977.401
M21w
1405522 GENEALOGY COLLECTJOliJi
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 01075 5863
EARLY MACKINAC
I know an isle, an emerald set in pearl,
Mounting the ehain of topaz, amethyst,
That forms the circle of our summer seas —
The fairest that our western sun hath kissed.
For all things lovely lend her loveliness;
The waves reach forth white fingers to caress,
Tiie four winds, murmuringly meet to woo
And cloudless skies bend in blue tenderness.
The classic nymphs still haunt her grassy pools;
Her woods, in green, the Norseland elves have draped,
And fairies, from all lands, or far or near,
Her airy cliffs, and carving shores, have shaped.
Of old, strange suitors came in quest of her,
Some in the pride of conquest, some for pelf;
Priests in their piety, red men for revenge —
All seek her now, alone, for her fair self.
Rev. David H. Riddle.
/1AP0F
^ACKINAC
J^ISLAND.
iHlCH.
EARLY MACKINAC
A SKETCH
HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE
BY
MEADE C. WILLIAMS
NEW EDITION
KE VISED AND ENLARGED
NEW YORK
DUFFIELD & COMPANY
1919
COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY MEADE C. WILLIAMS.
COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY MEADE C. WILLIAMS.
COPYRIGHT, 1913. BY DUFFIELD & COMPANY
1405522
TO ALL THOSE
WHO HAVING ONCE KNOWN
THE ISLAND OF THE STRAITS
STILL REMEMBER ITS CHARM,
AND REMAIN UNDER THE POWER OF ITS SPELL,
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED.
PREFACE TO THIRD EDITIOX.
This book was first issued in 169T. My tliirteeu
summers at Mackinac Island up to that date have since
increased to sixteen. I have felt moved from my ac-
quaintance with the Island and my interest in it, to fur-
nish in written form some of its history.
The book now enters its third edition. It is very con-
siderably enlarged over the first and second issues.
While it is believed this portrayal in its historical por-
tion may have interest for the general reader, it at the
same time carries a local coloring which may more par-
ticularly appeal to those who know the place and who
visit its shores. As the charm of the locality is due, in
no small degree, to the halo of antiquity which hangs
over it, I have felt warranted in giving special (though
not exclusive) attention to early Mackinac,
The work embodies the result of no little research and
investigation. As the reader will perceive, I am much
indebted to the various writings of Henry R. School-
craft who dwelt for twenty years in the upper lakes re-
gion, and for eight years of this time was a resident of
the Island. I also express my obligations to the val-
uable series of " Collections and Researches," a work
carried on by the Michigan Pioneer and Historical So-
ciety. These collections at present number twenty-eight
volumes. The use they make of the imi)ortant " Haldi-
mand Papers," of Canada, bring to hand much of the
early military history of the Straits and of the Island
fort.
>S'^. Louis, Mo. Mackinac Island,.
Jwe, 1901.
PREFACE TO PRESENT EDITION
This book by my father came from an affectionate
interest in the place where he spent many of the hap-
piest summers of his life, and where, while planning
another and larger book about this historically roman-
tic region, he died in the summer of 1906.
Even those on the cool deck of the passing steamer,
Avho merely look at the quaint 18th century fort ex-
quisitely placed upon the hill overlooking the cres-
cent harbor, must feel the charm of this vividly green
island with the pure white beach sharply cutting the
brilliantly blue waters of the Straits of Mackinac.
But my father's feeling went deeper than a'sthetics.
His devotion was more like the love of place shown
in the sentiment for ancestral landmarks. He be-
gan his annual sojournings many years ago, before
the days of garish hotels and cheap excursions.
With occasional interruptions for travel he remained
faithful, even after the island was pronounced
" spoiled " by many of his friends among the original
summer colony. So he knew the old inhabitants, all
of them. He was a friend — a generous friend, we
learned afterwards — to the fast disappearing In-
dians and the half-breeds who carried in their veins
the blood of some of the oldest families of France, as
was betrayed by their names. From them he picked
up Indian tales, gathered local traditions of the
French, Indian and English wars, and collected
PREFACE TO PRESENT EDITION
stories about tlie " good old days " when Mackinac
was the headquarters of the John Jacob Astor fur
trade. Most of all, he became an expert in the stir-
ring history of the Indian missions. He led in the
restoration of the old mission church on the island —
and insisted upon keeping the old gray weathered
boards free from modern paint ! . . .
In this way he began gathering, for his own de-
lectation and the entertainment of family friends,
lore and legend which were perhaps on the verge of
oblivion. In this Avay his romantic and historical
interest kept increasing until it became a passionate
hobby, for which he was often joked at the dinner
table. He bought many books, took journeys to dis-
tant libraries, and, in short, became somewhat of an
authority upon this interesting chapter of American
history.
The following pages are the result. They were
written originally for private circulation, but when
printed as a book it at once became so popular that
new editions — with revised and added chapters —
were demanded every season. This was very pleas-
ing to my father.
Jesse Lynch Williams.
Washingion Road
Princeton, N. J.
CONTENTS
PAGE
Pbeface vii
CHAPTER I
The Island's name — Its etymology — Its sacredness in
tlie Indian's mind — Indian legends — Poetic vein in
Indian nomenclature — The passing of the Indian —
Difference between early and modern types ... 13
CHAPTER II
Early settling under the French flag — Pioneer military
post oil noitliern mainland — La Hontan's visit —
Removal to Detroit and return — Post established on
southern mainland — English sway — Discontent of
the Indians — Ball game and massacre — Alexander
Henry — Uawatam — Skull cave — Henry's book of
Travels 27
CHAPTER III
Removal to the Island proposed — Transfer effected —
Major Sinclair — Captain Robertson (Robinson) —
Rum — Captain Scott — Building the fort — Slowly
completed — Its ancient style .40
CHAPTER IV
American Independence achieved — England's delay in
surrendering Mackinac — A second treaty required
to secure American occupation — Greenville treaty
with the Indians — Fur trade — Mackinac in 1810 as
described by Wasliington Irving — Another early de-
scription 52
CHAPTER V
V'ar of 1812 opens — "British Landing" — Fort Mackinac
captured by the British — Of great importance to
British interests — Oflicial reports — Building of Fort
Holmes (Fort George) 67
CONTENTS
CHAPTER VT
American expedition to recover INIackinac — Effects en-
trance at " British Landing " — The battle — Major
Holmes killed — American forces withdraw — Destroy
British supplies in Georgian Bay — Blockade effected
— Blockade raised — Mackinac again ceded to United
States in 1815 — Old cannon — British remove to
Drnmmond Island 76
CHAPTER VII
Strained relations between Drnmmond Island and Mack-
inac — Indian mischief-makers — Heated Correspond-
ence — The British Commandant's disappointment —
Drummojid Island becomes American territory —
Early officers at Fort Mackinac — The Fort aban-
doned and transferred to State of Michigan — Offer
of re-cession 89
CHAPTER VIII
The Fur trade — The Hudson's Bay Co.— The Northwest
Co. — ■Michilimackinac an early depot for furs — John
Jacob Astor an operator — Organizes the American
Fur Co. — Mackinac Island as headquarters — Inter-
esting relics 99
CHAPTER IX
Summer on the Island in the early days — Indian and voy-
upeur resorters — Canoes and Canoe voyaging — Boat
Songs — Descriptions by Col. ^SIcKenney, Mrs. Jame-
son and H. H. Bancroft 110
CHAPTER X
An early incident on the Island famous in medical an-
nals — Alexis St. Martin — Dr. Wm. Beaumont —
Beaumont's book — Tribute by Medical Societies of
Michigan — Mackinac Society in early times — Mod-
ern Mackinac — An early prediction realized . . . 120
CHAPTER XI
Early citizens of the Island — Ramsey Crooks as con-
nected with the fur trade — Robert Stuart, resident
partner in the Astor Fur Co. — Henry R. Schoolcraft,
government agent, scientist and explorer — His liter-
ary works and character ....,,... 128
CONTENTS
CHAPTER XII PAGE
Jesuit missions — Marquette — Church of St. Ann at Old
Mackinaw, aJid on the Island — Trinity Church —
Congregational Cliurch — Early Mission School and
Old Mission Church — Story of Cliuska — Old Mis-
sion Church restored 139
CHAPTER XIII
Exceeding beauty of the Island — Woods — Vegetation —
Water views — Curiosities in stone — Arch Rock —
Sugar Loaf — Lover's Leap — Robinson's Folly and
its legends 156
CHAPTER XIV
The Island's celebrity as a place of resort — Early-day
visitors — Books of description — Countess Ossoli
(Margaret Fuller) — A New York doctor's visit in
1835 — Captain Marryatt — Mrs. Jameson — Miss
Harriet Martineau 171
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
JSIap of Mackinac Island
The Griffin — First Sail Vessel on the Lakes ....
Ottawa Canoe 18
La Hontan's Sketch 23
Old Fort IMichiliniackinac on South Side of the Straits . ,31
Alexander Henry 37
Fort Mackinac To-day 47
View From the Fort 50
IMackinac Beach (east end). Sketched in 1843 ... 57
A View of Early Mackinac G3
Indian Wifovam 66
Walk-in-the-Water 68
The Perry Cannon 74
American Fur Co. Old Scales 84
Leslie Avenue 91
The Shore Drive 09
Old Fur Company's Desk 108
The Shore Drive 114
Dr. William Beaumont 121
Henry R. Schoolcraft, LL.D 129
The Old Agency 135
Rev. Wm. Ferry — INIrs. Ferry 145
Old Mission Church 151
Arch Rock 157
A Modern Mackinac Garden 159
Chimney Rock 163
Sugar Loaf 164
Robinson's Folly 167
Leslie Avenue 172
THE GRIFFIX — FIRST SAIL VESSEL ON THE LAKES.
Built by La Salle, on Niagara River a few miles above the Falls, in
1678-79, and named in allusion to the arms of his friend, Count
de Frontenae, in which griffins figured. Set sail August 7, 1679
— La Salle her commander and Hennepin the journalist of the
expedition. This was the first voyage ever made by Europeans
on these inland seas. Arrived in the Straits August 27th, at
what is now St. Ignace of the northern mainland, four miles
across from the island of Mackinac. Anchored in a bay overlooked
by two rocky bluffs, known in Indian tradition as the He and She
Rabbit. The former also known as Sitting Rabbit, or Rabbit's
Back. The Indians were greatly amazed to see a ship in their
country, and to hear the sound of its cannon. Hennepin says,
" In this bay where the Griffin was riding we looked with pleasure
at this large, well-equipped vessel amid a hundred or a hundred
and twenty bark canoes coming and going from taking white fish
which these Indians catch with nets." Leaving the Straits the
party set out on Lake Michigan and sailed as far west and south
as Green Bay. Here La Salle sent back the Griffin, loaded with
furs and bound for Niagara. The vessel was lost, with all on
board — it is thought in the northern part of Lake Michigan and
thus perhaps not far from the Mackinac region.
EARLY MACKINAC
ClIAPTEE I
Micirii.iiMACKiNAC was the old-time name, not for
our beautifnl island alone, but for all the country
round about us, north to Lake Superior and west to
tlic head of Green Bay. It was the island only that
was first thus called. The word lirew out of it, and
small bit of land though it is, it threw its name over
a vast territory.
The name has been variously spelled. In ol4 his-
tories, reports, and other documents, I have found
j\Iishlimakina, Missilimakinac, Misliilmaki, Michil-
imachina, ]\Iichilimaqina, Missilimakina, Michiliak-
imawk; while in one standard history, when this re-
gion is spoken of, it invariably appears as Michili-
makinaw.^ In its abbreviated form it has been writ-
ten ]\lackinack, Macina, Maquiua, Mackana, Macki-
nac, ]\lackinaw. In all the earlier periods following
the settlement of the island by the whites, in books
of travel and of history, and in mercantile records,
Mackinac and Machlnaw were used interchangeably,
though the form Mackinaw; was most commonly
adopted. Also in many of the early maps and at-
lases it is also given. Steamboat companies doing
business on the island generally advertised their boats
1 Henry Adams' " History of the United States."
13
14 EARLY MACKINAC
as of the " Mackinaw Line.'' Business firms so wrote
the word — at least as frequently as the other form.
So this was quite general during all that time, ex-
cept that the official name of the military post held
to the termination " ac." But since the railroad
companies built their modern terminal town across
the straits and called it Mackinaw City, for the sake
of convenience in distinguishing, the name of the
island is now uniformly written ^Mackinac. In pro-
nunciation, however, without attempting to settle the
question by the laws of orthoepy, it may be remarked
that it is considered very incorrect to sound the final
c; and that to the ears of residents, and old habitues
and lovers of the island, it is almost distressful and
irritating to hear it called anything other than Mack-
inaic. The pronunciation which has prevailed in the
locality and throughout the surrounding region for
generations past has become the law of usage, and
should determine the question. It is said that among
the early residents of the island there was but
one person who ever called it MackinacA^ and he was
regarded, in his day, " as an eccentric." A compro-
mise may perhaps be allowed, by taking the name as
if it bore the termination ah, and giving it a sound
between the flat and the very broad. Julian Ealph,
a noted American traveler and descriptive Avriter, has
referred to the subject, and says the confusion is due
to the French manner of " gallicizing " the words of
any language they touch, so that all through our
West, where they had early settlements, they thus
"' spelled words one way and pronounced them an-
other, in a style peculiar to their own language, and
maddening to the blunt and practical Anglo-Saxon
STUDY OF THE NAME 15
mind," And he charges lis to remember that the
name is always Mackinaw, no matter how it is spelled.
Another traveler visiting the island in 1830, and
writing about it, after first giving its name in full as
Michilimackinack, says that in conformity with pop-
ular usage, ''we will henceforth say " MacVinaw."
Col. Win. M. Ferry, of Park City, Utah, who lived
on the island as a boy from 1824 to 1834, and Avho
has a wide intelligence concerning its early local
history, tells me the Canadian Frenchmen sounded
it as Mack-ee-naw, and from that it came into com-
mon use. The word is further familiar to us from
what, in our summer wear, is called the " Mackinaw
hat," And the " Mackinaw boat," as descriptive of
a certain build of sailing craft common long ago in
these straits, is a term still written as of yore.
The origin and signification of the word is in some
obscurity. All agree that the first part of it,
" Michi," means groat. It is preserved in the name
of the state, Michigan, and in the name of the
lake, Lake Michigan — meaning great waters. The
French took it up, spelling it Missi ; hence the name
of the river Mississippi — great river, the father of
waters. Concerning the remainder of the name
which follows Michi, we are not so sure. The com-
mon view is that the form of the island, high-backed
in the center, as it rises above the waters, and hand-
somely crowning the whole, suggested to the Indian
fancy the figure of a turtle. Hence that it became
known as the land of the Great Turtle.
Heriot, an English traveler in Xorth America,
who published his " Travels through the Canadas "
in 1807, touched at Mackinac and reports as the ori-
16 EARLY MACKI:N^AC
gin of the name that the island had been given^ as
their special abode, to an order of spirits called
Imakinakos, and that " from these aerial posses-
sors it had received the appellation of Michilimack-
inac."
Schoolcraft, who is the best authority on all ques-
tions pertaining to the Indian language, as well as
to the customs and characteristics of that race, says
that the original name of the island was Mishi-min-
auk-in-ong, and that it means the place of the great
dancing spirits — these spirits being of the more in-
ferior and diminutive order, instead of belonging to
the Indian collection of gods ; a kind of pukwees, or
fairies, or sprites, rather than Manitous.
At the time of his first visit to the island in 1820,
Schoolcraft was inclined to the common view which
connected the name with the turtle. But later, after
he had lived many years among the Indians, and had
made a study of their language and their modes of
thought, he preferred the other explanation. The
transition from the Indian Mishi-min-auk-in-ong to
the French Michilimackinac he thus explains: The
French used ch for sh, interchanged n for I, and
modified the syllables auJc and ong respectively into
acJc. Perhaps the ack, or ac as we now have it, is
but a suggestion of the nasal sound they would give
to the final syllable owr/, in the Indian word. A fur-
ther hint may be furnished in the fact that the French
form of the name, as we find it in old historical rec-
ords and other documents, so frequently bears the
termination ina instead of ach. We have, then, only
to give the broad sound to the final a, to see how
Hackioaiy may have become ft common pronuncia-
STUDY OF THE NAME 17
tion. A philological explanation, strictly scientific,
is not claimed. Many local words, especially geo-
graphical terms, throughout all the upper lake re-
gions of early settlement, show corruptions as they
liave passed from the Indian language first into the
French of the early explorers and missionaries, then
into the patois of the illiterate French Canadians,
and then into a mongrel anglicized form.^
Perhaps the diff'erent views as to the significa-
tion of the word — the great turtle, or the great
spirits — can in a manner be combined. The tur-
tle was held in great reverence by the Indians. In
their mythology it was regarded as a symbol of the
earth and addressed as mother.- The fancied phys-
ical resemblance of the island could easily work in
with their mythical idea of the turtle, apart from its
1 Bois Blanc, the French name of the large island near Mack-
inac became Bob b'loic, and tlien in popular speech drifted into
Bob-i-loic. Near the head of Lake Michigan, is a small island
(now a light-house spot), named by the French He aux Galets,
but which in local phraseology has become Skilli-ga-lee. And
north of it, at the entrance to the Straits, and also marked by
a light-house, is Wau- go-chance, which is often designated col-
loquially as Wau-go-shanks, sometimes as " Wabble-shanks,"
and by some of the steamboat men, consulting brevity, " The
Shanks."
ii Andrew Lang, in his " MytJis, Ritual and Religious" (vol.
1, p. 182), mentions certain of the Indian tribes as holding the
fancy that the earth grew out of the tortoise. One form that
the legend took was that Atahenstic, a woman of the upper
world, had been banished from the sky, and falling, dropped
on the back of a turtle in the midst of the waters. The turtle
consulted with the other aquatic animals and one of them, gen-
erally said to have been the musk-rat, fished up some soil, and
fashioned the earth. Here the woman gave birth to twins and
thus began the peopling of the globe. Thus in the crude fancy
of the Western Indians do we find a reflection or fragment of
the ancient myth which once prevailed in the oriental mincl
that the world rested on the back of ^ tuvtle,
18
EARLY MACKINAC
having any etymological connection. And thus what-
ever way the name is studied it becomes associated
with some Indian conception of spirit. All singular
or striking formations in the work of nature — ob-
jects that were of an unusual kind, or very large and
imposing, as lofty rocks, overhanging cliffs, moun-
tains, lakes and such like — these poor untutored
OTTAWA CAXOE.
children looked upon as the habitations of spirits.
Our island, therefore, physically so different from the
other islands and the mainland about it, with its
glens and crags, and its many remarkable and strange-
looking stone formations, would easily be peopled
for them with spectres and spirits. Thoy regarded it
as their sacred island — a sort of shrine — and a fa-
vorite haunt of their gods, and cherished for it feel-
LEGENDAEY 19
ings akin to awe ; and from the surrounding regions
would bring their dead for burial in its soil. It
seems to have been rather their place of resort and
temporary sojourn than of permanent abode.
There is something very fascinating in the frag-
ments of early Indian fancies and traditions and
legends which are associated Avith our island. It is
interesting, too, to note how the legends and the my-
thology of the Indians and their dim religious ideas
so often took a poetic form. For instance, in their
pagan and untutored minds they thought of the island
as the favorite visiting place of Michibou, the great
one of the waters, their Manitou of these lakes.
That coming over the waters from the sunrise in the
east, he would touch the beach at the foot of Arch
Rock; that the large mass of stone which had fallen
from the face of the clifP in the long ago, causing the
arch above, was " Manitou's Landing Place " ; that
the arch was his gateway through which, ascending
the hill, he would proceed with stately step to " Sugar
Loaf," which in fancy they made to be his wig"\vam,
or lodge — the cave on the west side, known to all to-
day, being his doorway. Then again, the Sugar Loaf
Stone and others of that conical, pyramidal shape —
such as the one which stands in St. Ignaee, and those
in different parts of the northern peninsula, and yet
< "thers which formerly stood on this island — that
these strange, uncanny-looking rock formations, by a
modification of fancy, they would personify into
great giants or monsters who towered over them as
sentinels to note whether they made due offerings
and sacrifices to Manitou, their success in hunting
20 EAELY MACKIXAC
and trapping being conditioned on this kind of re-
ligions iidelitj.^
The Indians, so spontaneonsly recognizing the
\vorld of spirits, Avere frnitfnl in ideas and sentiments
of reverence. We are told there were no profane
words in their vocabulary. Think of a people who
did not know how to swear because they had no
Avords for it. It is said that the nearest they ap-
proached to cursing a man was to call him " a bad
dog." ^ So, too, in the nomenclature of wild, un-
couth-looking objects of nature. While our Avhite
l)ioneers and j^rospecting miners and avant couriers
(tf civilization in the West have so often attached to
such objects the name of the devil, as " Devil's Lake,"
" Devil's Slide," " Devil's Half-acre," " Devil's Scut-
tle-liole," and such like, the Indians generally gave
1 Schoolcraft noted a curious fact among the Chippewas —
thnt they fancied the woods and shores and islands were in-
liabited by innumerable spirits who during the sunmier season
were wakeful and quick to hear everything that was spoken,
but during the winter existed only in a torpid state. The In-
dian story tellers and legend mongers were therefore very free
in anuising their listeners with fanciful and mysterious tales
duiing the winter, as the spirits were then in a state of in-
activity and could not hear. But tlieir story telling was sus-
pended the moment the piping of the frog announced that
spring had opened. Tliat he had endeavored, but in vain, to
get any of them to relate this sort of imaginary lore at any
other time tlian in the winter. Tliey would always evade his
attempts by some easy or indifferent remark.
