation, the modern city of Toronto.
Editor.
172
and
and encamped, in the evening, four miles
short of Fort Niagara, which the Indians
would not approach till morning.
At dawn the Indians were awake, and pres-
ently assembled in council, still doubtful as
to the fate they were to encounter. I assured
them of the most friendly welcome; and at
length, after painting themselves with the most
lively colors in token of their own peaceable
views, and after singing the song which is in
use among them on going into danger, they
embarked and made for Point Missisaki,
which is on the north side of the mouth of the
river or strait of Niagara, as the fort is on the
south. 77 A few minutes after, I crossed over to
the fort; and here I was received by Sir Wil-
liam Johnson in a manner for which I have
ever been gratefully attached to his person and
memory.
Thus was completed my escape from the
sufferings and dangers which the capture of
Fort Michilimackinac brought upon me; but
the property which I had carried into the
Upper Country was left behind. The reader
will, therefore, be far from attributing to me
any idle or unaccountable motive when he
finds me returning to the scene of my mis-
fortune.
77 The course of the Niagara is almost due north and
south. Fort Niagara was on the east side of the river,
Point Mississaga on the west.
173
Chapter 23
THE RETURN TO MACKINAC
A Fort Niagara I found General Brad-
street 78 with a force of three thousand
men, preparing to embark for Detroit
with a view to raise the siege which it had sus-
tained against Pontiac, for twelve months
together. The English in this time had lost
many men; and Pontiac had been frequently
on the point of carrying the place, though
gallantly defended by Major Gladwyn, its
commandant. 79
General Bradstreet, having learned my his-
tory, informed me that it was his design, on
78 Bradstreet was at this time a colonel. A native of
England, he had become a colonist by adoption and
won distinction at the siege of Louisburg in 1745. His
service in the Seven Years' War won for him the rank of
colonel, but on the expedition against the western
Indians, to which Henry became attached, Bradstreet's
conduct was far from notable. He became a general in
1772, and died at Detroit two years later. Editor.
79 The classic account of the siege of Detroit is by
Francis Parkman in his Conspiracy of Pontiac. Henry
Gladwin, commander at Detroit, had come to America
as a lieutenant in 1 755. He was wounded in Braddock's
Defeat of that year, and again at Ticonderoga in 1758.
He served efficiently throughout the war, and upon the
conclusion of Pontiac's War returned (in 1764) to
England. In 1782 he became a major-general, dying
nine years afterward. Editor.
174
Crafcdg anfc
arriving at Detroit, to detach a body of troops
to Michilimackinac, and politely assured me
of his services in recovering my property there.
With these temptations before me I was easily
induced to follow the General to Detroit.
But I was not to go as a mere looker-on. On
the contrary, I was invested with the honor of a
command in a corps, of the exploits, however,
of which I can give no flattering account.
Besides the sixteen Saulteurs, or Chippe-
wa, of the Sault de Ste. Marie, with whom I
had come to Fort Niagara, there were already
at that place eighty Matchedash Indians, the
same whose lodges we passed at the carrying-
places of Lake aux Claies. These ninety-six
men being formed into what was called the
Indian Battalion, were furnished with neces-
saries, and I was appointed to be their leader
me, whose best hope it had very lately been to
live through their forbearance.
On the tenth of July the army marched for
Fort Schlausser, 80 a stockaded post above the
Great Falls, and I ordered my Indians to march
also. Only ten of the whole number were ready
at the call, but the rest promised to follow the
next morning. With my skeleton battalion,
therefore, I proceeded to the fort, and there
waited the whole of the next day, impatiently
80 Fort Schlosser was built by the British in 1759 at
the upper end of the portage around Niagara Falls.
Near here, on September 13, 1763, occurred the mas-
sacre of Devil's Hole. Editor.
175
expecting the remainder. I waited in vain; and
the day following returned to Fort Niagara,
when I found that they had all deserted, going
back to their homes, equipment and all, by
the way of Toranto. I thought their conduct,
though dishonest, not very extraordinary;
since the Indians employed in the siege of
Detroit, against whom we were leading them,
were at peace with their nation, and their own
friends and kinsmen. Amid the general deser-
tion four Missisakies joined the ten whom I
had left at Fort Schlausser.
For the transport of the army on Lake Erie
barges had been expressly built, capable of
carrying a hundred men each, with their
provisions. One of these was allowed to me and
my Indians.
On the fourteenth we embarked at Fort
Schlausser, and in the evening encamped at
Fort Erie. Here the Indians, growing drunk,
amused themselves with a disorderly firing
of their muskets in the camp. On this, General
Bradstreet ordered all the rum in the Indian
quarters to be seized and thrown away. The
Indians, in consequence, threatened to desert;
and the general, judging it proper to assume
a high tone, immediately assembled the chiefs
(for among the fourteen Indians there were
more chiefs "than one) and told them that he had
no further occasion for their services, and that
such of them as should follow his camp would
be considered as soldiers, and subjected to
176
Cratoelg anfc
military discipline accordingly. After hearing
the General's speech, the majority set out for
Fort Niagara the same evening, and thence
returned to their own country by the way of
Toranto; and thus was my poor battalion
still further diminished!
On our fifth day from Fort Schlausser we
reached Presqu'isle, 81 where we dragged our
barges over the neck of land, but not without
straining their timbers; and with more loss of
time, as I believe, than if we had rowed
round. On the twentieth day we were off the
mouth of the river which falls into Sandusky
Bay, where a council of war was held on the
question whether it were more advisable to
attack and destroy the Indian villages on the
Miami or to proceed for Detroit direct. Early
the next morning, it having been determined
that, considering the villages were populous as
well as hostile, it was necessary to destroy
them, we entered the Miami; but were pres-
ently met by a deputation offering peace.
The offer was accepted; but it was not till after
two days, during which we had begun to be
doubtful of the enemy's intention, that the
chiefs arrived.
When they came, a sort of armistice was
81 Modern Erie, Pennsylvania. The French had had
a post here, which was abandoned and burned after the
fall of Montreal in 1760, in advance of the coming of
the English. The latter arrived on July 17, and pro-
ceeded to rebuild the fort. Editor.
177
agreed upon; 82 and they promised to meet the
General at Detroit within fifteen days. At
that place terms of peace were to be settled
in a general council. On the eighth of August
we landed at Detroit. 88
The Indians of the Miami were punctual,
and a general peace was concluded. Pontiac,
who could do nothing against the force which
was now opposed to him and who saw himself
abandoned by his followers, unwilling to trust
his fortunes with the English, fled to the
Illinois. 84
82 This occurred at Presque Isle, rather than Sandus-
ky. Bradstreet's highly injudicious procedure in this
connection was promptly disavowed by his superior
officers. "They have negotiated with you on Lake
Erie, and cut our throats upon the frontiers," wrote
General Gage to Bradstreet on October 15, and in this
.and other communications' he spoke bitterly of Brad-
street's conduct. Editor.
83 Bradstreet's army reached Detroit on August 26.
Editor.
84 It is very possible, nevertheless, that Pontiac sub-
sequently joined the English, and that a portion of
what is related by Carver concerning his latter history
and death is true. It cannot, however, be intended to
insinuate that an English governor was party to the
assassination:
"Pontiac henceforward seemed to have laid aside the
animosity he had hitherto borne towards the English,
and apparently became their zealous friend. To re-
ward this new attachment, and to insure a continuance
of it, government allowed him a handsome pension.
But his restless and intriguing spirit would not suffer
him to be grateful for this allowance, and his conduct
at length grew suspicious; so that going, in the year
178 ,
anfc
On the day following that of the treaty of
peace, Captain Howard was detached, with
two companies and three hundred Canadian
volunteers, for Fort Michilimackinac; 85 and
I embarked at the same time.
1767, to hold a council in the country of the Illinois, a
faithful Indian, who was either commissioned by one
of the English governors, or instigated by the love he
bore the English nation, attended him as a spy; and
being convinced from the speech of Pontiac made in
the council, that he still retained his former prejudices
against those for whom he now professed a friendship,
he plunged his knife into his heart, as soon as he had
done speaking, and laid him dead on the spot."
Author.
Pontiac relapsed into obscurity following the un-
successful ending of the war against the English which
he had originated and led. In 1 769, while paying a
visit to St. Louis, he crossed the river to Cahokia and
was there slain by a Kaskaskia Indian who was bribed
thereto by an English trader for the present of a barrel
of rum. His body was carried across the river to St.
Louis and there buried. "For a mausoleum," says
Parkman, "a city has arisen above the forest hero; and
the race whom he hated with such burning rancor
trample with unceasing footsteps over his forgotten
grave." Editor.
86 The figures have been transposed by Henry;
Captain Howard had 300 English troops and two
companies of Canadians of fifty men each. In 1775
Governor Hamilton of Detroit reported to General
Guy Carleton that he had been informed "by a person
of character here " that Colonel Bradstreet had prom-
ised to pay the Canadians who went with Captain
Howard half a dollar per day, which was never given
them, "tho they had neglected their harvest and
returned half naked. Such a precedent," continued
Hamilton, "must be of the worst consequence and I
179
II
From Detroit to the mouth of Lake Huron
is called a distance of eighty miles. From the
fort to Lake St. Claire, which is only seven
miles, the lands are cultivated on both sides
of the strait, and appeared to be laid out in
very comfortable farms. In the strait, on
the right hand is a village of Huron, and at the
mouth of Lake St. Claire a village of Ottawa.
We met not a single Indian on our voyage, the
report of the arrival of the English army having
driven every one from the shores of the lake.
On our arrival at Michilimackinac the
Ottawa of L'Arbre Croche were sent for to
the fort. They obeyed the summons, bringing
with them some Chippewa .chiefs, and peace
was concluded with both.
For myself, having much property due to me
at Ste. Marie's, I resolved on spending the
winter at that place. I was in part successful;
and in the spring I returned to Michilimackinac.
The pause which I shall here make in my
narrative might with some propriety have been
placed at the conclusion of the preceding
chapter; but it is here that my first series of
adventures are brought truly to an end. What
remains belongs to a second enterprise, wholly
independent of the preceding.
mention the fact to your Excellency as it has left a deep
impression upon those who were sufferers from such
a dishonorable breach of word and credit." R. G.
Thwaites and L. P. Kellogg Revolution on the Upper
Ohio (Madison, 1908), 133-34. Editor.
180
PART TWO .
LAKE SUPERIOR AND THE CANADIAN
NORTHWEST, 1765-76
JOURNEY TO CHEQUAMEGON
UNDER the French government of Can-
ada the fur trade was subject to a
variety of regulations, established and
enforced by the royal authority; and in 1765,
the period at which I began to prosecute it
anew, some remains of the ancient system were
still preserved. No person could go into the
countries lying north-westward of Detroit un-
less furnished with a license; and the exclusive
trade of particular districts was capable of
being enjoyed in virtue of grants from military
commanders.
The exclusive trade of Lake Superior was
given to myself by the commandant of Fort
Michilimackinac; and to prosecute it I pur-
chased goods, which I found at this post, at
twelve months' credit. My stock was the
freight of four canoes, and I took it at the price
of ten thousand pounds weight of good and
merchantable beaver. It is in beaver that
accounts are kept at Michilimackinac; but in
defect of this article, other furs and skins are
accepted in payments, being first reduced unto
their value in beaver. Beaver was at this time
at the price of two shillings and six pence per
pound, Michilimackinac currency; otter skins,
183
J^cnrp
at six shillings each; marten, at one shilling
and six pence, and others in proportion.
To carry the goods to my wintering ground
in Lake Superior, I engaged twelve men at
two hundred and fifty livres, of the same cur-
rency, each; that is, a hundred pounds weight
of beaver. For provisions, I purchased fifty
bushels of maize at ten pounds of beaver per
bushel. At this place specie was so wholly out
of the question that in going to a cantine, 1 you
took with you a marten's skin, to pay your
reckoning. 2
On the fourteenth of July, 1765 I embarked
for the Sault de Ste. Marie, where, on my arrival,
I took into partnership M. Cadotte, whom I
have already had frequent occasion to name;
and on the 26th I proceeded for my wintering
ground, which was to be fixed at Chagouemig. 3
1 The post canteen. Editor.
2 See Part One, chapter v. Author.
3 Modern Chequamegon Bay, near whose head stands
the city of Ashland, Wisconsin. In this vicinity is one
of the oldest centers of French activity in the interior of
the continent. Here two daring traders, Groseilliers and
Radisson, established headquarters two decades before
William Penn founded the City of Brotherly Love.
Here for four years, beginning in October, 1665, Father
Allouez labored unavailingly to soften the hearts of the
contumacious red men. From here Father Marquette
followed the Ottawa and Huron bands, fleeing eastward
before the avenging Sioux, to establish at the Straits
of Mackinac the mission of St. Ignace. Following
Radisson and Groseilliers came a long succession of
traders whose names have now become commonplaces
184
anti
The next morning I crossed the Strait of
Ste. Marie, or of Lake Superior, to a point
which the Chippewa call the Grave of the
Iroquois. 4 To this name there belongs a
tradition that the Iroquois, who at a certain
time made war upon the Chippewa, with the
design of dispossessing them of their country,
encamped one night a thousand strong upon
this point; where, thinking themselves secure
from their numbers, they indulged in feasting
on the bodies of their prisoners. The sight,
however, of the sufferings and humiliation of
their kindred and friends so wrought upon
the Chippewa, who beheld them from the
opposite shore, that with the largest number
of warriors they could collect, but which
amounted only to three hundred, they crossed
the channel and at break of day fell upon the
Iroquois, now sleeping after their excesses, and
put one and all to death. Of their own party,
they lost but a single man; and he died of a
in the history of the Northwest Duluth, Le Sueur,
La Ronde, Henry, the Cadottes, the Warren brothers,
and others. For the early history of the place see
Thwaites, "Story of Chequamegon Bay" in Wis.
Hist. Colls., XIII, 397-425. Editor.
4 Iroquois Point is in modem Chippewa County,
Michigan. Nearby is the village of Iroquois. The
tragedy which gave their names to point and village
occurred in 1662. A detailed narrative of the affair
by Perrot is in Emma H. Blair's Indian Tribes of the
Upper Mississippi Valley and Region of the Great Lakes
(Cleveland, 1911), I, 178-80. Editor.
&lejtanber
wound which he received from an old woman,
who stabbed him with an. awl. She was at
work, making shoes for the family, when he
broke into the lodge, near the entrance of which
she sat. Some of the old men of my crew
remembered at this place to have seen bones.
On the lake we fell in with Indians, of whom
I purchased provisions. One party agreed to
accompany me, to hunt for me, on condition of
being supplied with necessaries on credit.
On the nineteenth of August we reached the
mouth of the river Ontonagan, one of the
largest on the south side of the lake. At the
mouth was an Indian village; and at three
leagues above, a fall, at the foot of which
sturgeon were at this season so abundant that
a month's subsistence for a regiment could
have been taken in a few hours.
But I found this river chiefly remarkable for
the abundance of virgin copper which is on
its banks and in its neighborhood, and of which
the reputation is at present more generally
spread than it was at the time of this my first
visit. The attempts which were shortly after
made to work the mines of Lake Superior to
advantage will very soon claim a place among
the facts which I am to describe.
The copper presented itself to the eye in
masses of various weight. The Indians showed
me one of twenty pounds. They were used to
manufacture this metal into spoons and brace-
lets for themselves. In the perfect state in
1 86
Cratoelg anfc
which they found it, it required nothing but to
be beat into shape. The Pi-wa-tic, or Iron
River, 6 enters the lake to the westward of the
Ontonagan; and here, as is pretended, silver
was found while the country was in the pos-
session of the French.
Beyond this river I met more Indians, whom
I furnished with merchandise on credit. The
prices were, for a stroud blanket, ten beaver-
skins; for a white blanket, eight; a pound of
powder, two; a pound of shot, or of ball, one;
a gun, twenty; an axe of one pound weight,
two; a knife, one. Beaver, it will be remem-
bered, was worth at Michilimackinac two
shillings and sixpence a pound, in the cur-
rency of that place; that is, six livres, or a
dollar.
On my arrival at Chagouemig I found fifty
lodges of Indians there. These people were
almost naked, their trade having been inter-
rupted, first by the English invasion of Canada
and next by Pontiac's War.
Adding the Indians of Chagouemig to those
which I had brought with me, I had now a
hundred families, to all of whom I was required
to advance goods on credit. At a council
which I was invited to attend, the men de-
clared that unless their demands were complied
with their wives and children would perish;
for that there were neither ammunition nor
* Modern Iron River, in Ontonagon County, Michi-
gan. Editor.
187
clothing left among them. Under these circum-
stances I saw myself obliged to distribute goods
to the amount of three thousand beaver-skins.
This done, the Indians went on their hunt, at
the distance of a hundred leagues. A clerk,
acting as my agent, accompanied them to
Fond du Lac, 6 taking with him two loaded
canoes. Meanwhile, at the expense of six
days' labor I was provided with a very com-
fortable house for my winter's residence.
6 At or near the site of modern Superior, Wisconsin.
Editor.
188
Chapter 2
THE WINTER AT CHEQUAMEGON
CHAGOUEMIG, or Chagouemigon, might
at this period be regarded as the metrop-
olis of the Chippewa, of whom the
true name is O'chibbuoy. The chiefs informed
me that they had frequently attacked the
Nadowessies (by the French called Sioux or
Nadouessioux) with whom they are always
at war, with fifteen hundred men including
in this number the fighting men from Fond du
Lac, or the head of Lake Superior. The cause
of the perpetual war carried on between these
two nations, is this, that both claim as their
exclusive hunting ground the tract of country
which lies between them, and uniformly attack
each other when they meet upon it. 7
7 This immemorial warfare between the Chippewa
and the Sioux was continued until almost our own day.
In August, 1919, there died at Beaulieu, Minnesota, a
Chippewa chief (Mayzhuckegeshig) who in earlier life
had repeatedly led his braves to battle against the
Sioux. When a warrior distinguished himself in battle
by killing and scalping his foeman he was usually
decorated with a feather from a war eagle. Some
indication alike of the prowess and of the manner of life
of Mayzhuckegeshig in his earlier years is afforded by
the fact that he had accumulated some twenty of these
prized trophies. In 1825 Governor Cass met the Sioux
and the Chippewa in council at Prairie du Chien,
189
The Chippewa of Chagouemig are a hand-
some, well-made people; and much more
cleanly, as well as much more regular in the
government of their families, than the Chip-
pewa of Lake Huron. The women have agree-
able features and take great pains in dressing
their hair, which consists in neatly dividing it
on the forehead and top of the head and in
plaiting and turning it up behind. The men
paint as well their whole body as their face;
sometimes with charcoal, and sometimes with
white ocher; and appear to study how to make
themselves as unlike as possible to anything
human. The clothing in which I found them,
both men and women, was chiefly of dressed
deer-skin, European manufactures having been
for some time out of their reach. In this re-
spect, it was not long after my goods were dis-
persed among them before they were scarcely
to be known for the same people. The wom-
en heightened the color of their cheeks, and
Wisconsin, in an effort to arrange their boundary
disputes and thus end the interminable warfare between
the two tribes. When he asked the Sioux chiefs on what
ground they claimed the territory in dispute they an-
swered, "by possession and occupation from our fore-
fathers. " Turning to the Chippewa, ^Cass put the same
question, to which the noted Hole-in-the-Day, rising
with a graceful gesture, replied: "My Father, we
claim it on the same ground that you claim this country
from the British king by conquest. We drove them
from the country by force of arms, and have since
occupied it; and they dare not try to dispossess us of
our habitations. " Editor.
190 '
Crafcelg anU
really animated thei^ beauty, by a liberal use
of vermilion.
My house being completed, my winter's
food was the next object; and for this purpose,
with the assistance of my men, I soon took two
thousand trout and whitefish, the former fre-
quently weighing fifty pounds each and the
latter commonly from four to six. We pre-
served them by suspending them by the tail in
the open air. These, without bread or salt,
were our food through all the winter, the men
being free to consume what quantity they
pleased and boiling or roasting them whenever
they thought proper. After leaving Michili-
mackinac I saw no bread; and I found less
difficulty in reconciling myself to the privation
than I could have anticipated.
On the fifteenth of December the Bay of
Chagouemig was frozen entirely over. After
this I resumed my former amusement of spear-
ing trout, and sometimes caught a hundred of
these fish in a day, each weighing on an average
twenty pounds.
My house, which stood in the bay, was shel-
tered by an island of fifteen miles in length, 8
and between which and the main the channel
is four miles broad. On the island there was
formerly a French trading-post, much fre-
quented; and in its neighborhood a large
Indian village. To the south-east is a lake,
called Lake des Outaouais, from the Ottawa.
8 Modern Madelaine Island. Editor.
191
its former possessors 9 ; but it is now the prop-
erty of the Chippewa.
From the first hunting party which brought
me furs I experienced some disorderly be-
havior; but happily without serious issue.
Having crowded into my house and demanded
rum, which I refused them, they talked
of indulging themselves in a general pillage,
and I found myself abandoned by all my men.
Fortunately I was able to arm myself; and on
my threatening to shoot the first who should
lay his hands on anything, the tumult began
to subside and was presently after at an end.
When over, my men appeared to be truly
ashamed of their cowardice, and made promises
never to behave in a similar manner again.
Admonished of my danger, I now resolved
on burying the liquor which I had; and the
Indians, once persuaded that I had none to
9 Lac Court Oreilles in Sawyer County, Wisconsin,
about eighty miles southwest of Henry's wintering
place. Hither the Ottawa fled in the seventeenth
century, seeking refuge from the destroying Iroquois.
Although they remained for but a brief period they
returned to the place on subsequent hunting expedi-
tions. The Ottawa acquired the sobriquet of Court
Oreilles (short ears) not because they practiced clip-
ping these organs, but because, unlike certain other
tribes who distended the lobe by ornaments or weights,
they left their ears in their natural condition. The
Ottawa have long since disappeared from the vicinity
of Lac Court Oreilles, where there is today an Indian
reservation inhabited by several hundred Chippewa.
Editor.
192
anH
give them, went and came very peaceably,
paying their debts and purchasing goods. In
the month of March the manufacture of maple
sugar engaged, as usual, their attention.
While the snow still lay on the ground, I
proposed to the Indians to join me in a hunting
excursion, and they readily agreed. Shortly
after we went out my companions discovered
dents or hollows in the snow, which they
affirmed to be the footsteps of a bear, made in
the beginning of the winter, after the first
snow. As for me, I should have passed over
the same ground without acquiring any such
information; and probably without remarking
the very faint traces which they were able to
distinguish, and certainly without deducting
so many particular facts: but what can be
more credible than that long habits of close
observation in the forest should give the Indian
hunter some advantages in the exercise of his
daily calling? The Indians were not deceived;
for on following the traces which they had
found they were led to a tree at the root of
which was a bear.
As I had proposed this hunt, I was by the
Indian custom the master and the proprietor
of all the game; but the head of the family
which composed my party begged to have the
bear, alleging that he much desired to make a
feast to the Kichi Manito, or Great Spirit, who
had preserved himself and his family through
the winter and brought them in safety to the
193
lake. On his receiving my consent, the women
went to the spot where we had killed the bear
and where the carcass had been left in safety,
buried deep in the snow. They brought the
booty back with them, and kettles being hung
over the fires, the whole bear was dressed for
the feast.
About an hour after dark accompanied by
four of my men I repaired to the place of
sacrifice, according to invitation. The number
of the Indians exactly equalled ours, there
being two men and three women; so that
together we were ten persons, upon whom it
was incumbent to eat up the whole bear. I. was
obliged to receive into my own plate, or dish,
a portion of not less than ten pounds weight,
and each of my men were supplied with twice
this quantity. As to the Indians, one of them
had to his share the head, the breast, the heart,
with its surrounding fat, and all the four feet;
and the whole of this he swallowed in two
hours. He, as well as the rest, had finished be-
fore I had got through half my toil; and my
men were equally behindhand. In this situa-
tion one of them resorted to an experiment
which had a ludicrous issue, and which at the
same time served to discover a fresh feature
in the superstitions of the Indians. Having
first observed to us that a part of the cheer
would be very acceptable to him the next day,
when his appetite should be returned, he with-
drew a part of the contents of his dish and
194
anti
made it fast to the girdle which he wore under
his shirt. While he disposed in this manner
of his superabundance I, who found myself
unable to perform my part, requested the
Indians to assist me; and this they cheerfully
did, eating what I had found too much with
as much apparent ease as if their stomachs
had been previously empty. The feast being
brought to an end, and the prayer and thanks-
giving pronounced, those near the door de-
parted; but when the poor fellow who had
concealed his meat, and who had to pass from
the farther end of the lodge, rose up to go, two
dogs, guided by the scent, laid hold of the
treasure and tore it to the ground. The Indians
were greatly astonished; but presently ob-
served that the Great Spirit had led the dogs
by inspiration to the act in order to frustrate the
profane attempt to steal away this portion of
the offering. As matters stood the course they
took was to put the meat into the fire and there
consume it.