2 •' I have made many inquiries into the state of their vo-
cabulary, and do not, as yet, find any word which is more bitter
or reproachful than viafchi anneinoush, which indicates simply
bad dog. They have terms to indicate cheat, liar, thief, mur-
derer, coward, fool, lazy man, drunkard, babbler. But I have
never heard of an imprecation or oath. The genius of the lan-
guage does not seem to favor the formation of terms to be used
in oaths or profanity. It is the result of the observation of
others as well as my own, to say, that an Indian cannot curse."
Schoolcraft's " Thirty Years icith the Indian Tribes."
POETIC VEm 21
them some expressive and harmonious poetic name.
On the island we have the " Devil's Kitchen," but
we may feel sure that was not of the Indian's naming.
The writer of this sketch learned from an old resident
who had passed the whole of an extremely long life
on the island, that once, long ago, a shoemaker took
up his abode in that cavern and did his cobbling and
his cooking there. Possibly that gave rise to the
name.
In this habit of nomenclature which linked their
ideas with the phenomena of physical nature, we
see a beautiful though often rude and childish vein
of poetry. Their name for the great cataract of
ISTiagara was " Thunder of the Waters," as that for
the gentle falls now within the limits of the city of
Minneapolis, was Minnehaha or " Laughing Wa-
ters." The familiar white fish of these regions was
the " Deer of the Waters." To the horizon limit,
when they looked out on the lake to where the thread-
like line of blue water loses itself in the clouds and
sky, they gave the name which signified the " Far-
otf Sight of Water." The name for General Wayne,
who did so much to overthrow their power in the
West, was " Strong Wind " ; while the American sol-
diers, from their use of the sabre and sword in battle,
were known as the " Long Knives." Their concep-
tion of a fort, with its mounted cannon, was " The
high-fenced house of thunder," while the discharge
was, " The arrow that flies out of the big gun."
Their word to designate the Christian Sabbath, meant
'^ Prayer Day." The month of February they called
" The moon of crusted snow," as the snow could then
bear up a man in the hunt, while the feet of the stag
22 EAELY MACKINAC
would break through. In the personal names given
to individuals we often see a poetic association with
the objects of nature most familiar to their minds.
A little son of Mr. Schoolcraft, then government
agent at the Sault, was admiringly called by the Chip-
pewas " Penaci," or " The Bird ; " while the name of
]\Irs. Schoolcraft's mother, a full-blooded Indian
woman, was a many-syllabled word, which meant
" Woman of the Green Valley." The English au-
thoress, ]\lrs. Jameson, when visiting the Sault,
after " shooting the rapids " with the Indian guides
(the first European wonum who had ever ventured
on the exploit) was re-named " The Woman of the
Bright Foam." I find the names of five Indian
chiefs, each as translated giving quite a poetic sense:
The Sun's Course in a Cloudless Sky, Bursts of
Thunder at a Distance, The Sound of Waves Break-
ing on the Rocks, The Returning Clouds, The Bird
in Eternal Flight.^
As their whole life and range of observation was
constantly associated Avith tempests, forests, waters,
skies, and all the various phenomena of physical
nature, this gave shape to their conceptions and their
questionings. It has always seemed very significant
that when John Eliot, the pioneer missionary to the
Indians in Xew England two hundred and fifty
years ago, began his instructions among them, he was
met at once by their eager and long pent-up questions
of wonder : '' What makes the sea ebb and flow ? "
1 In contrast, vce note in their modern reservation and senii-
eivilized life a degeneracy in the style of names they are fond
of bearing, such as Sitting Bull, Thunder Bull, Crazy Snake,
Wolf-in-the-middle, Ground Xose, Creeping Bear, Man-afraid-of-
his-horses, Rain-in-the-face, etc.
IXDIA^^ MENTALITY 25
" What makes tlie ^vind blow i " '' What makes the
thunder { "
Pai-kman represents the Jesuit missionaries in Can-
ada, two centuries since, as testifying that the Indians
had a more acute intellect than the peasantry in
France. At his best, however, the red man was but
the " child of the forest," and in the presence of the
pale faces was not destined to endure. They are a
doomed and a passing race — " meeting the fate they
cannot shun." ]\Iany reasons or causes might be as-
signed for this. One reason is that which was given
by a very thoughtful Indian in a speech on a cer-
tain occasion long ago, before a company of govern-
ment agents here on the island beach. Said he, very
reflectively: "The white man no sooner came than
he thought of preparing the way for his posterity ;
the red man never thought of that." In this pro-
found observation is embodied one of the latest de-
ductions in social philosophy.
Of course, in thus speaking of the Indians, refer-
ence is had to manifestations of their mental char-
acter as seen in the earlier days, and not to Indian
life and character at present, as seen in the Western
reservations. By contact with the whites, it has
been said, they lost their originality.^
1 Catlin, who ranks next to Schoolcraft in his study of the
Indians, in an extensive classification of qualities, contrasts
tlieir ori<riiial character in their " primitive and disabused
state," with their secondary cliaracter after " being beaten into
a sort of civilization." From being handsome, he says, they
had become ugly; from free, enslaved; from affable, reserved;
from bold, timid; from warlike, peaceable; from proud, hum-
ble; from independent, dependent; from healthy, sickly; from
sober, drunken; from increasing, decreasing; from landholders,
beggars."
26 EAELY MACKIA^AC
" In their own woods they are a noble race; brought near to
us, a degraded and stupid race." — Mrs. Jameson.
" The imprisoned lion in tlie sliowman's cage diflfers not more
widely from the lord of tlie desert, than tlie beggarly frequenter
of frontier garrisons and dram-shops differs from the proud
denizens of the woods. It is in his native wilds alone that tlie
Indian must be seen and studied." — Parkman in " Histury of
the Conspiracy of Font lac,"
CHAPTER II
The annals of onr island since its discovery and
occupation by the wliites carry us back to an early
day. Explorers from France and settlers from Can-
ada were here two hundred and fifty years ago.
Traces of French and Indian mixture are every-
where seen. Indian wars and massacres have red-
dened these shores. Stories of English power vic-
torious over French, in far back colonial times, have
a part in the history of this region. In a later day
the island had its stirring incidents in our own war
with Great Britain, in 1812. Here was the head-
quarters of the Mackinaw Fur Company and the
Southwest Fur Company, and afterwards of the
powerful American Fur Company, of which John
Jacob Astor was the chief proprietor, and which
made our island for the time the largest seat of com-
merce in the western country.^ Christianity, too,
has had here its early enterprises, at the hands first of
the French Jesuit missionaries of the iTth Century,
and afterwards of Protestantism.
In regard to early military annals, history points
to the fact that with the exception of the brief aban-
donment by the French forces from about 1701 to
1714, this region of the straits had been a seat of con-
1 Detroit. Vincennes, St. Louis, Lake Winnipeg. Lake of the
Woods, and oilier far distant points were but dependencies of
Michilimackinac, as the metropolis of the Indian trade.
27
28 EARLY MACKI:N'AC
tinuous military occupation from the last quarter of
the 17th Century down to 1895, when to the
surprise and regret of all who knew the island's
history, the United States Government abolished the
post. Three different flags have floated over a fort
in these Straits of ]\Iackina\v during this long period
past. These have been in the order of French, Eng-
lish and American. The French were the pioneers.
They established Fort Michilimackinac, over where
now the town of St. Ignace stands, four miles across
on the northern peninsula. This was about two hun-
dred and twenty-five years ago.
J^aron La Hontan, who had come from France to
Canada at an early age and afterwards became Lord
Lieutenant of a French Colony in ]^ewfoundland,
visited our Mackinac neighborhood in 1688. In a
imblication of his travels in Xortli America he gives
three letters from the Michilimakinac settlement of
that day.^ As accompanying his picture on the ad-
joining page he thus writes: "You can scarce be-
lieve what vast sholes of white fish are catched about
the middle of the channel, between the continent and
the isle of Missilimakinac. The Outaouas^ and
the Hurons could never subsist here, without that fish-
ery; for they are obliged to travel about twenty
leagues in the woods before they can kill any harts or
elks, and it would be an infinite fatigue to carry their
carcasses so far over land. This sort of white fish,
in my opinion, is the only one in all these lakes that
can be called good ; and indeed it goes beyond all
1 The book was first published in French, 1705. Afterwards
an enlarged edition appeared in English form, 1735.
2 Ottawas.
LA HONTAX'S LETTER 29
other sorts of river fish. Above all, it lias one singu-
lar pro})erty, namely, that all sorts of sauces spoil
it, so that it is always eat either boiled or broiled,
without any manner of seasoning.
" hi the channel I now speak of, the currents are
so strong that they sometimes suck in the nets, though
they are two or three leagues off. In some seasons it
so falls out that the currents run three days eastward,
two days to the west, one to the south, and four north-
ward ; sometimes more and sometimes less. The
cause of this diversity of currents could never be
fathomed, for in a calm they will run, in the space of
one day, to all the i3oints of the compass, i. e., some-
times in one Avay, sometimes another, without any
limitation of time; so that the decision of the matter
must be left to the disciple of Copernicus.
'' Here the savage catch trouts as big as one's
thigh ; with a sort of fishing-hook made in the form
of an awl, and made fast to a piece of brass wire,
which is joined to the line that reaches to the bottom
of the lake. This sort of fishery is carried on not
only with hooks, but with nets, and that in wdnter
as well as in summer.
" The Outaouas and the Hurons have very pleas-
ant fields, in which they sow Indian corn, pease and
beans, besides a sort of citruls and melons. Some-
times these savages sell their corn very dear, espe-
cially when the beaver hunting happens not to take
well ; upon which occasion they make sufficient re-
j)risals upon us for the extravagant price of our com-
modities."
Eor a short interval the Trench Government, under
the instigation of the post Commander, Cadillac, with-
80 EARLY MACKIA^AC
drew the garrison (as already mentioned) and aban-
doned this region as a military seat in favor of the
new settlement at Detroit. That was about the open-
ing of the 18th centnry. But this vacating was soon
seen to be bad policy, and in 1714 the fort
Avas re-established. When, however, the restored fort
becomes known again in history, it is found located
on the Southern Peninsula, across the Straits, where
now stands the railroad toAvn, Mackinaw City.
Whether on the return from Detroit the military at
once located the fort there, or first resumed the old
site at St. Iguace, and removed to the other Penin-
sula at some later period, is not definitely known. At
any rate it was the same military occupation, and the
same Fort Michilimackinac, irrespective of the time
of change in the site. It stood about half a mile from
the present Light House, and southAvesterly from the
railroad station ; and was so close to the water's edge
that when the wind was in the west the waves would
often break into the stockade. Its site is plainly
visible to-day, and visitors still find relics in the
sand.
After the conquest of Canada by the English, in
the deciding battle of Quebec on the heights of Abra-
ham in 1759, all this country around came nnder the
Euglish flag. The Indians, however, liked better the
Erench dominion and their personal relations with
the Erench people than they did the English sway and
English associations, and they did not take kindly to
the transfer. One reason for this preference is said
to ha.ve been that the Erench were accustomed to pay
respect to all the Indians' religious or superstitious
observances, whereas an Englishman or an American
PONTIAC'S CONSPIRACY 33
was apt, either to take no pains to conceal his con-
tempt for their superstitions or to speak out bhuitly
against them. To this can be added the well known
fact of the greater readiness of the French to inter-
marry and domesticate with the Indian.^
This strong feeling of discontent nnder the change
of emjiire, on the part of the Indians, was faniie(l
and skillfully directed by that great leader an<l dip-
lomate, Pontiac ; ^ and " Tlie Conspiracy of Pon-
tiac " is the well-known title of one of Parkman's
series of North American history. This conspiracy
was no less than a deep and comprehensive scheme,
matured by this most crafty savage chief, for a gen-
eral Indian rising, in which all English forts, from
the south to the upper lakes, were to be attacked si-
multaneously, and the English rule forever de-
stroyed. The Indians would vauntingly say, " You
have conquered the Erench, but you have not con-
quered ns." Out of twelve forts, nine were taken,
but not long held.
While this scheme w^as, of course, a failure in its
larger features, the plot against the old post of ]\Iich-
ilimackinac across the water succeeded only too well.
The strategy and horrors of that capture read like a
1 " When the French arrived at this place," said a Chippewa
Chief at a council once held at tlie Saiilt, " they came and
kissed us. They called us children and we found them fathers.
^^'e lived like brothers in the same lodge." — Schoolcraft, in an
address before the Michigan Historical Societi/ i)i 1S30.
- " In force of character, subtlety, eloquence and daring, Pon-
tiac was perhaps the most brilliant man the Indians of North
America have produced." — "A History of Canada," by Chas. G.
D. Roberts. Schoolcraft rated him in the same way. Drake,
in his ''Indians of the 'Sorthicest," says of him: " His fame
in his time was not confined to his own continent but the
gazettes of Europe spread it also,"
34 EARLY MACKHSTAC
tale of fiction. The story is old, but to repeat it in
this sketch will not be amiss. It may be introdneeil
under the title of
AN HISTORIC BALL GAME.
In 1Y63 a band of thirty-five English soldiers and
their officers formed its garrison. Encamped in tho
woods not far off was a large number of Indians.
One morning in the month of Jnne, with great show
of friendliness, the Indians invited the soldiers to
witness their match game of ball, jnst outside the
stockade. The Chippewas were to play the Sacs.^
Then, as now, ball playing had great fascination.
And as this was the birthday of the King of England,
and the men were in the celebrating mood, some in-
dulgence was shown, discipline for a time relaxed,
gates were left ajar and the soldiers and officers care-
lessly sauntered and looked on, enjoying the sport.
In the course of play, and as a part of the pre-con-
certed stratagem, the ball was so struck that it fell
within the stockade line of the fort. As if pursuing
it, the players came rushing to the gate. The soldiers,
intent in watching the play, suspected nothing. The
Indians now had an open way within, and instantly
turned from ball-players into warriors, and a terrify-
ing " whoop " was given. The squaws, as sharing in
the plot, were standing near with, tomahawks con-
cealed under their blankets. These Avere seized, and
then followed a most shocking massacre. The sur-
prise of the fort and the success of the red men were
complete.
1 Baggatiway was their kind of ball game.
1405522
ALEXANDER HENRY 35
The details of this dreadful event are vividly and
harrowingly given by the English trader, Alexander
Henry, sojourning at the time, with his goods within
the stockade, and unfortunately a sharer in the dread-
ful scenes and experiences. The humble Henry may
well be called the Eather of History, like another
Herodotus, as far as this episode is concerned. Ex-
cepting the very meagre report of the humiliating
capture made by Captain Etherington, the officer in
command, there seems to be nothing but the narrative
of this English trader. His description of the fort,
the purpose it had been serving, the movements of
the Indians preceding the affair, as well as the minute
description of the stratagem and its success, and the
terrible scenes enacted, is the chief source of infor-
mation ; and one can take up no history of this period
and this locality without seeing how all writers are
indebted to his plain and simjde narrative.
When the fort was captured by the savages, he him-
self was hidden for the first night out of their mur-
derous reach, but ^vas discovered the next day. Then
followed a series of experiences and hair-breadth
escapes and turns of fortune very remarkable, while
all the time the most barbarous fate seemed impend-
ing, the suspense in which made his sensations, if
possible, only the more distressful and torturing. It
was not enough that his goods were confiscated and
his very clothes stripped off his body, but his savage
captors thirsted for his blood. They said of him and
their other prisoners, that they were being reserved to
" make English broth." After four days of such hor-
rors there came a turn Avhicli Henry says gave " a
new color to my lot." During his residence at the
36 EARLY MACKIXAC
post before the massacre, a certain Chippewa Indian
named Wawatam, -who nsed to come frequently to
his house, had become very friendly and told him
that the Great Spirit pointed him ont as one to
adopt as a brother, and to regard as one of his own
family. Suddenly, on the fourth day of his cap-
tivity, Wawatam appeared on the scene. Before a
council of chiefs he asked the release of his brother,
the trader, at the same time laying down presents to
buy oif whatever claims any may have thought they
had on the prisoner. Wawatam's request, or demand
was granted, and taking Mr. Henry by the hand he
led him to his own lodge, w4iere he received the ut-
most kindness.
A day or two afterwards, fearing an attack of re-
taliation by the English, the whole body of Indians
moved from the fort over to our island as a place of
greater safety. They landed, three hundred and fifty
fighting men. Wawatam was among them, with
Henry in safe keeping. Several days had passed,
when two large canoes from Montreal, with English
goods aboard, were seized by the Indians. The in-
voice of goods contained among other things, a large
stock of liquor, and soon mad drunkenness prevailed.
The watchful and faithful Wawatam told Henry he
feared he could not protect him when the Indians
were in liquor, and besides, as he frankly confessed,
" he could not himself resist the temptation of joining
his comrades in the debauch." He therefore took
him up the hill and back in the woods, and hid him
in a cave, wdiere he was to remain hidden " until the
liquor should be drank." After an uncomfortable
ALEXANDER HENRY :3T
to his horror, that he had been lying on a heap of
human bones and sknlls. This charnel-house retreat
is now the well-known " Skull Cave " of the Island,
one of the regular stopping places of the tourists'
carriaucs.
ALEXANDER HEXRY
But we cannot follow trader Ileurv's fortunes far-
ther. In a relation between guest and prisoner, and
generally treated with respect, moving Avith the band
from one place to another, following the occupation
of a hunter, and taking up with Indian life and al-
most fascinated by it, he at length finds himself at the
Sanlt, where soon an opportunity opened for his de-
38 EAELY MACKIXAC
liverance and his return home. Subsequently he
made another trip to the country of the upper lakes
and remained for a longer time. Of his good friend
Wawatam, it is a sad tradition that he afterwards
became blind and was accidentally burned in his
lodge on the island at the Point, formerly known as
Ottawa Point, in the village, then as Biddle's, and
more recently as Anthony's Point.
It may be that some have felt incredulous in re-
spect to Henry's thrilling tale. But there is reason
to think it entirely trustworthy. It is contained in a
book which he wrote, entitled " Travels and Adven-
tures in Canada and the Indian Territories, between
1760 and 1776." It was first published in 1809,
and is dedicated to Sir Joseph Banks, '' Baronet of
His ^[ajesty's Privy Council and President of the
Poyal Society." It is a book of thrilling interest.
It has long been out of print, and copies of it to-day
are very rare and command a high price. Mr. Hen-
ry's residence in his latter years was at Montreal, and
he was still living as late as 1811, an old man past
eighty years of age, hale and cheerful looking. He
bore a good name and an unquestioned reputation
for veracity among those who knew him. I have
already named him the Herodotus of this particular
period of history. By another person, an enthusi-
astic English visitor at Mackinac, over sixty years
ago, he was called also the Ulysses of these parts ;
and of his book it was said it bore the relation to
the Michilimackinac shores and waters which the
Odyssey does to the shores of Sicily.^
1 The chronological order in which early travelers and vis-
itors, who have left any annals of their journeys, came to tliis
ALEXANDER IIEXRY 39
region, may be stated as follows: Niccollet, in 1G34; Mar-
quette, 1671; LaSalle and Hennepin, 1G79; LaHontan, 1688;
Charlevoix, 1721; Alexander Henry, 1762; Capt. John Carver,
1766.
CHAPTER III
The victory of the Indians over at the old fort
on the Soiitliern mainland was nothing beyond a
shocking and atrocious massacre. It was utterly
barren as regards any permanent results, and the
status of supremacy was not changed. The stock-
ade had not been destroyed, and British troops soon
came and resumed possession. Subsequently, how-
ever, the question of transferring the military seat
of the ]\Iichilimackinac region across the Straits to
our island came up, and was duly considered. ]\Iajor
Sinclair made a careful preliminary examination.
In a letter written in October, 1799, he says: '" I em-
ployed three days from sun to sun in examining the
Island of Mackinac, on which I found great quan-
tities of excellent oak, elm, beech and maple, with a
vein of the largest and finest cedar trees I ever
saw. . . . The soil is exceedingly fine, with abun-
dance of limestone. . . . The situation is respecta-
ble, and convenient for a fort." He also mentions
that he found on the island " a run of water, sufii-
cient for a saw mill."
He submitted drawings and cuts of the island,
and plans for fortification, to Gen. Haldimand, the
officer in command of the department, and Avhose
headquarters were at Quebec. The superiority of
the island, as a strong ^Dosition against Indian at-
tacks, and Indian threats and insults, was pointed
40
CHAXGE OF BASE 41
out; also its advantages in having one of the best
harbors in the upper country, and as respects the fish-
ing interests likewise. It is thought, too, that the
transfer was somewhat connected, in the British mind^
with the American war of the Kevolution, which
was then in progress. Sinclair spoke of the " liability
of being attacked by the Eebels," at the old fort,
and that the place might " jnstly be looked upon as
the object of a separate expedition." As a precau-
tionary measure, he made every trader take oath of
allegiance to the king, and to hold in " detestation
and abhorrence the present unnatural and horrid re-
bellion." At any rate, the garrison did not feel safe
in a mere stockade of timbers on the mainland. Gen.
Ilaldimand accordingly gave orders for the removal.
The following letter on the subject was written by
him, April 16, 1780, to Major DePeyster, formerly
in command of the old Mackinac fort, but who had
been transferred, the year before, to the command at
Detroit. 1
'' Sir — Having long thought it would be expedi-
ent to remove the fort, etc., from its present situation
to the Island of Michilimackinac, and being encour-
aged in this undertaking by advantages enumerated
by Lt. Gov. Sinclair, that must result from it, and
the earnest desire of the traders, I have given direc-
tions that necessary preparations, by collecting ma-
1 Major DePeyster was of American birth, and had served in
the British army in various parts of this country, besides com-
manding at Mackinac, and afterwards at Detroit. He held a
commission for 77 years, and lived to the age of 96. He spent
his latter years in Dumfries. Scotland, the early home of his
wife. During his residence there, he and the poet Burns were
great friends. Burns addressed one of his fugitive poems to
DePeyster.
42 EAELY MACKIXAC
terials, etc., be made with as much expedition as pos-
sible, as the strength of that post will admit of. I
am snre it is unnecessary to recommend to you to
furnish him every assistance he may require, and
that Detroit can afford, in forwarding this work,
farther than by giving you my sanction for the same,
which I do in the fullest manner."
A government house and a few other buildings
were at once erected on the site of the present vil-
lage; the old block houses were bnilt, and His Maj-
esty's troops took possession on the 13th of July,
1780, Major Sinclair commanding, though the en-
tire removal Avas only gradually effected.
The Indians, as j^roprietors of the land, had been
first consulted about this occupancy, and agreement
and treaty terms were obtained. The consideration
was £5,000. Two deeds were signed, with their
mark, by four chiefs, in behalf of themselves and all
the Chippewas. One was to be lodged with the Gov-
ernor of Canada, and one to remain at the island post ;
while the chiefs engaged to preserve in their villages
a belt of wampum seven feet long, to be a memorial
of the transaction. But it seems that after the work
was under way and the post established, the Indians
showed discontent, and threatened the troops ; and
so serious was the hostility manifested, that Sinclair
sent in great haste to Detroit for cannon. The ves-
sel w^as back in eight days, bringing the guns, and
as soon as she touched on the harbor she fired a
salute, and that " speaking out " by the cannon's
mouth at once settled the question, and the poor In-
dians had no more to say.
The old site being abandoned (since when it is
ESTABLISHED ON THE ISLAXD 43
often referred to as " Old ^^lackinaw,") and the gar-
rison removed, the families of the little settlement,
conld not do otherwise than follow the fort, ^lany
of the houses were taken down and transported piece-
meal across the straits, and set np again as new
homes on the island. And hardly were the settlers
thus re-established before they addressed a petition
to the government, asking for remuneration to com-
pensate for the loss and expense incurred, on the
ground that their removal was in the interest of the
State and the public welfare. What response was
made to this petition I have found no record which
tells.
The first commandant of the island. Major Sin-
clair, was also known as Lieutenant Governor. It ap-
pears that he had been appointed inspector and super-
intendent of the English forts, and bore some general
civic position as representative of the government,
besides his military rank ; also as having charge of
Indian affairs. Hence he is frequently spoken of in
the records as Gov. Sinclair, as well as Major. It
seems to have been on this account, as an officer with
a more embracing scope, rather than as of higher mil-
itary rank, that he superseded ]\[ajor DePeyster, in
command at old Mackinac, in 1770. After the trans-
fer he remained two years in charge of the now post.
Sinclair appears, from the style of his letters and re-
ports, a more cultured and better educated man than
some of his cotemporaries among the officers of that
period. But his services as a post commandant and
general manager of affairs, seem to have been un-
satisfactory, because of his lavish expenditures, and
because of " abuses and neglects in different shapes,"
44 EAELY MACKINAC
as it was said. He was continually being cautioned
from headquarters in regard to his financial transac-
tions. For half a century and more, after he left
the post, the inhabitants continued to talk about his
extravagance ; and one of the stories long current on
the island, was that he had paid at the rate of one
dollar per stump for clearing a cedar swamp in the
government fields at the west end of the village. It
subsequently appears that, on his return to England,
this recklessness in expenditure while on the island
led to his imprisonment for debt. He speaks him-
self, in one of his letters, of being " liberated upon
paying the Michilimakinac bills protested."
Major, or Governor, Sinclair was succeeded by
Captain Daniel Robertson, who seems to have been
in command from 1782 to 1787. This Robertson is
also called Robinson, and is the one whose name will
probably be always associated with the island, and
a figure mark in the guide books and the traditionary
stories — for when will " Robinson's Eolly " cease
to be visited and talked about ?
The official annals of that time show a gi-eat many
of Captain Robinson's letters, written while he was
commandant of the post. He seems to have been a
rough-and-ready, energetic officer ; not very elegant
in his style of composition or his orthography, pro-
saic and practical, and perhaps not quite fulfilling
the sentimental and romantic ideal which some of the
legends and stories, connecting his name with the
" Folly," would suggest. In one of his reports of
this time, a very good plat is given, showing the con-
tour of the island and the location of the fort, and
the harbor bearing the name, " Haldimand's Bay,"
EUM 45
named, presumably, in honor of the English com-
mander of the province.^ In a letter of April, 1783,
the Captain commends the climate of Mackinac us
" preferable to any in Canada, and very healthy ; "
but he says " it is an expensive place." He tells in
1784 of the wharf being broken to pieces by the ice,
so that no kind of craft could be loaded or unloaded,
but that he set men to work and got it in repair.
He adds : " It was a very troublesome job." He
wants to know, he says, in one of his letters, whether
or not he is to " have any rum ; " and again he says,
he is at a loss to know how he is to act at this post
without that liquor, and he is sorry he is " obliged to
cringe and borrow rum from traders on account of
Government." At another time he writes, " I have
had no rum this season, and you know it is the In-
dian's God." And yet again he pours forth his com-
plaint: " Eum is very much wanted here for various
purposes, particularly for Indians, and I have had
only seven barrels this twelve month."
However, it is but due to the Captain to say that,
unfortunately, he was not alone in this opinion of
the indispensableness of rum in the relations of the
whites and the military with the Indians. We find
Major Sinclair, his predecessor, as commandant of
the fort, writing to General Haldimand in 1781, as
follows : " The Indians cannot be deprived of nearly
their usual quantity of rum, however destructive it
is, without creatin.g mucb discontent." There is a
sad vein running through all this early history, made
1 The name was evidently given up after the island changed
its flag. In the early days, subsequent, it was familiarly des-
ignated by the island people as " The Basin.''
46 EAELY MACKI^^AC
by rum ; first as one of the government supplies to
the Indians, and next as an article of traffic. The
poor red men facetiously called it " The English
Milk ; " but their more serious name for it was the
truer one, " Fire water." ^
Eobertson (Robinson) was in command from
1782 to 1787. There are intimations of his having
been disapproved at Gen. Ilaldimand's headquar-
ters, and we are told that during those days of Brit-
ish occupancy, just as in the administration of af-
fairs since that time in our own western outposts,
" abuses in the Indian department Avere common."
Captain Scott was next put in command, " sent in the
room of Eobertson," as the record reads. This
change seems to have been for the great improvement
of the service. An officer sent out from Montreal^
on an inspection tour, thus reports concerning Scott:
" I do not believe there is a better man in the world,
or a more zealous good officer of his standing in the
army. He has gained infinite credit during his
command at Mackinac, but, poor fellow, his pocket
has paid for it. Yet he has convinced the people
there that it is possible for a commanding officer to
be an honest and an honorable man. He will tell
you wonderful stories of the Indian department in
1 H. M. Robinson in his interesting boolc, "The Great Fur
Land," descriptive of the regions of the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany, says of the Indian's liquor, " It must be strong enough
to be inflammable, for he ahvays tests it by pouring a few drops
in the fire."
" Tlie eflfects of ardent spirits in the lodge, are equal to the
appearance of a grizzly bear amongst them." — Hchoolcraft.
"An Indian would barter away all his furs, nay even leave
himself without a rag to cover liis luikedness, in exchange for
that vile unwholesome stuff called English brandy," — Willson's,
" The Great Comijuyiy."
CAPTAm SCOTT 49
that quarter." Scott was followed In command of
the post by Captain Doyle, who remained in charge
until its delivery to the United States.
The fort was not built complete at once, but grad-
ually took on its dimensions and its strength. In
1789, after an inspection by the Engineer's Depart-
ment, the fortifications, as originally designed, were
reported as being only in part executed, and that
the work had been discontinued for some years, and
that in the mean time a strong picketing had been
erected around the unfinished works. And again,
as late as 1792, the plans were reported as not yet
finished ; the officers' stone quarters were only about
half completed; the walls were up the full height
and the window frames in, but the roof and floors
wanting. (Sharp criticism was made, too, by the
officer then inspecting, on the w'hole design of the
fort.) And yet again, in 1793, the commandant.
Captain Doyle, writes concerning the " ruinous state
of the fort," but says he purposed " sending to the
saw mill for planks, and would give the Barracks a
thorough repair, having received orders from His Ex-
cellency, ]\Iaj. Gen. Clarke, to that purpose;" also
asking for " an engineer and some artificers to ren-
der the miserable fortress in some degree tenable."
Even after its transference to the United States it
was only by slow degrees brought on to its better
condition as a fortification. Heriot in his visit to
the island in 1807 (already referred to) reports
the fort as " consisting of four wooden block-houses,
. . . the space between being filled up with wooden
pickets." Again, in 1817, Samuel A. Storrow, who
had been a judge advocate in the army, visiting Mack-
50
EARLY MACKINAC
inac, describes the fort as " a platform enclosed with
j)alisades." He mentions, as did Heriot, fonr block-
houses. It was the same rnde and primitive style
of fortification when first seen by Schoolcraft in
1820. It Avas still, however, in the early period of
the centnry that the fort took on its present features.
Its lines have been somewhat changed and much of
VIEW" IKU.M Tilt: I'UKT
the stone work has been built since the British
founded it in 1780. The block-houses now stand-
ing are the originals ; and within the memory of all
but a very few of the oldest inhabitants there have
been but the three we now see. The fourth one was
near the southeast corner, perhaps on the spot of the
old gun-platform on which for so many years stood
the two cannon which used to give the morning and
ANTIQUE STYLE OF THE EORT 51
evening sahite in the days Avhen the fort grounds were
a garrison post. Another and much steeper path
than the present one then led np the hillside. There
was a very good well within the inclosnre. This well
and also a Powder Magazine were near the east Sally-
Port and the present Qnartermaster's bnilding.
In its inception and planting it is a military
strnctnre of a centnry ago, and with scarcely a fcatnre
to make it a fort of to-day's construction. It is a
memento of the past and is replete in historic rem-
iniscence. As a fortification, it is a cnrions mixture
of American frontier post and old-world castle. Its
thick walls and sally-ports, and bastions and ditch, its
old block-houses of logs, loop-holed for musketry, its
sloping path down to the village street buttressed
along the hillside with heavy masonry, above which
grow grass and cedars up to the foot of the overlook-
ing old " officer's quarters " — all this makes it a
striking and picturesque object, a sort of nionntain
fortress, and certainly something unique in this
country.
CHAPTER IV
The war of the revolution had been fought and
American independence acknowledged. Bnt al-
though the treaty of Paris in 1783 had secured all
this upper lake country on the same general boundary
lines as they run to-day, and Great Britain had stip-
ulated that her troops should withdraw with all con-
venient speed, yet it was thirteen years afterward
before the island came under our jurisdiction, and be-
fore the nation's flag floated over the fort. It was
the same in respect to four or five other military posts
situated on tlie American side of the lakes. Wash-
ington, at the time President of the United States,
had promptly sent Baron Steuben to Montreal to re-
ceive the forts from General Ilaldimand according
to the treaty stipulations, but Ilaldimand replied he
had no instructions from his government to make
the delivery, and that he could not even discuss the
subject. General Knox was sent on the same errand
in 1784 and likewise Col. Hull, but without accom-
plishing the object. The Government, by John
Adams, our minister to England, insisted on the
same, but to no effect.
Great Britain urged in explanation of her refusal
the imperfect fulfillment on the American side of cer-
tain of the treaty stipulations. Some of the States
of the Union had passed resolutions staying proceed-
ings at law for all debts due to English creditors ; and
62
DELAY IN FULFILLING TREATY 53
some had taken action relative to those citizens who
during the struggle had adhered to the mother coun-
try, and who had been known as Tories — action
which was regarded by Great Britain as contrary to
the treaty. Such grounds were made the plea for re-
taining these border posts. Our government re-
sponded that Congress had done all that lay within
its power wlien it earnestly recommended to the
States concerned, the repeal of all enactments which
might conflict with the requirements of the treaty.^
It was understood that Great Britain was loth to
surrender this territory which, by reason of the ex-
tensive fur trade it afforded, was sure to become of
great commercial importance. It is probable, too, a
lingering belief that the experimental young Repub-
lic was not destined to a long career, and that there
might soon come opportunity of renewing English
dominion, made an element in the policy of delay.
Negotiations were pending for a long time, and
it required another treaty (this question however be-
ing only one of the many points embraced) before
the tardy transfer of these posts was effected. It
was called the " Treaty of Amity, Commerce and
Navigation " and was secured under the hand of the
American plenipotentiary, John Jay. By that
treaty, it was stipulated that on June 1st, 1796,
the forts should be evacuated by the British and
turned over to the United States. Owing to delays
on the part of Congress, our occupation of the posts
^\as deferred beyond that date. As Washington
said in his address to Congress, December, 1796 :
1 Whitelock's Life of Jay. Life and works of John Adams,
vol. 8, p, 355.
64 EAELY MACKIXAC
" The period during the late session, at wliioh
the approjjriation was past for carrying into effect
the treaty of amity, commerce and navigation, be-
tween the United States and His Britannic Majesty,
necessarily procrastinated the reception of the posts
stipulated to be delivered, beyond the date assigned
for that event." He adds : " As soon, however, as
the Governor General of Canada could be addressed
witli propriety on the subject, arrangements were cor-
dially and promptly concluded for their evacuation,
and the United States took possession of them, com-
prehending Oswego, Niagara, ])etroit, Michilimack-
inac and Ft. Miami." ^
All the others of these frontier posts were deliv-
ered over at, or near, the date prescribed — in the
months of June and July. But in the case of Fort
Mackinac, it was not until October 2nd of that year
that the actual transfer was made. This date shows
that the last act in the war of the American revolu-
tion, and the final scene and seal of its triumph, is
connected with our Island. -
But, besides negotiating with the English in the
recovery of Mackinac, the American government had
to deal with another class of ju'oprietors — the origi-
nal possessors of the soil. Accordingly, while the
delivery of the island and post was still pending, Gen.
Wayne's treaty with the Indians (Treaty of Green-
ville), was made in August, 1795, by which " a tract
1 American State Papers.
2Tlie Tablet, which the City of Detroit, Mich., at its Cen-
tennial celebration a few years since placed in the wall of the
Government building, commemorating the delivery of the fort
at that place, July 11, 17'JC, and which describes the evacua-
tion as the " closing act of the war of independence," needs
some modification.
NEGOTIATION WITH THE INDIANS 55
of land Avas ceded on the main, to the north of the
island on which the post of Michilimackinac stands,
to measure six miles on Lakes Huron and Michigan,
and to extend three miles back from the waters of
the lake on the strait." ^ Bois Blanc, or White Wood
Island, was also ceded as the voluntary gift of the
Chippewas. The Indians were to receive $8,000
annually, besides $20,000 then distributed.
Perhaps the unfinished state of the post, as re-
ported in 1792, and the complaint made of its condi-
tion in 1793, and its sore need of repairs (referred to
above), may be explained on the ground that the Eng-
lish authorities, well knowing it was within American
lines, and apprehending that it must soon pass out of
their control, deemed it unwise to incur any large ex-
penditure on it. In fact, we find Captain Robert-
son saying in a letter, as early as 1784, that in com-
pliance with orders he had received, no more labor
was given to a post which by treaty had been ceded
to the Americans, than was necessary to '" command
some respect for the safety of the garrison and trad-
ers, surrounded as I am by a great number of In-
dians not in the best humor." It is probable, there-
fore, that when at length it came into our hands it
was in need of considerable attention, for we find
Washington, in the same address to Congress just
quoted from, saying of these posts that '' such repairs
and additions had been ordered as appeared indis-
pensable." ^ It is also probable that the American
force sent to occupy the post at the departure of the
1 Holmes' Aweriran Annuls, vol. 2, p. 402.
2 American State Papers.
56 EAELY MACKINAC
othy Pickering, Washington's Secretary of War, in
his report of Febrnary, 179(5, saying: " To appear re-
spectable in the eyes of our British neighbors, the
force with which we take possession of these posts
should not be materially less than that with which
they now occupy them. This measure," he adds,
" is also important in relation to the Indians, on
whom first impressions may have very beneficial ef-
fects." ^ Accordingly, the first detachment to occupy
Mackinac, as an American garrison, consisted of four
officers, one company of Artillery and Engineers, and
one company of Infantry, Major Henry Burback
being in command of the whole force. The British
retired to the island of St. Joseph, on the Canada
side a little above Detour, and established a fort
there.
Following the change of flag and sovereignty,
nothing very stirring seems to have developed in
the island history during the years immediately suc-
ceeding. It soon became, however, a great commer-
cial seat and emporium in the wilderness. The chief
commodity was furs. From an early day this had
been a business carried on by the individual traders
who went among the Indians. In course of time
these operations assumed a larger and more sys-
tematic form under the hands of strong chartered
companies. Of this I shall speak later. The situ-
ation of the island in the far northern country, its
direct communication by the great lakes with the re-
motest parts east, south, west and north, and its be-
ing the principal seat of white habitation and com-
merce and military authority on the watery highway,
a
IMPOETA^CE OF THE ISLAND 59
and the key to the whole upper country — all this gave
it an extended reputation in that early day. Travel-
lers, sometimes from Europe as well as from our own
eastern states, Avould touch at the island, A'isit its fort
and exjilore its woods and its natural curiosities even
as is done now. The fur trade, together Avith other
lines of trafiic which it stimulated, made the island
for many years a great commercial seat. It is re-
ported, for instance, for the year 1804, that the goods
entered at the Mackinac Custom House yielded a rev-
enue to the United States of about $60,000.
While at this time our island was United States
territory, and the fort with its ever floating flag was
a visible token of its Americanism, the village as a
whole, with its Indian and French population and
its style of construction — much of its architecture
being a kind of cross between the white settler's hut
and the Indian's birch bark lodge — perhaps did not
appear so characteristically American. Let us look
at its picture as drawn by Washington Irving in his
" Astoria." It is Mackinac as seen in 1810. He is
describing an expedition under way for the far north-
west and the head Avaters of the Missouri, in the in-
terest of ]\Ir. Astor's enterprises. The party had
fitted out in Montreal, under Wilson P. Hunt, of
New Jersey; and in one of the large canoes, thirty
or forty feet long, universally used in those days in
the schemes of commerce, had slowly made their way
up the Ottawa river, and by the old route of the fur
traders along a succession of small lakes and rivers,
to our island. Here the party remained about three
weeks, having stopped for the purpose of taking on
60 EARLY MACKIXAC
more goods and to engage more recruits. Irving
thus describes the pUice :
" It vas not imtil the 22d of .Tiilv tliat they arrived
at Mackinaw, sitnated on the island of the same name,
at the confluence of Lakes Llnfon and ^lichigan.
This famous old French trading post continued to be
a rallying point for a multifarious and motley popu-
lation. The inhabitants were amphibious in their
habits, most of them being or having been voyageurs
or canoe-men. It was the great place of ari-ival and
departure of the southwest fur- trade. Here the
Mackinaw Company had established its principal
post, from whence it communicated with the interior
and with Montreal. Hence its various traders and
trappers set out for their respective destinations about
Lake Superior and its tributary Avaters, or for the
Mississippi, the Arkansas, the Missouri, and the
other regions of the west. Here, after the absence of
a year or more, they returned with: their peltries, and
settled their accounts ; the furs rendered in by them
being transmitted, in canoes, from hence to Mon-
treal. Mackinaw was, therefore, for a great part of
the year, very scantily peopled ; but at certain sea-
sons, the traders arrived from all points, with their
crews of voyageurs, and the place swarmed like a hive.
" Mackinaw, at that time, was a mere village,
stretching along a small bay, with a fine broad beach
in front of its principal row of houses, and dominated
by the old fort, which crowned an impending height.
The beach was a kind of public promenade, where
were displayed all the vagaries of a seaport on the
arrival of a fleet from a long cruise. Here voyageurs
frolicked away their wages, fiddling and dancing in
WASHIIs'GTOX lEVING'S SKETCH 61
the booths and cabins, buying all kinds of knick-
knacks, dressing tliemselvcs out finely, and parading
up and down, like arrant braggarts and coxcombs.
Sometimes they met with rival coxcombs in the yonng
Indians from the opposite shore, who would appear
on the beacli, painted and decorated in fantastic
style, and would saunter up and down, to be gazed
at and admired, perfectly satisfied that they eclipsed
their pale-faced competitors.