On the twentieth of April the ice broke up,
and several canoes arrived filled with women
and children who reported that the men of
their band were all gone out to war against, the
Nadowessies. On the fifteenth of May a part
of the warriors, with some others, arrived in
fifty canoes, almost every one of which had
a cargo of furs. The warriors gave me some
account of their campaign, stating that they
had set out in search of the enemy four
hundred strong and that on the fourth day
from their leaving their village they had met
the enemy and been engaged in battle. The
battle, as they related, raged the greater part
of the day and in the evening the Nadowessies
to the number of six hundred fell back across
a river which lay behind them, encamping
in this position for the night. The Chippewa
had thirty-five killed and they took advantage
of the suspension of the fray to prepare the
bodies of their friends, and then retired to a
small distance from the place expecting the
Nadowessies to recross the stream in the
morning and come again to blows. In this,
however, they were disappointed; for the
Nadowessies continued their retreat without
even doing the honors of war to the slain. To
do these honors is to scalp, and to prepare the
bodies is to dress and paint the remains of the
dead, preparatorily to this mark of attention
from the enemy: "The neglect," said the Chip-
pewa, "was an affront to us a disgrace; be-
cause we consider it an honor to have the scalps
of our countrymen exhibited in- the villages
of our enemies in testimony of our valor."
The concourse of Indians already mentioned,
with others who came after, all rich in furs,
enabled me very speedily to close my traffic for
the spring, disposing of all the goods which on
taking M. Cadotte into partnership had been
left in my own hands. I found myself in pos-
session of a hundred and fifty packs of beaver
196
anti
weighing a hundred pounds each, besides
twenty-five packs of otter and marten skins;
and with this part of the fruits of my adventure
I embarked for Michilimackinac, sailing in
company with fifty canoes of Indians who had
still a hundred packs of beaver which I was
unable to purchase.
On my way I encamped a second time at the
mouth of the Ontonagan and now took the
opportunity of going ten miles up the river
with Indian guides. The object which I went
most expressly to see, and to which I had the
satisfaction of being led, was a mass of copper
of the weight, according to my estimate, of no
less than five tons. Such was its pure and mal-
leable state, that with an axe I was able to cut
off a portion weighing a hundred pounds. 10
On viewing the surrounding surface I conjec-
tured that the mass at some period or other
had rolled from the side of a lofty hill which
rises at its back.
10 This mass of copper, later known as Copper Rock,
was known to explorers from a very early period. At
the time of the boom in the Copper Country in the
early 'forties, possession was taken of Copper Rock by
some miners from the lead-mines ot southern Wisconsin.
It was later removed to the Smithsonian Institution
at Washington. Editor.
197
FAMINE AT THE SAULT
I PASSED the winter following at the Sault
de Ste. Marie. Fish, at this place, are
' usually so abundant in the autumn that
precautions are not taken for a supply of
provisions for the winter; but this year the
fishery failed, and the early setting-in of the
frost rendered it impracticable to obtain
assistance from Michilimackinac. To the
increase of our difficulties, five men, whom, on
the prospect of distress, I had sent to subsist
themselves at a distant post, came back on the
day before Christmas, driven in by want.
Under these circumstances, and having
heard that fish might be found in Oak Bay,
called by the French, Anse a la Pdche, or Fish-
ing Cove, 11 which is on the north side of Lake
Superior, at the distance of twelve leagues
from the Sault, I lost no time in repairing
thither, taking with me several men, with a
pint of maize only for each person.
In Oak Bay we were generally able to obtain
a supply of food, sometimes doing so with great
facility, but at others going to bed hungry.
11 "Ance a la Pfiche" is shown on Bellin's map of
Canada of 1745 as the indentation on the east side of
modern Whitefish Bay into which the Goulais River
empties. Editor.
198
anfc
After being here a fortnight, we were joined by
a body of Indians, flying, like ourselves, from
famine. Two days after, there came a young
Indian out of the woods alone, and reporting
that he had left the family to which he be-
longed behind in a starving condition and
unable, from their weakly and exhausted state,
to pursue their journey to the bay. The ap-
pearance of this youth was frightful; and from
his squalid figure there issued a stench which
none of us could support.
His arrival struck our camp with horror and
uneasiness; and it was not long before the In-
dians came to me, saying, that they suspected
he had been eating human flesh, and even
that he had killed and devoured the family
which he pretended to have left behind.
These charges, upon being questioned, he
denied; but not without so much equivocation
in his answers as to increase the presumption
against him. In consequence, the Indians
determined on traveling a day's journey on his
track; observing that they should be able to
discover from his encampments whether he
were guilty or not. The next day they re-
turned, bringing with them a human hand and
skull. The hand had been left roasting before
a fire, while the intestines, taken out of the
body from which it was cut, hung fresh on a
neighboring tree.
The youth, being informed of these dis-
coveries, and further questioned, confessed the
199
crime of which he was accused. From the
account he now proceeded to give it appeared
that the family had consisted of his. uncle and
aunt, their four children, and himself. One
of the children was a boy of fifteen years of
age. His uncle, after firing at several beasts of
the chase, all of which he missed, fell into de-
spondence, and persuaded himself that it was
the will of the Great Spirit that he should
rish. In this state of mind, he requested
is wife to kill him. The woman refused to
comply; but the two lads, one of them, as has
been said, the nephew, and the other the son
of the unhappy man, agreed between them-
selves to murder him, to prevent, as our in-
formant wished us to believe, his murdering
them. Accomplishing their detestable pur-
pose, they devoured the body; and famine
pressing upon them still closer, they succes-
sively killed the three younger children, upon
whose flesh they subsisted for some time, and
with a part of which the parricides at length
set out for the lake, leaving the woman, who
was too feeble to travel, to her fate. On their
way, their foul victuals failed; the youth
before us killed his companion; and it was a
part of the remains of this last victim that had
been discovered at the fire.
The Indians entertain an opinion that the
man who has once made human flesh his food
will never afterward be satisfied with any
other. It is probable that we saw things in
200
Cratoelg anfc
some measure through the medium of our prej-
udices; but I confess that this distressing ob-
ject appeared to verify the doctrine. He ate
with relish nothing that was given him; but,
indifferent to the food prepared, fixed his eyes
continually on the children which were in the
Indian lodge, and frequently exclaimed, "How
fat they are!" It was perhaps not unnatural
that after long acquaintance with no human
form but such as was gaunt and pale from want
of food, a man's eyes should be almost riveted
upon anything where misery had not made
such inroads, and still more upon the bloom
and plumpness of childhood; and the exclama-
tion might be the most innocent, and might
proceed from an involuntary and unconquerable
sentiment of admiration. Be this as it may, his
behavior was considered, and not less naturally,
as marked with the most alarming symptoms;
and the Indians, apprehensive that he would
prey upon their children, resolved on putting
him to death. They did this the next day with
the single stroke of an axe, aimed at his head
from behind, and of the approach of which he
had not the smallest intimation.
Soon after this affair our supply of fish, even
here, began to fail; and we resolved, in conse-
quence, to return to the Sault, in the hope that
some supply might have arrived there. Want,
however, still prevailed at that place, and no
stranger had visited it; we set off, therefore,
to Michilimackinac, taking with us only one
meal 's provision for each person. Happily, at
our first encampment an hour's fishing pro-
cured us seven trout, each from ten pounds
weight to twenty. At the River Miscoutinsaki
we found two lodges of Indians who had fish,
and who generously gave us part. The next
day we continued our journey till, meeting
with a caribou, I was so fortunate as to kill it.
We encamped close to the carcass, which
weighed about four hundred pounds, and sub-
sisted ourselves upon it for two days. On the
seventh day of our march we reached Fort
Michilimackinac, where our difficulties ended.
On the first of July there arrived a hundred
canoes from the Northwest, laden with beaver.
202
LEGENDS OF NANIBOJOU
THE same year I chose my wintering
ground at Michipicoten on the north
side of Lake Superior, distant fifty
leagues from the Sault de Ste. Marie. On my
voyage, after passing the great capes which are
at the mouth of the lake, I observed the banks
to be low and stony and in some places run-
ning a league back to the feet of a ridge of
mountains.
At Point Mamance the beach appeared to
abound in mineral substances and I met with a
vein of lead ore, where the metal abounded in
the form of cubical crystals. Still coasting
along the lake, I found several veins of copper
ore of that kind which the miners call gray ore.
From Mamance to Nanibojou is fifteen
leagues. Nanibojou is on the eastern side of
the Bay of Michipicoten. At the opposite
point, or cape, are several small islands, under
one of which, according to Indian tradition,
is buried Nanibojou, a person of the most
sacred memory. Nanibojou is otherwise called
by the names of Minabojou, Michabou, Mes-
sou, Shactac, and a variety of others, but of
all of which the interpretation appears to be
the Great Hare. The traditions related of the
203
Great Hare are as varied as his name. 12 He
was represented to me as the founder, and in-
deed the creator, of the Indian nations of
North America. He lived originally toward
the going-down of the sun where, being warned
in a dream that the inhabitants would be
drowned by a general flood produced by heavy
rains, he built a raft, on which he afterwards
preserved his own family and all the animal
world without exception. According to his
dream, the rains fell and a flood ensued. His
raft drifted for many moons during which
no land was discovered. His family began to
despair of a termination to the calamity, and
the animals, who had then the use of speech,
murmured loudly against him. In the end he
produced a new earth, placed the animals upon
it, and created man.
At a subsequent period he took from the
animals the use of speech. This act of severity
was performed in consequence of a conspiracy
into which they had entered against the human
race. At the head of the conspiracy was the
bear; and the great increase which had taken
place among the animals rendered their num-
bers formidable. I have heard many other
12 The legends of Nanibojou, dealing with the myth
of the creation, are preserved among many and widely
scattered tribes. In 1804 Captain Thomas G. Anderson
found at the site of modern Two Rivers, Wisconsin,
an Indian chief named Nannabojou. His account of
the origin and significance of his name is recorded in
Wis. Hist. Colls., IX, 155-57. Editor.
204
anti
stories concerning Nanibojou, and many have
been already given to the public; and this at
least is certain, that sacrifices are offered on
the island which is called his grave or tumulus,
by all who pass it. I landed there and found
on the projecting rocks a quantity of tobacco
rotting in the rain, together with kettles,
broken guns, and a variety of other articles.
His spirit is supposed to make this its constant
residence; and here to preside over the lake,
and over the Indians, in their navigation and
fishing.
This island lies no farther from the main
than the distance of five hundred yards. On
the opposite beach I found several pieces of
virgin copper, of which many were remarkable
for their form, some resembling leaves of
vegetables and others, animals. Their weight
was from an ounce to three pounds.
From the island to my proposed wintering
ground the voyage was about ten leagues. The
lake is here bordered by a rugged and elevated
country, consisting in mountains of which for
the most part the feet are in the water and the
heads in the clouds. The river which falls into
the bay is a large one but has a bar at its en-
trance over which there is no more than four
feet water.
On reaching the trading post, which was an
old one of French establishment, I found ten
lodges of Indians. These were Gens de
Terres, or O'pimittish Ininiwac, of which
205
Siejcanber
nation I have already had occasion to speak. 13
It is scattered over all the country between the
Gulf of St. Lawrence and Lake Arabuthcow, 14
and between Lake Superior and Hudson's
Bay. Its language is a mixture of those of its
neighbors, the Chippewa and Christinaux. 15
The men and women wear their hair in the same
fashion, and are otherwise so much dressed
alike that it is often difficult to v distinguish
their sexes. Their lodges, on the insufficiency of
which I have before remarked, have no cover-
ing except the branches of the spruce fir and
these habitations, as well as the clothes and
persons of the inhabitants, are full of dirt
and vermin. Such is the inhospitality of the
country over which they wander that only a
single family can live together in the winter
season, and this sometimes seeks subsistence
in vain on an area of five hundred square miles.
They can stay in one place only till they have
destroyed all its hares, and when these fail
they have no resource but in the leaves and
shoots of trees, or in defect of these in canni-
balism. Most of these particulars, however,
13 See Part One, chapter 6. They are also called TStes
de Boule. Author.
The descendants of the Ttes de Boule (round-
heads) now dwell in the province of Quebec. Alone of
all the tribes of eastern Canada, they still refuse to
devote themselves to agriculture. Editor.
14 Modern Lake Athabasca. Editor.
15 The same with Kristinaux, Killistinoes, Criqs,
Cris, Crees, etc., etc., etc. Author.
206
Crafeeig anfc atitoenturc
are to be regarded as strong traits by which the
sorrows and calamities of the country admit
of being characterized, rather than as parts of
an accurate delineation of its more ordinary
state.
Among such of these Indians as I knew, one
of them was married to his own daughter, who
had brought him several children; and I was
told by his companions that it was common
among them for a man to have at the same
time both a mother and her daughter for
wives.
To the ten lodges I advanced goods to a large
amount, allowing every man credit for a hun-
dred beaver-skins, and every woman for thirty.
In this I went beyond what I had done for the
Chippewa, a proceeding to which I was em-
boldened by the high character for honesty
which is supported by this otherwise abject
people. Within a few days after their depar-
ture, others arrived; and by the fifteenth of
October I had seen, or so I was informed, all
the Indians of this quarter, and which belong
to a thousand square miles. They were com-
prised in no more than eighteen families; and
even these, in summer, could not find food in
the country were it not for the fish in the
streams and lakes.
The country immediately contiguous to my
wintering ground was mountainous in every
direction, and the mountains were separated
from each other rather by lakes than valleys,
207
the quantity of water everywhere exceeding
that of the land. On the summits of some of
the mountains there were sugar-maple trees;
but with these exceptions, the uplands had
no other growth than spruce-firs and pines,
nor the lowlands than birch and poplar.
Occasionally, I saw a few cariboux, and hares
and partridges supplied my Sunday dinners.
By Christmas day the lake was covered with
ice.
208
Chapter 5
A TEMPESTUOUS VOYAGE
IN the beginning of April I prepared to make
maple sugar, building for this purpose a
house in a hollow dug out of the snow. The
house was seven feet high but yet was lower
than the snow.
On the twenty-fourth I began my manu-
facture. On the twenty-eighth the lands below
were covered with a thick fog. All was calm,
and from the top of the mountain not a cloud
was to be discovered in the horizon. Descend-
ing the next day, I found half a foot of new-
fallen snow and learned that it had blown hard
in the valleys the day before; so that I per-
ceived I had been making sugar in a region
above the clouds.
Sugar-making continued till the twelfth of
May. On the mountain we eat nothing but our
sugar during the whole period. Each man
consumed a pound a day, desired no other food,
and was visibly nourished by it.
After returning to the banks of the river,
wild fowl appeared in such abundance that a
day's subsistence for fifty men could without
difficulty be shot daily by one; but all this was
the affair of less than a week, before the end of
which the water which had been covered was
209
left naked, and the birds had fled away to the
northward.
On the twentieth day of the month the first
party of Indians came in from their winter's
hunt. During the season some of them had
visited one of the factories of the Hudson's
Bay Company. Within a few days following
I had the satisfaction of seeing all those to
whom I had advanced goods return. Out of
two thousand skins, which was the amount of
my outstanding debts, not thirty remained un-
paid; and even the trivial loss which I did
suffer was occasioned by the death of one of the
Indians, for whom his family brought, as they
said, all the skins of which he died possessed,
and offered to pay the rest from among them-
selves; his manes, they observed, would not
be able to enjoy peace, while his name re-
mained in my books and his debts were left
unsatisfied.
In the spring, at Michilimackinac, I met
with a Mr. Alexander Baxter, recently arrived
from England on report of the ores existing in
this country. To this gentleman, I commu-
nicated my mineralogical observations and
specimens, collected both on my voyages and
at my wintering ground; and I was thus intro-
duced into a partnership which was soon after-
ward formed for working the mines of Lake
Superior.
Meanwhile, I prepared to pass a second
winter at Michipicoten, which I reached at the
210
Ctataelg anfr %frtacntureg
usual season. In the month of October, all the
Indians being supplied and at the chase, I
resolved on indulging myself in a voyage to the
Sault de Ste. Marie, and took with me three
Canadians and a young Indian woman, who
wished to see her relations there. As the dis-
tance was short and we were to fish by the way,
we took no other provision than a quart of
maize for each person.
On the first night we encamped on the island
of Nanibojou and set our net. We certainly
neglected the customary offerings, and an
Indian would not fail to attribute it to this
cause that in the night there arose a violent
storm which continued for three days, in which
it was impossible for us to visit our net. In
consequence we subsisted ourselves on our
maize, the whole of which we nearly finished.
On the evening of the third day the storm
abated and we hastened to examine the net.
It was gone. To return to Michipicoten was
impossible, the wind being ahead; and we
steered, therefore, for the Sault. But in the
evening the wind came round and blew a gale
all that night and for the nine following days.
During all this time the waves were so high and
broke so violently on the beach that a canoe
could not be put into the water.
When we first disembarked we had not
enough maize to afford a single day's provision
for our party, consisting as it did of five per-
sons. What there was we consumed on the
211
first evening, reckoning upon a prosperous
voyage the next morning. On the first and
second days I went out to hunt, but after
ranging for many miles among the mountains
I returned in both instances without success.
On the third day I found myself too weak to
walk many yards without stopping to rest my-
self; and I returned in the evening with no more
than two snowbirds. 16
On my arrival one of my men informed me
that the other two had proposed to kill and
feed upon the young woman; and on my
examining them as to the truth of this accusa-
tion they freely avowed it, and seemed to be
much dissatisfied at my opposition to their
scheme.
The next morning I ascended a lofty moun-
tain, on the top of which I found a very high
rock and this covered with a lichen which the
Chippewas call waac, and the Canadians
tripe de roche. 11 I had previously been informed
that on occasions of famine this vegetable has
16 Emberiza hyemalis. Author.
17 This is an edible lichen often mentioned by early
explorers. Father Menard and his companions, winter-
ing at Keweenaw Bay in 1660-61, used it to preserve
their lives through the winter. "They would put a
handful of it into their kettle, which would thicken
the water ever so little, forming a kind of foam or slime
like that of snails, and feeding their imagination more
than their bodies." Father Andre records that "It
is necessary to close one's eyes when one begins to eat
it." Wis. Hist. Colls., XVI, 24. Editor.
212
anfc
often been resorted to for food. No sooner,
therefore, had I discovered it than I began to
descend the mountain to fetch the men and the
Indian woman. The woman was well acquainted
with the mode of preparing the lichen for
the stomach, which is done by boiling it down
into a mucilage, as thick as the white of an egg.
In a short time we obtained a hearty meal, for
though our food was of a bitter and disagreeable
taste, we felt too much joy in finding it and too
much relief in eating it not to partake of it
with much appetite and pleasure. As to the
rest, it saved the life of the poor woman; for
the men who had projected to kill her would
unquestionably have accomplished their pur-
pose. One of them gave me to understand that
he was not absolutely a novice in such an
affair; that he had wintered in the Northwest,
and had been obliged to eat human flesh.
On the evening of the ninth day the wind
fell and our canoe was launched, though not
without difficulty from the weakly state of the
crew. We paddled all night, but continually
fell asleep, and whenever my own eyes were
closed I dreamed of tempting food.
The next morning we discovered two canoes
of Indians on their way from the Sault. On
informing them of our condition they supplied
us with as many fish as we were willing to
accept; and no sooner were we possessed of this
treasure than we put ashore, made a fire, and
refreshed ourselves with a plentiful breakfast.
213
At night we reached the Sault. Our change
of diet had very serious effects upon our health,
so that for myself I had nearly fallen a victim;
but after a few days we recovered, and re-
turned safely to Michipicoten.
314
Cljaptcr
THE ISLAND OF YELLOW SANDS
IN the spring of 1769 as soon as the lake was
cleared of ice I embarked with two Indians
to visit the Island of Michipicoten, or
lie de Maurepas, distant ten leagues. As we
approached it, it appeared large and moun-
tainous. The Indians had informed me that it
contained shining rocks and stones of rare
description. I found it one solid rock, thinly
covered with soil except in the valleys, but
generally well wooded. Its circumference is
twelve leagues. On examining the surface I
saw nothing remarkable, except large veins of
transparent spar, and a mass of rock at the
south end of the island which appeared to be
composed of iron ore.
Disappointed in my expectations here, my
curiosity was raised anew by the account given
me by my companions of another island almost
as large as that on which I was, and lying a
little farther to the southward. This they
described as covered with a heavy yellow sand
which I was credulous enough to fancy must be
gold. All they knew, however, of the island
and its heavy yellow sand was from the report
of some of their ancestors, concerning whom a
tradition had come down to them that being
215
Jjjenrp
blown upon the former by a storm, they had
escaped with difficulty from the enormous
snakes by which it is inhabited, and which are
the guardians of the yellow sand. 18 I was eager
to visit so remarkable a spot, and being told
that in clear weather it was visible from the
southward of the He de Maurepas, I waited
there two days; but the weather continuing
hazy, I returned unsatisfied to my post.
18 Captain Carver, who visited Lake Superior about
the year 1766, learned something of the fables of the
yellow sand, though he places the treasure upon the He
de Maurepas, and falls into other errors. His observa-
tions are as follows: "There are many islands in this
lake, two of which are very large; and if the land of
them is proper for cultivation, there appears to be
sufficient to form on each a considerable province;
especially on He Royale, which cannot be less than a
hundred miles long and in many places forty broad.
But there is no way at present of ascertaining the
exact length or breadth of either. Even tfye French,
who. always kept a small schooner on this lake whilst
they were in possession of Canada, by which they
could have made this discovery, have only acquired a
slight knowledge of the external parts of these islands:
at least, they have never published any account of the
internal parts of them that I could get intelligence of.
"Nor was I able to discover, from any of the con-
versations which I had with the neighboring Indians,
that they had ever made any settlements on them, or
even landed there on their hunting excursions. From
what I could gather by their discourse, they suppose
them to have been, from the first formation, the
residence of the Great Spirit; and relate many magical
tricks that had been experienced by such as were
obliged through stress of weather to take shelter on
them.
216
anti
This year I attempted to cultivate culinary
vegetables at Michipicoten but without suc-
cess. It was not at this time believed that the
potato could thrive at Michilimackinac. At
Michipicoten the small quantity of this root
which I raised was destroyed by the frost, in
the ensuing winter.
In 1770 Mr. Baxter, who had sailed for
England, returned bringing with him papers by
which, with Mr . Bostwick and himself I was
constituted a joint agent and partner in and for
a company of adventurers for working the mines
of Lake Superior. We passed the winter to-
gether at the Sault de Ste. Marie and built a
barge fit for the navigation of the lake, at the
"One of the Chipeways told me that some of their
people were once driven on the Island de Maurepas,
which lies to the northeast part of the lake, and found
on it large quantities of heavy, shining yellow sand,
that from their description must have been gold dust.
Being struck with the beautiful appearance of it, in the
morning when they re-entered their canoe they attempt-
ed to bring some away; but a spirit of amazing size,
according to their. account sixty feet in height, strode
into the water after them, and commanded them to de-
liver back what they had taken away. Terrified at his
gigantic stature, and seeing that he had nearly over-
taken them, they were glad to restore their shining
treasure; on which they were suffered to depart without
further molestation. Since this incident, no Indian
that has ever heard of it will venture near the same
haunted coast. Besides this, they recounted to me
many other stories of these islands, equally fabulous. "
Three Years' Travels through the Interior Parts of
North America, etc. By Captain Jonathan Carver, of
the Provincial Troops, etc. Author.
217
same time laying the keel of a sloop of forty
tons. Early in May, 1771, the lake becoming
navigable, we departed from Point aux Pins,
our shipyard, at which there is a safe harbor
and of which the distance from the Sault is
three leagues. We sailed for the Island of
Yellow Sands, promising ourselves to make
our fortunes in defiance of its serpents.
218
Chapter 7
OPERATIONS OF THE COPPER COMPANY
A~TER a search of two days we discovered
the island with our glass; and on the
third morning, the weather being fair,
steered for it at an early hour. At two o'clock
in the afternoon we disembarked upon the
beach.
I was the first to land, carrying with me my
loaded gun and resolved to meet with courage
the guardians of the gold. But as we had not
happened to run our barge upon the yellow
sands in the first instance, so no immediate
attack was to be feared. A wood was before us
at some little distance from the water's edge;
and I presently discovered the tracks of
cariboux.
Soon after I entered the woods three of these
animals discovered themselves and, turning
round, gazed at me with much apparent sur-
prise. I fired at one of them and killed it; and
at a mile farther I killed a second. Their size
was equal to that of a three-year-old heifer.