" ]S'ow and then a chance party of ' Northwesters '
appeared at ]\Iackinaw from the rendezvous at Fort
William. These held themselves up as the chivalry
of the fur trade. They were men of ir(m, proof
against cold weather, hard fare, and perils of all
kinds. Some would wear the northwest button, and
a formi(hdde dirk,, and assume something of a mili-
tary air. They generally wore feathers in their
hats, and affectedjthe ' brave.' ' Jc suis un homme
clu novel! ' — ' I am a man of the north,' one of these
swelling fellows would exclaim, sticking his arms
akimbo and ruifling by the Southwesters, whom he
regarded with great contempt, as men softened by
mild climates and the luxurious fare of bread and
bacon, and whom he stigmatized with the vain-glori-
ous name of ' pork-eaters.' . . . The little cabarets
and sutlers' shops along the bay resounded wdth the
scraping of fiddles, with snatches of old French
songs, with Indiaij wdioops and yells."
But the reader must not think there was no other
side to the social life of the early Mackinac of that
period. Irving's picture is only that of the wharves,
and the floating population, such as the manager of
a water expedition, stopping over but a little while,
62 EAELY MACKIIS^AC
would be the most likely to see. Although the resi-
dent population was very small, there were, at the
same time, the families of settled homes, and with the
social interests and sympathies and pleasures common
to American village life — subject of course to many
inconveniences and privations incident to their re-
moteness in a wilderness world. I find a pleasing de-
scription written by a lady, who was taken to the is-
land when a child, in the year 1812, just before the
Avar opened, and who spent the years of her girlhood
there.
The houses of the village at that time, she says,
Avere few, quaint and old. Every house had its gar-
den enclosed with cedar pickets. These were kept
Avhitewashed, as also the dwellings and the fort.
There were but two streets in the village. One ran
from point to point of the crescent harbor, and as
near the water's edge as the beach would permit —
the pebbles forming a border between the water and
the road. (It will be remembered that the water's
edge in earlier years was considerably more inland
than now.) A foot path in the middle Avas all that
Avas needed, as there Avere no vehicles of any de-
scription, except dog-trains or sleds in the Avinter.
There Avere no schools, no physician, and no resident
minister of religion.^ Occasionally a priest Avould
come on visitation to the Catholic flock. In Avinter
the isolation Avas complete. Navigation closed usu-
ally by the middle of October, and about eight months
Avere passed in seclusion from the outer Avorld. The
1 Schoolcraft at the time of his first visit to the ishiiul, in
1820, remarked on its need of a preacher, a school-master, an
attorney, and a physician. " Of merchants," he adds, " there
are always too manv."
AA^OTHER EAELY DESCRIPTION^ 65
mail came once a month '' when it did not miss."
There were no amusements other than parties. The
children, however, made houses in the snow drifts,
and coasted down hill. Spring always came late, and
as it was the custom to observe May day they often
planted the May pole on the ice. Once she records,
for the 8th of May, " Ice in the Basin good." She
relates that in the autumn of 1823 the ice formed
very early, but owing to high winds and a strong cur-
rent it would break np over and over, and be tossed
to and fro, until it was piled to a great height in
clear, towering blue masses ; and all that met the eye
across to the opposite island were beautiful mountains
of ice. The soldiers and fishermen cut a road
through. This made a winter's highway for the
dog sleds, the passage winding between high walls of
ice, with nothing to be seen but the sky above.
Again, in other seasons, the ice would be perfectly
smooth. The exciting times on the island, she says,
were when La Caneau du Nord came. As the canoes
neared the town there would come floating on the air
tlie far-famed Canadian boat song. The voyage in\<t
landing, the Indians would soon follow and the little
island seemed to overflow with human life. These
exciting times would last for six or eight weeks.
" Then would follow the quiet, uneventful, and to
some, dreary days, yet to most, days that passed
happily." ^
1 Mrs. H. S. Baird. whose reminiscences of Mackinac were
published in a Green Bay newspaper, 1882. Tliey are preserved
in the " Wisconsin Historical Collections^" vol. 9. Mr. Gur-
don Hubbard, identified with the business of the island in those
early days, and acquainted with all its families, says of this
lady, in his autobiography (1802-1880) that she was "highly
educated and was considered the belle of Mackinaw,"
66 EARLY MACKINAC
It is interesting to find the following comment on
Mackinac written by a visitor in the early period
now spoken of, and to note his warm appreciation
of the island then, and his prediction concerning its
futnre: " Mackinaw is really worth seeing. I think
it by no means improbable that it will become a place
of fashionable resort for the snmmer. There is no
INDIAN WIGWAM.
finer snmmer climate in the world. The purest,
sweetest air, lake scenery in all its aged and grand
magnificence and the purest water. . . . No flies and
no mosquitoes, nothing to annoy, but every variety for
the eyes, the taste and the imagination." ^
1 Col. McKenney in 1826 — joint Commissioner with Gov-
ernor Cass in negotiating with the Indians.
CHAPTER V
The year 1812 brought our second war with the
mother couiitrj. In it our little island played a ])art,
and indeed it may be said to have " opened the ball."
The very first scene of the war Avas enacted here.
The two governments had been nnder strained rela-
tions for some time before, and on the 19th of June,
of that year, the state of war was declared by Presi-
dent Madison. It was a mystery at the time, and
something which excited clamor and, in the frenzy
of the hour, even insinnations of treachery against
high officials at Washington, that the English com-
manders in Canada knew the fact so much in advance
of our own. One explanation is that our very de-
liberate Secretary of War trusted to the ordinary
postal medium in communicating with the frontier
troops, while the agents of the English government
sent the news by special messengers. General Hull,
commander of the department of Michigan, said he
did not receive information of the fact until fourteen
days after war w^as declared ; while General Brock,
the British commander opposite, had official knowl-
edge of it four or five days sooner. And likewise
Lieutenant Hanks, of our island post, was in blissful
ignorance of the fact, until he saAV the British cannon
planted in his rear, just four weeks after Avar had
been determined upon.
The English officer. Captain Boberts, commanding
67
68 EARLY MACKINAC
at the Ii?land of St. Joseph, on the near-by Canada
border, had received orders immediately to nndertake
the capture of the strategic point of Mackinac. lie
gathered a force, consisting of Canadian militia (the
English Fur Co.'s voyageurs and other employees),
and a large number of Indians, besides having the reg-
ular soldiers of the garrison. The expedition was
admirably managed. An o]ien attack in front would
V.ALK-IX-THE-WATER.
(from ax OL.D TIME WOOD CUT)
First Steamboat on the Uoper Lakes. Built in 1818. At Mackinac,
June, 1819. Wrecked near BufTalo. Nov., 1821. Described by
one of that day as "A weak but elegant boat."
have been impossible of success. So, secretly sail-
ing from St. Joseph, they landed, unperceived, on
the northwest side of the island, at 3 o'clock in the
morning, on the spot known ever since as " British
Landing." The troops had an unobstructed march
across the island and were soon in position with their
cannon on the higher ground commanding the fort
in the rear, the Indian allies establishing themselves
in the woods on either flank.
THE FORT SURPRISED 69
The American commandant and his little handful
of men then learned, at the same moment, the two
facts, that the United States and Great Britain were
at war, and that the surrender of Fort Mackinac was
demanded. Resistance was impossible, and thus
again the flag was raised over its walls that had first
floated there. Pothier, an agent of the Northwest
Fur Company, who accompanied the expedition and
commanded a part of the force, thus laconically re-
ported it to Sir Geo. Prevort: "The Indian traders
arrived at St. Joseph with a number of their men,
so that we were now enabled to form a force of about
two hundred and thirty Canadians and three hun-
dred and twenty Indians, exclusive of the garrison.
With that force we left St. Joseph on the 16th, at
eleven o'clock a. m., landing at Michilimackinac at
three o'clock the next morning, summoned the garri-
son to surrender at nine o'clock, and marched in at
eleven " — just twenty-four hours after setting forth
on their hostile errand. He adds further, that there
were between two and three hundred other Indian
warriors who had expected to join the expedition, but
failed; that two days after the capitulation, they
came. But he intimates that this band was in an
undecided state of mind and partly inclined to favor
the Americans.
Captain Roberts, in his report to General Brock,
dated the day of the capture (July 17th), says: " We
embarked with two of the six pounders and
every man I could muster, and at ten o'clock we were
under weigh. Arrived at three o'clock a. m. One
of those unwieldy guas was brought up with much
tlifficulty to the heights above the fort and in readi-
70 EARLY MACKINAC
iiess to oiJen about ten o'clock, at wliicli time a sum-
mons was sent in and a capitulation soon after agreed
on. I took immediate possession of the fort and dis-
played the British colors."
As presenting an American account of the sur-
prise and capture, the official report of Lieut. Hanks
is herewith given. It was made to Gen. Hull, his
commanding officer, and w'as issued from Detroit,
whither the officers and men of the captured garrison
had been sent on parole :
" Detroit, August 12th, 1812.
" Sir — I take the earliest opportunity to acquaint
Your Excellency of the surrender of the garrison of
Michilimackinac, under my command, to His Brit-
annic ]\Iajesty's forces, under the command of Cap-
tain Charles Roberts, on the 17th ultimo, the partic-
ulars of which are as follows: On the 16th, I was
informed by the Indian interpreter that he had dis^
covered from an Indian, that the several nations of
Indians then at St. Joseph (a British garrison, dis-
tant about forty miles) intended to make an immedi-
ate attack on Michilimackinac. . . .
" I immediately called a meeting of the American
gentlemen at that time on the island, in which it Avas
thought proper to dispatch a confidential person to
St. Joseph, to watch the motions of the Indians.
" Captain Michael Dousman, of the militia, was
thought the most suitable for this service. He em-
barked about sunset, and met the British forces
within ten or fifteen miles of the island, by whom he
was made prisoner and put on his parole of honor.
LIEUT. HANKS' REPORT 71
He was landed on the island at daybreak, with posi-
tive directions to give me no intelligence whatever.
He was also instructed to take the inhabitants of the
village, indiscriminately, to a place on the west side
of the island, where their persons and property should
be protected by a British gnard, but should they go
to the fort, they would be subject to a general mas-
sacre by the savages, which would be inevitable if
the garrison fired a gun. This information I re-
ceived from Dr. Day,^ who was passing through
the village when every person was flying for refuge to
the enemy. I immediately, upon being informed of
the approach of the enemy, placed ammunition, etc.,
in the block houses ; ordered every gun charged, and
made every preparation for action. About nine
o'clock I could discover that the enemy were in pos-
session of the heights that commanded the fort, and
one piece of their artillery directed to the most de-
fenseless part of the garrison. The Indians at this
time were to be seen in great numbers in the edge of
the woods.
" At half past eleven o'clock the enemy sent in a
flag of truce demanding a surrender of the fort and
island to His Britannic Majesty's forces.- This, Sir,
1 Tlie Post surgeon.
- As to tlie dift'erence in tlie hour wliieh appears in tliese three
official statements, it is probable each writer had in mind some
different stage of the event. The question of the surrender of
tlie island had its preliminary stage at an earlier hour in the
morning at the old distillery at the western end of the village,
between some of the British officers and certain of the citizens,
while the formal demand on the post was not made until later
in the day. And, again, Captain Roberts may have noted the
time of writing his demand at his own headquarters and Lieut.
Hanks the time it reached his hands.
72 EARLY MACKIXAC
was the first information I had of the declaration of
war. I, however, had anticipated it, and was as
well prepared to meet sncli an event as I possibly
could have been with the force nnder my command,
amounting to fifty-seven effective men, including offi-
cers. Three American gentlemen, wdio were pris-
oners, were permitted to accompany the flag. From
them I ascertained the strength of the enemy to be
from nine hundred to one thousand strong, consisting
of regular troops, Canadians and savages : that they
had two pieces of artillery, and were provided with
ladders and ropes for the purpose of scaling the
w-orks, if necessary.^ After I had obtained this in-
formation I consulted my officers, and also the Ameri-
can gentlemen present, who were very intelligent
men ; the result of which was, that it was impossible
for the garrison to hold out against such a superior
force. In this opinion I fully concurred, from the
conviction that it was the only measure that could
prevent a general massacre. The fort and garrison
were accordingly surrendered.
" In consequence of this unfortunate affair, I beg
leave. Sir, to demand that a Court of Inquiry may
be ordered to investigate all the facts connected with
it ; and I do further request, that the Court may be
1 A discrepanc}' in the estimate of troops as made by opposing
sides, especially in reports from the battle field, is very com-
mon. A recent History of Canada, however (published in
1897), is inexcusably out of the way, when it makes Captain
Roberts' attacking force " less than two hundred," as far as
voyageiirs and regulars were concerned, and makes no mention
whatever of the large number of Indian allies.
LIEUT. HANKS' REPOET 73
specially directed to express their opinion on the mer-
its of the case.
'' PoRTEK Hanks,
" Lieuienant of Artillery/'
" His Excellency Gen. Hui.e,
'' Commanding the N. ^V. Army."
It is not necessary to clisciiss the qnestion whether
the snrrender at Fort Mackinac, "without a show of
resistance, was justifiable. The garrison was but a
handful of men. By no fault of his, the Lieutenant
in command had been taken entirely unawares. The
enemy were in overwhelming numbers and occupying
a position with their cannon which commanded the
fort. Their Indian allies were waiting in savage
eagerness for the attack, and had the fighting once
begun it would have been beyond the power of the
officers to restrain them.^
The capture of Mackinac, the first stroke of the
war, was of the highest importance to the British
interests. Valuable stores of merchandise, as well
as considerable shipping which stood in the harbor,
were secured. It gave them the key to the fur trade
of a vast region, and the entire command of the
Tipper lakes. It exposed Detroit and all lower Mich-
igan. It greatly terrified General Hull, who com-
manded the department of ]\Iichigan. It arrested
his operations in Canada. He said : " The whole
northern hordes of Indians will be let down upon
1 John Askin, of the British storekeepinfj department, and
present with the besieging force, said, that had the soldiers of
the fort fired a gun, he firmly believed not a soul of them would
have been saved.
u
EAELY MACKIXAC
us." His surrender, just one month later, was in
part clue to the panic it caused — one historian of
that day, saving: "^ Hull Avas conquered at Macki-
nac."
On the island, the British proceeded at once to
strengthen their position. In order to guard against
any approach in the rear, like the successful one they
themselves had made, thev built a very strong earth-
THE PERRY CANNON.
work on the high hill, a half mile, or little more,
back of the post, which thev called Fort George, in
honor of the King of England. This fortification
still remains, now known to all visitors as Fort
Holmes. In its construction the citizens of the vil-
lage were im])ressed, every able bodied man being re-
quired to give three days in the pick and shovel
work.
A common error prevails that this ancient earth-
work was actually constructed the very night the
British arrived, and that it made part of the formida-
COATSTRUCTIXG FORT HOLMES 75
ble investment of Fort Mackinac which led to its
speedy surrender. A moment's reflection will show
this conld not have been the case. Tlie invading
force only landed at three o'clock that morning and
then, with all their trappings, had to march two
miles to get into position, and yet were ready by ten
o'clock to open fire. It is probable this hill was the
"■ heights above the fort," to which, as Captain Rob-
erts says in his report, " one of those nnwieldy gnns
was bronght np with mnch diflicnlty ; " and that far
the Fort Holmes' site fignred in the demonstration
against Lient, Hanks' command. The fortification
itself, however, being the scientific work of mili-
tary engineers, and involving a protracted period of
hard labor, Avas constructed afterwards at the Brit-
ish commandant's loisnre. The other one of Captain
Roberts' " two six-])onnders," together with the
great bnlk of his men, including his Indians, we
may suppose, occupied the ridge of ground, part
open and part wooded, between the hill and the post,
just beyond the old parade ground, which lies outside
the present fort fence.
Captain Roberts was relieved, September, 1813,
and Captain Bullock appointed in his place. Col.
]\rcDouall assumed charge in the spring (^f 1814.
This officer's name often appears as McDonalL
CHAPTER VI
By Commodore Perry's victor on Lake Erie, and
General Harrison's victorious battle of the Thames,
the autumn of 1813 found the Americans in posses-
sion of Lake Huron, and nearly all of Michigan.
The re-capture of Mackinac was determined on. In
the early spring of 1814, an expedition for this pur-
pose was planned, which, however, did not get under
sail until July 3rd, embarking from Detroit that
day. It was a joint naval and military force.
There were seven war vessels under Commodore Sin-
clair, and a land force of 750 men, under command
of Col. Croghan. The object, besides the retaking
of ]\laekinac, was also to destroy the English post
at St. Joseph, and to inflict whatever damage it could
on the military stores and shipping of the enemy
on the neighboring border of Canada. These war
brigs and other vessels of the squadron were the larg-
est ever seen, up to that time, on the waters of St.
Clair and Huron. The commanders, instead of sail-
ing at once to Mackinac, concluded to first dispatch
their other errands. They found St. Joseph already
abandoned by the British, but they captured some
English schooners and other property, and continued
their incursion as far as the Sault where they de-
stroyed a large amount of supplies — ]\rajor Holmes
being in charge of the expedition. They then turned
back for Mackinac.
76
EEINFOECIXG THE POST 77
The English fully appreciated the gTeat value,
strategically and conmiercially, of Mackinac, and
were determined to hold it. They took strong meas-
nres for its defense. Col. ]\IcDouall, who had been
sent there in jMay of that year as the new comman-
dant, was a very energetic and skillful soldier. He
hi'onght with him fresh troops from Canada, ammu-
nition and provisions, and other things needful. Be-
sides this fact, the garrison were by no means ig-
norant of the expedition in these northern waters,
and of its object ; and there was no possibility of a
surprise attack. One of the officers belonging to the
reinforcement which had been sent to the post thus
Avrotc: "After our arrival at the island all hands
were employed strengthening the defences of the fort.
For u])wards of two months half the garrison watched
at night against attack." The Indians from the sur-
rounding country, and Canadians here and there,
were called in for aid. Besides the additional fort
Avhich they had built, Fort George (now Fort Holmes,
and already referred to), batteries were placed at
various points outside the walls which commanded
the ajiproaches to the beach. One was on the heighr
overlooking the ground in front of the present Grand
Hotel, another on the high knoll just west of the fort,
Avhile others lined the east bluif between the present
fort grounds and Robinson's Folly.
Our American officers at first thought of erecting
a battery on Round Island and shelling the fort from
there. A yawl was sent with a squad of men to
reconnoitre, and a spot fixed upon. This was seen
by the English commander and he immediately sent
over a large detachment of Indians, Avho forced the
Y8 EAELY MACKIXAG
little party to flee. One of the men, however, waited
too long, tempted by the berries which grew at his
feet, and missed the boat and was captured. The
Indians rowed in wath their prisoner, chanting the
death dirge and expecting to dispose of him on the
shore in their usual barbaric manner; and in their
wild frenzy of delight, some of the squaws, before
the canoe had touched the beach, rushed into the
water, waist deep, with whetted knives raised aloft,
to begin at once the work of savage torturing. But
the officer of the fort, diviuing their object, had sent
a squad of soldiers to protect the hapless prisoner.
The extended level ground just west of the village
streets was also considered as a point where a landing
could be nuide^ and the taking of the fort be at-
tempted, under cover of the guns of the vessels. But
Captain Sinclair, who described the fort hill as a
" perfect Gibraltar," fouud that his vessels would
only be exposed to a raking fire from the heights
above without his being able to elevate his guns suf-
ficiently for return shots.
After hoveriug about the island for a week it Avas
concluded there was no other way than to imitate
the plan of the successful enemy, two years before.
So they sailed around to " British Landing " and dis-
embarked, August 4th, and marched as far as the
Dousman farm (now Early's farm). But the condi-
tions were entirely different from those of two years
ago, and the movement was ill-starred, and a melan-
choly failure. According, however, to the reports
made by the joint commanders of the expedition, it
was not so much their plan to attempt the storming
of the works, as to feel the enemy's stremrth and to es-
FAILURE OF THE ATTACK Id
tablish a lodgment from which by ?low and gradual
apiiroachcs, and by siege, they might hope for success.
All such expectations were soon dissipated. Facing
the open field on the Dousman farm were the thick
woods. This was a perfect cover to the Indian skir-
mishers, who, concealed in their vantage points, hotly
attacked our soldiers; to say nothing of an English
battery of four pieces, firing shot and shells. There
could be neither advance nor encamping. The only
wise thing was to retreat to the vessels. This was
done and the expedition left the island, having lost
fifteen killed and about fifty wounded. ]\Iajor An-
drew Hunter Holmes, next in command to Colonel
Croghan, was one of the slain in this most unfor-
tunate and fruitless action. He fell while leading
his battalion in a flank movement on the right. One
story is that the gun which pierced his breast with two
balls was fired by a little Indian boy. Another tra-
dition is that the Major had been warned that morn-
ing, by a civilian aboard the vessel, not to wear his
uniform, which would make him a target, l)ut that
lie declined the friendly advice saying, that if it was
his day to fall lie was ready. ^
Major Holmes was a Virginian, an intelligent and
promising young ofiicer who enjoyed the friendship
of Thomas Jefferson. He had already distinguished
himself in a battle near Detroit, and had performed
well a special service assigned him in this same expe-
dition, when at the Sault St. Marie. In the official
reports of the Mackinac battle he was referred to as
that '' gallant officer, ]\Iajor Holmes, whose character
is so well known to the war department ; " and again
1 Charles J. Iiigersoll in " SJccfch of the Second War," vol. 2.
80 EAELY MACKINAC
as "■ the valuable and ever-to-be lamented officer."