The day following I killed three.
The island is much smaller than I had been
led to suppose it, its circumference not exceed-
ing twelve miles. It is very low and contains
many small lakes. These latter I conjecture to
219
have been produced by the damming up of the
streams by beaver, though those animals must
have left the island or perished after destroying
the wood. The only high land is toward the
east.
. A stay of three days did not enable us to find
gold nor even the yellow sands. At the same
time no serpents appeared to terrify us; not
even the smallest and most harmless snake.
But to support the romance, it might be in-
ferred that the same agency which hid the one
had changed the other; and why should not the
magic of the place display itself in a thousand
varied exhibitions ? Why should not the ser-
pents have been transformed into hawks?
And why should not the demons delight in
belying every succeeding visitor by never
showing the same objects twice ? Sure I am,
that the hawks abounded when we were there.
They hovered around us, and appeared even
angry at our intrusion, pecking at us and
keeping us in continual alarm for our faces.
One of them actually took my cap from off
my head.
On one of the lakes we saw geese; and there
were a few pigeons. The only four-footed
animal was the caribou and this, it is probable,
was first conveyed to the island on some mass
of drifting ice. It was, however, no new in-
habitant; for in numerous instances I found
the bones of cariboux, apparently in entire
skeletons, with only the tops of their horns
anfc
projecting from the surface, while moss or
vegetable earth concealed the rest. Skeletons
were so frequent as to suggest a belief that
want of food in this confined situation had
been the destruction of many; nor is anything
more probable; and yet the absence of beasts of
prey might be the real cause. In forests more
ordinarily circumstanced the graminivorous
animals must usually fall a prey to the car-
nivorous long before the arrival of old age;
but in an asylum such as this, they may await
the decay of nature.
The alarm of these animals during our stay
was manifested in the strongest manner. At
our first arrival they discovered mere surprise,
running off to a distance and then return-
ing as if out of curiosity to examine the
strangers. Soon, however, they discovered
us to be dangerous visitors, and then took
to running from one place to another in con-
fusion. In the three days of our stay we killed
thirteen.
The island is distant sixty miles from the
north shore of Lake Superior. There is no land
visible to the south of it except a small island
on which we landed. 19
On the fourth day, after drying our cariboux-
meat, we sailed for Nanibojou which we
19 The reader is not to look into any gazetteer for the
Island of Yellow Sands. It is perhaps that which the
French denominated the He de Pontchartrain. Author.
The island, now called Caribou, may be found on
modern maps about twenty-five miles due south of
221
reached in eighteen hours, with a fair breeze.
On the next day the miners examined the coast
of Nanibojou and found several veins of copper
and lead; and after this returned to Point aux
Pins, where we erected an air-furnace. The
assayer made a report on the ores which we had
collected, stating that the lead-ore contained
silver in the proportion of forty ounces to a
ton; but the copper-ore only in very small pro-
portion indeed.
From Point aux Pins we crossed to the south
side of the lake and encamped on Point aux
Iroquois.
Mr. Norburg, 20 a Russian gentleman ac-
quainted with metals and holding a commis-
sion in the Sixtieth Regiment, and then in
garrison at Michilimackinac, accompanied us
on this latter expedition. As we rambled,
examining the shods or loose stones in search of
minerals, Mr. Norburg chanced to meet with
one of eight pounds weight, of a blue color
and semi-transparent. This he carried to
England, where it produced in the proportion
of sixty pounds of silver to a hundred weight of
ore. It was reposited in the British Museum.
Michipicoten Island. Editor.
20 John Nordberg became lieutenant in the Sixtieth
Regiment in 1758 and captain in 1773. At the opening
of the Revolution he was commandant at Fort George
on Lake George, and surrendered this post to the Colo-
nists in April. 1775. After several months imprisonment
he was permitted, on account of ill-health, to return
to England. Editor.
Crafcclg anD &Dtoenture
The same Mr. Norburg was shortly afterward
appointed to the government of Lake George
in the province of New York.
Hence we coasted westward, but found
nothing till we reached the Ontonogan, where,
besides the detached masses of copper formerly
mentioned, we saw much of the same metal
bedded in stone. Proposing to ourselves to
make a trial on the hill till we were better able
to work upon the solid rock, we built a house
and sent to the Sault de Ste. Marie for provi-
sions. At the spot pitched upon for the com-
mencement of our preparations a green-colored
water, which tinged iron of a copper color,
issued from the hill; and this the miners
called a leader. In digging they found frequent
masses of copper, some of which were of three
pounds weight. Having arranged everything
for the accommodation of the miners during the
winter, we returned to the Sault.
Early in the spring of 1772 we sent a boat-
load of provisions, but it came back on the
twentieth day of June, bringing with it, to
our surprise, the whole establishment of
miners. They reported that in the course of
the winter they had penetrated forty feet into
the hill; but that on the arrival of the thaw, the
clay, on which on account of its stiffness they
had relied and neglected to secure it by sup-
porters, had fallen in; that to recommence their
search would be attended with much labor and
cost; that from the detached masses of metal,
223
which to the last had daily presented them-
selves, they supposed there might be ultimately
reached some body of the same, but could form
no conjecture of its distance, except that it was
probably so far off as not to be pursued with-
out sinking an airshaft: and lastly, that this
work would require the hands of more men
than could be fed in the actual situation of the
country.
Here our operations in this quarter ended.
The metal was probably within our reach;
but if we had found it the expense of carrying
it to Montreal must have exceeded its market-
able value. It was never for the exportation
of copper that our company was formed; but
always with a view to the silver which it was
hoped the ores, whether of copper or lead,
might in sufficient quantity contain. The
copper ores of Lake Superior can never be
profitably sought for but for local consump-
tion. The country must be cultivated and
peopled before they can deserve notice. 21
21 The copper mines of Lake Superior have been more
than once represented to the world in colors capable of
deceiving fresh adventurers; and the statement in the
text will not have been uselessly made, if it should at
any time serve as a beacon to the unwary. The author
of Voyages from Montreal, &*c. has recently observed,
that the "Americans, soon after they got possession of
the country, sent an engineer"; and that he "should
not be surprised to hear of their employing people to
work the mine. Indeed," he adds, "it might be well
worthy the attention of the British subjects to work the
mines on the north coast though they are not supposed
224
anti
The neighboring lands are good. I distributed
seed-maize among the Indians here, which they
planted accordingly. They did the same the
following year, and in both instances had good
crops. Whether or not they continued the
practice I cannot say. There might be much
danger of their losing their seed; for their way
was to eat the maize green and save only a
small quantity for sowing.
In the following month of August we
launched our sloop and carried the miners to the
vein of copper ore on the north side of the lake.
Little was done during the winter, but by
to be so rich as those on the south"; and Captain
Carver has given the following account of the identical
undertaking above described: "A company of ad-
venturers from England began, soon after the conquest
of Canada, to bring away some of this metal; but the
distracted situation of affairs in America has obliged them
to relinquish their scheme. It might in future times be
made a very advantageous trade; as the metal, "which
costs nothing on the spot and requires but little expense
to get it on board, could be conveyed in boats or canoes
through the Falls of Sainte Marie to the Isle of Saint
Joseph, which lies at the bottom of the strait, near the
entrance into Lake Huron; from thence it might be put
on board larger vessels, and in them transported across
that lake to the Falls of Niagara; then being carried by
land across the portage, it might be conveyed without
much more obstruction to Quebec. The cheapness and
ease with which any quantity of it may be procured will
make up for the length of way that is necessary to
transport it before it reaches the sea coast; and enable
the proprietors to send it to foreign markets on as good
terms as it can be exported from other countries."
Three Years' Travels, Etc. Author.
225
dint of labor performed between the com-
mencement of the spring of 1773 and the en-
suing month of September they penetrated
thirty feet into the solid rock. The rock was
blasted with great difficulty; and the vein,
which at the beginning was of the breadth of
four feet, had in the progress contracted into
four inches. Under these circumstances we
desisted, and carried the miners back to the
Sault. What copper ore we had collected we
sent to England; but the next season we were
informed that the partners there declined
entering into further expenses. In the interim
we had carried the miners along the north
shore as far as the river Pic, making, however,
no discovery of importance. This year, there-
fore, 1774, Mr. Baxter disposed of the sloop
and other effects of the Company, and paid
its debts.
The partners in England were his Royal
Highness the Duke of Gloucester, Mr. Sec-
retary Townshend, Sir Samuel Tutchet,
Baronet; Mr. Baxter, Consul of the Empress
of Russia; and Mr. Cruickshank: in America,
Sir William Johnson, Baronet; Mr. Bostwick,
Mr. Baxter and myself.
A charter had been petitioned for and ob-
tained, but owing to our ill success it was never
taken from the seal-office.
226
s
JOURNEY TO LAKE WINNIPEG
PENDING this enterprise I had still pur-
sued the Indian trade, and on its failure I
applied myself to that employment with
more assiduity than ever, and resolved on
visiting the countries to the northwest of Lake
Superior.
On the tenth day of June, 1775, I left the
Sault with goods and provisions to the value
of three thousand pounds sterling on board
twelve small canoes and four larger ones. The
provisions made the chief bulk of the cargo ; no
further supply being obtainable till we should
have advanced far into the country. Each
small canoe was navigated by three men and
each larger one by four.
On the twentieth we passed the Tete de la
Loutre, or Otter's Head, so named from a
rock of about thirty feet in height and fifteen
in circumference, and which stands vertically
as if raised by the hand of man. What increases
the appearance of art is a hollow in the ad-
jacent mass of rock, which its removal might
be thought to have left. In the evening we
encamped at the mouth of the Pijitic, a river as
large as that of Michipicoten, and which in
like manner takes its rise in the high lands
227
&iejcantier
lying between Lake Superior and Hudson Bay.
From Michipicoten to the Pijitic the coast of
the lake is mountainous; the mountains are
covered with pine and the valleys with spruce-
fir.
It was by the river Pijitic 22 that the French
ascended in 1750, when they plundered one
of the factories in Hudson Bay and carried off
the two small pieces of brass cannon which fell
again into the hands of the English at Michili-
mackinac. 23 On the river are a band of Wood
Indians, who are sometimes troublesome to
the traders passing.
On the twenty-first I left the Pijitic and
crossing a bay three leagues in breadth landed
on Pic Island. From Pic Island I coasted ten
leagues, and then encamped on an island
opposite the Pays Plat, or Flat Country, a
name borrowed from the Indians, and occa-
sioned by the shoal-water, which here extends
far into the lake, and by the flat and low lands
22 According to Carver it was by the Michipicoten.
If he is correct, it must have been from Moose Fort, in
James Bay, and not from Fort Churchill, that they took
the cannon. Author.
The raid by the French upon the Hudson's Bay
Company posts here alluded to actually took place in
1686, and the affair had long since become legendary
among the voyageurs of the Northwest. Henry is also
in error as to the route taken by the raiding party, which
was by the Ottawa, Lake Abitibi, Abitibi and Moose
rivers. Editor.
23 The Pijatic is now known as White River. Editor.
228
Cratoelg anfc &tJfoentureg
which lie between the water and the mountain.
The Pays Plat is intersected by several large
rivers, and particularly the Nipigon, so called
after Lake Nipigon, of which it is the dis-
charge. By this river the French carried on a
considerable trade with the Northern Indians.
They had a fort or trading-ho*use.at its mouth,
and annually drew from it a hundred packs of
beaver of a quality more in esteem than that
from the Northwest. They had another trad-
ing-house at Caministiquia. 24 'As we proceed
northwest along the lake the mountains re-
cede widely from the beach.
On the twenty-fourth I left the northern
shore and in four days reached the Grand
Portage. 25 The intervening islands consist
24 At the mouth of the Kaministiquia River, where
Fort William now stands. The latter fort was erected
by the North West Company in 1804. Here yearly
meetings of the factors of the Company were held, the
proceedings at which have been charmingly narrated
by Washington Irving in Astoria. Editor.
25 Grand Portage was at the beginning of the Pigeon-
Rainy River route from Lake Superior to Lake Winni-
peg, a few miles south of the mouth of Pigeon River.
The place was well known during the French period, and
at the beginning of the British regime it became an
important center of fur-trade activities. Jonathan Car-
ver found many traders here in 1767. From about this
time until the establishment of Fort William in 1804
Grand Portage was the center of the fur trade of the far
Northwest. Its decay was owing to the discovery that
it lay south of the boundary between Canada and the
United States; since British traders were not permitted
to operate in the latter country, upon this discovery they
229
almost entirely of rock. The largest, called
He au Tonnerre, or Thunder Island, is said
by the Indians to be peculiarly subject to
thunder storms. At the Grand Portage I
found the traders in a state of extreme recip-
rocal hostility, each pursuing his interests in
ruch a manner as'might most injure his neigh-
bor. The consequences were very hurtful to
the morals of the Indians.
The transportation of the goods at this
grand portage, or great carrying-place, was a
work of seven days of severe and dangerous
exertion, at the end of which we encamped on
the River aux Groseilles. 26 The Grand Portage
consists in two ridges of land, between which is
a deep glen or valley with good meadow lands,
and a broad stream of water. The lowlands
are covered chiefly with birch and poplar, and
the high with pine. I was now in what is
technically called the Northwest; that is, the
country northwest of Lake Superior. The
canoes here employed are smaller than those
were forced to seek headquarters and a trade route to the
West farther north. As a consequence the route by the
Kaministiquia River was opened, and Fort William
built at its outlet. Editor.
26 The same with what a recent traveler describes as
the "river du Tourt" (Tourtre) Dove or Pigeon
River. Author.
Modern Pigeon River was first named Groseilliers,
in honor of the first French explorer in this region. The
form of the name given in Henry's text is, of course, a
corruption of this name. Editor.
230
which are used between Montreal and Michili-
mackinac and in Lake Superior, being only
four fathoms and a half in length. It is the
duty of the head and stern men to carry the
canoe. I engaged two of these to winter with
me, at the wages of four hundred dollars each
and an equipment of the value, at the Grand
Portage, of one hundred more.
On the eighth we ascended the Groseilles to
the carrying-place called the Portage du Per-
drix, where the river falls down a precipice
of the height of a hundred feet. At the place
where, after passing the Grand Portage, we
first launched our canoes on the Groseilles the
stream is thirty yards wide. From this spot it
proceeds with numerous falls to Lake Superior,
which it enters about six leagues to the north-
ward of the Grand Portage.
Next day at the Portage aux Outardes we
left the Groseilles, and carrying our canoes and
merchandise for three miles over a mountain,
came at length to a small lake. This was the
beginning of a chain of lakes extending for
fifteen leagues and separated by carrying-
places of from half a mile to three miles in
length. At the end of this chain we reached the
heads of small streams which flow to the north-
westward. The region of the lakes is called the
Hauteur de Terre, or Land's Height. It is an
elevated tract of country, not inclining in any
direction, and diversified on its surface with
small hills. The wood is abundant but consists
231
principally in birch, pine, spruce, fir, and a
small quantity of maple.
By the twelfth we arrived where the streams
were large enough to float the canoes with their
lading, though the men walked in the water
pushing them along. Next day we found them
sufficiently navigable, though interrupted by
frequent falls and carrying-places. On the
twentieth we reached Lake Sagunac, or Sagi-
naga, 27 distant sixty leagues from the Grand
Portage. This was the hithermost post in the
northwest established by the French, and there
was formerly a large village of the Chipewa
here, now destroyed by the Nadowessies. I
found only three lodges filled with poor, dirty,
and almost naked inhabitants, of whom I
bought fish and wild rice, 28 which latter they
had in great abundance. When populous, this
village used to be troublesome to the traders,
obstructing their voyages and extorting liquor
27 This lake lies much nearer Lake Superior than here
indicated. Apparently modern Lake Nequaquon, on
the boundary of St. Louis County, Minnesota, is the
point reached by Henry. Editor.
28 Folle avoine, avenafatua, zizania aquatica. Author.
The wild rice plant, here mentioned, was widely
distributed over the continent of North America, and
was an important article of sustenance for many tribes.
It is still widely used by the natives, and has* even
become an article of civilized commerce, being handled
regularly by the jobbing houses of Chicago and other
cities. For an exhaustive study of the wild rice and its
-use see Albert E. Jenks, "Wild Rice Gatherers of the
Upper Lakes, " in Nineteenth Annual Report of Ameri-
.232
an&
and other articles. 29 Lake Sagunac is eight
leagues in length by four in breadth. The
lands, which are everywhere covered with
spruce, are hilly on the southwest but on the
northeast more level. My men were by this
time almost exhausted with fatigue, but the
chief part of the labor was fortunately past.
We now entered Lake a la Pluie, 30 which is
fifteen leagues long by five broad. Its banks
are covered with maple and birch. Our en-
campment was at the mouth of the lake, where
there is a fall of water of forty feet called the
Chute de la Chaudiere. The carrying-place is
two hundred yards in length. On the next
evening we encamped at Les Fourches, on the
River a la Pluie, 31 where there was a village of
can Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1902), 1013-
1137. Editor.
28 In a memorial of 1784 Benjamin and Joseph
Frobisher state that the first "adventurer" who went
west from Mackinac in 1 765 was " stopt and plundered "
by the Rainy Lake Indians. The second attempt was
made in 1767, when the traders, on leaving a portion of
their goods at Rainy Lake, were permitted to proceed
with the remainder. In 1769 the Frobishers entered the
country for the first time, and were themselves plun-
dered by the " still ungovernable and rapacious " natives
of Rainy Lake. From 1770 onward, however, the trad-
ers were more successful; the reason for the cessation of
the hindrance to their trade is evidently suggested here
by Henry. Editor.
30 Modern Rainy Lake. Editor.
31 Modern Rainy River, on the boundary between
Canada and the United States. Editor.
233
SUcjranfcer J^enrp
Chippewa of fifty lodges, of whom I bought
canoes. They insisted further on having goods
given to them on credit, as well as on receiving
some presents. The latter they regarded as an
established tribute, paid them on account of
the ability which they possessed to put a stop
to all trade with the interior. I gave them rum,
with which they became drunk and trouble-
some; and in the night I left them.
The River a la Pluie is forty leagues long, of
a gentle current, and broken only by one rapid.
Its banks are level to a great distance, and
composed of a fine soil, which was covered with
luxuriant grass. They were perfect solitudes,
not even a canoe presenting itself along my
whole navigation of the stream. 32 I was greatly
struck with the beauty of the stream as well as
with its fitness for agricultural settlements,
in which provisions might be raised for the
Northwest.
On the thirtieth we reached the Lake of the
Woods, or Lake des lies, at the entrance of
which was an Indian village of a hundred souls,
where we obtained a further supply of fish.
Fish appeared to be the summer food.
From this village we received ceremonious
presents. The mode with the Indians is first
32 The scarcity of animal life in this vicinity at this
season of the year has been remarked by many explor-
ers. Thus, Keating, in 1823, did not meet with a single
quadruped from Rainy Lake to Lake Superior, the only
animals seen being thirty or forty birds, chiefly ducks.
Editor.
234
to collect all the provisions they can spare and
place them in a heap; after which they send for
the trader and address him in a formal speech.
They tell him that the Indians are happy in
seeing him return to their country; that they
have been long in expectation of his arrival;
that their wives have deprived themselves of
their provisions in order to afford him a sup-
ply; that they are in great want, being des-
titute of everything, and particularly of
ammunition and clothing, and that what they
most long for is a taste of his rum, which they
uniformly denominate milk.
The present in return consisted in one keg
of gunpowder of sixty pounds weight; a bag
of shot and another of powder of eighty pounds
each; a few smaller articles, and a keg of rum.
The last appeared to be the chief treasure,
though on the former depended the greater
part of their winter 's subsistence.
In a short time the men began to drink,
while the women brought me a further and
very valuable present of twenty bags of rice.
This I returned with goods and rum, and at
the same time offered more for an additional
quantity of rice. A trade was opened, the
women bartering rice while the men were
drinking. Before morning I had purchased a
hundred bags of nearly a bushel measure each.
Without a large quantity of rice the voyage
could not have been prosecuted to its comple-
tion. The canoes, as I have already observed,
235
are not large enough to carry provisions,
leaving merchandise wholly out of the ques-
tion. The rice grows in shoal water, and the
Indians gather it by shaking the ears into their
canoes.
When morning arrived ajl the village was
inebriated; and the danger of misunderstand-*
ing was increased by the facility with which
the women abandoned themselves to my
Canadians. In consequence I lost no time in
leaving the place.
On the first day of August we encamped on a
sandy island in the Lake of the Woods, where
we were visited by several canoes, of whom we
purchased wild rice. On the fourth we reached
the Portage du Rat.
The Lake of the Woods is thirty-six leagues
long. On the west side is an old French fort
or trading-house, 33 formerly frequented by
numerous bands of Chippewa, but these have
since been almost entirely destroyed by the
Nadowessies. When strong they were trouble-
some. On account of a particular instance of
pillage they have been called Pilleurs.^ The
This was Fort St. Charles, built by the French in
1732. It stood on the north bank of the inlet of the
Northwest Angle, west of Famine (or Buckett) Island.
Editor.
4 In Warren's History of the Ojibways, Chapter XVI
is devdted to an account of the event by which this band
of the Chippewa won the designation of "Pillagers,"
and the affair is described as having taken place in 1781.
Evidently the affair had become a matter of tribal
236
Crabrig anfr glfrtocntutcg
pelican is numerous on tjiis lake. One which
we shot agreed entirely with the description of
M. de Buffon.
On the fifth we passed the Portage du Rat, 35
which is formed by a rock of about twenty
yards long. Here we met several canoes of
Indians, who all begged for rum; but they
were known to belong to the band of Pilleurs,
also called the rogues, and were on that account
refused.
From the Portage du Rat we descended the
great river Winipegon which is there from one
mile to two in breadth and at every league
grows broader. The channel is deep, but ob-
structed by many islands, of which some are
large. For several miles the stream is confined
between perpendicular rocks. The current is
strong and the navigation singularly difficult.
Within the space of fifteen leagues there are
seven falls of from fifty feet to a hundred in
height. At sixty leagues from our entrance of
the Winipegon we crossed a carrying-place
into the Pinawa, 36 below which the dangers
traditions for Henry's narrative discloses that the name
was in use at a somewhat earlier date. Editor.
35 The name is said to have originated from the fact of
muskrats crossing here in large numbers. Rat Portage
is near the northern end of Lake of the Woods. Here
the main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway crosses
from the town of Rat Portage to Keewatin on the oppo-
site side of the river. Editor.
36 The Pinawa River is a branch of the Winnipeg
which was commonly followed by the traders as far as
Bonnet Lake, who avoided thereby seven dangerous
237
I^enrp
of the Winipegon are still further increased.
The adjacent lands are mountainous and rocky,
but some of the high hills are well covered with
birch and maple.
The stream of the Pinawa is shallow and its
bed rocky and broken. The carrying-places
are eight in number. The mosquitoes were
here in such clouds as to prevent us from taking
aim at the ducks, of which we might else have
shot many.
On the thirteenth we encamped at the Carry-
ing-place of the Lost Child. Here is a chasm
in the rock, nowhere more than two yards in
breadth, but of great and immeasurable depth.
The Indians relate that many ages past a child
fell into this chasm, from the bottom of which
it is still heard at times to cry. In all the wet
lands wild rice grows plentifully.
The Pinawa is twenty leagues long, and dis-
charges itself into Lake du Bonnet 37 at three
leagues to the north of the mouth of the Wini-
pegon, which falls into the same lake, or rather
forms it; for Lake du Bonnet is only a broad-
ened part of the channel of the Winipegon. The
lake is two leagues broad, and the river in its
course below continues broader than it is
above, with many islands and deep falls; the
portages in this portion of the Winnipeg, and saved, in
addition, several miles of travel. Editor.
37 Cap Lake, in some maps written Cat Lake. Author.
Instead of twenty leagues, the Pinawa is but eighteen
miles long. Editor.
238
rabrig anfr %frbcnturcg
danger of the navigation, however, is lessened.
On the sixteenth we reached Lake Wini-
pegon, at the entrance of which is a large
village of Christinaux, a nation which I had
not previously seen. The name is variously
written; as, Cristinaux, Kinistineaux, Killis-
tinoes, and Killistinaux. Lake Winipegon is
sometimes called the Lake of the Killistinons,
or Cristinaux. The dress and other exterior
appearances of the Cristinaux are very dis-
tinguishable from those of the Chippewa and
the Wood Indians.
The men were almost entirely naked, and
their bodies painted with a red ocher, procured
in the mountains and often called vermilion.
Every man and boy had his bow strung and in
his hand, and his arrow ready to attack in case
of need. Their heads were shaved or the hair
plucked out all over except a spot on the crown
of the diameter of a dollar. On this spot the
hair grew long and was rolled and gathered
into a tuft; and the tuft, which is an object of
the greatest care, was covered with a piece of
skin. The ears were pierced and filled with the
bones of fish and of land animals. Such was
the costume of the young men; but among the
old, some let their hair grow on all parts of
their head without any seeming regard.