His bodv had been carried off the field and secreted
by a faithful negro servant, and the next day was
respectfully delivered to the Americans by Colonel
McDouall and taken to Detroit for burial. A very
fitting tribute to his memory was it, tliat when in the
following year the island again came under our flag,
the name of the ]iew fort on the summit heights,
which had been bulk by the English, was changed
from Fort George to Fort Holmes.
The fort being found impregnable by assault, no
further attempts at capture were made, and the expe-
dition returned down the lake to Detroit, the most of
the soldiers being sent to join General Brown's forces
on the Xiagara.
But the ambition to regain the island was not yet
abandoned. It was thought to starve out the garrison
and thus force a surrender. English su])plics could
now come only from Canada through the Georgian
Ba}'. Xear the moutli of the Xottawasaga river at
the southeast corner of that bay, under a protecting
block house, was the schooner " Xancy " loaded with
six months' supplies of provisions intended for the
Mackinac fort. A detachment of the American
troops landing there blew up the block house and de-
stroyed the schooner and her supplies. There re-
mained now nothing more to do than to so guard the
waters that the destitution of the island could not be
repaired. Two of the vessels, the " Tigress " and the
" Scorpion," were left to maintain a strict blockade.
This was proving very effective, and provisions ran
so low in Mackinac, that a loaf of bread would sell
SCARCITY OF PROVISIONS 81
for a dollar on the streets, and the men of the gar-
rison were killing horses for meat.
The following extract from a letter written by one
of the English othcers depicts the situation within
the fort at this time : " After the failure of the at-
tack, the xVmericans established a blockade by which
they intercepted our supplies. We had but a small
store of provisions. The commander grew very anx-
ious. The garrison was put on short allnwauccs.
Some horses that happened to be on the island were
killed and salted down, and we occasionally were
successful in procuring fish from the lake. To econo-
mize our means the greater part of the Indians were
induced to depart to their homes. At length we saw
ourselves on the verge of starvation with no hope of
relief from any quarter."
During all the summer we find Colonel McDouall
in his letters to the department begging and entreat-
ing for supplies.
There were yet other embarrassments. Although
throughout the whole period the Indians of the Mack-
inac region were allies of the British, the alliance
was not without its difficulties. Many of them
showed an indecision when success was doubtful, as
one of the English agents wrote, and '' a predilection
in favor of the Americans seemed to influence them."
About the island " they became very clamorous," an-
other officer said. And Col. McDouall spoke of them
as " an uncertain quantity " — that they " were fickle
as the wind and it was a difficult task to keep them
with us." lie was embarrassed, too, by their flocking
to the island and requiring to be fed.
82 EARLY MACKINAC
But relief, and that by their own sagacity and
daring, was at liand for the beleaguered garrison.
When the " Xancy " and the block honse on the Not-
tawasaga were destroyed, the officer in charge of that
snpply of stores, Lieut. Worsley, with seventeen
sailors of the Royal Navy, had managed to escape
and effect a passage in an open boat to the fort at
Mackinac and had reported the loss of the stores.
Forced by the necessity of the situation, a bold and
desperate project was undertaken — that was, the
capture of the two blockading vessels. Batteaux
were fitted out and equipped at Mackinac, manned
under Lieut. Worsley with his seamen and by volun-
teers from the garrison and Indians, making in all
about seventy men. These set forth on the bold
errand. The Scorpion and Tigress were then cruis-
ing in the neighborhood of Detour. On a dark night,
rowing rapidly and in silence, they approached first
the Tigress, Avhich lay at anchor off St. Joseph, and
taking it entirely by surprise, leaped aboard and
after a hand to hand struggle soon had possession.
Its crew were sent next day, as prisoners to ]\Iackinac.
The Tigress's signals were in the hands of the captors,
and the American pennant was kept flying at the
mast-head. On the second day after, the Scorpion
was seen beating up towards her comjianion ship un-
aware of its change of fortune. Night coming on she
anchored some two miles off. About daylight the
Tigress set all sail, swept down on her, opened fire
and boarded and captured her. Sad fate, indeed, for
these two war vessels, which only a year before had
honorably figured in Commodore Perry's victory on
Lake Erie. I prefer not to dwell on the mortifying
BRITISH APPEECIATIOiSr 83
bit of history, except to say that candor and justice
compel our highest a(hnirati()n for this English feat
of daring and prowess.
This ended all attempts to dislodge the English
from our island. It remained under their flag until
terms of peace and settlement were secured by the
treaty of Ghent, February, 1815. Mackinac was
ever a favorite point in the eyes of the British, and
all along an object of their strong desire; and they
Avere loath to give it up. Col. McDouall, the able
and successful commandant, spoke with strong feel-
ing of the " nnfortunate cession of the fort and the
island of Michilimackinac to the United States." It
had been a matter of official complaint and criticism
in the province of Upper Canada, that after the first
war it had been " injudiciously ceded " by the Eng-
lish government. John Jay, our American rejn-e-
sentative iu the conference of the treaty and the
boundary lines, found that the commissioners of
the Crown were more interested in an " extended
commerce than in the possession of a vast tract of
wilderness." The fur trade of that time was the
main thing and Mackinac was the gateway to all the
fur traffic of the west and southwest fields. And
again, it appears in negotiating the treaty of 1815
that the commissioners of the crown, even when feel-
ing obliged to forego a large part of their demands,
still held out for the island of ^lackinac (and Fort
Xiagara) as long as possible.^ Thirty-two years had
now passed since the American right to the island
had been acknowledged by the treaty of 1783. Of
these years only three had been years of war. But
1 Henry Adams' " History of the United l^tatcs," vol. f), p. 34.
84 EARLY MACKINAC
for one-half of that whole period the British flag had
been flying over Fort Mackinac. In the complete
sense, therefore, the destiny of the northwest was
not assured until the treaty of Ghent. ^ With that
treaty the question was finally and conclusively
settled.
The posts of the English which had been captured
AMERICAN FUR CO. OLD SCALES.
by us, and ours here and there, which they had taken,
were to be restored by each government to the other.
In connection with this mutual delivery is an inter-
esting fact mentioned in a private letter which Col-
onel McDouall wrote to his friend and fellow officer
of the English army. Captain Bulger. He says that
in the equipment of Eort Mackinac, at the time he
1 Hinsdale's " Old yorthuest;' p. 185.
HISTORIC CANNON 85
was making the transfer, were cannon bearing the
inscriptions : '' Taken at Saratoga ; " " Taken from
Lord Cornwallis," and other such, and he speaks of
his chagrin in being obliged to include, in his restora-
tion of the fort, guns which told of English defeat
and hmniliation in the Eevolutionary w^ar ; and that
as an Englishman he felt " a strong temptation to a
breach of that good faith which in all public treaties
it is infamy to violate."
Surely it adds to our antiquarian and patriotic
interest in the old fort to know that guns, captnred
from Burgoyne and from Cornwallis in the battles
of the Revolution, once held position on these ram-
parts.
We do not know how these honorable trophies
of the Revolution ever found their way to our remote
pioneer out-post. We do know, however, that our
loss of the fort, three years before, explains how
they got back, temporarily, to their former English
ownership. And now in their alternations of estate,
after taking part in keei)ing off American troops
from the island, and thus, as it were, redeeming them-
selves in English eyes from the bad fortune incurred
in our war for independence, they again fell into our
hands. And we can appreciate Col. McDouall's sense
of regret at having to give them up. It was the same
sentiment which Capt. McAfee, in his narrative of
that war in which he himself had a part, tells us
was exhibited by some of the British officers Avhen
by ITnll's surrender several brass cannon fell to their
hands which our forces liad captured in the war of the
Revolution — they " saluted them with tears." ^
1 " Eisiory of the Late TTar in the Western Country:'
86 EARLY MACKINAC
It is vain to surmise the history of those inter-
esting gnns subsequent to 1815. How long they re-
mained at tlie island post, and whether in time they
were sent to the smelter's furnace, or are still in hon-
orable preservation somewhere with other war relics,
we cannot say. In tliis connection it may be well to
remark concerning tliat old fashioned cannon which
has been lying in position on the village beach in
front of the " fort garden," a familiar object for
generations past. The story is that the gun figured
in Com. Perry's battle on Lake Erie, though whether
one of his own guns in the actiou or a British gun
which he captured is uncertain; that it was left here
long ago by one of the government revenue vessel.
That it was juit in charge of the Mackinac Custom
TLiuse, and that it used to serve on 4t]i of July and
otlier national occasions which called for celebration
" at the cannon's mouth."
Although the treaty of Ghent had been made in
Decend)er, 1814, by which the island reverted to
the United States, yet so long were the dispatches
in reaching the post, that hostilities were continuing
in its vicinity for three or four months after peace
had been declared.^
The instructions to ]\rcDouall were that he with-
draw as soon as possible after July 1st, as occujia-
tion by the American troops was authorized by the
15th of that month. The withdrawal was delayed
by the difficulty of deciding where to go. The Brit-
ish officers desired a locality near the boundary line,
Avhich would be suitable for a military post and by
1 Likewise the battle of New Orleans was fought nearly a
month after tlie treaty of peace had been made.
BRITISH SEEK A XEW SITE 87
which, at the same time, they could favorably com-
pete for control of the route between the upper and
lower lakes. Added to this was the desire to main-
tain their hold on the Indians, and to secure all possi-
ble advantage in the fur commerce.
While the general boundary line of division, as
respects the northern end of Lake Huron, had been
agreed on by the American and British authorities,
yet in respect to every individual island which bor-
dered on that line of water, it had not then been
definitely determined. But time jiressed and the
British authorities were compelled to decide on a
spot ; and an island, answering well in point of local-
ity aud very suitable in all physical features as a
place of fortification, and presumably within the
British line, was chosen. It lies about two miles
off from Detour of the northern peninsula of Michi-
gan at the entrance of the St. Mary's river connecting
with Lake Superior. The Indian name it then bore
was Pontaganipy. Afterward it became known as
Drummond island, so called, it is presumed, in honor
of Sir Gordon Drummond, at that time commander
of the British forces in Canada.
Although the place was now determined on, further
delay was occasioned by the scarcity of boats to effect
the removal. And in the meantime a detachment
of American troops under Col. Anthony Butler had
arrived from Detroit to receive the fort. Thoy came
Avith a margin of time in advance of the stipulated
15th, and went into camp on the level field below the
fort. The British commandant was obliged to re-
quest a short extension of time as the transportation
facilities were not yet complete. This was cour-
88 EARLY MACKIXAC
teoiisly accorded, but there is a story to the effect
that the American officers insisted on unfurling the
stars and stripes over their camp on the ground be-
low, when the 15th arrived — the British still occu-
pying the fort.
On the British leaving, Col. Butler took command,
but soon resigned it to Major Willoughby Morgan,
who, within a few months, was succeeded by Col.
Chambers.
CHAPTER VII
The relinquishment of the straits by the British
troops, and their retirement to Drummond Island,
and establishing a post there, and the strained rela-
tions between them and their American neighbors at
Mackinac — all this forms a passage of some his-
torical interest not unmixed with a comic element.
At Drummond Island Col. ]\IcDoualI began mili-
tary fortifications on an extensive plan with the fond
dream of establishing a commanding military and
commercial center. The new post was only some
forty miles from Mackinac. The garrisons were men
of the same blood and language. They were neigh-
bors and each the only near neighbor the other had.
Peace prevailed between the two flags, and we might
have thought of amity and fellowship in that remote
wilderness of water and forest. But it was not long
before relations became strained and letters of crim-
ination and recrimination went back and forth.
One question pertained to the ownership of Pound
Island, lying just in front of Mackinac — the Ameri-
can authorities at the post choosing to ignore a deed
of cession thereof made by the Indians to a certain
individual of Mackinac village during the recent
British control. But for the most part the grounds
of dispute Avere so trifling and imaginary that the
ebullitions of excited feeling seem now almost amus-
ing. The Indians going back and forth, and seeking
89
90 EAELY MACKINAC
favors on each island, made mischief with their
tongues. The white traders, too, in both phices may
have fomented the strife. A few of the villagers,
sympathizing more or less with the English cause,
or having kindred among the Drnmmond people, had
remained at Mackinac, where their homes and prop-
erty were. Tales were reported of their being
wronged, and subjected to indignities, and their busi-
ness interfered with, and of one person in particular,
the wife of a man who had gone to Drnmmond, being
threatened as a " British spy; " and it was excitedly
declared that there was " more liberty in Algeria than
at present in Michilimackinac." Col. ]\[cDouall, in-
fluenced by the exaggerated reports, wrote to the is-
land authorities in a protesting and rather offensive
tone. Putoff, the Mackinac agent of Indian affairs,
sent back a hot reply. In language emphatic, but
not always elegant, he denied the allegations made of
any injustice or indignity having been shown; and in
reference to the " spy " charge that the party declared
she had never heard she was thus accused, that she
stands ready " to confront your informant and," to
use her own phraseology, "^ Give him the Lye!'"
The writer then makes counter-charges and claims
that according to reports brought by the Indians
from Fort Drnmmond, Col. McDouall was endeavor-
ing to interfere with Mackinac trade; that he had
held a council with the Indians, and warned them
against the Americans who proposed inviting them to
Mackinaw for the purpose of secretly massacring
them ; that " red wampum and tobacco mixed with
Vermillion " (the symbol of war) had been distrib-
uted ; that barrels of rum were opened to inflame
LESLIE AVENUE.
HEATED CORRESPONDENCE 93
their animosity; and thev were again urged to grasp
the tomahawk, and that he himself was purposing
soon to return with his big guns and recapture Mack-
inac.
To this CoL McDouall replies; in his dignity,
however, refusing to again communicate with the
Indian Agent, but addressing his letter to Col. Cham-
bers, the commandant at the fort. He laughs at
what he calls " the absurd stories " of the Indians,
and the " precious tissue of abominable lies." He
denies advising them against American trade. The
charges that he had warned them against going to
Mackinac lest they should be entrapped and de-
stroyed, and had advised them to take up the toma-
hawk against the Americans and that he himself was
planning an attack on their island, were idle tales.
As to the barrels of rum, not even a glassful had
been given, '' so economically was the council con-
ducted," he says. No wampum of a red kind or any
other color had been distributed, nor had there been
^' the most distant allusion which malice could tor-
ture into the indication of approaching war." And
the " minute guns " wdiich had figured as a warlike
tocsin in the story carried to Mackinac he explained,
with a glowing British pride, was a royal salute fired
in honor of the victory of Wellington at Waterloo
over Napoleon, " the greatest despot that ever waded
through slaughter to a throne." This was in 1815,
it will be remembered, two or three months after
Waterloo ; and it is interesting to find that away out
in the northernmost waters of Lake Huron, remote
from all other seats of habitation, this event in Euro-
94 EAELY MACKIXAC
pean history was duly celebrated by the resounding
guns.
And so the poor Indians appear for the once as
practical jokers at the expense of the superior race;
telling " cock and bull " stories, now to one island
and then to the other. There is a blending of the
comical and pathetic in the thought of these poor chil-
dren of the forest, so often the football of the whites,
proving such serious mischief-mongers and stirring
up so much bad blood between the two bands of their
conquerors — as it were " playing off one against
the other."
We continue this story only to say that the high
expectations in regard to Drummond Island as a
British post, influential in Indian affairs and in the
commerce along the American border, were doomed
to disappointment. McDouall was not allowed to
develop, exce])t to a very limited extent, his jilans of
military fortifications, nor to realize his fond dream
of making it a great commercial seat. He remained
in command only for one year after leaving Macki-
nac, and returned to England, it is said, a disap-
pointed man.^ This disappointment marked the
subsequent history of Drummond Island as a Brit-
ish seat. For, some years after settling there the
joint commissioners conferring concerning a few
questions which still lingered between Canada and
1 Tliis British officer comiiiands our respect for his high abil-
ities. From liis published letters he seems to have been a man
of literary culture, ami capacity for state craft as well as mili-
tary training. lie attained the rank of INIajor-General, and
lived until 1848, having entered the army in 1796. Kingsford
in his " History of Canada," vol. 8, speaks of him as a " zealous
and active officer, whose performance of the duties entrusted
to him has entitled him to the most honorable mention."
FORT OFFICERS OF FORMER DAYS 95
the United States respecting the division line in the
island-stndded part of upper Lake Huron and the
river St. Mary, decided that that part of the lake in
which Drnmmond Island lay belonged to the United
States side of the line. Accordingly in 182S the
British garrison removed and the island was turned
over to our government.^
To return now to our Island post in the straits.
The American spirit and regime were soon fully re-
stored after its re-possession by our troops in 1815.
From that time on there was a long succession of
regular army soldiers and officers inhabiting the old
quarters and barracks. Many of the officers who
afterwards acquired high rank and distinction during
our civil war, 1801-1865, either in the Union Army
or Southern, had been in service here as young Cap-
tains or Lieutenants. Among them were Gen. Sum-
ner, Gen. Heintzelman, Gen. Kirby Smith, Gen. Si-
las Casey, and Gen. Fred Steele, for whom a fort in
the west has been named. General Pemberton was
once a member of the garrison, and in a private letter
written by one of the citizens in 1840, when the little
island was ice-bound and there was a dearth of news,
it is incidentally mentioned that " Lieut. Pemberton
in the fort is engaged in getting up a private theatre,
in an endeavor to ward off winter and solitude," —
the young officer little dreaming of that more serious
drama in which he was to act, twenty-three years
1 Samuel F. Cook, of Lansing. Mich., has written a most in-
teresting sketch of Drumniond Island — giving the story of its
occupation and final abandonment by the British ; giving also
some of the fascinating legendary lore which has gathered
about the spot. The sketch is embellished witli numerous pho-
tographic views.
96 EAELY MACKIXAC
later, as commander of Vicksbiirg, with Grant's be-
sieging army arovind him.
During the civil war, all troops being needed at
the front, the soldiers were withdrawn from our
fort. This was but temporary, however, and did
not mean its abandonment.^ Its flag and a solitary
Serjeant were left to show that it was still a military
post of the United States. This faithful soldier re-
mained at the fort for many years after the war, and
was known to the visitors as the " Old Serjeant."
For a period during the war it was made the place of
confinement of some of the Confederate prisoners,
principally notable officers who had been captured,
at which time Michigan volunteer troops held it.
At the close of the war the fort resumed its old
time service as a garrison post, generally about fifty
or sixty men of the regular army, with their officers,
composing the force. A detachment would serve a
few years, then be transferred and another would
take its place, to enjoy in its turn the recuperative cli-
mate of the summer, and to endure the rigors and the
isolation of the winters. So the old fort continued
in use, with its morning and evening gun, its stirring
bugle notes, its daily " guard mount," its pacing sen-
try, its drill, its " inspection days," until 1895.
Then the sharp and decisive voice of authority called
" halt " to the long march of military history in the
straits of Mackinaw. The United States govern-
ment, by formal act of Congress, abandoned the fort,
and gave it over, together with the National Park of
1 Occasionally at other times, also, the garrison would be tem-
porarily sent elsewhere, but this never meant the giving up of
the post.
THE FORT SIXCE THE CIVIL WAR 97
eleven hundred acres, to the State of Michigan.
The fort was dismantled, the old cannon were re-
moved from the walls, and every soldier withdrawn.
We do not question the fact, that as a fort constructed
in primitive times it was unsuited to the days of
modern warfare ; nor the fact that with the numerous
other well equipped posts the department is maintain-
ing for its troops, this old-fashioned one was not an
absolute necessity. Xor do we question for a mo-
ment the propriety of making the State of Michigan
the legatee and successor to this property, if the gen-
eral government was determined to dispossess itself
of it. It could not have been more suitably bestowed,
if it had to pass into other hands. The commission-
ers, to whose charge it is now committed, appreciate
and will cherish that historic and patriotic interest
which attaches to the old fort, and will keep the
grounds intact and carefully guard the buildings.
They will aim likewise to preserve the trees and
the drives of the park in that natural beauty which
has so long given them such charm. But while thus
assured, it is at the same time a matter of deep re-
gret that the national government should have for-
saken the island. Eor sentimental reasons alone,
even had there been no other, the old fort should
have been retained as a United States post. A mil-
itary seat which has two hundred years or more of
history behind it, is not often to be found in the
western world. Indeed, with the possible exception
of Eort Marion, the old Spanish fortification at St.
Augustine, Fla., it is doubtful if there be another
on this whole continent, which could boast of so long
a period of continuous occupation as old Fort Mich-
98 EAELY MACKIXAC
iliniaekinae, wliieli Mas established first at St. Ignace
in the 17th century, then removed to ohl ^lackinaw.
and since 1780 has been located on our island.
The Legislatnre of ]\richigan in the Spring of
1897, bj formal act made the offer of recession to
the United States of the old military post with all the
garrison bnildings and all the gronnd known as the
Fort and Military reservation ; snch transfer to be
made whenever the War Department shonld notify
the commissioners of its readiness to accept the
tender. This would still leave what is known as
the Park in the hands of the State of Michigan.