The women wear their hair of a great length
both behind and before, dividing it on the fore-
head and at the back of the head, and collecting
the hair of each side into a roll which is fastened
239
above the ear; and this roll, like the tuft on the
heads of the men, is covered with a piece of
skin. The skin is painted or else ornamented
with beads of various colors. The rolls with
their coverings resembled a pair of large horns.
The ears of the women are pierced and de-*
corated like those of the men.
Their clothing is of leather, or dressed skins
of the wild ox and the elk. The dress, falling
from the shoulders to below the knee, is of one
entire piece. Girls of an early age wear their
dresses shorter than those more advanced.
The same garment covers the shoulders and
the bosom, and is fastened by a strap which
passes over the shoulders; it is confined about
the waist by a girdle. The stockings are of
leather, made in the fashion of leggings. The
arms to the shoulders are left naked, or are
provided with sleeves, which are sometimes
put on and sometimes suffered to hang vacant
from the shoulders. The wrists are adorned
with bracelets of copper or brass, manufac-
tured from old kettles. In general, one person
is worth but one dress; and this is worn as long
as it will last or till a new one is made, and then
thrown away.
The women, like the men, paint their faces
with red ocher, and in addition usually tattoo
two lines reaching from the lip to the chin or
from the corners of the mouth to the ears.
They omit nothing to make themselves
lovely.
246
anti
Meanwhile, a favorite employment is that of
waging war with certain animals, which are in
abundance on their persons and which, as they
catch, they eat. To frequent inquiries as to
the motive for eating them I was always
answered that they afforded a medicinal food
and great preventive of diseases.
Such are the exterior beauties of the female
Cristinaux; and not content with the power
belonging to these attractions they conde-
scend to beguile with gentle looks the hearts of
passing strangers. The men, too, unlike the
Chippewa (who are of a jealous temper)
eagerly encourage them in this design. One
of the chiefs assured me that the children
borne by their women to Europeans were
bolder warriors and better hunters than them-
selves.
The Cristinaux have usually two wives each,
and often three; and make no difficulty in
lending one of them, for a length of time to a
friend. Some of my men entered into agree-
ments with the respective husbands in virtue
of which they embarked the women in their
canoes, promising to return them the next
year. The women so selected consider them-
selves as honored, and the husband who should
refuse to lend his wife would fall under the
condemnation of the sex in general.
The language of the Cristinaux is a dialect
of the Algonquin, and therefore bears some
affinity to that of the Chippewa, which is
241
another dialect of the same. In the Northwest
it is commonly called Cree or Cris.
242
Chapter 9
FROM LAKE WINNIPEG TO BEAVER LAKE
THE Cristinaux made me the usual pres-
ents of wild rice and dried meat, and
accompanied them with the usual for-
malities. I remained at their village two days
repairing my canoes; and though they were
drunk the whole time they behaved very peace-
ably and gave me no annoyance. I observed
that two men constantly attended us, and that
these individuals could not be prevailed upon
to taste liquor. They had been assigned us for
a guard, and they would not allow any drunken
Indian to approach our camp.
On the eighteenth of August I left these
amicable people, among whom an intercourse
with Europeans appeared to have occasioned
less deviation from their primitive manners
than in any instance which I had previously
discovered. I kept the north side of the lake,
and had not proceeded far before I was joined
by Mr. Pond, a trader of some celebrity in the
Northwest. 38 Next day we encountered a
38 Peter Pond was a native of Milford, Connecticut,
born in 1740. He enlisted for the Seven Years' War,
and at its conclusion, turned his attention to the sea.
Before long, however, he engaged in the Indian trade at
Detroit and other points, and in 1773 came out to
Wisconsin and Minnesota on a new venture. In 1 775 he
243
severe gale, from the dangers of which we
escaped by making the island called the Buf-
falo's Head; but not without the loss of a
canoe and four men. The shores from the
entrance of this lake to the island with excep-
tion of the points are rocky and lofty; the
points are rocky, but low. The wood is pine
and fir. We took pouts, cat-fish, or catheads, of
six pounds weight.
On the twenty-first we crossed to the south
shore and reached Oak Point, so called from a
few scrub oaks which here begin to diversify
the forest of pine and fir. The pelicans, which
we everywhere saw, appeared to be impatient
of the long stay we made in fishing. Leaving
the island, we found the lands along the shore
went into the Lake Winnipeg region for the first time,
where he encountered Henry. Three years later all the
traders of this district, including Pond, met at Sturgeon
Lake and agreed to pool their interests. This was the
beginning of the famous North West Company. Pond
was a man of pugnacious disposition. In the Detroit
period of his trading career he fought a duel in which
his opponent fell, and which caused Pond to leave the
country. In 1782 he shot and killed a trader named
Wadin, with whom he had had a quarrel. Wadin's
widow applied for a trial and Pond was sent to Quebec
to stand trial, but was acquitted for lack of jurisdiction.
Returning to the Northwest, he killed John Ross, a well-
known trader, in a duel fought at Great Slave Lake in
1787. The next year he sold his interest in the North
West Company and retired to the United States, dying
at his native Milford in 1807. Pond's journal of his
earlier years in the army and the fur trade is printed in
Wis. Hist. Colls., XVIII, 314-54. Editor.
244
anti
low and wooded with birch and marsh maple
intermixed with spruce-fir. The beach is
gravelly, and the points rocky.
To the westward of Pike River, which we
passed on the first of September, is a rock of
great length, called the Roche Rouge, and
entirely composed of a pitrre & calumet, or
stone used by the Indians for making tobacco-
pipe bowls. It is of a light red color, inter-
spersed with veins of brown, and yields very
readily to the knife.
On the seventh of September we were over-
taken by Messrs. Joseph and Thomas Fro-
bisher 39 and Mr. Patterson. 40 On the twentieth
we crossed the bay together, composing a fleet
of thirty canoes and a hundred and thirty men.
We were short of provisions.
On the twenty-first it blew hard and snow
began to fall. The storm continued till the
39 The brothers Frobisher, Joseph, Thomas, and
Benjamin, were among the early British traders to
come into the Northwest. Joseph and Thomas founded
the firm of Frobisher Brothers, but in 1778 Thomas
retired and Benjamin succeeded him. Joseph and
Benjamin were active in the formation of the North
West Company. Joseph was a noted explorer of western
Canada. He retired from the fur trade in 1798, living
thereafter at Montreal. Editor.
40 Charles Patterson was another early British trader
in the Northwest, and one of the founders of the North
West Company. In 1788 he was drowned with his
entire crew in Lake Michigan near a place still known
as Patterson's Point, in western Mackinac County,
Michigan. Editor.
245
twenty-fifth, by which time the small lakes
were frozen over and two feet of snow lay on
level ground in the woods. This early severity
of the season filled us with serious alarm, for
the country was uninhabited for two hundred
miles on every side of us and if detained by
winter our destruction was certain. In this
state of peril we continued our voyage day
and night. The fears of our men were a suffi-
cient motive for their exertions.
On the first of October we gained the
mouth of the River de Bourbon, Pasquayah, or
Sascatchiwaine 41 and proceeded to ascend its
stream. The Bourbon is a large river and has
its sources to the westward. 42 The lands which
we passed after the twenty-first of September
are more hilly and rocky than those described
before. The trees are poplar and spruce. The
rocks are chiefly of limestone. Our course from
the entrance of Lake Winipegon was north-
west northerly. The lake contains sturgeon,
but we were not able to take any. At four
leagues above the mouth of the river is the
Grand Rapide, two leagues in length, up which
the canoes are dragged with ropes. At the end
of this is a carrying-place of two miles, through
41 The lower part of the Sascatchiwaine was once
called the River de Bourbon. Pasquayah is the name
of an upper portion of the Sascatchiwaine. Author.
42 The river is the modern Saskatchewan, which
gives name to a province of Canada and drains a vast
area between the Rocky Mountains and Lake Winni-
peg. Editor.
246
anfc
a forest almost uniformly of pine trees. Here
we met with Indians fishing for sturgeon.
Their practice is to watch behind the points
where the current forms an eddy, in which the
sturgeon, coming to rest themselves, are
easily speared. The soil is light and sandy.
A vessel of any burden might safely navigate
Lake Winipegon from its southwest corner to
the Grand Rapide.
Lake Winipegon, or Winipic, or the Lake
of the Killistinons; or Cristinaux, empties itself
into Hudson's Bay at Fort York by a river
sometimes called Fort Nelson River. Its
length is said to be one hundred and twenty
leagues. Its breadth is unknown. I saw no
land in any direction after leaving Oak Point.
On the second we continued our voyage
against the current of the Bourbon, which was
strong and interrupted by several rapids. On
the third we entered Lake de Bourbon, called
by the English after the Indians Cedar Lake.
This name is derived from the cedar tree
(thuya) which covers its banks, and which is
not found to the northward of this region.
On the fourth we reached the opposite ex-
tremity of Lake de Bourbon. This lake is
eighteen leagues in length and has many deep
bays receding to the northward. The land by
which they are bordered is in almost all in-
stances out of sight. Several islands, some of
which are large, are also in this lake. The
shores are generally rocky. At the north end
247
there was in the French time a fort, or trading-
house, called Fort de Bourbon and built by
M. de Saint Pierre, a French officer, who was
the first adventurer into these parts of the
country. 43
At and adjacent to this fort are several of
the mouths of the river Sascatchiwaine. Here
we took several sturgeon, using a seine the
meshes of which were large enough to admit the
fish's head and which we made fast to two canoes.
On the sixth we ascended the Sascatchiwaine,
the current of which was here only moderately
strong; but the banks were marshy and over-
flowed so that it was with difficulty we found
a dry space large enough to encamp upon.
Beaver lodges were numerous, and the river
was everywhere covered with geese, ducks, and
other wild fowl. No rising ground was to be
seen and the wood, which was chiefly willow,
nowhere exceeded a man's wrist in thickness.
On the eighth we resumed our voyage before
daylight, making all speed to reach a fishing-
place, since winter was very fast approaching.
Meeting two canoes of Indians, we engaged
them to accompany us as hunters. The num-
ber of ducks and geese which they killed was
absolutely prodigious.
43 In 1766 Carver calls Lake de Bourbon " the most
northward of those yet discovered." Author.
Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de la Vrendrye,
notable explorer of the Canadian Northwest, estab-
lished Fort Bourbon here in 1 749. The Lake is now
known as Cedar Lake. Editor.
248
anfe Slfctotturc^
At eighty leagues above Fort de Bourbon, at
the head of a stream which falls into the Sas-
catchiwaine and into which we had turned, we
found the Pasquayah village. 44 It consisted of
thirty families, lodged in tents of a circular
form and composed of dressed ox-skins,
stretched upon poles twelve feet in length, and
leaning against a stake driven into the ground
in the center.
On our arrival the chief, named Chatique, or
the Pelican, came down upon the beach attend-
ed by thirty followers, all armed with bows
and arrows and with spears. Chatique was a
man of more than six feet in height, somewhat
corpulent and of a very doubtful physiognomy.
He invited us to his tent, and we observed that
he was particularly anxious to bestow his
hospitalities on those who were the owners
of the goods. We suspected an evil design but
judged it better to lend ourselves to the
treachery than to discover fear. We entered
the lodge accordingly, and soon perceived that
we were surrounded by armed men.
Chatique presently rose up and told us that
he was glad to see us arrive; that the young
men of the village as well as himself had long
been in want of many things of which we were
possessed in abundance; that we must be well
aware of his power to prevent our going farther;
44 At the junction of the Pasquia River with the
Saskatchewan. Here the French built Fort Paskoyac
before 1755. It is the site of modern Pas Mission or
Cumberland Station. Editor.
249
that if we passed now he could put us all to
death on our return; and that under these cir-
cumstances he expected us to be exceedingly
liberal in our presents: adding, that to avoid
misunderstanding he would inform us of what
it was that he must have. It consisted in
three casks of gunpowder, four bags of shot and
ball, two bales of tobacco, three kegs of rum,
and three guns, together with knives, flints,
and some smaller articles. He went on to say
that he had before now been acquainted with
white men and knew that they promised more
than they performed; that with the number of
men which he had, he could take the whole of
our property without our consent; and that,
therefore, his demands ought to be regarded as
very reasonable: that he was a peaceable man
and one that contented himself with moderate
views, in order to avoid quarrels; finally, that
he desired us to signify our assent to his proposi-
tion before we quitted our places.
The men in the canoes exceeded the Indians
in number, but they were unarmed and with-
out a leader; our consultation was, therefore,
short, and we promised to comply. This done,
the pipe was handed round as usual and the
omission of this ceremony on our entrance had
sufficiently marked the intentions of Chatique.
The pipe dismissed, we obtained permission
to depart, for the purpose of assorting the
presents; and these bestowed, or rather yielded
up, we hastened away from the plunderers.
250
anfc
We had supposed the affair finished, but
before we had proceeded two miles we saw a
canoe behind us. On this we dropped astern to
give the canoes that were following us an
opportunity of joining, lest, being alone, they
should be insulted. Presently, however, Cha-
tique in a solitary canoe rushed into the midst
of our squadron and boarded one of our canoes,
spear in hand, demanding a keg of rum and
threatening to put to death the first that op-
posed him. We saw that our only alternative
was to kill this daring robber or to submit
to his exaction. The former part would have
been attended with very mischievous conse-
quences, and we therefore curbed our indigna-
tion and chose the latter. On receiving the rum,
he saluted us with the Indian cry, and departed.
Every day we were on the water before dawn
and paddled along till dark. The nights were
frosty and no provisions, excepting a few wild
fowl, were to be procured. We were in daily fear
that our progress would be arrested by the ice.
On the twenty-sixth we reached Cumberland
House, one of the factories of the Hudson's
Bay Company, seated on Sturgeon Lake in
about 54 north latitude and 102 longitude
west from Greenwich. This house had been
built the year before by Mr. Hearne, who was
now absent on his well-known journey of
discovery. 45 We found it garrisoned by High-
45 Samuel Hearne made his notable voyages of
exploration from Prince of Wales Fort to the Arctic
251
landers from the Orkney Islands, and under
the command of a Mr. Cockings, 46 by whom,
though unwelcome guests, 47 we were treated
with much civility. The design in building
this house, was to prevent the Indians from
dealing with the Canadian merchants, and
to induce them to go to Hudson's Bay. It is
Ocean in the years 1769-72. He established Cumber-
land House, as Henry states, but this was two years
after, rather than before his famous exploration to the
Arctic. Cumberland House, says Elliott Coues, was at
"the focus of a vast network of waters whose strands
radiate in every direction. A canoe could start from
this house, and with no portage of more than a day's
length could be launched on the Arctic Ocean, Hud-
son's Bay, Gulf of St. Lawrence, or Gulf of Mexico;
and without much greater interruption could be floated
on to the Pacific Ocean. "Editor.
46 Matthew Cocking was a trader of the Hudson's Bay
Company who in 1 772-73 had conducted an exploration
from York Factory southwestward into the country of
the Blackfeet. The discoveries made on this journey
determined the Company to establish Cumberland
House the following year, and Cocking was placed in
command. His journal of his journey of 1772-7313
printed in Royal Society of Canada, Proceedings and
Transactions, Third Series, Vol. II, 91-121. Editor.
47 Cumberland House was a post of the Hudson's
Bay Company, by whom Henry and the other Canadian
traders were regarded as interlopers. The North West
Company, which these traders were shortly to create,
conducted, throughout its entire history, a fierce trade
rivalry with the older firm, which reached the height,
finally, of open warfare between the partisans of the
two. This was terminated by the amalgamation of the
North West with the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821.
Editor.
252
anfc
distant one hundred leagues from Chatique's
village, and of this space the first fifty leagues
comprise lands nearly level with the water; but
in the latter the surface is more lofty, rising a
hundred feet above the river, and increasing
in height as we advanced. The soil is a white clay,
mixed with sand. The wood is small arid scanty.
At Cumberland House the canoes separated,
M. Cadotte going with four to Fort des Prai-
ries, Mr. Pond with two to Fort Dauphin,
and others proceeding on still different routes.
Messrs. Frobisher retained six and myself four,
and we resolved on joining our stock and winter-
ing together. We steered for the river Church-
ill, or Missinipi, to the east of Beaver Lake, or
Lake aux Castors.
Sturgeon Lake, 48 which we now crossed, is
twenty leagues in length. On the east are high
lands, and on the west low islands. The river
Maligne 49 falls into it. This we ascended, but
not without much labor from 'the numerous
rapids, on account of which the Canadians in
their vexation have given it the name it bears.
We crossed Beaver Lake 60 on the first day
of November, and the very next morning it
48 Now known as Cumberland Lake. Its principal
northeastern offset, known as Namew Lake, is the
initial one of the great chain of lakes which, says Coues,
"offer a practicable thoroughfare" to Hudson Bay
and the Arctic Ocean. Editor.
49 Modern Sturgeon Weir River. Editor.
50 Now called Amisk Lake, in eastern Saskatchewan.
Editor.
253
was frozen over. Happily we were now at a
place abounding with fish, and here, therefore,
we resolved on wintering.
Our first object was to procure food. We
had only three days' stock remaining and we
were forty-three persons in number. Our forty
men were divided into three parties, of which
two were detached to the River aux Castors, 51
on which the ice was strong enough to allow of
setting the nets, in the manner heretofore
described. The third party was employed in
building our house, or fort; and in this within
ten days we saw ourselves commodiously
lodged. Indeed, we had almost built a village;
or, in soberer terms, we had raised buildings
round a quadrangle such as really assumed in
the wilds which encompassed it a formidable
appearance. In front was the house designed
for Messrs. Frobisher and myself; and the men
had four houses, of which one was placed on
each side and two in the rear.
Our canoes were disposed of on scaffolds,
for the ground being frozen we could not bury
them, as is the usual practice, and which is
done to protect them from that severity of cold
which occasions the bark to contract and split.
The houses being finished, we divided the
men anew, making four parties of nine each.
51 Still known by the English equivalent of Beaver
River. It was early an important trade route, since by
its headwaters there is an easy portage to Lac la Biche,
which drains into the Athabasca River. Editor.
254
Crafcelg an&
Four were retained as wood cutters; and each
party was to provide for its own subsistence.
Our fishing was very successful. We took
trout of the weight of from ten to fifty pounds,
whitefish of five pounds, and pike of the usual
size. There were also pickerel, called poissons
dores (gilt fish) and sturgeon, but of the last
we caught only one. The Indians soon after
our arrival killed two elks, otherwise called
moose-deer. & 2
Lake aux 'Castors, or Beaver Lake, is seven
leagues in length and from three to five in
breadth. It has several islands, of which the
largest does not exceed a mile in circumference.
The lands on either shore are mountainous and
rocky.
Messrs. Frobisher and myself were con-
tinually employed in fishing. We made holes
in the ice and took trout with the line in twenty
and thirty fathoms water, using whitefish of a
pound weight for our bait, which we sunk to
the bottom, or very near it.
In this manner I have at times caught more
than twenty large trout a day, but my more
usual mode was that of spearing. By one
means or other fish was plenty with us, but we
suffered severely from the cold in fishing. On
the twenty-fifth the frost was so excessive that
we had nearly perished. Fahrenheit's ther-
mometer was at 32 below in the shade; the
62 Cerws dices. Author.
255
aicranbcr
mercury contracted one-eighth, and for four
days did not rise into the tube.
Several Indians brought beaver and bears'
meat, and some skins for sale. Their practice
was to remain with us one night and leave us
in the morning.
256
Chapter 10
FROM BEAVER LAKE TO .THE PRAIRIES
THE plains, or as the French denominate
them the prairies, or meadows, compose
an extensive tract of country which is
watered by the Elk or Athabasca, the Sascat-
chiwaine, the Red River and others, and runs
southward to the Gulf of Mexico. On my first
setting out for the Northwest I promised my-
self to visit this region, and I now prepared
to accomplish the undertaking. Long journeys
on the snow are thought of but as trifles in
this part of the world.
On the first day of January, 1776, 1 left our
fort on Beaver Lake, attended by two men and
provided with dried meat, frozen fish, and a
small quantity of praline, made of roasted
maize rendered palatable with sugar, and which
I had brought from the Sault de Ste. Marie for
this express occasion. The kind and friendly
disposition of Mr. Joseph Frobisher induced
him to bear me company as far as Cumberland
House, a journey of a hundred and twenty
miles. Mr. Frobisher was attended by one
man.
Our provisions were drawn by the men upon
sledges made of thin boards, a foot in breadth
and curved upward in front after the Indian
257
fashion. Our clothing for night and day was
nearly the same; and the cold was so intense
that, exclusively of warm woolen clothes, we
were obliged to wrap ourselves continually in
beaver blankets, or at least in ox skins, which
the traders call buffalo robes. At night we made
our first encampment at the head of the Ma-
ligne, where one of our parties was fishing with
but very indifferent success.
On the following evening we encamped at
the mouth of the same river. The snow was
four feet deep, and we found it impossible
to keep ourselves warm even with the aid of a
large fire.
On the fourth day as well of the month as
of our journey, we arrived at Cumberland
House. Mr. Cockings received us with much
hospitality, making us partake of all he had,
which however was but little. Himself and his
men subsisted wholly upon fish, in which stur-
geon bore the largest proportion, and this was
caught near the house. The next morning I
took leave of Mr. Frobisher, who is certainly
the first man that ever went the same distance
in such a climate and upon snowshoes to con-
voy a friend.
From Cumberland House I pursued a west-
erly course on the ice, following the southern
bank of Sturgeon Lake till I crossed the neck of
land by which alone it is separated from the
great river Pasquayah, or Sascatchiwaine. In
the evening I encamped on the north bank of
258
Cratoefce? anii
this river at the distance of ten leagues from
Cumberland House.
The depth of the snow and the intenseness
of the cold rendered my progress so much
slower than I had reckoned upon that I soon
began to fear the want of provisions. The sun
did not rise till half past nine o'clock in the
morning and it set at half past two in the after-
noon; it is, however, at no time wholly dark
in these climates, the northern lights and the
reflection of the snow affording always suffi-
cient light for the traveler. Add to this that
the river, the course of which I was ascending,
was a guide with the aid of which I could not
lose my way. Every day's journey was com-
menced at three o'clock in the morning.
I was not far advanced before the country
betrayed some approaches to the characteristic
nakedness of the plains. The wood dwindled
away both in size and quantity, so that it was
with difficulty that we could collect sufficient
for making a fire, and without fire we could
not drink, for melted snow was our only re-
source, the ice on the river being too thick
to be penetrated by the axe.
On the evening of the sixth, the weather
continuing severely cold, I made my two men
sleep on the same skin with myself, one on
each side; and though this arrangement was
particularly beneficial to myself, it increased
the comfort of all. At the usual hour in the
morning we attempted to rise, but found that
259
a foot of snow had fallen upon our bed, as well
as extinguished and covered our fire. In this
situation we remained till daybreak, when with
much exertion we collected fresh fuel. Pro-
ceeding on our journey, we found that the use
of our sledges had become impracticable
through the quantity of newly fallen snow, and
were now constrained to carry our provisions
on our backs. Unfortunately, they were a
diminished burden.
For the two days succeeding the depth of the
snow and the violence of the winds greatly
retarded our journey; but from the ninth to
the twelfth the elements were less hostile, and
we traveled rapidly. No trace of anything
human presented itself on our road, except
that we saw the old wintering-ground of
Mr. Finlay, 53 who had left it some years before
and was now stationed at Fort des Prairies.
This fort was the stage we had to make before
we could enter the prairies, or plains; and on
examining our provisions we found only suf-
ficient for five days, while even at the swiftest
rate we had traveled, a journey of twelve days
was before us. My men began to fear being
starved, as seeing no prospect of relief; but
I endeavored to maintain their courage by
63 James Finlay, one of the earliest English traders to
penetrate to this portion of Canada. Matthew Cock-
ing's journal shows that he was here as early as 1767.
He later retired to Montreal, where he became a
prominent citizen. Finlay River is named for his son
James, who entered the fur trade in 1785. Editor.
260
anfc
representing that I should certainly kill red
deer and elk, of which the tracks were visible
along the banks of the river and on the sides of
the hills. What I hoped for in this respect it
was not easy to accomplish, for the animals
kept within the shelter of the woods and the
snow was too deep to let me seek them there.
On the fifteenth our situation was rendered
still more alarming by the commencement of a
fresh fall of snow, which added nearly two feet
to the depth of that which was on the ground
before. At the same tune, we were scarcely able
to collect enough wood for making a fire to
melt the snow. The only trees around us were
starveling willows, and the hills which dis-
covered themselves at a small distance were
bare of every vegetable production, such as
could rear itself above the snow. Their ap-
pearance was rather that of lofty snow-banks,
than of hills. We were now on the borders of
the plains.
On the twentieth the last remains of our
provisions were expended, but I had taken the
precaution to conceal a cake of chocolate in
reserve for an occasion like that which was
now arrived. Toward evening my men, after
walking the whole day, began to lose their
strength, but we nevertheless kept on our feet
till it was late; and when we encamped I in-
formed them of the treasure which was still in
store. I desired them to fill the kettle with
snow, and argued with them the while that the
261
chocolate would keep us alive for five days at
least, an interval in which we should surely
meet with some Indian at the chase. Their
spirits revived at the suggestion, and the kettle
being filled with two gallons of water, I put
into it one square of chocolate. The quantity
was scarcely sufficient to alter the color of the
water; but each of us drank half a gallon of the
warm liquor, by which we were much refreshed,
and in its enjoyment felt no more the fa-
tigues of the day. In the morning we allowed
ourselves a similar repast, after finishing which
we marched vigorously for six hours. But now
the spirits of my companions again deserted
them and they declared that they neither
would nor could proceed any farther. For my-
self, they advised me to leave them and accom-
plish the journey as I could, but for them-
selves they said that they must die soon and
might as well die where they were as anywhere
else.
While things were in this melancholy posture
I filled the kettle and boiled another square of
chocolate. When prepared, I prevailed upon
my desponding companions to return to their
warm beverage. On taking it they recovered
inconceivably, and after smoking a pipe con-
sented to go forward. While their stomachs
were comforted by the warm water they
walked well; but as evening approached,
fatigue overcame them and they relapsed into
their former condition; and the chocolate now
262
anfc
being almost entirely consumed I began to fear
that I must really abandon them; for I was
able to endure more hardship than they; and
had it not been for keeping company with them
I could have advanced double the distance
within the time which had been spent. To
my great joy, however, the usual quantity of
warm water revived them.
For breakfast the next morning I put the
last square of chocolate into the kettle, and
our meal finished, we began our march in but
very indifferent spirits. We were surrounded
by large herds of wolves, which sometimes
came close upon us, and who knew, as we were
prone to think, the extremity in which we were
and marked us for their prey; but I carried a gun
and this was our protection. I fired several
times but unfortunately missed at each, for a
morsel of wolf 's flesh would have afforded us
a banquet.
Our misery, nevertheless, was still nearer its
end than we imagined, and the event was such
as to give one of the innumerable proofs that
despair is not made for man. Before sunset we
discovered on the ice some remains of the bones
of an elk, left there by the wolves. Having
instantly gathered them, we encamped, and
filling our kettle, prepared ourselves a meal of
strong and excellent soup. The greater part of
the night was passed in boiling and regaling on
our booty, and early in the morning we felt
ourselves strong enough to proceed.
263
This day, the twenty-fifth, we found the
borders of the plains reaching to the very
banks of the river, which were two hundred
feet above the level of the ice. Water marks
presented themselves at twenty feet above the
actual level.
Want had lost its dominion over us. At noon
we saw the horns of a red deer standing in the
snow on the river. On examination we found
that the whole carcass was with them, the
animal having broken through the ice in the
beginning of the winter ia^attempting to cross
the river too early in the season; while his
horns, fastening themselves in the ice, had
prevented him from sinking. By cutting away
the ice we were enabled to lay bare a part of
the back and shoulders and thus procure a
stock of food amply sufficient for the rest of
our journey. We accordingly encamped and
employed our kettle to good purpose, forgot
all our misfortunes, and prepared to walk with
cheerfulness the twenty leagues which, as we
reckoned, still lay between ourselves and Fort
des Prairies.
Though the deer must have been in this
situation ever since the month of November,
yet its flesh was perfectly good. Its horns alone
were five feet high or moreyand it will there-
fore not appear extraordinary that they should
be seen above the snow.
On the twenty-seventh, in the morning, we
discovered the print of snowshoes, demon-
264
anti
strating that several persons had passed that
way the day before. These were the first marks
of other human feet than our own which we
had seen since our leaving Cumberland House;
and it was nuich to feel that we had fellow-
creatures in the wide waste surrounding us.
In the evening we reached the fort. 54
At Fort des Prairies I remained several days,
hospitably entertained by my friends, who
covered* their table with the tongues and mar-
row of wild bulls. The quantity of provisions
which I found collected here exceeded every-
thing of which I had previously formed a
notion. In one heap I saw fifty tons of beef,
so fat that the men could scarcely find a suffi-
ciency of lean.
I had come to see the plains, and I had yet a
serious journey to perform in order to gratify
my curiosity. Their southern boundary I
have already named; and I understood that
they stretched northward to the sixtieth degree
of north latitude and westward to the feet of
the Rocky Mountains, or Northern Andes, of
which the great chain pursues a northwesterly
direction. The mountains seen in high latitudes
were regarded as part of this chain, and said to
be inhabited by numerous bands of Indians.
64 This fort was "about twelve miles in an air line"
below the forks pf the Saskatchewan, on the site of an
older fort established by the French in 1753. Here a
century later the Hudson's Bay Company had Fort a la
Corne, named in honor of the builder of the original
French fort, M , de la Corne. Editor.
265
The Plains cross the River Pasquayah, Kejee-
chewon, Sascatchiwaine, or Shascatchiwan, a
little above Fort des Prairies.
The Indians who inhabit them immediately
to the southward are called psinipoilles or
Assiniboins. 65 At the fort I met with a woman
who was a slave among the Osinipoilles, taken
far to* the westward of the mountains in a
country which the latter incessantly ravage.
She informed me that the men of the country
never suffer themselves to be taken, but always
die in the field rather than fall into captivity.
The women and children are made slaves, but
are not put to death nor tormented. 56 Her
nation lived on a great river running to the
southwest, and cultivated beans, squashes,
maize, and tobacco. The lands were generally
mountainous and covered with pine and fir.
She had heard of men who wear their beards.
She had been taken in one of the incursions
of the Osinipoilles. Of the men who were in
the village, the greater part were killed, but a
few escaped by swimming across the river.
55 The Assiniboin tribe is closely related to the Sioux,
having seceded from the latter in the seventeenth
century, according to Perrot. Editor.
b6 The Five Nations, and others, are known to have
treated their prisoners with great cruelty; but there is
too much reason to believe that the exercise of this
cruelty has been often encouraged, and its malignity
often increased, by European instigators and assistants.
Author.
266
Cratoefe? atifc
The woman belonged to a numerous band of
Osinipoilles which was at the fort selling its
meat and skins. I resolved on traveling with
these people to their village, and accordingly
set out on the fifth of February, accompanied
by Messrs. Patterson and Holmes, 57 and at-
tended by my two Canadians.
67 William Holmes, a prominent Northwestern trader,
and one of the stockholders in the North West Company.
A partner of Holmes, James Grant, was also active in
the fur trade of the interior. Grant River and County
in southwestern Wisconsin are probably named after
this man. Editor.
267
Chapter n
A JOURNEY ON THE PLAINS
WE departed at an early hour and after a
march of about two miles ascended the
table land which lies above the river,
and of which the level is two hundred feet
higher than that of the land on which the fort
is built. From the low ground upward the soil
is covered with poplar of a large growth, but
the summit of the ridge is no sooner gained than
the wood is found to be smaller and so thinly
scattered that a wheel carriage might pass in
any direction. At noon we crossed a small river
called Moose River, flowing at the feet of very
lofty banks. Moose River is said to fall into
Lake Dauphin.
Beyond this stream the wood grows still
more scanty and the land more and more level.
Our course was southerly. The snow lay four
feet deep. The Indians traveled swiftly, and
in keeping pace with them my companions
and myself had too much exercise to suffer
from the coldness of the atmosphere; but our
snowshoes being of a broader make than those
of the Indians, we had much fatigue in follow-
ing their track. The women led and we
marched till sunset when we reached a small
coppice of wood, under the protection of which
268
anti
we encamped. The baggage of the Indians was
drawn by dogs, who kept pace with the women
and appeared to be under their command. As
soon as we halted the women set up the tents,
which were constructed and covered like those
of the Christinaux.
The tent in which I slept contained fourteen
persons, each of whom lay with his feet to the
fire, which was in the middle; but the night was
so cold that even this precaution, with the as-
sistance of our buffalo robes, was insufficient
to keep us warm. Our supper was made on the
tongues of the wild ox, or buffalo, boiled in my
kettle, which was the only one in the camp.
At break of day, or rather before that time,
we left our encampment, the women still
preceding us. On our march we saw but little
wood, and that only here and there and at
great distances. We crossed two rivulets steal-
ing along the bottom of very deep channels,
which, no doubt, are better filled in the season
of the melting of the snow. The banks here as
on the Pasquayah or Sascatchiwaine are com-
posed of a whitish clay, mingled with sand.
On the sixth of February we had a fine clear
sky, but the air was exceedingly cold and bleak,
no shelter from woods being afforded us on
either side. There was but little wind, and
yet at times enough to cause a slight drift of
snow. In the evening we encamped in a small
wood, of which the largest trees did not exceed
a man's wrist in thickness. On the seventh we
269
left our encampment at an early hour. Tracks
of large herds of animals presented themselves,
which the Indians said were those of red deer.
Our course was southwest and the weather
very cold. The country was one uninterrupted
plain, in many parts of which no wood, not even
the smallest shrub, was to be seen; a continued
level without a single eminence; a frozen
sea, of which the little coppices were the islands.
That behind which we had encamped the night
before soon sunk in the horizon, and the eye
had nothing left, save only the sky and snow.
The latter was still four feet in depth.
At noon we discovered, and presently
passed by, a diminutive wood, or island. At
four in the afternoon another was in sight.
When I could see none I was alive to the dan-
ger to be feared from a storm of wind, which
would have driven the snow upon us. The
Indians related that whole families often perish
in this manner.
It was dark before we reached the wood.
A fire, of which we had much need, was soon
kindled by the women. Axes were useless
here, for the largest tree yielded easily to the
hand. It was not only small, but in a state
of decay, and easily extracted from the loose
soil in which it grew. We supped on wild beef
and snow-water. In the night the wind changed
to the southward and the weather became
milder. I was still asleep, when the women
began their noisy preparations for our march.
270
Crafcelg attfc
The striking of the tents, the tongues of the
women, and the cries of the dogs were all
heard at once. At the first dawn of day we
recommenced our journey. Nothing was
visible but the snow and sky; and the snow was
drifted into ridges resembling waves.
Soon after sunrise we descried a herd of
oxen, extending a mile and a half in length and
too numerous to be counted. They traveled,
not one after another, as in the snow other
animals usually do, but in a broad phalanx,
slowly, and sometimes stopping to feed. We
did not disturb them, because to have attacked
them would have occasioned much delay to our
progress; and because the dogs were already
sufficiently burdened not to need the addition
of the spoil.
At two o'clock we reached a small lake sur-
rounded with wood, and where the trees were
of a size somewhat larger than those behind.
There were birch trees among the rest. I
observed that wherever there was water there
was wood. All the snow upon the lake was
trodden down by the feet of wild oxen. When
this was the case on the land an abundance of
coarse grass discovered itself beneath. We
were unable to penetrate to the water in the
lake, though we cut a hole in the ice to the
depth of three feet. Where we cleared the ground
for our encampments no stones were to be seen.
This evening we had scarcely encamped
when there arrived two Osinipoilles, sent by
271
the great chief of the nation, whose name was
the Great Road, to meet the troop. The chief
had been induced to send them through his anx-
iety, occasioned by their longer absence than
had been expected. The messengers expressed
themselves much pleased at finding strangers
with their friends, and told us that we were
within one day's march of their village, and
that the great chief would be highly gratified
in learning the long journey which we had per-
formed to visit him. They added that in
consequence of finding us they must themselves
return immediately, to apprise him of our
coming and enable him to prepare for our
reception.
Fortunately they had not been able to take
any refreshment before a storm of wind and
snow commenced which prevented their de-
parture, and in which they must have been
lost, had it happened later. The storm con-
tinued all the night and part of the next day.
Clouds of snow, raised by the wind, fell on the
encampment and almost buried it. I had no
resource tut in my buffalo robe.
In the morning we were alarmed by the
approach of a herd of oxen, who came from the
open ground to shelter themselves in the wood.
Their numbers were so great that we dreaded
lest they should fairly trample down the camp;
nor could it have happened otherwise but for
the dogs, almost as numerous as they, who
were able to keep them in check. The Indians
272
anH a&toenture
killed several when close upon their tents; but
neither the fire of the Indians nor the noise of
the dogs could soon drive them away. What-
ever were the terrors which filled the wood, they
had no other escape from the terrors of the
storm.
In the night of the tenth the wind fell. The
interval had been passed in feasting on the
tongues of the oxen. On the morning of the
eleventh the messengers left us before day-
light. We had already charged them with a
present for the chief, consisting in tobacco and
vermilion. Of these articles, the former
exceeds all others in estimation; for the Indians
are universally great smokers, men, women and
children, and no affair can be transacted, civil
or religious, without the pipe.
Our march was performed at a quick pace
in the track of the messengers. All the fore
part of the day escaped without discovering to
us a single wood, or even a single twig, with f
the exception of a very small island, lying on
our right; but at four o'clock in the afternoon
we reached a little scrub, or bushy tract, on
which we encamped. We were at no great
distance from the village; but the Indians, as
is their custom, delayed their entry till the
morning.
On the twelfth at ten o'clock in the forenoon
we were in sight of a wood, or island, as the
term not unnaturally is, as well with the
Indians as others; it appeared to be about a
273
mile and a half long. Shortly after, we observed
smoke arising from it, and were informed that
it was the smoke of the village. The morning
was clear and the sun shining.
At eleven o'clock two fresh messengers came
from the village, by whom the strangers were
formally welcomed on the part of the chief.
They told us that they were directed to con-
duct us and our servants to a lodge, which had
been prepared for our reception.
At the entrance of the wood we were met by
a large band of Indians, having the appearance
of a guard, each man being armed with his bow
and spear and having his quiver filled with
arrows. In this, as in much that followed, there
was more of order and discipline than in any-
thing which I had before witnessed among
Indians. The power of these guards appeared
to be great, for they treated very roughly some
of the people who, in their opinion, approached
us too closely. Forming themselves in regu-
lar file on either side of us, they escorted
us to the lodge, or tent, which was assigned us.
It was of a circular form, covered with leather,
and not less than twenty feet in diameter. On
the ground within, ox-skins were spread for
beds and seats.
274
12
HOSPITALITY OF THE ASSINIBOIN
ONE-HALF of the tent was appropriated
to our use. Several women waited upon
us to make a fire and bring water, which
latter they fetched from a neighboring tent.
Shortly after our arrival these women brought
us water, unasked for, saying that it was for
washing. The refreshment was exceedingly
acceptable, for on our march we had become so
dirty that our complexions were not very dis-
tinguishable from those of the Indians them-
selves.
The same women presently borrowed our
kettle, telling us that they wanted to boil
something for us to eat. Soon after we heard
the voice of a man passing through the village
and making a speech as he went. Our inter-
preter informed us that his speech contained an
invitation to a feast, accompanied by a proc-
lamation in which the people were required to
behave with decorum toward the strangers,
and apprised that the soldiers had orders to
punish those who should do otherwise.
While we were procuring this explanation an
Indian, who, appeared to be a chief, came into
our tent and invited us to the feast, adding
that he would himself show us the way. We
275
followed him accordingly, and he carried us to
the tent of the great chief, which we found
neither more ornamented nor better furnished
than the rest.
At our entrance the chief arose from his seat,
saluted us in the Indian manner by shaking
hands, and addressed us in a few words, in
which he offered his thanks for the confidence
which we had reposed in him in trusting our-
selves so far from our own country. After we
were seated, which was on bear skins spread
on the ground, the pipe, as usual, was intro-
duced and presented in succession to each per-
son present. Each took his whiff and then let it
pass to his neighbor. The stem, which was
four feet in length, was held by an officer
attendant on the chief. The bowl was of red
marble or pipestone.
When the pipe had gone its round the chief,
without rising from his seat, delivered a speech
of some length, but of which the general pur-
port was of the nature already described in
speaking of the Indians of the Lake of the
Woods. 58 The speech ended, several of the
Indians began to* weep, and they were soon
joined by the whole party. Had I not pre-
viously been witness to a weeping-scene of this
description I should certainly have been ap-
prehensive of some disastrous catastrophe; but
as it was I listened to it with tranquillity. It
lasted for about ten minutes, after which all
68 See Part Two, chapter 8. Author.
276
tears were dried away, and the honors of the
feast were performed by the attending chiefs.
This consisted in giving to every guest a dish
containing a boiled wild ox's tongue, for pre-
paring which my kettle had been borrowed.
The repast finished, the great chief dismissed
us by shaking hands, and we returned to our
tent.
Having inquired among these people why
they always ^weep at their feasts, and some-
times at their councils, I was answered that
their tears flowed to the memory of those de-
ceased relations who formerly assisted both at
the one and the other; that their absence on
these occasions necessarily brought them fresh
into their minds, and at the same time led
them to reflect on their own brief and uncer-
tain continuance. 59
The chief to whose kindly reception we were
so much indebted was about five feet ten inches
high, and of a complexion rather darker than
59 The Ossinipoiles are the Issati of the older travel-
ers, and have sometimes been called the Weepers.
Author.
This is an error on the part of Henry. Before the
Sioux obtained firearms from Europeans they used flint
knives and arrowheads, made from flint which they
found on the banks of the Thousand Lakes called by
them Isan-ta-mde, or "Lake of Knives." From this
circumstance the eastern Sioux were called Isan-ya-ti,
which has in time been corrupted into modern Santee.
The Santee include the Wahpetans and the Wazikute;
the Siouan division from which the Assiniboin separ-
ated are the Yankton. Editor.
277
that of the Indians in general. His appearance
was greatly injured by the condition of his
head of hair, and this was the result of an
extraordinary superstition.
The Indians universally fix upon a partic-
ular object as sacred to themselves; as the
giver of their prosperity, and as their preserver
from evil. The choice is determined either by
a dream, or by some strong predilection of
fancy, and usually falls upon an animal, or
part of an animal, or something else which is to
be met with by land or by water: but the Great
Road had made choice of his hair placing,
like Sampson, all his safety in this portion of
his proper substance! His hair was the foun-
tain of all his happiness; it was his strength and
his weapon, his spear and his shield. It pre-
served him in battle, directed him in the chase,
watched over him in the march, and gave length
of days to his wives and children. Hair of a
quality like this was not to be profaned by the
touch of human hands. I was assured that it
had never been cut nor combed from his child-
hood upward; and that when any part of it
fell from his head he treasured up that part
with care: meanwhile, it did not escape all
care, even while growing on the head; but was
in the special charge of a spirit, who dressed it
while the owner slept. All this might be: but
the spirit's style of hair dressing was at least
peculiar, the hair being suffered to remain
very much as if it received no dressing at all,
278
anfc
and matted into ropes which spread them-
selves in all directions.
The same evening we were invited to a
second feast. Everything was nearly as before,
except that in the morning all the guests were
men, and now half were women. All the women
were seated on one side of the floor of the tent,
and all the men on the other, with a fire placed
between them. The fire rendering the tent
warm, the men, one after another, dropped the
skins which were their garments, and left
themselves entirely naked. The appearance
of one of them in particular having led us, who
were strangers, into an involuntary and ill-
stifled laugh, the men calmly asked us the
occasion of our mirth; but one of the women
pointing to the cause, the individual restored
the covering of his robe.
The women are themselves perfectly modest,
both in dress and demeanor, and those who
were now present maintained the first rank
in the village; but custom had rendered the
scene inoffensive to their eyes.
Our repast concluded, we departed, taking
with us our dishes, in which the greater part
of the ox tongues which had been laid upon
them remained unconsumed.
All night in our tent we had a guard of six
soldiers; and when I awoke, as several times
I did, I always found them smoking their pipes
in silence.
We rose at daybreak, according to the
279
custom of the Indians, who say that they follow
it in order to avoid surprises, this being the
hour at which the enemy uniformly makes his
attack.
Our waiting-women arrived early, bringing
wood and water. Washing appeared to me to
be a ceremony of religion among the Osini-
poilles; and I never saw anything similar
among other Indians.
Leaving our tent, we made a progress
through the village, which consisted of about
two hundred tents, each tent containing from
two to four families. We were attended by
four soldiers of our guard, but this was insuf-
ficient for keeping off the women and children,
who crowded around us with insatiable curi-
osity. Our march was likewise accompanied
by a thousand dogs, all howling frightfully.
From the village I saw for the first time one
of those herds of horses which the Osinipoilles
possess in numbers. It was feeding on the
skirts of the plain. The masters of these herds
provide them with no fodder; but leave them
to find food for themselves by removing the
snow with their feet till they reach the grass,
which is everywhere on the ground in plenty.
At ten o'clock we returned to our tent, and
in a short time the great chief paid us a visit,
attended by nearly fifty followers of distinc-
tion. In coming in he gave his hand to each of
us, and all his attendants followed his example.
When we were seated one of the officers went
280
anti
through the ceremony of the pipe, after which
the great chief delivered a speech, of which the
substance was as follows: That he was glad to
see us; that he had been, some time since, in-
formed of a fort of the white men's being
established on the Pasquayah, and that it had
always been his intention to pay a visit there;
that we were our own masters, to remain at our
pleasure in his village, free from molestation,
and assured of his especial protection; that the
young men had employed themselves in collect-
ing meat and furs, for the purpose of purchas-
ing certain articles, wherewith to decorate
their wives; that within a few days he proposed
to move, with his whole village, on this errand;
that nothing should be omitted to make our
stay as agreeable as possible; that he had al-
ready ordered a party of his soldiers to guard
us, and that if anything should occur to dis-
please us, his ear was always open to our
complaints.
For all these friendly communications we
offered our thanks. His visit to the fort it had
been a principal object to invite.
After the speech the chief presented us with
twenty beaver skins, and as many wolf. In
return we gave two pounds of vermilion, and a
few fathoms of twisted tobacco, assuring him
that when he should arrive at our habitation
we would endeavor to repay the benefits which
we were receiving from him, and at the same
time cheerfully exchange our merchandise for
281
lljenrp
the dried meat and skins of his village. It
was agreed that he should strike his camp at
the end of five days, and that we should remain
in it so long, and accompany it to the fort.
The chief now departed; and I believe that we
were reciprocally pleased with each other.
A short time after he was gone we received
an invitation to a feast from a subordinate
chief. Our dishes were again filled with tongues,
but roasted and not boiled. To furnish us with
water we saw an ox's paunch employed as a
kettle. This being hung in the smoke of a
fire, was filled with snow, and as the snow
melted more was added till the paunch was full
of water. The lower orifice of the organ was
used for drawing off the water, and stopped
with a plug and string.
During our whole stay we never had occasion
for cookery at home; but my kettle was in
constant use, and for the most part in prepara-
tion of the feasts at which we were daily
guests. In our tent we were regularly supplied
with water, either by the women or by the
guards.
The guards were changed daily. They fre-
quently beat the people for disobedience of
orders, and the offenders made no resistance to
the chastisement. We were informed that
there was at both extremities of the camp, or
village, a picket of two men, whose duty it was
not to allow any person to go beyond the
bounds. The intention of this was to prevent
282
anfe Slttecuturcs
stragglers from falling a prey to the enemy.
General orders were issued by the chief
morning and evening, and published by a crier
in every part of the camp.
In the course of the day the great chief in-
formed us that he proposed hunting the wild ox
on the following morning, and invited us to be
of the party.
283
Chapter 13
CUSTOMS OF THE RED MEN
IN the morning we went to the hunt accord-
ingly. The chief was followed by about
forty men and a great number of women.
We proceeded to a small island on the plain, at
the distance of five miles from the village. On
our way we saw large herds of oxen at feed,
but the hunters forbore to molest them, lest
they should take the alarm.
Arrived at the island, the women pitched a
few tents while the chief led his hunters to its
southern end where there was a pound, or
enclosure. The fence was about four feet high,
and formed of strong stakes of birchwood,
wattled with smaller branches of the same.
The day was spent in making repairs, and by
the evening all was ready for the hunt.
At daylight several of the more expert
hunters were sent to decoy the animals into the
pound. They were dressed in ox skins, with
the hair and horns. Their faces were covered,
and their gestures so closely resembled those
of the animals themselves that had I not been
in the secret I should have been as much de-
ceived as the oxen.