By reason of the enlargement of the army, and the
need there will be for additional barracks and qnar-
ters for onr soldiers, and becanse of the eminent fit-
ness and snitability of the Island for an army post it
is thonght the U. S. Government may incline to this
offer, and that the old historic fort may again be oc-
cnpied.
CHxiPTER Vni
It is interesting to think of the progressive series
of industries, as pertaining to the welfare of man, in
connection with the vast stretches of land in our Xew
America.
of the wild ani-
mals of the wilder-
ness. Their flesh
served the early
aborigines of the
forest for food,
and their skins for
clothing. But the
Indians' operations
of this kind were
but a slight and
insignificant pre-
lude to what de-
veloped with the
coming of the
whites, particu-
larly in our north-
ern and Avestern THE SHORE DRIVE,
wilds. With their
advent the great fur trade began. The forests and
the soil of these millions of acres were of importance
only as being the lairs and roaming grounds of those
fur-bearing creatures, large and small, which, for
99
100 EARLY MACKINAC
nearly two centuries made a great element in the
world's commerce. Only the slightest part of the im-
mense captures was availed of for food. The skins
of the animals Avere the sole object sought. For
these, great companies organized and wrought and de-
veloped into well nigh imperial power in the wilder-
ness tracts.
Following this era the forests themselves, so long
the homes of the animals and the scene of their
slaughter, became a most valuable element in our
western settlements by the development of the lumber
trade, connecting w4th human habitations and a
higher form of social life. Then the soil itself,
which for centuries had been covered by these dense
forests, served another end in the interest of man by
its trees giving way to the plow. The last form of in-
dustrial development in connection with the land has
to do with " the earth beneath." The fur-bearing
animals to a great extent gone, the forests largely a
thing of the past, the surface of the earth occupied
and tilled, the enterprise of man delves below and
brings up the long hidden treasures of ore and coal
and oil which prove such mighty factors in modem
civilization.
The fur trade was a pioneer industry in Xorth
America. Its agents were the first to penetrate the
primeval wilderness in the name of commerce, and in
this sense were the precursors of civilization. They
made distant and perilous journeys, and were often
the first to reveal some solitary river or lake or new
stretch of land. Their camps and petty forts became
the outposts of colonizers, and to them is largely due
the earlier opening to the civilized world of the un-
PIONEER FUR TRADE 101
known and inhospitable *^ regions beyond." The his-
tory of the fur trade is thus the history of exploration
and occupation, with its own heroes and adventures
and annals. By stimulating hunting and turning
it into a sort of forest labor it served to create an in-
dustry among the Indians, though at the same time
it diminished the animals upon which the tribes de-
pended for subsistence and, most unfortunately, in-
troduced among them the evil of ardent spirits.
The countries of Europe, together wath our sea-
board states, were the market fields, and from the
Avhole vast regions of our Northwest, whence now
go the cargoes of grain, there then " went east," in
the line of commerce, only the packs of peltry. The
animals that were hunted for their fur were princi-
pally the following (as far at least as the more north-
ern fields were concerned), the order in which they
are named indicating the relative amount of supply
by the various species: beaver, marten (sable), musk-
rat, lynx, fox, otter, wolf, bear, mink, deer, buffalo
and racoon. Sir Alexander Mackenzie, writing
concerning the fur trade in the British possessions
of the Xorthwest, and probably speaking only for
the one company which he represented (the North-
western) reported for one year the number of furred
animals taken as 182,000, of which 106,000 were
beavers.
While fur-trading in America was practiced to
some extent in the early days of the Dutch on the
Hudson, its magnijtude of operations, its longer con-
tinuance, its influence on governments and on civil-
ization, and its romance withal, belong rather to the
business as conducted in the western half of North
102 EARLY MACKINAC
Aiiiericii — more particularly in the Xorthern and
Xorthwesterii parts. I'roiii the earliest settlements
of the French in Canada the fur trade ranked as of
first importance. " Beaver skins were the life of
Xew France," it was said. But the greatest devel-
opment of the business was at the hands of the Hud-
son's Bay Company ; a company chartered by King
Charles II. in 1G70, and which in process of time
acquired a fur trade territory more than half as
large as all Europe, extending from the Arctic Circle
to the Red River on the South, and west to the Pa-
cific Coast. While their territory was afterwards
sold and transferred to the Dominion of Canada,^ yet
the Company as a business corjwration has existed
for fully two centuries and still continues its opera-
tions, and is perhaps the earliest link now left con-
necting business interests of to-day with tlie remote
])ast. For more than a century the great Company
liad flourished without much competition. Then a
formidable rivalry developed. About 1787, the
Northwest Fur Company took shape, and became a
very powerful organization, " the mighty Xorth-
^\•esters " its people were called. Washington Irving
wrote of it : " It held a lordly sway over the wintry
lakes and boundless forests of the Canadas, almost
equal to that of the East India Company over the
realms of the Orient." "
The principal partners resided in ^Montreal and
Quebec, and constituted a commercial aristocracy,
and in their relation to the various grades of the
1 This was in 1869, when their territory of 2,300,000 square
iniles was transferred to the Canadian Government.
2 Astoria, Chapter 1,
THE X0ETHWE8T FUR COMPANY 103
hundreds in their emi)loy, the old feudal and fief
idea seemed restored. Every year a delegation of
these magnates would journey to their wilderness
headquarters at Fort William, on the north sliore of
Lake Superior, where a conference was held Avith the
inferior partners aufl agents from the various outly-
ing trading posts. They travelled in large palatial
canoes equipped with every convenience and luxury
possible, taking with them tluir own cooks aud
bakers, and delicacies of every kind. With business
they combined pleasure in their sojourn at Fort Wil-
liam, and in the halls of the Council house regaled
themselves with banquets and revels.^
Besides having the territory of the Canadas for
its operations, the new company stretched its lines
indefinitely to regions beyond and, as was inevitable,
when reaching the border lands they clashed in trade
jealousy with the Hudson's Bay Co. The mu-
tual strife and animosity were very bitter and long
continued. Removed far beyond the reach of civili-
zation they were a law unto themselves, and deeds
of violence and slaughter were common. The Xorth-
west Company in time extended its operations into
United States territory. Indeed, up to the begin-
ning of the 19th century the whole of the fur trade
in x\merica, with the exception of that of the Russians
in Alaska, was a British monopoly. We have already
seen how slowly and reluctantly the treaty of 1783,
as respects these northern latitudes, was recognized
by the British Government. British traders pre-
1 " The opulence of the Lake Supeiior fur trade in the closing
days of the 18th Century can be compared witli the opulence
of the Lake Superior copper trade in the closinjj days of the
19th Century." :Moore's " The Northwest Under Three Flays."
104 EARLY MACKIXAC
tended to regard all this country as still in some
sense belonging to the throne, or at least that the
boundary question was an open one ; and as the con-
flict of 1812 was approaching they used to tell the
Indians that that war would settle it. The war did
settle it, but not as they had imagined. The new
adjudication of the boundary question left it just as
it had been determined by the treaty following the
war of the revolution.^
]\Iichi]imackinac, when a fort on the mainland,
had from an early day been a depot for furs. The
French military governor, or commandant, held a
supervisory and fostering relation to the business.
This was continued by the English Avhen by their
conquest of Canada their flag waved over the Straits.
Traders established themselves within the palisades
of the fort enclosure to barter with the Indians —
cloth, beads, knives, powder and rum passing in ex-
change for the peltries brought in from the woods.
With the removal of the fort from the mainland to
our island of Mackinac the fur trade continued,
though with the change from the custom which had
prevailed before that no longer were the traders al-
lowed to have their business, their homes, their church
and their whole community life within the fort en-
closure. They thus formed a settlement at the foot
of the fort hill which developed into the village of
1 Mrs. Jameson, of England, in recounting her travels in Can-
ada (1837) relates: "Colonel Talbot (of Canada), told me
that when he took a map, and pointed out to one of the Eng-
lish Commissioners the foolish bargain they had made, the real
extent, value and resources of the countries ceded to the United
States, the man covered his eyes with his clenched hands, and
burst into tears."
EARLY FUR TRADE 105
Mackinac. The Mackinaw Enr Company was
formed, and later the Southwestern Company took
shape, both under British controL
The spirit of American enterprise began to assert
itself. John Jacob Astor of Xew York, on a sugges-
tion dropped by a chance fellow traveller on ship-
board, had made a venture in Canadian peltries
which proved very remunerative. This led to his em-
barking further into the business. It was not long
before he secured a controlling interest in both of
these companies. Besides conducting operations in
the regions already familiar, Astor sought to estab-
lish an agency on the Pacific coast, a venturesome
and unsuccessful enterprise minutely described by
Washington Irving in his " Astoria." The compe-
tition of the British traders, particularly of the
powerful Northwest Company, was found wherever
Astor turned. And the war of 1812 naturally
proved unfortunate for his business schemes. But
his prospects were vastly improved at the close of the
war by an act of Congress which prohibited all Brit-
ish traders or companies operating in the United
States. The Northwest Conij^any, which had been
freely so doing, now found its establishment in those
parts of little worth to its business. Astor went to
Montreal and at almost his own price bought all
their trading posts within the limits of the United
States. Together with its posts, the Northwest Com-
pany transferred many of its experienced agents,
clerks, interpreters, and boatmen. The rivalry be-
tween the two British Companies having now ceased,
their old strife did not long continue. The Hudson's
Bay Company and the Northwest settled their long-
106 EARLY MACKIXAC
time feud by joining together, the latter giving up its
name in that of the older association — the Hudson's
Bay Company of two centuries ago.
Astor now had a free course. The two companies,
the Mackinaw and the Southwest, which he already
controlled, were merged under the popular name of
the American Fur Company. The business of the
company grew and assumed great proportions. It
had its connections and dependencies throughout the
regions of the Mississippi, the Missouri and the Yel-
lowstone rivers as well as those nearer by.
Mackinac Island was the company's headquarters
of operation, and the little village took on an almost
metropolitan character. It was a great mart of
trade long before Chicago, Milwaukee or St. Paul
had entered on their first beginnings, and vied with
its cotemporaries, Detroit and St. Louis. The capi-
tal and enterprise on the island pertained principally
to the business of the Company. They furnished
employment to a great number of men, who with
their families largely contributed to the life of the
village. In the summer, when for several weeks the
agents and voijcifjeurs (or canoe men) and the en-
gages of different kinds gathered in from the widely
scattered hunting and trading grounds of the wil-
derness, they made, together with the local contingent
employed the year through, a force of some twenty-
five hundred men, all representing the work of the
great organization. The Company's warehouses,
stores, offices and boat yards occupied much of the
town plat. The present summer hotel. The John
Jacob Astor, was originally built for their business,
furnishing quarters for the housing of their men,
THE AMERICAN FUR COMPAXY 107
particularly at the great summer gatherings, and also
ware-rooms where the peltries were weighed and
packed and kept in storage.
The American Fur Company continued to
flourish at Mackinac for a period of some twenty
years. In 1834 Mr. Astor sold his interest, and the
business declined. At length the Company with-
drew entirely from the island, and for the remainder
of its career was simply an agency for handling furs
in Xew York. Our island, in a commercial and so-
cial point of view, suffered greatly by this change.
A considerable element of the population removed.
Business fell off, though to an extent revived by the
development of the fishery interests. The old ware-
houses and other quarters of the Company, once the
scene of activity and bustle, stood only as mute wit-
nesses to a former life until removed or reconstructed
and put to other uses. Some of these buildings were
depositories of old papers, account books, letters,
memoranda, etc., of the defunct Company which, of
no business value, had been left in closets and attic
chests. The new owners of the buildings at length
felt indisposed to longer give them " house room,"
and after more than a generation had passed, several
large packing boxes, filled with these old documents,
were opened and freely disposed of to any of the vil-
lage people who cared to take them away. The his-
toric or memorial interest not then being very strong,
the papers were used in various ways, such as light-
ing fires or putting them around the garden cabbage
plants as protection against the cut-worm or a sum-
mer frost, and in the kitchens of the good house-
wives they were serving to line cake-tins with.
108
EARLY MACKINAC
In 1863, and again in 1870, portions of these old
papers and record books, which by that time had be-
come interesting relics, were rescned by an enthnsi-
astic lady visitor on the island, and presented to the
Chicago Historical Society. In the great fire which
swept over that city in 1871, these collections were
destroved. In the Astor House on the island there
OLD FUR COMPANY'S DES]v.
are two large co})y-vohimes of letters written from
the Company's office at Mackinac, and dating from
a period the most flourishing in its history. These
old books interest many of the summer guests to-day.
Also belonging to the same Hotel, and preserved as
AMEEICAX FUR COMPANY EELICS 109
relics, are an old fashioned higli-legged desk at which
one of the clerks used to work in the Company'.:;
palmy days, and an old-style scales or " balances,"
which was nsed in weighing the peltries as they were
packed and bound for storage or for shipment.
CHAPTER IX
In the early days, even as in the present, the time
of greatest stir and animation on the island was the
snmmer season. Large companies of Indians from
all quarters about the npper lakes would gather here.
They came for the annuities from the government
agent, and for trade and excitement — their wig-
wams lining np on the beach, two and three rows
deep, their light canoes skimming the water or, with
bottom turned up, resting on the pebbly shore. In
some seasons as many as three thousand were present.
Their unrestrained indulgence in liquor and their
war dances and rude sport, added to all the so-called
pleasurings of the Fur Company's voyageurs and
trappers from the distant woods, made the island
for a few Aveeks a constant scene of wildness.
The hill-side fort, however, with its soldiers and
frowning cannon had a salutary influence, while the
business which the season brought to the merchants
and the Indian traders probably served to relieve the
situation.
The Indians were often but as babes in commer-
cial transactions ; and it is told of a certain settle-
ment of them in the Grand Traverse Region, that
coming to the island at such times they w^ere often
accompanied by their missionary, the Rev. Mr.
Dougherty, a Presbyterian minister, who w^ould pitch
his tent among them during their stay, not only to
110
A CLASS OF SUMMER VISITORS 111
guard their morals but to protect and assist them,
as best he might, in their dealings with the traders.^
Another class of summer " tourists " and visitors
on the island were the Fur Company's men, who
would come in brigades of canoes with their collec-
tions of furs from the different trading posts in the
wilderness, extending from the line of the British
dominion in the north to the Missouri in the west,
and to the south unto the confines of the white settle-
ments. When all were thus assembled they added
largely, for several weeks, to the white population
of the village. About five hundred of them would
be quartered in the Company's barracks, and others
camped in tents, or were accommodated in the houses
of the islanders. Joviality and frollicking and ca-
rousals were the order of the day among these light-
hearted and improvident men who in a few summer
weeks, amid the scenes of unaccustomed social life,
would throw away their hard-earned wages of ten
months' toil in the desolate wilds. As the early au-
tumn approached they would gather the materials of
another outfit, load their canoes, wave their good-
1 As illustrating the obscurity and confusion attending an
Indian's reasoning powers in business matters, Schoolcraft re-
lates the following " claim " submitted to himself when Indian
agent at Mackinac by a certain old Ottawa chief: At one time
a trader had taken from him forty beavers; at another time
thirty beavers and bears ; at another, ten beavers ; and at an-
other, thirty beavers and four carcasses of beavers, for all which
he had received no pay although promised it. Also, he had
once served as a clerk or sub-trader for a merchant, for which
he was to receive $500, and never got a cent of it. All this
itemized " bill " he requested the President of the United States
to pay! On inquiry it was found tliat the skins were sold, and
the service rendered, and tlie wrong received some thirty or
forty years before at Athabasca Lake, in the Hudson's Bay Ter-
ritory, and far beyond the President's jurisdiction.
112 EARLY MACKI^^AC
byes, and dipping their paddles to the rhythm of
their boat-songs, gaily move off for another campaign
in the distant regions of the wilderness.
These men were a class of their own. They were
principally French Canadians, often with a mixture
of Indian blood, who loved the free life of the water
and the wilderness, and chafed nnder the restraints
of settled society. Some of them in an earlier period
had been known as Couriers dcs hois, — rangers of
the woods. Of the same light-hearted, reckless and
daring spirit they had been men of a little more re-
sponsibility than the ordinary engague. They were
a kind of pedlars or sub-merchants on a small scale.
Three or four would join their stock, put all in a
canoe which they worked themselves, and push out
into the wilderness to hunt and trap, and to barter
with the Indians for furs, and after twelve or fifteen
months' absence in the woods would return with rich
cargoes, squander all their gains and then go back
penniless to their favorite mode of life. They have
been described as " grown up babes of the woods," on
whom the dense and quiet forest tracts exercised a
subtle fascination ; and who felt the enticements of
fur hunting much the same as our pioneer roving
miners would feel the passion of gold hunting.^
Later, however, when the great fur companies con-
trolled all this business, there was little scope for
these petty dealers, and the men of that type of life
merged into the class known as voyageurs. The voy-
ageurs w^ere canoe men who handled the boats and
worked them up the rapids in rivers and over por-
1 " The hardy, adventurous, lawless, fascinating fur trade." —
Parknian's " The Old Regime in Canada."
CAXOESMEX AXD THEIR CAXOES 113
tages. They were rough and bold and often as in-
tractable as the Indians themselves, but of a cheerful
and merry disposition/ devoid of ambition and con-
tented under the privations and hardship of their
life. Their food on their journeys was " lyed "
corn, a sort of hominy, and salt pork, or in the ab-
sence of pork an allowance of tallow. This was
greatly relished and gave them strength for their
toils, better, it is said, than a diet of bread and fresh
meat."
The canoes used on these expeditions were fash-
ioned on the model of the Indian canoe. They
were made of birch-bark strippings a quarter of an
inch in thickness, sewed together with fibres of spruce
and made water-tight by hot pitch poured over
the seams. The bark thus seamed together was
stretched over thin ribs and cross bars of cedar. It
was claimed that the white man had never been able
to improve upon the original Indian idea. As in-
tended for trading purposes, the canoes were often
of great size, thirty or forty feet long and four to
five feet wide. The ends were of gondola shape and
often decorated with rude and gaudy paintings.
They could carry, besides the crew of eight or ten
men, four tons of freight, and yet in their construc-
1 The fiddle was a part of their camp outfit. They carried
with them into the wiUlerness and wherever tliey went their
" melodies of the river, the chase, love and wassail." — " Wis-
consin Collections," vol. 14.
2 As giving some idea of the extent of this kind of navigation,
we are told that in the palmy days of the Northwest Fur Com-
pany not less than ten brigades, of twenty canoes each, used
to pass and repass every summer, between INIontreal and Fort
William on Lake Superior, carrying supplies to the upper coun-
try and returning with furs.
114
EARLY MACKINAC
tion were very light and easily handled. These boats
penetrated the recesses of the wilderness, not only
following the rivers and every inlet, hnt " making a
THE SHORE DRIVE.
portage," as it was called, passing across land from
one water highway to another. The portages were
made by unloading the boat, which then (so light Avas
its structure) could easily be carried on the shoulders
CANOESMEIsr AND THEIR CANOES 115
of two of the men, while the j^acks of freight were
strapped on the, backs of the others.^ Thus loaded,
the cavalcade Avould march through thickets and
swamps and over hills to the next sheet of water.
In the water the canoes were propelled, generally,
bj paddles made of the light red cedar, though in fa-
vorable winds a square sail might be hoisted. Later
the American Fur Co. introduced oars. The rate
of travel would average forty miles a day. After
the fur trade declined and there Avas less call for
the old lines of work, but more canoe journe^ying of
a general kind, many of the old vojjageur class be-
came " masters of transportation " as it were, and
" public carriers," on the upper lakes, in the days be-
fore steam navigation had fully developed its lines.
The men were experts with the paddle, and capable
of prolonged steady work, and the records sometimes
made were astonishing. They could easily maintain
a speed of four miles per hour for the whole day.
Col. jMcKenney tells of thus journeying on these
lakes in 1820, when his men had been one day pad-
dling constantly since three o'clock in the morning.
At sunset he proposed they go ashore for the night.
But they assured him they were still fresh, and they
continued at work until half past nine o'clock, which
made a journey for the day of seventy-nine miles.
While forty strokes a minute was a common rate of
speed, they were capable of sixty, he says, and they
placed the paddles in the water and took them out
as noiselessly as if it had been oil. No duck moved
1 Of the smaller sized bark canoes — tliey were so light that
after lieiiig iinburdeiied the person who was the last to step out
could take it by one of tlie thin ribs tliat crossed it midway and
walk out with it upon the shore as if it were a basket.
110 EARLY MACKINAC
on the surface of the water ^' with greater buoyancy
or stillness, than do these birchen canoes." The
motion was often accompanied by the notes of the
Canadian boat songs sung by the crew, the measure
and cadence of which would tally with the propelling
strokes —
" Their voices kept tune,
And their jjaddles kept time." i
So charmed was the Colonel by his experiences in
the canoe that he adopted as his own the sentiments
of another enthusiast who had " dropped into po-
etry " on the subject — a few stanzas of Avhich we
venture to quote, admirable as a tribute at least, if
not of the highest poetic merit :
" In the region of lakes where the blue waters sleep
Our beautiful fabric was built ;
Light cedar supported its weight in the deep,
And its sides with the sunbeams were gilt.
" Its rim was with tender young roots woven round,
Like a pattern of wicker-work rare;
And it press'd on the waves with as lightsome a bound
As a basket suspended in air.
" The heavens in their brightness and glory below
Were reflected quite plain to the view,
1 Isaac Weld, an English traveler in Canada, 1795-1797, de-
scribing his canoe journey tells of one instance when the men
were kept at the paddles all night; and notwithstanding they
had labored hard during the day, " they plied as vigorously as
if they had just set out, singing merrily the whole time. The
French Canadians have a good ear for music, and sing with
tolerable accuracy. They have one favorite song among them
called ' the rowing duet,' which as they sing they mark time
to with each stroke of the oar; indeed, when rowing in smooth
Avater, they mark the time of most of the airs they sing in the
same manner." The singing, it was said, enabled them to pad-
dle more steadily and keep better time.
TOILING AND SINGING 117
And it moved like a swan — with as graceful a show.
Our beautiful birchen canoe.
" Oh, long will we think of those silver bright lakes,
And the scene they exposed to our view ;
Our friends — and the wishes we formed for their sakes.
And our bright yellow birchen canoe."
Mrs. Jameson, from whom I have already quoted,
and must yet again before this book is finished, de-
scribes her canoe journey through the Georgian Bay,
made about ten years subsequent to McKenney's.
" Tlie Roman Emperor," she says, '' who proclaimed
a rcAvard for the discovery of a new pleasure ought
to have made a voyage down Lake Huron in a birch
bark canoe." In her party there were two canoes,
each twenty-five feet long and four feet in width,
" tapering to the two extremities, and light, elegant
and buoyant as the sea-mew when it skims the sum-
mer waves." Her voyageurs were Canadian half-
breeds, '' young, well-looking, full of glee and good
nature, with untiring arms and more untiring lungs
and spirits," and showing toward herself a never fail-
ing gaUanierie." Their singing of the Canadian
boat songs was very animated on the water and in
the open air. They all sang in unison, raising their
voices and marking the time with their paddles.
Their progress over the water " was measured by
pipes." At the end of a certain time there is a pause,
" and they light their pipes and smoke for about five
minutes, then the paddles go off merrily again at the
rate of about fifty strokes in a minute and we abso-
lutely seem to fly o\^er the water. ' Trois pipes ' are
about twelve miles." ^ She was often amused 1)y a
- " A French Canadian is scarcely ever without a pipe in his
118 EARLY MACKI^^AO
specimen of dexterity on the part of her good natnred
cavalier men of the paddle " like that of an accom-
plished Avhip in London. Thev wonld paddle np
toward the shore with snch velocity that I expected to
he dashed on the rock, and then in a moment, hv a
simnltaneons back-stroke of the paddle, stop with a
jerk, which made me breathless."
Another graphic canoeing pictnre of those times is
given by H. H. Bancroft in the " Xorth West Coast "
of his series, " Llistory of the Pacific States." It
was as the voyageurs approached the end of their
journey, he says, that they merged into their gayest
mood. An elaborate toilet was made ; men and boats
were decorated with ribbons, tassels and gandy feath-
ers; the chanson a Vaviron (song of the oar) was
strnck and the plaintive paddling melody, which the
distant listener might almost fancy to be the very
voice of monntain, wood, and stream united, swelled
on nearer approach into a hymn of manly exultation,
and with fionrish of paddle keeping time to song and
chorus they swept round bend or point, and landed
with a whoop and wild halloo. He describes it as
a brilliant and stirring scene to '* stand upon the bank
and witness the arrival of a brigade of light canoes,
dashing up with arrow-swiftness to the very edge of
the little wharf; then, like a Mexican with his mus-
taug, coming to a sudden stop, accomplished as if by
mouth, whether working at the oar or plough, whether on foot,
or on horseback ; indeed, so nuich addicted are the people to
smoking that by the burning of the tobacco in their pipes they
commonly ascertain the distance from one place to another.
" Such a place," they say, " is three pipes of?" — it is that far
that you can smoke three pipes of tobacco in walking to it." —
Isaac Weld, in his '' Travels Through the States of ^'o///i Amer-
ica and Provinces of Canada in 1795, '96, and '97."
BOREOWED DESCRIPTIONS 119
miracle by backing water simultaneously, each with
his utmost strength then rolling their paddles all to-
gether on the gunwale, shake from their bright ver-
milion blades a shower of spray, from which the
rowers lightly emerge as from a cloud."
Or let us take one more description of this " hom-
ing " scene from the same writer : " Forty or sixty of
these fantastically painted boats rushing through the
water at reindeer speed under a cloud of flying spray
toward their last landing, while in the breast of every
tugging oarsman there were twenty caged hozannas
which, rising faintly at first, were poured in song
upon the breeze from five hundred tremulous tongues
until finally, breaking all control, they would burst
forth in one loud, long peal of triumphant joy."
CHAPTER. X
In the year 1822 there occurred on the island an
event which became famous in the annals of physi-
ologj and of medical experiment, both in this coun-
try and throughout Europe. This was the incident
of Alexis St. Martin, who was accidentally wounded
while handling a shot gun, and his treatment by
Dr. Wm. Beaumont, the Post Surgeon. The acci-
dent happened in the retail store room of the Ameri-
can Fur Company. The room still stands ; a base-
ment or ground floor, a strong stone structure, over
which was a second story built of logs. This upper
story was afterwards removed, and an attractive white
frame cottage with dormer windows is now to be seen
built on the same high foundation walls which then
made the store room. The building is situated near
the foot of the Fort hill, on the corner of the street.
St. Martin was a young French Canadian in the
employ of the American Fur Co. Mr. Gurdon S.
Hubbard, a pioneer citizen of Chicago, at that
time a young man living on the island, and present
in the room when the accident occurred, thus wrote
of it in his autobiography, published in 1888 : " One
of the party was holding a shot gun which was acci-
dentally discharged, the whole charge entering St.
Martin's body. The muzzle was not over three feet
from him; I think not over two. The wadding en-
120
FIKST CASE OF ITS KIND
121
tered, as well as pieces of his clothing ; his shirt took
fire; he fell, as we supposed, dead."
The shot had entered his side and perforated his
stomach. Dr. Beaumont was immediately called
and undertook the treatment of the wound. In his
DR. WILLIAM BEAUMONT.
report of the case, he savs he found " a portion of the
lung as large as a turkey's egg protruding from the
external wound, lacerated and burnt, and immedi-
ately below this another protrusion, which proved to
be a portion of the stomach, lacerated through all its
122 EAELY MxVCKIXAC
coats and pouring out the food he liad taken for his
breakfast."
The man was healed and ronnded ont a good period
of life. He became the father of a family and was
able to serve in different forms of manual labor.
Dr. Beaumont kept him in his employ long after he
was healed for the purpose of conducting his valua-
ble experiments, and at different intervals during a
period of eleven years, at Fort Mackinac and at
other army posts where he was stationed as surgeon,
he made him the subject of painstaking study in the
interest of medical science. He afterwards pub-
lished a book detailing the whole case. The orifice
into the stomach, about two and a half inches long,
was purposely kept open, and through it as through
a window (the man lying on his back as he took his
food) Beaumont studied the processes of digestion,
and the nature of the gastric juice — which he would
extract through the aperture and then analyze and
make experiments with. His range of experiments,
covering nearly every article of food, afforded op-
portunity of determining the variations in their di-
gestibility. And in his observations on St. Martin,
who was not always in an amiable mood when thus
being diagnosed (having to lie on his back while eat-
ing and sometimes required, " in the interest of sci-
ence," to fast from twelve to eighteen hours) the
Doctor noted the fact that anger and impatience re-
tarded, or checked entirely, the digestive process !
The poor fellow was often irritable, not only as
being the subject of these scientific experiments in
which it is likely he had not himself the slightest in-
terest (albeit it heralded his name throughout the
FIRST CASE OF ITS KIND 123
medical world) but because also lie was subject to the
jibes of the populace. They called him " the man
Avitli the lid on his stomach," and made sport of him,
and he was often provoked to resent their jeers in hot
blood, with warnings to the Doctor about " giving up
his job," and on one or two occasions peremptorily
doing so. The surgeon had need of all his patience
and tact in dealing with his interesting '" study."
It was the first opportunity ever offered of an ocu-
lar examination of the interior of the human stom-
ach in the moments of its functional work. During
an examination. Dr. Beaumont says: "St. Martin
swallowed part of a glass of water, and, being in a
strong light, favorable to an internal view through
the aperture, I distinctly saw the water pass into the
cavity of the stomach through the cardiac orifice, a
circumstance, perhaps, never before witnessed in a
living subject. On taking repeated draughts of wa-
ter, while in this position, it would gush out at the
aperture the instant it passed through the cardia.
Food swallowed in this position could be distinctly
seen to enter the stomach."
Thus, he tells us in the preface of the book, " the
secretions and operations of the stomach have been
submitted to my observation in a very extraordinary
manner, in a state of ])erfoct health and for years
in succession;" that the case presented "a concur-
rence of circumstances which probably can never
again occur ; " and furnished " a body of facts which
can not be invalidated."
The publication of Beaumont's book was an event
of great note in the medical world. Dr. S. C. Avers
of Cincinnati in a paper on the subject read before
124 EARLY MACKIXAC
the Academy of Medicine of that city, January 1899,
says : " All Avriters and teachers on physiology,
English, French and German as well as Americans,
have acknowledged their indebtedness to Beaumont
for placing an obscure and doubtful subject on a
well-founded basis of facts derived from his extended
and critical observations;" and that "up to the
present day the book is quoted, and always will be."
Dr. Beaumont afterwards lived in St. Louis, Mo.,
a leading man in his profession until his death in
1853. A certain street in that city bears his name
to-day, while a higher and worthier tribute to his
memory in that community is the Beaumont Hos-
pital jMedical College. The medical societies of
Michigan (the Upper Peninsula rtnd the State socie-
ties) have placed a memorial stone in the Mackinac
fort grounds beside the old stone quarters where the
surgeon dwelt when an officer of the post, and where
the experiments in the case were first conducted.
The inscription on the stone reads:
" Xear this spot Dr. William Beaumont, L^. S. A.,
made his experiments upon Alexis St. Martin, which
brought fame to himself and honor to American med-
icine."
The village at that period contained about four
hundred and fifty permanent inhabitants. Their
chief occupation was fishing in summer and hunting
in winter. The community had an antique and for-
eign style of its own — the Indian with his plumes
and his bright and decorated costume, the Canadian
rover thoughtless, bent on the present and heedless
of to-morrow, and the petty trader, habituated to the
A MEMORIAL TRIBUTE 125
woods and only tenij)orariIy in the haunts of men.
The French language, or rather that known as " Ca-
nadian French," Avas chiefly spoken. Society was
of diverse elements. The original stock was based
on the old French and Indian mixture — the de-
scendants of the canoe men and trappers and clerks
and interpreters who had generally married Indian
women. Gurdon Hubbard, already referred to, de-
s(;ribing the situation as it was in the early twenties,
said there were not more than twelve white women
on the island, the residue of the female population
being either all or part Indian. For a time during
the British dominion an English element figured, but
this seemed to withdraw after the island changed its
sovereignty. An Irish element then appeared and
continued, founding itself to some extent on inter-
marriage with the natives. In the flourishing period
of the Fur Company the social life of the island was
jierhaps at its best development. It was represented
by the magnates and factors of that Company, by the
military circle of the fort, by the Government offi-
cials of the civil service as connected Avith the Cus-
tom-house and with the Indian affairs, by the com-
pany of teachers in the work of the Mission
school then maintained, and by the families of the
merchants and leading traders.
Like the rest of. the world our island shows its
changes and improvements since that day of primi-
tive conditions. Large ana luxurious steam vessels,
mooring within immense dock slips, have succeeded
to the canoes which once lined the pebbly shores.
The picturesque wigwams and birch-bark huts and
rude barrack quarters of the former " resorters "
126 EARLY MACKIKAC
have given way to the modern hotel and boarding
home and to the nnmerons and diversified cottages,
peopled by another type of season visitors. A differ-
ent class, indeed, bnt still the real successors are we
of the Indians and of the old Fnr Company trappers
and boatmen who were wont to gather here, summer
after summer, in the days of early ]\rackinac. Car-
riages and equipages of every description pass swiftly
over roads where formerly wheeled vehicles and
horses were unknown, and when dog-trains and win-
ter sledges and a few ox carts in the hill woods com-
prised almost the total of animal draught power. A
boulevard drive-way along the beach, designed to en-
circle the whole island, is in course of construction.
Water works and electric lighting and the telephone
system are among the present conveniences of the
old-time village. The large State Park, embracing
nearly one-half the woods of the island, and tlireaded
by the best of roads, and a thing of State guardian-
ship and care, is another modern feature. And the
project of a beautiful little park, at the foot of the
fort and in the current of the village life, adorned
by a memorial statue of the early missionary and cx-
l^lorer, llarquette, whose name the park will bear,
has been initiated. These are some of the changes,
but in its natural beauty, its purity of atmosphere, its
surrounding panorama of mighty waters, and in all
that makes its subtle charm and spell, the island is
the same as of yore, and beyond the power of man's
enterprise to change or improve. It is a small tract
of land not subject to the prevailing conditions of
other connnunities, and to an unusual degree it pre-
serves its pristine character.
AN OLD-TIME PEEDICTIOX 127
The following, written Lv a reflecting visitor many
years ago, when the aborigines Avere still lingering
in the neighborhood of the island, and when modern
life was in its " day of small things/' may well be
repeated now. The prediction it contains is seen
to-day, at any rate, and doubtless will long continne
to be realized : " The Straits of Mackinac will al-
ways command attention. Throngh this channel will
pass, for ages to come, a great cnrrent of commerce,
and its shores will be enlivened with civilized life
where at present the Indian still lingers, bnt alas ! is
fast passing away."
CHAPTER XI
Early Mackinac had among its citizens, sparse
though its population was, a number of men of strong
character and great business enterprise. Among
them, not to speak of all, were Michael Dousman,
John Dousman, Edward Biddle, Gurdon S. Hub-
bard, Samuel Abbot and Ambrose Davenport. John
Dousman, Abbott and Davenport were the deputa-
tion of three gentlemen referred to by Lieut. Hanks,
in his report of the surrender of the fort, as having
accompanied the flag of truce in the negotiations be-
tween Captain Roberts and himself. After the Eng-
lish came into possession, the citizens were required
to take the oath of allegiance to the king. Of those
then living on the island, five are reported as refus-
ing to do this — Messrs. Davenport, Bostwick, Stone,
and the two Dousmans.^ With the exception of
Michael Dousman, who was permitted to remain neu-
tral, they were obliged to leave their homes and their
property until the close of the war. Besides these,
there were afterwards three men in particular who
figured in large spheres, and Avere in reputation in
other parts of the land as well as in this remote wil-
derness point. These were Ramsey Crooks, Robert
Stuart and Henry R-. Schoolcraft.
1 Biddle and Hubbard were not then residents of the island.
Biddle was a brother of Nicholas Biddle of Bank fame in Jack-
son's time.
128
EAMSEY CROOKS
129
Mr. Crooks came to America from Scotland, as a
young man. His cai'eer was an active and stirring
one. He was known in connection with the f nr trade,
it is said, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. His busi-
ness involved much of perilous journeying and start-
ling adventure iu the north and in the far west. He
IIKXHY R. ScnOOLdlAFT, J.L.I).
was with Hunt's expedition across the Rocky ^loun-
tains and to the Pacific coast, as far back as
1811, and again the next year he made the same over-
land journey back to the East. He was an edu-
cated, intelligent man, well experienced in human
nature, and highly rated for his judgment, his enter-
130 EARLY MACKIXAC
prise and his integrity. He was one of ]\[r. Aster's
right hand men in the extensive business of the fnr
company. In the American expedition against the
island in 1814, in tlie attempt to dislodge the Eng-
lish, he, together with Davenport and John Dousman,
had accompanied the squadron — the latter two as ex-
patriated citizens, well acquainted with the waters,
to help as guides ; and Crooks to watch, as far as he
could, the interests of Mr. Astor.-^ He did not make
Mackinac his permanent residence during the whole
time of his connection with the business, but was
more or less on the island and engaged in its office
work. Xew York, afterwards, was his home; and
on Aster's selling out, he became chief proprietor
and the president of the company. It is said of him
that he concentrated, in his reminiscences, the his-
tory of the fur trade in America for forty years.
He died in Xew York in 1859.
Robert Stuart was also a native of Scotland, born
in 1784. He came to America at the age of twenty-
two years, and illustrated the same spirit of enter-
prise and adventure. He first lived in ]\Iontreal,
and served with the Northwestern Fur Co. In
1810 he connected himself, together with his uncle,
David Stuart, with Mr. Aster's business, and was one
of the party that sailed from New York by the ship
" Touquin " to found the fur trade city of Astoria, on
the Pacific Coast. In 1812, it being exceedingly im-
portant that certain papers and dispatches be taken
1 Schoolcraft speaking of Davenport (who, he says, was a
Virginian), refers to his thus " sailing about the island and in
sight of his own home." He remarks, too, that for his suffer-
ings and losses, he ought to have been remunerated by the Gov-
ernment.
ROBERT STUART 131
from Astoria to Xew York, and the ship in the mean^
time being destroyed, and there being no way of
making the trip by sea, Stnart was put at the head
of a party to undertake the journey overland. Ram-
sey Crooks was one of the band. This trip across
the mountains and through the country of wild In-
dians, and over arid plains, involved severe hard-
ships and peril, and illustrated the nerve, and vigor,
and resources of the young leader. The party was
nearly a year on the way. In 1817 he came to Mack-
inac and became a resident partner of the American
Fur Company, and superintendent of its entire busi-
ness in the west. lie was remarkably energetic in
business, a leader among men, and a conspicuous and
forceful character wdierever he might be placed. In
the lack of hotel accommodations his home was con-
stantly giving hospitable welcome and entertainment
to visiting strangers. He dwelt on the island for
fifteen years, and when the company sold out in
1834, removed to Detroit. He was afterward ap-
pointed by the Government as Indian Commissioner
for all the tribes of the northwest, and guarded their
interests with paternal care. The Indians used to
speak of him as their best friend. He also served
as State treasurer, and at the expiration of his term
of office was trustee and secretary of the Illinois and
Michigan Canal Board. Active in great commercial
and public interests, he was also, subsequent to his
conversion on the island in 1828, zealous and promi-
nent in church work and always bore a high Chris-
tian character. He died very suddenly at Chicago,
in 1848. His body was taken by a vessel over the
lakes to Detroit for burial. In passing Mackinac
132 EARLY MACKIIsTAC
the boat laid awliilc at the clock, and all the people
of the village paid their respects to the dead body
of one who had been in former years a resident of
the island, so well known and so greatly esteemed.
In connection with the Fnr Company work of the
island, which these two men did so mneh to promote,
it may be well to quote from Mrs. John Kinzie, the
wife of a Chicago pioneer, who with her husband
was here in 1830. Jn her interesting book '' Wan-
Bun, the ' Early Day ' in the ]Srorthwest," she thus
writes, speaking of that period : " These were the
palmy days of Mackinac. It was no unusual thing
to see a hundred or more canoes of Indians at once
approaching the island, laden Avith their articles of
traffic; and if to these was added the squadron of
large Mackinaw boats constantly arriving from the
outposts with the furs, peltries and buffalo robes col-
lected by the distant traders, some idea may be
formed of the extensive operations and the important
position of the American Fur Company, as well as of
the vast circle of human beings either immediately or
remotely connected with it."
Henry R. Schoolcraft lived on the island from
1833 to 1841, He was a native of the State of l^ew
York. He was a student, an investigator into the
facts and phenomena of nature, a remarkable lin-
guist, a great traveler and explorer, and a prolific
writer. He was given to archfeological researches ;
he explored the valley of the Mississippi ; he investi-
gated the mineral resources of much of the west, par-
ticularly of Missouri ; and he discovered the source
of the Mississippi river. His great work, and by
which he is most known, was that in connection with
HEXRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT 133
the Iiulian race, having spent thirty years of his
life in contact with them. Besides his travels among
the tribes throughont the west and northwest, where
his pursuits led him, he was the Government agent
in Indian affairs, first at Sault Ste. Marie for eleven
years, and then at Mackinac for eight years. He
mentions that at one time over four thousand Indians
were encamped along the shores of the island for a
month ; and that the annuities he paid that year
amounted to $370,000 in money and goods. He
also served in the negotiation of treaties for the Gov-
ernment with the tribes. While living at the Sault,
he married a half-blood Indian girl. Her father,
Mr. John Johnston, was an Irish gentleman of good
standing, Avho, dwelling in the wilderness country
of Lake Superior, had found a wife in the daughter
of an Indian Chief. This daughter. Miss Johnston,
had been sent to Europe while a young girl to be
educated under the care of her father's relatives, and
she became a refined and cultivated Christian lady.
Mr. Schoolcraft in his eight years' residence on
the island, lived in the house known to all readers
of Miss Woolson's Anne as the " Old Agency." He
writes on his arrival: "We found ourselves at ease
in the rural and picturesque grounds and domicile
of the United States Agency, overhung, as it is, by
impending cliffs and commanding one of the most
pleasing and captivating views of lake scenery." ^
Every subject of scientific interest, all the physical
phenomena of the island, and its antiquities and his-
1 In the minds of some now livino^ on the island he has been
confused witli his l)rotlier, James Schoolcraft, who also lived in
the village and was murdered by a John Tanner, in 184G — as
then generally supposed.