At ten o'clock one of the hunters returned,
bringing information of the herd. Immediately
284
Cratoelg and
all the dogs were muzzled and, this done, the
whole crowd of men and women surrounded
the outside of the pound. The herd, of which
the extent was so great that I cannot pretend to
estimate the numbers, was distant half a mile,
advancing slowly and frequently stopping to
feed. The part played by the decoyers was
that of approaching them within hearing and
then bellowing like themselves. On hearing
the noise the oxen did not fail to give it atten-
tion, and whether from curiosity or sympathy,
advanced to meet those from whom it pro-
ceeded. These, in the meantime, fell back de-
liberately toward the pound, always repeating
the call whenever the oxen stopped. This was
reiterated till the leaders of the herd had fol-
lowed the decoyers into the jaws of the pound,
which, though wide asunder toward the plain,
terminated Hke a funnel in a small aperture,
or gateway, and within this was the pound
itself. The Indians remark that in all herds of
animals there are chiefs, or leaders, by whom the
motions of the rest are determined.
The decoyers now retired within the pound
and were followed by the oxen. But the former
retired still farther, withdrawing themselves at
certain movable parts of the fence, while the
latter were fallen upon by all the hunters, and
presently wounded and killed by showers of
arrows. Amid the uproar which ensued the
oxen made several attempts to force the fence,
but the Indians stopped them, and drove them
285
back by shaking skins before their eyes. Skins
were also made use of to stop the entrance,
being let down by strings as soon as the oxen
were inside. The slaughter was prolonged till
the evening, when the hunters returned to their
tents. Next morning all the tongues were pre-
sented to the chief, to the number of seventy-
two.
The women brought the meat to the village
on sledges drawn by dogs. The lumps on the
shoulders, and the hearts, as well as the
tongues were set apart for feasts, while the rest
was consumed as ordinary food, or dried for
sale at the fort.
The time was now passed in dancing and
festivity in all quarters of the village. On the
evening of the day after the hunt the chief
came to our tent, bringing with him about
twenty men and as many women, who sep-
arately seated themselves as before; but they
now brought musical instruments, and soon
after their arrival began to play. The instru-
ments consisted principally in a sort of tam-
bourine, and a gourd filled with stones, which
several persons accompanied by shaking two
bones together; and others with bunches of
deer hoofs, fastened to the end of a stick.
Another instrument was one that was no more
than a piece of wood of three feet with notches
cut on its edge. The performer drew a stick
backward and forward along the notches, keep-
ing time. The women sang; and the sweetness
286
anfc
of their voices exceeded whatever I had heard
before.
This entertainment -lasted upward of an
hour; and when it was finished a dance com-
menced. The men formed themselves into a
row on one side, and the women on the other,
and each moved sidewise, first up and then
down the room. The sound of bells and other
jingling materials attached to the women's
dresses enabled them to keep tune. The songs
and dances were continued alternately till
near midnight, when all our visitors departed.
These amusements were given to us com-
plimentarily by the chief. He took no part
in the performances himself, but sat smoking
while they proceeded.
It had been my wish to go farther on the
Plains, till I should have reached the mountains,
at the feet of which, as I have already ob-
served, they lie; but the chief informed me that
the latter were still at the distance of many days'
journey, and that the intervening country was
a tract destitute of the least appearance of
wood. In the winter, as he asserted, this tract
cannot be crossed at all, and in the summer the
traveler is in great danger of perishing for
want of water; and the only fuel to be met with
is the dung of the wild ox. It is intersected by
a large river, which runs to the sun's rising,
and which has its sources in the mountains.
With regard to the country of the Osini-
poilles he said that it lay between the head of the
287
Pasquayah, or Sasca,tchiwaine, and the coun-
try of the Sioux, or Nadowessies, who in-
habit the heads of the Missisipi. On the
west, near the mountains, were the Snake
Indians and Blackfeet, troublesome neigh-
bors, by whose hands numbers of his warriors
fell.
The Osinipoilles have many villages com-
posed of from one to two hundred tents each.
Few exceed the latter number. They often go
to the mountains on war parties, and always on
horseback. When the great chief intends to go
to war he sends messengers to the several
villages directing the warriors to meet him at an
appointed place and time. With regard to
the latter, it is described by the moon, as the
beginning, full, or end. In obedience to the
summons they assemble in greater numbers
than can be counted, 60 armed with the bow,
sling, and spear, and with quivers full of ar-
rows. They have still another weapon, formed
of a stone of about two pounds weight, which
is sewed in leather and made fast to a wooden
handle two feet long. In using it the stone is
whirled round the handle by a warrior sitting
on horseback and attacking at full speed.
Every stroke which takes effect brings down a
man or horse; or, if used in the chase, an ox.
To prevent the weapon from slipping out of the
hand a string, which is tied to the handle, is
also passed round the wrist of the wearer. The
60 This was the chief's expression. Author.
288
anii
horses of the Osinipoilles were originally pro-
cured from white people with beards who live
to the southward; that is, the Spanish colonists
in New Mexico.
The animals which I saw alive on the plains
are oxen, red deer and wolves; but I saw also
the skins of foxes, bears and a small number of
panthers, sometimes called tigers and, most
properly, cougars. 61
In their religious notions as well as in their
dress, arms, and other particulars, there is a
general agreement between the Osinipoilles
and the Cristinaux. 62 They believe in a creator
and governor of the world, in a future life, and
in the spirits, gods, or manitos, whom they
denominate wakons. Their practices of devo-
tion consist in the singing of songs, accom-
panied by the drum, or rattle, or both; and the
subjects of which are prayers and praises: in
smoking feasts, or feasts of the pipe, or calumet,
held in honor of the spirits, to whom the smoke
of tobacco is supposed to be a most acceptable
incense: and in other feasts, as well as in fasts
and in sacrifices. The victims of sacrifice are
usually dogs, which being killed and hung
upon poles are left there to decay.
61 Felis concolor. Author.
62 Such of the Christinaux as inhabit the plains have
also their horses, like the Osinipoilles. By language the
Osinipoilles are allied to the Nadowessies, but they are
always at war with them. Of the language of the Nado-
wessies, Carver has given a short vocabulary. Author.
289
Many travelers have described the marriages
of the Indians, but as they have greatly dis-
agreed in their delineations, I shall venture
to set down such particulars as have presented
themselves to my immediate view. Though
inserted here, they have no exclusive relation
to the Osinipoilles, all the Indians whom
I have seen having similar customs on this
head.
A young man, desirous of marrying a partic-
ular young woman, visits the lodge in which she
lives at night and when all the family, or rather
families, are sleeping on their mats around.
He comes provided with a match, or splint
of wood, which he lights among the embers of
one of the fires which are in the middle of
the lodge. The only intention of this is the very
obvious one of finding by the help of the light
the young woman whom he means to visit, and
whom, perhaps, he has to awaken. This done,
he extinguishes the light. In speaking to her
he whispers, because it is not necessary to
disturb all the lodge, and because something
like privacy and secrecy belong to the nature
of the occasion. If she makes no reply to his
address, he considers his attempts at acquain-
tance as repulsed, and in consequence retires.
If the young woman receives him with favor
he takes part of her mat. He brings with him
his own blanket. I consider this practice as
precisely similar to the bundling of New
England and other countries; and, to say the
290
anfc
least, as not more licentious. 63 Children born
out of wedlock are very rare among the Indians.
The lover who is permitted to remain re-
tires before daybreak. When the young woman
has consented to be his wife he opens the af-
fair to his own mother, by whom it is com-
municated to her's; and if the two mothers agree
they mutually apply to their husbands.
The father of the young man then invites
the father of the young woman to a stew, or
sudatory, prepared for the occasion, and at
which he communicates the wishes of his son.
The father of the young woman gives no
reply till the day following, when in his own
turn he invites the other to the sweating house.
If he approves of the match, the terms upon
which it is to be made are now settled.
Stews, sudatories, or sweating houses are
resorted to for cure of sickness, for pleasure,
or for giving freedom and vigor to the faculties
of the mind when particular deliberation and
sagacity are called for. To prepare them for a
guest is, therefore, to offer every assistance to
his judgment, and manifest the reverse of a
disposition to take an unfair advantage of
him: it is the exact opposite of offering him
liquor. They are constructed of slender
branches of trees, united at the top and closely
covered with skins or blankets. Within, water
63 On the custom of bundling, see H. R. Stiles,
Bundling; its Origin, Progress, and Decline in America
(Albany, 1869). Editor.
291
SUejtanber
is poured upon a red-hot stone, till the steam
induces perspiration.
The terms are either that the young man, as
was most usual in older times, shall serve the
father of the young woman for a certain period
(as for three years) or that he shall redeem
himself from this obligation by a present.
If he be to serve, then, at the time fixed, he
goes, accompanied by his father and mother,
to the lodge of the young woman's family.
There he is desired by her mother to sit down
on the same mat with her. A feast is usually
served, and the young woman's father delivers
a suitable speech. The young man is thence-
forward regarded as one of his wife's family,
and remains in the lodge accordingly.
If, on the other hand, he redeems himself by
a present, then his father and mother go alone
to the lodge of the young woman's family,
carrying a present. If the present be accepted,
they leave it and return home; and shortly
after the father and mother, accompanied by
their daughter, go to the lodge of the bride-
groom's family, where the bride is desired to
sit down beside her husband. The feast and
speech are now made by the young man's
father, and the young woman is received into
his family.
Every man marries as many wives as he
pleases, and as he can maintain; and the usual
number is from one to five. The oldest in
most cases is the mistress of the family, and
292
Cratorig anfc
of the other wives among the rest. They
appear to live in much harmony. Polygamy
among the Indians conduces little to popula-
tion. For the number of adults the children
are always few.
In naming a child the father officiates, and
the ceremony is simple. The relations are
invited to a feast, when he makes a speech, in-
forming the guests of the name by which the
child is to be called, and addresses a prayer to
the Great Spirit, petitioning for the child's
life and welfare.
With respect to the burial of the dead, if the
death happen in the winter season and at a
distance from the burial ground of the family,
the body invariably accompanies all the wan-
derings and journeys of the survivors till the
spring, and till their arrival at the place of
interment. In the meantime it is everywhere
rested on a scaffold, out of the reach of beasts
of prey. The grave is made of a circular form,
about five feet deep, and lined with bark of the
birch or some other tree, or with skins. A seat
is prepared, and the body is placed in a sitting
posture, with supporters on either side. If
the deceased be a man, his weapons of war
and of the chase are buried with him, as also
his shoes, and everything for which as a living
warrior or hunter he would have occasion, and,
indeed, all his property; and I believe that
those whose piety alone may not be strong
enough to ensure to the dead the entire
293
inventory of what is supposed to be necessary
for them, or is their own, are compelled to do
them justice by another argument, and which
is the fear of their displeasure. A defrauded or
neglected ghost, although invisible, can dis-
perse the game of the plains or forests so that
the hunter shall hunt in vain; and either in the
chase or in the war, turn aside the arrow, or
palsy the arm that draws the bow: in the lodge
it can throw a child into the fire.
The body and its accompaniments are cov-
ered with bark, the bark with logs, and the
logs with earth. This done, a relation stands
up and pronounces an eulogium on the de-
ceased, extolling his virtues and relating his
exploits. He dwells upon the enemies whom he
slew, the scalps and prisoners which he took, his
skill and industry in the chase, and his deport-
ment as a father, husband, son, brother,
friend, and member of the community. At
each assertion which he makes the speaker
strikes a post which is placed near the grave,
a gesture of asseveration, and which enforces
the attention of the audience and assists in
counting up the points delivered. The eulo-
gium finished, the post is painted, 64 and on it
are represented the number of prisoners taken,
by so many figures of men; and of killed and
scalped, by figures without heads. To these
are added his badge, called, in the Algonquin
64 Hence The Painted Post, the name of a village in
Pennsylvania. Author.
294
an&
tongue, a totem, and which is in the nature of an
armorial bearing. It informs the passing Indian
of the family to which the deceased belonged.
A serious duty at the grave is that of placing
food for the use of the dead on the journey to
the land of souls. This care is never neglected,
even under every disadvantage of molestation.
In the neighborhood of the traders, dishes of
cooked venison are very commonly placed on
the graves of those long buried and as com-
monly removed by Europeans, even without
offense to those who placed them there. In
situations of great want I have more than once
resorted to them for food.
The men among the Osinipoilles are well
made, but their color is much deeper than that
of the more northern Indians. Some of the
women are tolerably handsome, considering
how they live, exposed to the extremes of heat
and cold and placed in an atmosphere of smoke
for at least one-half of the year. Their dress is
of the same materials and of the same form with
that of the female Cristinaux. The married
women suffer their hair to grow at random,
and even hang over their eyes. All the sex is
fond of garnishing the lower edge of the dress
with small bells, deer hoofs, pieces of metal, or
anything capable of making a noise. When
they move the sounds keep time, and make a
fantastic harmony.
The Osinipoilles treat with great cruelty
their slaves. As an example, one of the
295
principal chiefs, whose tent was near that which
we occupied, had a female slave of about
twenty years of age. I saw her always on the
outside of the door of the tent, exposed to
the severest cold; and having asked the
reason, I was told that she was a slave. The
information induced me to speak to her master
in the hope of procuring some mitigation of the
hardships she underwent; but he gave me for
answer that he had taken her on the other side
of the western mountains; that at the same
time he had lost a brother and a son in battle;
and that the enterprise had taken place in
order to release one of his own nation who had
been a slave in her's, and who had been used
with much greater severity than that which
she experienced. The* reality of the last of
these facts appeared to me to be impossible.
The wretched woman fed and slept with the
dogs, scrambling with them for the bones
which were thrown out of the tent. When her
master was within she was never permitted to
enter; at all seasons the children amused
themselves with impunity in tormenting her,
thrusting lighted sticks into her face, and if
she succeeded in warding off these outrages
she was violently beaten. I was not successful
in procuring any diminution of her sufferings,
but I drew some relief from the idea that their
duration could not be long. They were too
heavy to be sustained.
It is known that some slaves have the good
296
anfe Sltsbcnturcs?
fortune to be adopted into Indian families,
and are afterward allowed to marry in them,
-but among the Osinipoilles this seldom hap-
pens; and even among the Chippewa, where
a female slave is so adopted and married I
never knew her to lose the degrading appella-
tion of wakan, a slave* 5
65 This word wakan, which in the Algonquin language
signifies a slave, is not to be confounded with wakan or
wakon, which in the language of the Nadowessies and
Osinipoilles signifies a spirit or manito. Author.
297
Chapter 14
THE RETURN TO FORT DES PRAIRIES
ON the nineteenth of February the chief
apprised us that it was his design to de-
part the next morning for the fort. In
consequence we collected our baggage, which,
however, was but small, consisting in a
buffalo robe for each person, an axe, and a
kettle. The last was reluctantly parted with
by our friends, who had none left to supply its
place.
At daybreak on the twentieth all was noise
and confusion in the camp, the women beat-
ing and loading the dogs, and the dogs howl-
ing and crying. The tents were speedily struck,
and .the coverings and poles packed up to be
drawn by the dogs.
Soon after sunrise the march began. In the
van were twenty-five soldiers, who were to
beat the path so that the dogs might walk.
They were followed by about twenty men,
apparently in readiness for contingent services;
and after these went the women, each driving
one or two, and some five, loaded dogs. The
number of these animals actually drawing
loads exceeded five hundred. After the baggage
marched the main body of the men, carrying
only their arms. The rear was guarded by
298
ant)
about forty soldiers. The line of march cer-
tainly exceeded three miles in length.
The morning was clear and calm. Our road
was a different one from that by which we had
reached the camp. We passed several herds
of wild oxen, which betrayed some alarm at
the noise of the dogs and women resounding
on every side.
Our march was pursued till sunset, when we
reached a small wood, the first that we had seen
all day. The great chief desired Mr. Patter-
son and myself to lodge in his own tent, and we
accordingly became part of his family. We
saw that his entire and numerous household
was composed of relations. The chief, after
smoking his pipe, determined the line of march
for the next day; and his dispositions in this
regard were immediately published through the
camp.
At daybreak our tents were again struck, and
we proceeded on our march in the same order
as the day before. Today (to follow the phrase-
ology of the plains) we had once land in sight,
consisting in two small islands, lying at a great
distance from our road. On our march the
chief informed us that he proposed reaching
another camp of his people that evening, and
would take it with him to the fort. Accordingly,
at about four o'clock in the afternoon we dis-
covered a wood and presently afterward saw
smoke rising from it. At sunset we encamped
near the wood, where we found a hundred
299
tents. We were not long arrived before the
chiefs of this second camp paid a visit to the
Great Road, who informed them of his inten-
tion to visit the fort and recommended to
them to join his march. They consented,
and orders were given as usual by a public
officer.
The night afforded me but little sleep, so
great was the disturbance from noises of all
kinds; feasting and dancing; the women chas-
tising the dogs; the dogs of the two camps
meeting and maintaining against each other
the whole night long a universal war.
In the morning the two camps united in one
line of march, which was now so far extended
that those in the rear could not descry the
front. At noon we passed a small wood, where
we saw horses feeding. The Indians informed
me that they belonged to one of their camps,
or villages; and that it was their uniform cus-
tom to leave their horses in the beginning of
the winter at the first wood where they were
when the snow fell, at which the horses always
remain through the season, and where their
masters are sure to find them in the spring.
The horses never go out of sight of the island
assigned them, winter or summer, for fear of
wanting its shelter in a storm.
We encamped this evening among some
small brushwood. Our fire went out accident-
ally in the night, and I was kept awake by the
cold and by the noise of the dogs.
300
In the course of the next day, the twenty-
third of the month, we passed several coppices,
and saw that the face of the country was
changing and that we had arrived on the mar-
gin of the Plains. On the twenty-seventh we
encamped on a large wood, where the Indians
resolved on leaving the old women and children
till their return from the fort, from which we
were now distant only one day's march. On
the twenty-eighth they halted for the whole
day; but we engaged two of them to lead us
forward, and thus arrived in the evening at the
fort, where we found all well. A large band of
Cristinaux had brought skins from the Beaver
River.
Next day the Indians advanced their camp
to within half a mile of the fort, but left
thirty tents behind them in the wood. They
continued with us three days, selling their
skins and provisions for trinkets.
It is not in this manner that the northern
Indians dispose of the harvest of the chase.
With them the principal purchases are of
necessaries; but the Osinipoilles are less de-
pendent on our merchandise. The wild ox
alone supplies them with everything which
they are accustomed to want. The hide of this
animal, when dressed, furnishes soft clothing
for the women; and dressed with the hair on, it
clothes the men. The flesh feeds them; the
sinews afford them bowstrings; and even the
paunch, as we have seen, provides them with
301
that important utensil, the kettle. The amaz-
ing numbers of these animals prevent all fear
of want, a fear which is incessantly present to
the Indians qf the North.
On the fourth morning the Osinipoilles de-
parted. The Great Road expressed himself
much satisfied with his reception, and he was
well deserving of a good one; for in no situation
could strangers have been treated more hos-
pitably than we were treated in his camp. The
best of everything it contained was given us.
The Osinipoilles at this period had had
no acquaintance with any foreign nation
sufficient to affect their ancient and pristine
habits. Like the other Indians, they were
cruel to their enemies, but as far as the ex-
perience of myself and other Europeans
authorizes me to speak, they were a harmless
people, with a large share of simplicity of
manners and plain dealing. They lived in fear
of the Cristinaux, by whom they were not only
frequently imposed upon, but pillaged when
the latter met their bands in smaller numbers
than their own.
As to the Cristinaux, they are a shrewd race
of men, and can cheat, lie, and sometimes
steal; yet even the Cristinaux are not so much
addicted to stealing as is reported of the
Indians of the South Sea; their stealing is
pilfering; and they seldom pilfer anything but
rum, a commodity which tempts them beyond
the power of resistance.
302
anti
I remained at Fort des Prairies till the
twenty-second of March, on which day I
commenced my return to Beaver Lake.
Fort des Prairies, as already intimated, is
built on the margin of the Pasquayah, or Sas-
catchiwaine, which river is here two hundred
yards across and flows at the depth of thirty
feet below the level of its banks. The fort has
an area of about an acre, which is enclosed by
a good stockade, though formed only of poplar,
or aspen wood, 66 such as the country affords.
It has two gates, which are carefully shut every
evening, and has usually from fifty to eighty
men for its defense.
Four different interests were struggling for
the Indian trade of the Sascatchiwaine; but
fortunately they had this year agreed to join
their stock, and when the season was over, to
divide the skins and meat. This arrangement
was beneficial to the merchants, but not di-
rectly so to the Indians, who, having no other
place to resort to nearer than Hudson's Bay or
Cumberland House, paid greater prices than if
a competition had subsisted. A competition,
on the other hand, afflicts the Indians with a
variety of evils in a different form.
The following were the prices of goods at
Fort des Prairies:
A gun ................. 20 beaver skins
66 This fort, or one which occupied a contiguous site,
was formerly known by the name of Fort aux Trembles.
Author.
303
A stroud blanket 10 beaver skins
A white blanket 8 beaver skins
An axe of one pound weight 3 beaver skins
Hah a pint of gunpowder i beaver skin
Ten balls i beaver skin,
but the principal profits accrued from the sale
of knives, beads, flints, steels, awls, and other
small articles,
Tobacco, when sold, fetched one beaver skin
per foot of Spencer's twist; and rum, not very
strong, two beaver skins per bottle: but a
great proportion of these commodities was dis-
posed of in presents. 67
The quantity of furs brought into the fort
was very great. From twenty to thirty Indians
arrived daily, laden with packs of beaver skins.
67 The tobacco supplied by the traders to the Indians
was commonly twisted in the form of a rope, and the
quantity of a given portion was indicated by its
length; the rum, before being sold to the natives was
diluted with water, the degree of dilution depending
upon such factors as the rapacity of the trader, the
eagerness of the native to procure the rum, and the
extent of his sophistication with respect to the use of
this beverage. Editor.
304
15
JOURNEY TO MONTREAL
ATAHE days being now lengthened and the
snow capable of bearing the foot, we
traveled swiftly; and the weather, though
cold, was very fine.
On the fifth of April we arrived without
accident at Cumberland House. On our way
we saw nothing living except wolves, who
followed us in great numbers, and against
whom we were obliged to use the precaution of
maintaining large fires at our encampments.
On the seventh we left Cumberland House,
and on the ninth, in the morning, reached our
fort on Beaver Lake, where I had the pleasure
of finding my friends well.
In my absence the men had supported them-
selves by fishing; and they were all in health
with the exception of one, who was hurt at the
Grand Portage by a canoe's falling upon him.
On the twelfth Mr. Thomas Frobisher with
six men was despatched to the River Churchill,
where he was to prepare a fort, and inform
such Indians as he might see on their way to
Hudson's Bay of the approaching arrival of
his partners.
The ice was still in the same state as in
January; but as the season advanced the
305
quantity of fish diminished, insomuch that
Mr. Joseph Frobisher and myself were obliged
to fish incessantly; and often, notwithstanding
every exertion, the men went supperless to
bed. In a situation like this the Canadians are
the best men in the world; they rarely murmur
at their lot, and their obedience is yielded
cheerfully.
We continued fishing till the fifth of May,
when we saw swans flying toward the Maligne.
From this circumstance and from our knowl-
edge of the rapidity of the current of that
river, we supposed it was free from ice. In
consequence I proceeded thither, and arriving
in the course of a day's journey, found it
covered with swans, geese, and other water-
fowl, with which I soon loaded my sledge, and
then returned to the fort.
The passage toward the Churchill being
thus far open, we left our fort on the twenty-
first of May, forty in number, and with no
greater stock of provision than a single supper.
At our place of encampment we set our nets
and caught more fish than we had need of, and
the same food was plenty with us all the way.
The fish were pickerel and whitefish.
On the twenty-second we crossed two car-
rying-places of half a mile each, through a level
country, with marshes on the border of the
river. The sun now appeared above the hori-
zon at half -past eight 68 o 'clock in the morning,
68 Apparently a misprint for half -past three Editor.
306
Crafcefe' anfc
and there was twilight all the time that he was
below it. The men had but few hours for rest,
for after encamping a supper was not only to
be cooked, but caught, and it was therefore
late before they went to sleep. Mr. Frobisher
and myself rose at three; and the men were
stirring still earlier, in order to take up the
nets, so that we might eat our breakfast and
be on our journey before sunrise.
On the sixth of June we arrived at a large
lake, which, to our disappointment, was en-
tirely frozen over, and at the same time the
ice was too weak to be walked upon. We were
now fearful of detention for several days, but
had the consolation to find our situation well
supplied with fish. On the following night
there was a fall of snow, which lay on the ground
to the depth of a foot. The wind was from the
northeast. The Indians who were of our party
hunted, and killed several elks, or moose deer. 69
At length the wind changed into the southern
quarter, on which we had rain, and the snow
melted. On the tenth, with some difficulty
we crossed the lake, which is twenty miles
in length, through a channel opened in the ice.
On the fifteenth, after passing several carrying-
places, we reached the River Churchill, Mis-
sinibi, or Missinipi, where we found Mr.
Thomas Frobisher and his men, who were in
69 This was, of course, the moose; Henry uses the
term "red deer" to designate the American elk.
Editor.
307
good health and had built a house for our re-
ception.
The whole country from Beaver Lake to the
Missinipi is low near the water, with mountains
in the distance. The uplands have a growth of
small pine trees, and the valleys, of birch and
spruce. The river is called the Churchill
River, from Fort Churchill in Hudson 'Bay, the
most northerly of the company's factories or
trading-houses, and which is seated at its
mouth. By Mr. Joseph Frobisher it was
named English River. At the spot where our
house was built the river is five miles wide and
very deep. We were estimated by the Indians
to be distant . three hundred miles from the
sea. Cumberland House was to the south-
ward of us, distant four hundred miles. We
had the light of the sun in sufficient quantity
for all purposes during the whole twenty-four
hours. The redness of his rays reached far
above the horizon.
We were in expectation of a particular band
of Indians, and as few others made their ap-
pearance we resolved on ascending the river
to meet them, and even, in failure of that
event, to go as far westward as Lake Ara-
buthcow, 70 distant according to the Indians
four hundred and fifty miles.
With these views we embarked on the six-
teenth with six Canadians and also one Indian
70 Called also Athapuscow, and Athabasca. Author.
Modern Lake Athabasca. Editor.
308
anli
woman, in the capacity of a guide, in which
service Mr. Frobisher had previously employed
her.
As we advanced we found the river fre-
quently widening into lakes thirty miles long
and so broad, as well as so crowded with is-
lands, that we were unable to distinguish the
mainland on either side. Above them we found
a strait, in which the channel was shallow,
rocky, and broken, with the attendant features
of rapids and carrying-places. The country
was mountainous and thinly wooded, and the
banks of the river were continued rocks.
Higher up, lofty mountains discovered them-
selves, destitute even of moss, and it was only
at intervals that we saw afar off a few stunted
pine trees.
On the fifth day we reached the Rapide
du Serpent, which is supposed to be three
hundred miles from our point of departure.
We found whitefish so numerous in all the
rapids that shoals of many thousands were
visible with their backs above the water. The
men supplied themselves by killing them with
their paddles. The water is clear and trans-
parent.
The Rapide du Serpent is about three miles
long and very swift. Above this we reached
another rapid, over the carrying-place of
which we carried our canoe. At this place
vegetation began to reappear, and the country
became level and of an agreeable aspect.
309
Nothing human had hitherto discovered itself,
but we had seen several bears and two cari-
boux on the sides of the mountains, without
being able to kill anything.
The course of the river was here from south
to north. We continued our voyage till the
twenty-fourth, when, a large opening being
before us, we saw a number of canoes filled
with Indians on their voyage down the stream. 71
We soon met each other in the most friendly
manner.
We made presents of tobacco to the chiefs,
and were by them requested to put to shore
that we might encamp together and improve
our acquaintance. In a short time we were
visited by the chiefs, who brought us beaver
skins, in return for which we gave a second
present; and we now proposed to them to
return with them to our fort, where we were
provided with large quantities of such goods
as they wanted. They received our proposal
with satisfaction.
On the twenty-fifth of June we embarked
with all the Indians in our company, and
continued our voyage day and night, stopping
only to boil our kettle. We reached our house
on the first of July.
The Indians comprised two bands, or parties,
each bearing the name of its chief, of whom
one was caUed the Marten, and the other the
71 The traders had reached Lake He a la Crosse on
the upper Churchill River. Editor.
310
Crabcis anti &Dtocnturr
Rapid. They had joined for mutual defense
against the Cristinaux, of whom they were in
continual dread. They were not at war with
that nation, but subject to be pillaged by its
bands.
While the lodges of the Indians were setting
up the chiefs paid us a visit, at which they
received a large present of merchandise, and
agreed to our request that we should be per-
mitted to purchase the furs of their bands.
They inquired whether or not we had any
rum; and, being answered in the affirmative,
they observed that several of their young men
had never tasted that liquor, and that if it
was too strong it would affect their heads.
Our rum was in consequence submitted to
their judgment; and after tasting it several
times they pronounced it to be too strong, and
requested that we would order a part of the
spirit to evaporate. We complied by adding
more water to what had received a large pro-
portion of that element before; and this being
done, the chiefs signified their approbation.
We remarked that no other Indian approached
our house while the chiefs were in it. The
chiefs observed to us that their young men,
while sober, would not be guilty of any ir-
regularity, but that lest when in liquor they
should be troublesome, they had ordered a
certain number not to drink at all, but main-
tain a constant guard. We found their orders
punctually obeyed, and not a man attempted
to enter our house during all the night. I say
all the night because it was in the course of
this night, the next day, and the night follow-
ing, that our traffic was pursued and finished.
The Indians delivered their skins at a small
window made for that purpose, asking at the
same time for the different things they wished
to purchase, and of which the prices had been
previously settled with the chiefs. Of these
some were higher than those quoted from Fort
des Prairies.
On the third morning this little fair was
closed, and on making up our packs we found
that we had purchased twelve thousand beaver
skins, besides large numbers of otter and
marten.
Our customers were from Lake Arabuthcow,
of which and the surrounding country they
were the proprietors, and at which they had
wintered. They informed us that there was at
the farther end of that lake a river, called
Peace River, 72 which descended from the Stony
or Rocky Mountains, and from which moun-
tains the distance to the salt lake, meaning the
Pacific Ocean, was not great; that the lake
emptied itself by a river which ran to the north-
72 Henry was on the eve of making a great discovery,
for the Peace River was first explored by Alexander
Mackenzie in 1792. It takes its name, according to
Mackenzie from Peace Point, a place where a treaty was
concluded between the Christinaux and the Beaver
Indians. Editor.
312
anfc
ward, which they called Kiratchinini Sibi* 7
or Slave River, 74 and which flows into another
lake, called by the same name; but whether
this lake was or was not the sea, or whether it
emptied itself or not into the sea they were
unable to say. They were at war with the
Indians who live at the bottom of the river
where the water is salt. They also made war
on the people beyond the mountains toward
the Pacific Ocean, to which their warriors had
frequently been near enough to see it. Though
we conversed with these people in the Cree, or
Cristinaux language, which is the usual me-
dium of communication, they were Chepe-
wyans, or Rocky Mountain Indians.
They were in possession of several ultra-
montane prisoners, two of whom we purchased;
one, a woman of twenty-five years of age,
and the other a boy of twelve. They had both
been recently taken, and were unable to speak
the language of their masters. They conversed
with each other in a language exceedingly
agreeable to the ear, composed of short words,
and spoken with a quick utterance. We gave
for each a gun.
The dress of the Chepewyans nearly re-
sembled that of the Cristinaux, except that it
was composed of beaver and marten skins
instead of those of the ox and elk. We found
73 Or Yatchinini Sipi. Author.
74 These are the rivers which have since been ex-
plored by Sir Alexander Mackenzie. Author.
313
these people orderly and unoffending, and they
appeared to consider the whites as creatures of
a superior order, to whom everything is known.
The women were dirty, and very inatten-
tive to their whole persons, the head excepted,
which they painted with red ocher, in defect
of vermilion. Both themselves and their hus-
bands for them were forward in seeking a loose
intercourse with the Europeans. The for-
mer appeared vain of solicitation, and having
first obtained the consent of their husbands,
afterward communicated to them their suc-
cess. The men, who no doubt thought with
the Cristinaux on this subject, 75 were the first
to speak in behalf of their wives; and were even
in the practice of carrying them to Hudson
Bay, a journey of many hundred miles, on no
other errand.
Having been fortunate enough to administer
medical relief to one of these Indians during
their stay, I came to be considered as a phy-
sician, and found that this was a character
held in high veneration. Their solicitude and
credulity as to drugs and nostrums had ex-
posed them to gross deceptions on the part
of the agents of the Hudson's Bay Company.
One of the chiefs informed me that he had
been at the Bay the year before, and there pur-
chased a quantity of medicines, which he would
allow me to inspect. Accordingly, he brought
75 See page 249. Author. Page 241 of this volume.
Editor.
314
anti Sl&fcentureg
a bag containing numerous small papers, in
which I found lumps of white sugar, grains of
coffee, pepper, allspice, cloves, tea, nutmegs,
ginger and other things of this kind, sold as
specifics against evil spirits, and against the
dangers of battle; as giving power over enemies,
and particularly the white bear, 76 of which the
Indians in these latitudes are much afraid:
others were infallible against barrenness in
women; against difficult labors; and against
a variety of other afflictions. In a second
parcel I found small prints; the identical ones
which in England are commonly sold in sheets
to children, but each of which was here trans-
formed into a talisman, for the cure of some
evil, or obtention of some delight: No. i. "A
sailor kissing his mistress, on his return from
sea"; this, worn about the person of a gallant,
attracted, though concealed, the affections of
the sex! No. 2. "A soldier in Arms"; this
poured a sentiment of valor into the possessor,
and gave him the strength of a giant!
76 Apparently the grizzly bear. Although Theodore
Roosevelt has rather made light of the danger of hunting
the grizzly, to meet him with a modern high-power
rifle is a different matter than it was to meet him with
the inferior weapons possessed by the natives a century
or more ago. Moreover, the grizzly himself has learned
something by his hundred years of contact with the
white man, and is, apparently, a far less pugnacious
animal than he was in former times. Lewis and Clark,
dauntless seekers of adventure as they were, found the
grizzly a foe to be dreaded; "I must confess," records
Lewis, "that I ido not like the gentlemen, and had
315
By means of these commodities many cus-
tomers were secured to the company; and even
those Indians who shortened their voyage by
dealing with us sent forward one canoe, laden
with beaver skins, to purchase articles of this
kind at Cumberland House. I did not venture
to dispute their value.
This part of our commercial adventure
completed, Mr. Frobisher and myself left the
remainder of our merchandise in the care of
Mr. Thomas Frobisher, who was to proceed
with them to Lake Arabuthcow, and on the
fourth of July, set out on our return to the
Grand Portage.
In recrossing Beaver Lake the wind obliged
us to put into a bay which I had not visited
before. Taking my gun I went into the woods
in search of game; but I had not advanced
more than half a mile when I found the country
almost inaccessible by reason of masses of
rock which were scattered in all directions:
some were as large as houses, and lay as if they
had been first thrown into the air and then
suffered to fall into their present posture. By
a circuitous route I at last ascended the moun-
tain, from one side of which they had fallen;
the whole body was fractured, and separated
by large chasms. In some places parts of the
mountain of half an acre in surface were raised
above the general level. It was a scene for the
rather fight two Indians than one bear." Editor.
316
attfc
warfare of the Titans, or for that of Milton's
angels!
The river, which, when we first arrived at
Cumberland House, had run with a swift cur-
rent into the Sascatchiwaine, now ran in a
contrary direction, toward the lake. This was
owing to the rise of water in the Sascatchi-
waine, from which same cause all the lowlands
were at this time overflowed.
Our twilight nights continued till we were
to the southward of Lake Winipegon. The
weather was so favorable that we crossed that
lake in six days, though in going it took us
thirty.
On an island in- the Lake of the Woods we
saw several Indians, toward whom we made in
hopes to purchase provisions, of which we were
much in want; and whom we found full of a
story that some strange nation had entered
Montreal, taken Quebec, killed all the Eng-
lish, and would certainly be at the Grand
Portage before we arrived triere. 77
On my remarking to Mr. Frobisher that I
suspected the Bastonnais (Bostonians, or
English colonists) had been doing some mis-
chief in Canada, the Indians directly exclaimed,
"Yes, that is the name! Bastonnais." They
77 General Montgomery captured Montreal Novem-
ber 12, 1775, and was killed while vainly assaulting
Quebec on the last day of the year. In May, 1776, the
American force raised the siege and retreated to New
England. Editor.
317
t)cnrp
were lately from the Grand Portage, and ap-
peared seriously apprehensive that the Bas-
tonnais were coming into the Northwest. 78
At the Forks of the River a la Pluie there
were a large number of Indians under a friendly
chief, with which latter I had had a previous
acquaintance. On nfy visiting him he told me
that there was bad news; and then repeated the
story which we had heard on the Lake of the
Woods, adding that some of his young men were
evil inclined, and that he wished us immediately
to depart. We were not deaf to the admonition,
of the grounds of which we stayed long enough
to be convinced. We were roughly importuned
for rum; and one of the Indians, after we had
embarked, fetched his gun and fired at us
twice, but without effect.
No further accident attended our voyage
to the Grand Portage, from which place we
pursued the route to Montreal, where we
arrived on the fifteenth of October. We found
the province delivered from the irruption of
the colonists, and protected by the forces of
General Burgoyne.
78 Bastonnais (Bostonnais, Bostonians) is the name
by which the Canadians describe all the inhabitants of
the English colonies, now the United States; and in the
Northwest the English traders commonly use the
French language. Author.
Index
ABITIBI Lake, route by, 228.
Abitibi River, route by, 228.
Albany, Henry procures goods at, 4, 12.
Allouez, Claude Jean, mission station at Chequamegon
Bay, 184.
Amherst, Gen. Sir Jeffrey, expedition against Montreal,
xii,3; captures Montreal, 80.
Amikoue (Amicway, Amicwac) Indians, on Manitou-
lin Island, 36.
Amisk Lake, see Beaver Lake.
Anderson, Capt. Thomas G., reports Indian legend,
204.
Andre, Louis, at Keweenaw Bay, 212.
Anse a la Peche, see Oak Bay.
Ashland (Wis.), on Chequamegon Bay, 184.
Aspen trees, food for beaver, 126.
Assiniboin Indians, treatment of slaves, 266, 295-97;
Henry joins, 267; hospitality, 274-83, 302; cus-
tom of weeping, 276-77; buffalo hunt described,
284-86; boundaries, 287-88; methods of warfare,
288; procure horses from Spaniards, 289; relations
with Cristinaux, 302.
Athabasca (Arabuthcow, Athapuscow) Lake, des-
tination of Henry, 308.
Au Sable River, Henry winters on, 123-46; identified,
124.
BAGGATIWAY, Indian ball game, played at Fort Michili-
mackinac, 78, 86-87.
Bain, James, edits Henry's narrative, xxi.
Balfour, Capt. Henry, commands English troops in
Northwest, 52.
Barges, Colonel Bradstreet builds, 176.
321
Baxter, Alexander, on mineral9gical tour, 210; partner
in mining company, 217; terminates business of
company, 226.
Baxter, , partner in mining company, 226.
Bear, hunts, 138-39, 193; Indian superstitions con-
cerning, 139-40; feast, 140; habits, 141; in Nani-
bojou legend, 209; meat purchased, 256; on plains
of Saskatchewan, 289; on Churchill River, 310;
Grizzly, as fighter, 315-16.
Beaujeau de Villemonde, evacuates Michilimackinac,
52, 89.
Beaver, dams, 30; price of skins at Michilimackinac,
56; habits, 125-28; methods of hunting, 125, 127-
28; as food, 128; number caught, 132, 196-97;
lodge, 137; as medium of exchange, 183-84; at
Michilimackinac, 202; on Saskatchewan River,
248; meat purchased, 256; skins as presents, 281;
purchased, 312.
Beaver Islands, historical sketch, 94; destination of
English captives, 94-97.
Beaver Lake, Henry winters on, 253-56, 305-306;
traverses, 316.
Beaver River, see River aux Castors.
Bedford- Jones, Henry, attacks Henry's narrative, xvii-
xx; theory concerning Wawatam, 155-56.
Big Sable River, Henry winters in vicinity, 1 24.
Birch trees, food for Beaver, 126; on Churchill River,
308.
Blackfoot Indians, country explored, 252; neighbors
of Assiniboin, 288.
Bodoine, Jean Baptiste, guides Henry to Montreal,
5-12.
Bostonnais (Bastonnais, Bostonians), sobriquet of
American colonists, 317-18.
Bostwick, Henry, visits Michilimackinac, 13; in
massacre, 91, 95, 105; partner in mining company,
217, 226.
Bourbon, Fort, on Cedar Lake, 248.
Bourbon, Lake de, see Cedar Lake.
Bourbon River, see Saskatchewan River.
322
Boutchitaouy Bay, arm of Lake Huron, 37; route by,
68; Henry at, 115, 151.
Braddock's defeat, 52, 80.
Bradstreet, Col. John, career, 174; expedition to
Detroit, 174-79.
British Museum, specimens presented, 222.
Buffalo, skins as tents, 249; as clothing, 258; numbers,
265, 273; tongues eaten, 273; uses subserved
among Assiniboin, 282, 301-302; hunt described,
284-86.
Buffalo's Head Island, in Lake Winnipeg, 244.
Burgoyne, Gen. John, in Revolutionary War, 318.
Burial customs, 108, 144-45, 293-95.
CADOTTE, Jean Baptiste Jr., fur trader, 6p.
Cadotte, Jean Baptiste, Sr., interpreter at Sault Ste.
Marie, 60; influence over Indians, 151, 156; pro-
tects Henry, 157-58; partner of Henry, 184; goes
to Fort des Prairies, 253.
Cadotte, Madame, rescues Henry, 154-56.
Cadotte, Michel, fur trader, 60.
Cahokia (111.), Pontiac slain at, 179.
Campion, Etienne, enters employ of Henry, 12-13;
Henry entrusts business to, 39; brings news, 51.
Canadians, relations with Indians, 34; hostility
toward English, 40; monopoly of fur trade, 54;
onlookers at massacre, 80; prisoners entrusted to,
91-92; in Captain Howard's expedition, 179-80;
contemplate cannibalism, 212-13.
Cannibalism, prisoners eaten, 71, 98, 104-105; among
Indians, 199-201; proposed, 212-13.
Canoes, of traders described, 15-16; method of making,
172; of Northwest described, 230-31; disposition
in winter, 254.
Caribou, on island of Yellow Sands, 219-21 ; on Church-
ill River, 310.
Caribou Island, see Island of Yellow Sands.
Carver, Capt. Jonathan, account of rites of medicine
men, 166; death of Pontiac, 178-79; legends of
Island of Yellow, Sands, 216-17; mines of Lake
Superior. 224-25; French raid, 228-
323
Cass, Gov. Lewis, holds peace council, 189-90.
Castor, Isles du, see Beaver Islands.
Castors, River aux, trade route by, 254.
Catfish, in Lake Winnipeg, 244.
Cat Lake, see Lake du Bonnet.
Cave of the Bones, at Michilimackinac, 109-112.
Cedar trees, on Cedar Lake, 247.
Cedres, Rapides des, boats wrecked, xiii, 4.
Champlain, Samuel de, account of rites of medicine
men, 166.
Chatique (Pelican), Indian chief, plunders traders,
249-51.
Chats, Lake des, described, 24.
Chaudiere Francaise, Portage, La, on French River,
3i-3 2 -
Chines, Portage des, described, 23.
Chepeweyan Indians, intercourse with Henry, 310-16;
women, 314; medical ideas, 314-16.
Chequamegon (Chagouemig, Chagouemigon) Bay,
Henry winters at, 184-97; historical sketch, 184-
85; Chippewa of, 189-90.
Chippewa Indians, capture Henry Bostwick, 13;
village on Michilimackinac Island, 37-38; council
with Henry, 41-46; of Lake Superior, Henry plans
trading expedition to, 47; village at Sault Ste.
Marie, 61; language spoken by Cadottes, 62;
Henry learns, 62; massacre English, 78-82; in-
fluence of J. B. Cadotte, Sr., over, 151; enmity of
Iroquois, 159; Great Turtle as guardian spirit,
160-66; make peace, 180; tradition concerning
defeat of Iroquois, 185-86; of Chequamegon Bay,
189-99; warfare with Sioux, 189-90, 195-96;
Wood Indians derive language from, 206; of Lake
Sagunac, plunder traders, 232-33; destroyed by
Sioux, 232; of Rainy River, exact tribute, 233-34;
Pillager band destroyed, 236.
Churchill (Missinibi, Missinipi) River, Henry and
party visit, 305-16; origin of name, 308.
Claies, Lake aux, see Lake Simcoe.
324
Cocking, Matthew, explorations of, 252; hospitality to
traders, 258.
Copper, on Ontonagon River, 186-87, 197; on north
shore of Lake Superior, 203, 205; on Nanibojou
Island, 222; attempts to mine, 218-24.
Copper Rock, sketch of 197.
Corne, Fort a la, location, 265.
Corne, M. de la, builds fort, 265.
Cougars, see panthers.
Court Oreilles Indians, sobriquet for Ottawa, 192.
Court Oreilles, Lac, refuge of Ottawa, 191-92.
Cristinaux (Christinaux, Kristinaux, Killistinoes, Cree)
Indians, language of Wood Indians derived from,
206; of Lake Winnipeg described, 239-43; resem-
blances to Assiniboin, 289; relations with, 302;
visit Fort des Prairies, 301; thievery among, 302;
language as trade medium, 313.
Cruickshank, , partner in mining company, 226.
Cuchoise, John, befriends Henry, 93-94.
Cumberland House, Henry visits, 258, 305.
Cumberland Lake, see Sturgeon Lake.
Cumberland Station, see Pas Mission.
DAMS, beaver, 30.
Dancing, among Assiniboin, 287.
Dauphin, Fort, Peter Pond goes to, 253.
Davers, Sir Robert, English traveler, visits Sault Ste.
Marie, 70; killed, 71.
Deluge, myth of, 209.
Detour, Point du, in Lake Huron, 36; Henry passes,
59; encamps at, 66-67.
Detroit, siege of, 174; expedition of Bradstreet to,
174-79; Peter Pond at, 243-44.
Deux Montagnes, Lake des, Henry reaches, 19.
Devil's Hole, massacre, 175.
Dogs, sacrificed, 107, 125, 144, 170, 289; as beasts of
burden, 269, 298; numbers among Assiniboin. 280.
Dreams, of Indian women, 147; of Wawatam's wife,
151-
Ducharme, Jean Marie, fur trader, 72.
Ducharme, Laurent, fur trader, 72.
325
Duels, by Peter Pond, 244.
Duluth, Daniel Greysolon, on Chequamegon Bay, 185.
EDWARD AUGUSTUS, Fort, at Green Bay, 106.
Elk, see red deer.
English, Indian hostility toward, 34; prisoners slain,
104-105; Indians fear vengeance, 147-48.
English River, see Churchill River.
Erie, see Presqu'isle.
Erie, Fort, Bradstreet's army at, 176.
Etherington, Capt. George, commandant at Michili-
mackinac 52, 68; discredits reports of Indian dis-
affection, 72-73; in massacre of Fort Michili-
mackinac, 91-92, 95.
FALLS, of the Rideau, described, 21; of La Grande
Chaudire, 21-22.
Famine, at Sault Ste. Marie, 198-202; overtakes
. Henry's party, 211-13; threatened, 261-63.
Farley, Jacques Phillipe, interpreter at Michilimacki-
nac, 41; relations with English traders, 50-51.
Feasts, on prisoners, 71, 98, 104-105; of maize, 130-31;
of bear meat, 140, 194-95; to Great Spirit, 144;
Indians propose to eat Henry, 150; at Missisaki
River, 167; of buffalo tongues, 273; among Assin-
iboin, 275-79, 282.
Finlay, James, Jr., fur trader, 260.
Finlay, James, Sr., in Northwest, 260.
Finlay River, name, 260.
Fish, in Lake Nipissing, 30; food supply at Sault Ste.
Marie, 63, 198; methods of taking, 65-66; at
Chequamegon Bay, 191; in Saskatchewan River,
247; in Beaver Lake, 254-55, 305-306. See also
the several varieties.
Fishing Cove, see Oak Bay.
Flies, pest of, 29, 62.
Fond du Lac, Henry sends goods to, 188; warriors from,
189.
Fort Nelson River, outlet of Lake Winnipeg, 247.
Foxes, on plains of Saskatchewan, 289.
Fox Point, see Wagoshense.
French River (River des Francais), Henry descends, 32.
326
Frobisher, Benjamin, memorial on Northwest trade,
233; career, 245.
Frobisher, Joseph, memorial on Northwest trade, 237;
career, 245; companion of Henry, 257-58, 316.
Frobisher, Thomas, career, 245; starts for Churchill
River, 305; names Churchill River, 308; takes
charge of merchandise, 316.
Furs, as medium of exchange, 55-56. See also fur trade.
Fur trade, Henry enters upon, xiii, 11-12; canoes and
brigades described, 15-17; Michilimackinac as
center, 41; food of voyageurs, 54; of Lake Superior
given to Henry, 183; disorder threatened, 192;
returns from, 196-97, 210; at Grand Portage,
229-30; Peter Pond's career, 243-44; Northwest
Company organized, 244; rivalry in, 303; prices
of goods, 303-309; deception practiced, 314-16.
GAGE, Gen. Thomas, grants Henry permission to go to
Michilimackinac, 13; condemns conduct of Col.
Bradstreet, 178.
Geese, on Island of Yellow Sands, 220.
Gens de Terre Indians, see Wood Indians.
Gladwin, Gen. Henry, career, 174.
Gloucester, Duke of, partner in mining company, 226.
Goddard, James S., trader, at Michilimackinac, 48.
Gold, search for on Michipicoten Island, 215; on Island
of Yellow Sands, 219-20.
Grand Calumet, Portage du, described, 25-26.
Grand Calumet River, channels of, 25.
Grand Portage, Henry plans trading expedition to, 47;
as fur trade center, 229-30; passage of, 230.
Grand Rapide, on Saskatchewan River, 246.
Grand Sable, Le, Indian chief, slays prisoners, 104.
Grand Sauteur, see Minavavana.
Grand Traverse Bay, Henry crosses, 147-48.
Grande Chaudiere, La, falls described, 21-22; portage
described, 22-23.
Grande Faucille, Portage de la, on French River, 32.
Grant, James, in Northwest fur trade, 267.
Grant County (Wis.), named, 267.
Grant River, named, 267. ,.
327
Great Hare, see Nanibojou.
Great Road, Indian chief, sends messengers, 272;
entertains Henry, 275-78; personal appearance,
277-78; speech, 281; visits Fort des Prairies,
298-302.
Great Spirit, sacrifices to, 107, 125, 144; deprives
beaver of speech, 128; feasts to, 144, 193-95;
Wawatam commends Henry to, 155; invoked by
Chippewa, 161-66; residence on islands of Lake
Superior, 36, 216-17.
Great Turtle, guardian spirit of Chippewa, 160;
ceremony of invoking, 161-66.
Green Bay, English send garrison to, 52; saved by
Ottawa Indians, 106.
Grondines, Point aux, in Lake Huron, 33; Henry
visits, 167-69.
Groseilliers, Medard Chouart, Sieur de, winters at
Chequamegon Bay, 184.
HAMILTON, Gov. Henry, report upon pay due Canadian
militia, 179-80.
Hares, hunted, 55; use by Wood Indians, 62.
Hauteur de Terre, see Land's Height.
Hawks, on Island of Yellow Sands, 220.
Hearne, Samuel, pleads for life of prisoner, 83; explora-
tions of, 251-52.
Hedge hog, see Porcupine.
Henry, Alexander, sketch of career, xii-xv; joins army
of Gen. Amherst, xii, 3; enters fur trade, xiii;
loses merchandise, xiii, 4; estimate of narrative,
xv-xxi; editions of, xxi-xxii; winters at Fort
Levis, 4; visits Albany, 4, 12; learns use of snow
shoes, 5; attacked by Indians, 6-7; journey to
Michilimackinac, 15-39, 66-68, 70-71, 114, 147-49,
179-80, 201-202; to Sault Ste. Marie, 59, 68-69,
151-56; winters at Sault Ste. Marie, 60-66, 180, 198-
202; learns Chippewa language, 62, 76; in massacre
of Fort Michilimackinac, 78-87; captivity, 88-99;
rescued by Wawatam, 99-103; disguised as Indian,
113-14; goes to Boutchjtaouy Bay, 115; winters
on Au Sable River, 123-46; resigned to savage
life, 129; lost, 132-37; bear hunt, 138-39, 193;
proceeds of winter's hunt, 149; life threatened, 150,
157; disguised as Canadian, 156; journey to Fort
Niagara, 159-60, 166-73; commands Indian bat-
talion, 175-77; goes to Oak Bay, 198-201; winters
at Michipicoten, 203-17; explores Michipicoten
Island, 215; Island of Yellow Sands, 219-21;
mining operations, 219-26; journey to Lake Winni-
peg, 227-42; from Lake Winnipeg to Beaver Lake,
243-53; winters on Beaver Lake, 253-56, 305-306;
journey to Fort des Prairies, 257-67; tour of plains,
267-87; 298-301; return to Beaver Lake, 303-305;
visits Churchill River, 305-16; returns to Mont-
real, 316-18.
Henry, Alexander, the Younger, xv.
Henry, William, xv.
Highlanders, at Cumberland House, 241-2.
Hole-in-the-Day, Chippewa chief, 190.
Holmes, William, tours plains of Saskatchewan, 267.
Horses, Among Assiniboin, 280, 300.
Howard, Capt. , leads expedition to recover
Fort Michilimackinac, 179-80.
Hudson's Bay Company, posts raided, 228; station
of, 251; rivalry with North- West Company, 252;
builds Fort a la Corne, 265 ; traders deceive Indians,
3H-i6.
Huron Indians, village on Detroit River, 180.
Huron Lake, islands described, 35-36; Henry traverses,
33-38; 166-71, 180.
ILE A LA CROSSE Lake, Henry reaches, 310.
Indians, drink liquor, 6-7, 109-111; entertain Henry, 8;
hostile to English, 34,72-77; slavery among, 81,
266, 295-97; sacrifices, 107, 125, 144, 163, 170-171,
205, 289; burial customs, 108, 144-45, 293-95;
cannibalism, 71, 98, 104-105, 199-201; medical
practices, 113-22; 161-66; diseases, 116-17; super-
stitions, 139-40, 151, 161-66, ,168-71; belief con-
cerning future life, 145-46; ownership of land,
144; battalion formed, 175-77; cruelty to prisoners,
329
266, 302; use of tobacco, 273; guards among, 274,
280, 282-83, 311-12; marriage customs, 290-93.
Iroquois Indians, influence of Sir William Johnson
over, 159; hostility to Chippewa, 159; tradition
concerning defeat by Chippewa, 185-86; Ottawa
seek asylum from, 192; cruelty to prisoners, 266.
Iroquois Point, name, 185-86; Henry camps on, 222.
Iron River, in Ontonagon county, 187.
JAMET, Ensign John, commandant at Sault Ste.
Marie, 62; journey to Michilimackinac, 66-68;
slain, 79, 92.
Jesuits, missionary at Michilimackinac, 40; mission
at L'Arbre Croche, 47 ; of St. Ignatius, 1 23.
Johnson, Sir William, kindness to prisoners, 57; sends
embassy to western Indians, 158-59; career, 158-
59; friendship prophesied, 164-65; kindness to
Henry, 173; partner in mining enterprise, 226.
KAMINISTIQUIA, trading house at, 229.
Keweenaw Bay, Father Mnard at, 212.
Kinzie, John, in Fort Dearborn massacre, 83.
Kichi Manito, see Great Spirit.
LACHINE, head of fur-trade navigation, 17.
La Cloche Island, Henry visits, 33-34, 167; name, 33;
inhabitants attend peace council, 167.
La Crosse, ball game, see Baggatiway.
Lake of the Woods, Henry traverses, 234-37.
Land, Indian ownership of, 144.
Land's Height, described, 231-32.
Langlade, Charles, career, 80-81; shelters Henry at
Michilimackinac, 80-87; inhumanity, 93-94.
L'Arbre Croche, Ottawa village, 47-48; Indians take
prisoners from Chippewa, 96-98; Henry visits,
124, 148.
La Ronde, Louis Denis, sieur de, at Chequamegon
Bay, 185.
Lead, on Nanibojou Island, 222.
Leduc, M. - , gives information on fur trade, u.
Legends, of Nanibojou, 203-205; of Island of Yellow
Sands, 215-18; of carrying place of the Lost child,
238.
330
Les Cedres, Henry visits, n.
Leslie, Lieut. William, commandant at Michilimack-
inac, 52; in massacre, 91-92, 95.
Le Sueur, Pierre Charles, at Chequamegon Bay, 185.
LeVis, Fort, captured, 3; named William Augustus, 4.
Levy, , trader, 109.
Lewis, Meriwether, opinion of grizzly bear, 315-16.
Longue Sault, Henry runs rapids, 8-10; ascends,
19-20.
Lost Child, carrying place of, legend, 238.
Ludington (Mich.) , Henry winters in vicinity, 1 24.
MACKENZIE, Alexander, explores Peace River, 312.
Madelaine Island, 191.
Maize, cultivated at L'Arbre Croche, 47-48, 54, 124;
as diet for voyageurs, 54; price at Michilimackinac,
55; feast on, 130-31; purchased, 184; as food, 211;
cultivated on Lake Superior, 225.
Maligne River, name, 253; Henry camps on, 258.
Mamance Point, minerals found at, 203.
Manitoulin Island, name, 36.
Manitous, see Great Spirit.
Maple sugar, manufacture, 69-70, 143-44, 193, 209.
Marquette, Father Jacques, place of death, 124;
on Chequamegon Bay, 184; founds mission of
St. Ignace, 184.
Marriage, customs among Indians, 289-93.
Marten, skins purchased, 312.
Marten, The, Indian chief, 310.
Maskegon Indians, desire trade with English, 27-28.
Matawan River, Henry ascends, 28-29.
Matchedash Bay, Henry reaches, 171.
Matchedash Indians, see Missisaki Indians.
Matchekewis (Mutchikiwish) , Chippewa chief, seeks
life of Henry, 157; career, 157.
Maurepas, He de, see Michipicoten Island.
Mayzhuckegeshig, Chippewa chief , 189.
Medicine, deceptions practiced, 314-16.
Medicine men, practices, 113-22; 161-66.
Me"nard, Father Rene", at Keweenaw Bay, 212.
Menominee Indians, escort English garrison to L'Arbre
Croche, 106; attitude in Pontiac's War, 107.
Merchandise, prices at Michilimackinac, 149; to
Indians, 187; at Fort des Prairies, 303-304.
Michigan, Lake, Henry plans trading expedition to,
47; opening of navigation, 58.
chilimad "
Michilimackinac, Fort, M. Leduc at, n; Henry
decides to visit, xiii, 11-12; route from Montreal,
15; location at different periods, 37; described,
40-41; as fur-trade center, 41; Beaujeau evacuates,
52;. British reach, 52; disaffection of Indians,
72-77; garrison massacred, 78-82; English expe-
dition sent to recover, 179; peace with Chippewa
and Ottawa concluded, 180; Henry returns to,
201-202.
Michilimackinac Island, name, 37, 109; Chippewa
village on, 37-38; warriors hold council with Henry,
41-46; Henry's sojourn on, 107-112.
Michipicoten, Henry winters at, 203-17.
Michipicoten Island, Henry explores, 215-17.
Milford (Conn.), Peter Pond at, 243-44.
Minavavana, Chippewa chief, existence denied, xix;
speech, 42-45; surrenders Henry, 102-103; advises
Henry, 113.
Minnesota River, see St. Pierre River.
Miscoutinsaki Rapid, Heavy ascends, 59.
Missions, see Jesuits.
Missisaki Indians, name, 35; at Lake Simcoe, 171;
attend peace council, 171, 175; in Indian battalion,
175-77-
Missisaki River, name, 35; Henry reaches, 167.
Mississagi Point, near Fort Niagara, 173.
Money, furs employed as, 55-56; lack of, at Fort
Michilimackinac, 183-84.
Montague, Portage de la, described, 25.
Montgomery, Gen. Richard, death, 317.
Montreal, captured, 480; Henry arrives at, 318.
Moose, on Churchill River journey, 307.
Moose River, route by, 228; Henry crosses, 268.
Mormons, kingdom on Beaver Islands, 94.
332
Mosquitoes, on Matawan River, 29; at Sault Ste.
Marie, 62; on Pinawa River, 238.
Music, of Assiniboin, 286.
NADOWESSIE Indians, see Sioux.
Nanibojou, legends, 203-205.
Nanibojou Island, Henry camps on, 211; minerals
found, 222.
Nannabojou, Indian chief, 204.
Nequaquon Lake, see Lake Sagunac.
Niagara, Fort, peace council at, 158-59; Henry
reaches, 173.
Nipigon River, in French period, 229. , .
Nipissing Indians, meeting with Henry, 31.
Nipissing Lake, Henry traverses, 30-32.
Nordberg, John, career, 222; mineralogical tour, 222.
Northwest, definition, 230.
North West Company, origin, 244; activities of
Frobishers, 245; of Charles Patterson, 245; rivalry
with Hudson's Bay Company, 252.
Notepseakan River, Henry winters in vicinity, 124.
OAK Bay, Henry at, 198-201.
Oak Point, in Lake Winnipeg, 244.
Ochibbouy Indians, see Chippewa.
Okinochumaki, Ottawa chief, kindness of, 124.
Ontonagon River, Henry reaches, 186; explores for
copper, 197; mining operations, 223-24.
Opimittish Iniwac Indians, see Wood Indians.
Osinipoil Indians, see Assiniboin.
Otossalon (Tessalon, Thessalon, des Tessalons) River,
36.
Ottawa Indians, carry Henry Bostwick to Montreal,
13; of L'Arbre Croche, council with traders, 47-50;
propose attack on English troops, 52; take prisoners
from Chippewa, 96-98; raise maize, 124; village
at Lake St. Claire, 180; seek refuge at Lac Court
Oreilles, 191-92.
Ottawa River, route by, 15, 228; Henry ascends, 19-
28.
Otter, skins purchased, 312.
Otter's Head, described, 227.
333
Outaouais, Lake des, see Lac Court Oreilles.
Outardes, Isles aux, in Lake Huron, 37; Henry so-
journs at, 151-55.
Outardes. Portage aux, 231.
PAINTED Post, name, 294.
Pani, woman conceals Henry, 81-83; name, 81. See
also Slaves.
Panthers, shot, 147; on plains of Saskatchewan, 289.
Partridges, at Michilimackinac, 55.
Paskogac, Fort, location, 249.
Pas Mission, location, 249.
Pasquayah River, see Saskatchewan.
Pasquayah, village, Henry at, 249-51.
Pasquia River, tributary of Saskatchewan, 249.
Patterson, Charles, career, 245; on tour of plains, 267.
Patterson's Point, location, 245.
Pays Plat, described, 228-29.
Peace River, information concerning, 312-13.
Pelican, The, see Chatique.
Pelicans, on Lake of the Woods, 236-37; on Lake
Winnipeg, 244.
Pentwater River, identified with Au Sable, 124.
Perdrix, Portage du, on Pigeon River, 231.
Petite Faucille, Pourtage de la, on French River, 32.
Pic Island, Henry visits, 228.
Pickawillany, captured by Langlade, 80.
Pickerel, in Beaver Lake, 255; on Churchill River
journey, 306.
Pigeon (Groseilles, duTourtre) River, Henry traverses,
^230-31.
Pijitic River, Henry encamps at, 227; route by, 228.
Pike River, pipestone quarry near, 245.
Pillager Indians, name, 236-37.
Pinawa River, as trade route, 237-38.
Pine trees, on Saskatchewan River, 247; on Churchill
River, 301, 308.
Pins, Point aux, shipyard at, 218; smelting furnace, 222.
Pins, Portage des, on French River, 32.
Pipe stone, quarry on Lake Winnipeg, 245.
Piwatic River, see Iron River
334
Plains, of Saskatchewan, extent, 257, 265-66; inhab-
itants, 266; Henry visits, 257-301; use of nautical
terms on, 299.
Pluie, Lake a la, see Rainy Lake.
Polygamy, among Cristinaux, 241 ; among Indians in
general, 292-93.
Pond, Peter, describes vows paid at St. Anne's, 18;
career, 243-44; goes to Fort Dauphin, 253.
Pontiac, leads Indians against English, xiii, 13; besieges
Detroit, 174; makes peace, 178; death, 178-79.
Poplar trees, food for beaver, 126; on Saskatchewan
River, 246, 268; at Fort des Prairies, 303.
Porcupine, true name, 141.
Potatoes, cultivated at Michilimackinac, 217; at
Michipicoten, 217.
Prairie des Francais, La, on French River, 33.
Prairie du Chien, peace council, 189-90.
Prairies, Fort des, destination of J. B. Cadotte, Sr.,
253; location, 265; Great Road visits, 298-302;
description, 303.
Presqu'isle, Brads treet's army at, 177; council at, 178.
Puants, Bay des, see Green Bay.
QUEBEC, surrender of, xii, 3; Charles Langlade at
siege of, 80; Montgomery assaults, 317.
RACCOONS, method of hunting, 128-29; numbers
caught, 132.
Radisson, Pierre Esprit, sieur d', winters at Chequame-
gon Bay, 189.
Rainy Lake, Henry traverses, 253.
Rainy River, Henry traverses, 233-34, 318; scarcity of
game, 234.
Rapid, The, Churchill River chief, 311.
Rat, Portage du, Henry passes, 236-37.
Rattlesnakes, superstitions concerning, 168-71.
Red deer, habitat, 126; hunted, 135, 142; season for
hunting, 141; carcass found, 264; on plains of
Saskatchewan, 289.
Revolutionary War, news of in Northwest, 317-18.
Rideau Falls, described, 21.
335
Robinson, Alexander, Potawatomi chief, account of
Matchekewis, 157.
Roche Capitaine, Portage du, described, 28.
Roche Rouge, pipestone quarry, 245.
Roosevelt, Theodore, on grizzly bear hunting, 315
Ross, John, Peter Pond kills, 244.
Royale, He, Carver's report concerning, 216.
Rum, Indian carousal over, 6-7; "English milk," 45;
drinking by Lake of the Woods Indians, 235-36;
demanded by Chatique, 251; price, 304; diluted for
Indian trade, 304, 311.
SABLE Point, location, 123.
Sacrifices, of dogs, 107, 125, 144, 170, 289; to Great
Turtle, 163; to rattlesnake, 170-71; of Henry
proposed, 171; to Nanibojou, 205; among Assini-
boin, 289.
Saginaw Bay, Indians visit Michilimackinac, 150.
Sagunac (Saginaga) Lake, Indians of, 232-33.
St. Anne, vows offered at Church, 18.
St. Anne Rapids, 17-18.
St. Charles Fort, location, 236.
St. Claire Lake, settlements near, 180; Indian villages,
180.
St. Francais Lake, Henry reaches, 10.
St. Ignace Cape, near St. Martin Island, 123.
St. Ignace Mission, established by Marquette, 184.
St. Ignace Point, Henry visits, 151.
St. James, capital of Mormon kingdom, 94.
St. Joseph, Fort, raided, 12; site, 53; Ottawa save
garrison, 106.
St. Lawrence River, Gen. Amherst descends, 3-4;
Henry navigates rapids, 8-10; character, 17.
St. Louis, Pontiac buried at, 179.
St. Martin Island, Henry sojourns on, 133.
St. Pierre River, trading expedition planned, 47.
St. Sulpice, mission, 19.
Sand bars, at river mouths, 125.
Sandusky Bay, Bradstreet's army at, 177-78.
Santee Indians, origin of name, 277.
336
Saskatchewan (Bourbon, Pasquayah) River, Henry
aspends, 246-53; 259-67; fur trade rivalry, 303.
Sauk Indians, play ball with Chippewa, 78, 86-87.
Sault du Recolet, Portage du, on French River, 32-33.
Sault Ste. Marie, journey from Michilimackinac to, 59;
fort, 59-60; fishing, 60-61, 63; Chippewa village at,
61; fort burned, 64; garrison withdraws to Michili-
mackinac, 64; Indians friendly .to English, 150-51;
Henry winters at, 180; embarks for, 184; barge built,
217; sloop, 218.
Schlosser, Fort, at Niagara portage, 175-76.
Schoolcraft, Henry R., search for Wawatam, xix,
ISS-S6.
Serpent, Rapide du, on Churchill River, 309.
Seven Years' War, xii.
Silver, on Iron River, 187; on Nanibojou Island, 222.
Simcoe Lake, Henry traverses, 171-72; Indians visit
Fort Niagara, 1 71 , 1 75 ; enrolled in battalion, 1 75-77.
Sioux (Nadowessie) Indians, Henry plans expedition
to, 47; warfare with Chippewa, 189-90, 195-96, 232,
236; relation to Assiniboin, 266, 289.
Slaves, Indian, 81; among Assiniboin, 266, 295-97.
Slave River (Kiratchinini Sibi), information concern-
ing, 313.
Sledges, Indian, described, 257.
Snakes, on Island of Yellow Sands, 216, 218-20. See
also rattlesnakes.
Snake Indians, neighbors of Assiniboin, 288.
Snowshoe evil, described, 68; cure, 68.
Solomon, Ezekiel, at Michilimackinac, 48; in massacre,
93. 95> 105-
South Chicago, battle near, 13.
Spaniards, supply horses to Assiniboin, 289.
Spruce trees, on Saskatchewan River, 246; on Church-
ill, 308.
Strang, James Jesse, founds Mormon kingdom, 94.
Stag, see red deer.
Sturgeon, in Ontonagon River, 186; in Lake Winnipeg,
246; in Saskatchewan River, 247; in Cedar Lake,
337
248; in Beaver Lake, 255; as diet, at Cumberland
House, 258.
Sturgeon Lake, Cumberland House on, 251; described,
253; Henry traverses, 258.
Sturgeon Weir River, see Maligne River.
Sudatpries, see sweating houses.
Superior (Wis.), see Fond du Lac.
Superior, Lake, mines of, 210; French schooner on,
216; company formed to work mines, 217; barge
built, 217; sloop, 218, 225-26; mining operations,
218-24.
Superstitions, concerning fear, 139-40; dreams, 151;
Great Turtle, 161-66; rattlesnakes, 168-71; rob-
bing the Great Spirit, 194-95; of Great Road about
hair, 278.
Swans, at Beaver Lake, 306.
Sweating houses, among Indians, 291.
TETES de Boule Indians, see Wood Indians.
Tete de la Loutre, see Otter's Head.
Thunder Island, name, 230.
Tobacco, Henry uses, 149-50; offered to Great Turtle,
163, 165; to rattlesnake, 168-70; use by Indians,
273; in Indian trade, 304.
Tonnerre, He au, see Thunder Island.
Toronto (Toranto), carrying-place, 172.
Totems, function of, 295.
Townshend, , partner in mining company, 226.
Tracy, , trader, at Fort Michilimackinac, 73; in
massacre, 79, 92, 105.
Trembles, Fort aux, on Saskatchewan River, 303.
Tripe de Roche, substitute for food, 212-13.
Trout, at Michilimackinac, 55; spearing described,
65-66; at Chequamegon Bay, 191; catch relieves
famine, 202; in Beaver Lake, 255.
Tutchef, Sir Samuel, partner in mining company, 226.
VARENNES, Pierre Gaultier de, establishes Fort
Bourbon, 248.
Vase, Portages a la, on Matawan River, 29-30.
Vegetables, cultivated at Michipicoten, 217.
338
Venison, method of drying, 132; quantity secured,
132, 142.
Voyageurs, conditions of employment, 16, 231; cus~
toms, 18.
WAAC, see tripe de roche.
Wadin, ^killed in duel, 244.
Wagoshense Point, near Michilimackinac, 96.
Warren brothers, on Chequamegon Bay, 185.
Wawatam, existence denied, xix, 155-56; friendship
for Henry, 73-76, 99-103; attends feast, 104-105;
conceals Henry, 109-111; on St. Martin's Island,
123; at Au Sable River, 123-25; gives feast, 130-31;
kills stag, 132; superstitions, 140; journey to Michi-
limackinac, 147-49; to Sault Ste. Marie, 151; fare-
well to Henry, 154-55; Schoolcraft seeks, 155.
Weeping, among Assiniboin, 276-77.
Wenniway, Chippewa chief, captor of Henry, 88-91,
93-96.
Whitefish, at Michilimackinac, 56-57; at Sault Ste.
Marie, 60-61; at Chequamegon Bay 191; in
Beaver Lake, 255; at Churchill River, 306, 309.
White River, see Pijitic River.
Wild rice, as food, 232, 235; gift, 243.
William, Fort, erected, 229-30.
Willow trees, on Saskatchewan River, 248.
Winnipeg Lake, Henry traverses, 239-46, 317; outlet,
. 24 . 7 *
Winnipeg River, Henry traverses, 237-38.
Women, labors performed by, 132, 143, 269-71, 298;
dreams, 147; neatness of, at Chequamegon Bay,
190-91; of Cristinaux tribe described, 239-41;
modesty of Assiniboin, 279; beauty, 295; of Chepe-
wyan tribe, 314.
Wolfe, Gen. James, captures Quebec, xii, 3.
Wolves, bones as feast, 263; skins as presents, 281;
on Saskatchewan River, 305.
Wood (Gens de Terre, Opimittish Ininiwac), Indians
near Sault Ste. Marie described, 61-62; country and
habits, 205-207; on Pijitic River, 228.
339
YELLOW Sands, Island of, legends concerning, 215-18;
Henry explores, 219-21.
York, identified with Toronto, 172.
York, Fort, on Hudson Bay, 247.
340
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