134 EAELY MACKIls^AC
toric features, and all questions pertaining to the In-
dians and their race characteristics, their hahits and
customs, their language, their traditions and legends,
their religion, and especially all that might lead to
their moral and social improvement — these were
matters of his constant study. At the same time he
kept abreast of the general literature of the day,
reading the books of note as they appeared and him-
self making contributions to literature by his own
books and review articles and treatises, which were
published in the East and in England. In his remote
island home, ice-bound for half the year and largely
shut out from the world, he was yet well known by
his writings in the highest circles of learning. Vis-
itors of note from Europe as well as from the Eastern
States, coming to the island, were frequently calling
at his house with letters of introduction. He was
voted a complimentary membership in numerous sci-
entific, historical and antiquarian societies, both in
this country and in the old world. He had corre-
spondents among scholars and s-avants of the highest
rank. His opinions and views on subjects of which
he had made a study were greatly prized. The emi-
nent Sir Humphrey Davy, of England, for instance,
expressed the highest appreciation of certain contri-
butions of scientific interest which Mr. Schoolcraft
had prepared in his island home; and Charles Dar-
win, in his work, " The Descent of Man," quotes
with approval some opinion he had expressed, and
calls him " a most capable judge." Prof. Silliman,
also ex-Presidents John Adams, Thos. Jefferson and
James Madison, wrote him letters of marked appro-
bation respecting a contribution he had written for
HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT 137
the American Geological Society. Bancroft con-
ferred with him before writing those parts of his
" History of the United States," which pertain to
the Indians, and was in freqnent correspondence
with him ; and Longfellow, in his Hiawatha Indian
notes, expresses his sense of obligation to him.
Some of Schoolcraft's lectures were translated into
French, and a prize was awarded him by the Na-
tional Institute of France. Among his freqnent cor-
respondents, as he was an active Christian and in
sympathy with all chnrch interests, were the secre-
taries of different missionary societies in the East,
seeking his opinion and his counsel in reference to
the location of stations and the methods of work
among the Indian tribes. The amount of literary
work he accomplished was remarkable, especially in
view of his public services, which often required ex-
tensive journeys in distant wilderness regions, and
much of camp life. He was of remarkable physical
vigor and industry, however, and it is said of him,
that he had been known to write from sun to sun al-
most every day for many years.
!Mr. Schoolcraft removed from the island to Xew
York in 1841, and after an extensive travel through
Europe, devoted himself principally to literary work.
He published about thirty different books. These
largely pertained to his explorations, and to scientific
subjects. The chief products of his pen in respect
to the Indians were his " Algic Researches," and
later his very extensive " Ethnological Researches
among the Red Men," Avhich was prepared under the
direction and patronage of Congress. It is in six
large volumes with over 300 colored engravings.
138 EAELY MACKINAC
and was issued in the best style of the printer's art.
It is a thesaurus of information, and furnishes the
most complete and authentic treatment the subject
has ever received.
For nearly twenty years Mr. Schoolcraft lived at
Washington, and died there in December, 1864.
The Kev. Dr. Sunderland, for over forty years a
Presbyterian pastor in that city, has said of him :
'^ He was a noble Christian man, and his last years
were spent in the society of his friends and among
his books ... a modest, retiring, unostentatious
man, but of deep, sincere piety and greatly interested
in the welfare of mankind."
CHAPTER XII
With the explorer, t)ie trader and the soldier, in
the early days of the French occupation, there came
also the missionary. IMore than two centnries ago
pioneer Jesuit priests planted the cross in these wilds
of the upper lakes; first at Sanlt Ste. Marie, as
early as two hundred and fifty years since, and then
in 1671 in our ]\Iicliilimackinac region of St. Ig-
nace,^ on the northern mainland, four miles across
from the island. The latter work is associated par-
ticularly with jMarquctte, who founded it, and who
was one of the most heroic and devoted of the early
missionaries who came to this continent from France.
He was a scholar and a man of science, according
to the attainments of that day. It is said he was ac-
quainted with six different languages. He was held
in reverent esteem, both by the savages of the woods
and by the traders and officers of the settlements.
To his culture, his refinement and his spirituality
were added the enthusiasm and daring of the ex-
plorer. He went out to find new countries as also
to preach in the pagan wilds. In 1673, accom-
panied by Joliet, he set forth from St. Ignace with a
small company in two bark canoes, on a long voyage
of discovery. He struck out into Lake Michigan,
thence into the rivers of Wisconsin, and thence into
the Mississippi, and floated down that great river
I Point Iroquois, as it was first known.
139
140 EARLY MACKINAC
as far as to a point some thirty miles below the
month of the Arkansas river, almost to the Lonisiana
line. There the sonthern jonrney was ended and the
retnrn trip was begnn — ascending the Mississippi,
entering the Illinois and thus reaching Lake Michi-
gan again. Bnt for Marqnette the trip was never
finished. He died at a point on the eastern shore of
that lake, about midway between its upper and lower
ends, and was buried there by his ever faithful and
devoted Indian companions. Two years afterwards
his body was exhumed and reverently taken back for
interment at the St. Ignace Mission, which he had
longingly desired again to reach, but had died with-
out the sight. The discovery of his grave, in the
present town of St. Ignace, in the year 1877, has
given new interest to that locality.
Following the temporary abandonment of the
French post of ]Michilimackinac in 1701, and the re-
moval of the settlement to Detroit, as already referred
to, the St. Ignace Mission was given up, and the
church burned by the priests themselves in fear
lest it should be sacrilegiously destroyed by the sav-
ages. Subsequently, on the re-establishment of
the fort on the southern peninsula opposite, the Cath-
olic mission was revived and the Church of St. Ann
was organized — the church and the entire settlemont
of families, as Avell as the garrison, being within the
palisade enclosure. When in 1780 the fort Avas re-
moved to the island — and the settlers following —
the church was also removed, its logs and timbers be-
ing taken down separately and then rejointed and set
up again. It stood on the old burying lot south of
the present Astor House. Subsequently it was re-
MADAM LA FRAMBOISE 141
moved to another site. An addition was made ex-
tending its length, and the ohl church continued
to stand nntil it gave way to the present harge edi-
tice, built on the same spot, in 1874. As an organi-
zation, however, the church dates far back to the
early days over at old Mackinaw. The ground on
which the building now stands Avas a bequest to the
parish by a Madam La Framboise, who lived near
by, with the stipulation that at death her body
should be buried under the altar, in case the church
should be removed to the place indicated. This be-
ing done, the conditions of the will were fulfilled.
This Madam was of Indian blood, and the widow of
a French fur trader. She is reported to have been
a woman of remarkable energy and enterprise, and
on the death of her husband ably managed the busi-
ness he had left. She acquired the rudiments of ed-
ucation after her marriage, being taught by her hus-
band, and in later years made it a custom to receive
young pupils at her house to teach them to read and
write, and also to instruct them in the principles of
her religion. Tier daughter became the wife of
Lieut. John S. Pierce, a brother of President Pierce,
who was an officer at the garrison in the early days,
1815-1820.
In the early times, the island being so remote a
pioneer point, and its population meagre, this parish
did not always have a resident priest, and for much
of the time could only be visited by one at irregular
and often distant intervals. In 1782, a petition
signed by merchants and other inhabitants of the
village, was addressed to General Ilaldimand, the
English Governor General of the Province, asking
142 EARLY MACKIXAC
that the Government take steps to aid in securing a
cure, or minister of religion, for the stated mainte-
nance of services. There appears nothing to show
that this Avas granted. The fur trade brought an
element of population of a very mixed character.
There were the educated officers and clerks of the com-
pany, and the voyageurs and trappers, who spent
most of their time in the woods and on the
water, wnth Mackinac as their place of resting and
Avage-payment, and the place of the reckless wasting
of their hard-earned money. One wdio knew well
the early character of the island, said of it, that few-
places on the continent had been so celebrated a lo-
cality for Avild enjoyment ; that the earnings of a year
were often spent in the carousals of a week or a day ;
that the lordly Highlander, the impetuous son of
Erin, and the proud and independent Englishman,
did not do much better on the score of moral re-
sponsibilities than the humble voyageurs and courier
des hois; that they broke generally, nine out of the
ten connnandments Avithout a Avince, but kept the
other very scrupulously, and Avould flash up and call
their companions to a duel Avho doubted them on
that point !
Protestant Missions in the west gradually took
shape as the settlement of the country advanced
from the sea-board. The Rev. David Bacon, of the
Connecticut Missionary Society, the father of the
late Dr. Leonard Bacon, preached on the island for
a shoi't time as far back as 1802; not, howcA^er, es-
tablisiiing a mission or organizing a church. Then,
in 1820, the Rev. Jedidiah Morse, D. D., a Congre-
gational minister, the father of the inventor of the
EPISCOPAL CHURCH ORGAXIZED 143
telegraph system, visited the island, and made a
short stay. The same Dr. Morse was the author of
" Morse's Geogra})hy," once extensively nsed in
our schools, and still well remembered. In earlier
years the fort was a chaplaincy post, and the clergy-
man in charge, the Eev. Mr. O'Brien, from 1842 un-
til the opening of the civil war in ISOl, conducted
stated services of the Episcopal form of worship,
which accommodated the people of the village as well
as the soldiers. Out of this work grew the Trinity
Episcopal Church, organized in 1873, under the min-
istration of the Eev. Wm. G. Stonex, who continued
for some years the resident clergyman. For a time
the parish held its Sunday services in the fort chapel ;
then the old Court House (now the City Hall) was
used, and in 1882 the present Church building was
erected. There is generally a resident clergyman in
charge. The Rt. Rev. Thomas F. Davies,*^ D. D.,
bishop of the diocese of Michigan, being a summer
cottager, frequently officiates. The Union Congre-
gational church was organized x\pril 1!)00, and at
present use the City Hall as their place of meeting.
A church edifice is in contemplation.
To go back again to our earlier period. At the
time of Dr. Morse's visit to the island, he was under
commission by the U. S. government on a two years'
tour of observation and inspection among the various
Indian tribes with a view " to devise the most suit-
aide plan to advance their civilization and happi-
ness." ^ He arrived at the island, June 16th, in the
evening, and writes of the view that greeted his eye
1 From letter of instructions written liini by John C. Cal-
houn, Secretary of War, Feb., 1820.
144 EAELY MACKIXAC
ill the morning — . . . '' the fort looking down from
the high bhiif, and a iieet of Indian canoes drawn up
on the beach, along which were pitched fifty or one
hundred lodges — cone-shaped bark tents — filled
with three or four hundred Indians, men, women
and children, come to receive their annuities from
the United States Government and to trade." He
remained a little over two weeks and preached in the
Court Ilonse to large and attentive audiences. A
week-day school and a Sabbath-school were formed
for the children, and arrangements efPected for Bible
Society and Tract Society work. On his return to
the East, the United Foreign Missionary Society,
learning of the situation, took steps to plant a mis-
sion at ]\Iackinac. The island was considered a
strategic point for such operations, even as previously
it had been a strategic situation from a military
point of view^ It was a central gathering place for
the Indians for hundreds of miles away as veil as
from near at hand. The mission was established in
1S23. The Eev. Wm. Ferry, a Presbyterian min-
ister from the East, w^as appointed superintendent.
The Mission w^as designed chiefly as a school for
the training of Indian youth. It opened with twelve
pupils. The second year it numbered seventy. Two
years after the opening of the enterprise the large
school building and boarding house, now the hotel
at the east end of the island, and bearing the original
name " ]\Iission House," was built. In 1826 the So-
ciety which had begun the w^ork and maintained it
for three years, was merged with the American Board
of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Hence-
forth, until it closed, the Mackinac Mission was the
f'
u
GOOD WORK OF THE SCHOOL 147
work of that Board with headquarters in Boston.
Tor several years the attendance at the school aver-
aged about one hundred and fifty a year. Major
Anderson, of the Canadian service, Avriting in 1828,
says that wlien this mission huikling was erected it
Avas thought to be large enough to accommodate all
who might desire its privileges, but such was the
thirst for knowledge, that the house was then full ;
and at least fifty more had sought admission that sea-
son who could not be received for lack of room.
Besides the rudiments of English education, the
boys were taught the more useful sort of handicraft
and trades, and the girls were taught sewing and
housework. Tiiey were at all times under Christian
influence, and were systematically instructed in the
truths of the Gospel. In the Biography of Mrs.
Jeremiah Porter, who before her marriage was Miss
Chappelle, and who s])cnt two years (1830-32) on tlie
island, is given an extract from her diary, in which
she speaks of visiting the Mission House and hearing
the young Indian gii'ls, at their evening lesson, repeat
tcgcther the 23rd Psalm and the Snth chapter of
Isaiah, and of hearing a hymn sung ''by sixteen
sweet Indian voices which was particularly touch-
ing." Col. Thos. McKenney, of the Indian Depart-
ment, gives another interesting glimpse of the school
in his book, " Sketches of a Tour to the Lakes,"
published in 1827. He had been sent out, the year
before, from Washington as joint commissioner with
General Cass in negotiating a treaty with the Indians
of the North. Having touched at Mackinac he de-
scribes his calling, in company with Mr. Pol)ert
Stuart, at " the Missionary establishment in charge
148 EAELY MACKINAC
of Mr. Ferry." The school family were at supper,
and he writes, ^' we joined them in their prayers,
which are offered after this meal." On another day
he again visited the school, and reported of it :
'' The buildings are admirably adapted for the object
for which they were built. They are composed of a
center and two wings — the center is occupied chiefly
as the eating department and the ofiices connected
therewith. The western wing accommodated the
family. In the eastern wing are the school rooms,
and below, in the ground story, are apartments for
shoemakers and other manufactures. In the girls'
school were seventy-three, from four to seventeen
years old. In personal cleanliness and neatness, in
behavior, in attainments in various branches, no chil-
dren, white or red, excel them. The boys' school has
about eighty, from four to eighteen. One is from
Fond du Lac, upwards of seven hundred miles. An-
other from the Lake of the Woods. How far they
have come to get light ! " Referring to the Super-
intendent, Mr. Ferry, he speaks of him in terms of
unqualified approbation. " Few men possess his
skill, his qualification, his industry and devotion to
the work. Such a pattern of practical industry is
without price in such an establishment. Indeed, the
entire mission family appeared to me to have under-
taken this most interesting charge from the purest
motives." He makes mention of Mrs. Robert Stuart
as " an excellent, accomplished and intelligent lady,
whose soul is in this work of mercy. This school is
in her eyes, the green spot of the island. With lier
influence and means she has held up the hands that
were ready, in the beginning of this establishment,
THE MISSION CHUECH 149
to hang down. She h:»oks upon ]\Ir. Ferry and his
labors as being worth more to the island than all the
land of which it is composed ; whilst he, with grati-
tude, mentions her kindness, and that of her co-oper-
ting hnsband."
Mrs. John Ivinzie, already referred to as being on
the island in 1830, visited the Mission, and in her
book makes similar testimony concerning it, saying
among other things : " Through the zeal and good
management of Mr. and Mrs. Ferry, and the foster-
ing encouragement of the congregation, the school
was in great repute."
A church for the island soon grew out of the
school. It was Presbyterian in name and form. It
was a branch of Mr. Ferry's work, and he was the
pastor during the Avhole time he remained on the
island. A church building, the historic " Old Mis-
sion Church," still standing in its original dimensions
and appearance, was built in 1829-30. Mackinac in
those days shared with Detroit in distinction, the
two towns being almost the only places of note in the
State of Michigan. The Fur Company's business,
together with the general trading interests which
centered here, brought to the island a considerable
population. Thus large and interesting congrega-
tions were furnished for this clnireh. Besides the
teachers and their families, and the pupils of the
mission school, there were many families of the vil-
lage, officers and clerks of tlie company, traders,
native Indian converts and others, who w^ere members
in regular attendance. The military post, too, used
to be represented — officers and men coming down
the street on Sunday mornings in martial step. The
150 EARLY Mx\CKIXAC
soldiers would stack their gims outside in front of
the chnrch ; one of the men wonld be detailed to stand
guard over the arms, while the others would file into
the pews set apart for their accommodation.
The whole number of members enrolled during the
history of the church was about eighty, exclusive of
the mission family. As a pioneer church on the
wilderness frontier, it was remarkable in having on
its membership roll, and among its office bearers as
Euling Elders, two men of such standing and public
name as Eobert Stuart and Henry E. Schoolcraft.
The ^lackinac experiment of mission work un-
fortunately, was not continued long enough to show
the largest results. Changes took place on the island
which seriously aifected the situation. It ceased to
be the great resort for the Indians it had been at first.
The Michigan lands were coming in demand for
settlement ; and the Government was deporting some
of the tribes to reservations farther West. Mr.
Astor retired from the Fur Company, and that busi-
ness lost its former magnitude. This involved the
loss of many families and a change in social condi-
tions. In 1831:, Mr. Ferry removed from the island,^
as did Mr. Stuart, the same year. Thus, for a vari-
ety of reasons the place ceasing to be an advantageous
point for the work, it was deemed best to discontinue
it; and about 1836 the land (some twelve acres) and
the buildings thereon Avere sold, and in 1837 the Mis-
sion was formally given up. During the brief his-
tory of the school, however, not less than five hundred
iMr. Ferry settled at what became Grand Haven, in Michi-
gan, himself founding the city and also its Presbyterian Church,
ond continued to reside tliere until his death in 1807,
STORY OF CHUSKA 153
children of Indian blood and habits acquired the
rudiments of education, and were taught the pursuits
and toils of civilized life, and many became Chris-
tians. The American Board at that time considered
that the Mackinac Mission had been very successful,
especially in its outreaching influence throughout the
surroimding regions.
One instance of remarkable conversion in the work
of the Mission, was that of an old Indian necroman-
cer or '' medicine man." His name was Wazhuska,
or more popularly, Chuska. For forty years he had
been famous on the island in the practice of that
mysterious occultism which has often been found
among low and barbarous races. He was supposed
by his people to have supernatural power, and indeed
the instances which have been reported of his strange
facility seem remarkable. A sorcerer he might have
been called, or, as such have also been designated, a
" practitioner of the black art." Ho embraced the
Christian faith with clear perception of its essential
truths, and with great simplicity of spirit ; and en-
tirely renounced all his " hidden works of darkness,"
together with the vice of drunkenness to which he had
been lamentably addicted, and after a year of testing
and probation was admitted to membership in the
Mission Church. He died in 1837, and was buried
on Eound Island. This story of Chuska and his con-
version by the power of divine grace, was considered
of such interest that we find it related by Schoolcraft
in three of his books — his " Personal Memoirs," his
" Oneota " (a collection of miscellany which tells of
Chuska under the heading " The Magician of the
Manitouline Islands"), and in his elaborate six vol-
154 EARLY MACKINAC
lime work piiblislicd hx act of Congress. In his
account of the case as given in the last named publica-
tion he furnishes representations of the crude picto-
graphie charms, and totems and symbols, which
Chuska was accustomed to use in his pagan incanta-
tions, and which at the time of his conversion he had
surrendered to Mr. Schoolcraft. The tale of Chuska
is also told bv Mrs. Jameson in the narrative of her
visit to Mackinac in 1837; and in Strickland's "Old
Mackinaw."
The ]\Iission given up, the school closed, the teach-
ers and their families gone, the trade and emporium
character of the village falling awav, the church
organization did not long snrvive. There was no
successor of Mr. Ferry in the pastorate. Mr. School-
craft, as an office bearer in the church, and always
actively interested in its welfare, did all that a lay-
man, so fully occupied as he, could do for its mainte-
nance, often conducting a Sabbath service and reading
a sermon to the people from some good collection.
But so largely losing its families by removal, and
unable under existing conditions to secure a pastor,
the church organization became extinct. The church
building, however, the " Old Mission Church " as it
is familiarly known to this day, has survived for
sixty years the lapse of the organization. It is prob-
ably the oldest Protestant Church structure in the
whole Xorthwest. And while other ancient church
buildings have been enlarged and changed in the
course of years ; and extension put on, or a front or
a tower added, or other material alterations made;
this one, from end to end, and in its entire structural
form, remains the same as at the time of its early
THE OLD CliUKCH 155
dedication. It has stood four square to all the winds
that have blown, as "" solid as the faith of those who
built it," ^ unchanged from its original style and its
bare and simple appearance, wath its old weather-
vane and its wonderfully bright tin-topped belfry — a
mute memorial of a most worthy history of two gen-
erations ago. Despite its disuse and its increasing
dilapidation, it has long been an object of tender
interest, and has been visited by hundreds every sea-
son. It is gratifying, therefore, to know that a
number of the summer cottagers and other visitors,
joined by some of the island residents, have pur-
chased the old church, and repaired and restored it so
as to present the old-time appearance in which it had
been known for well nigh seventy years.^ The gray
weather-worn exterior is purposely left unpainted.
The same old " high-up " pulpit, the plain square
pews with doors on them, the diminutive panes of
glass in the windows, the quaint old-fashioned gallery
at the entrance end — all these features appear as at
the first. The property is held in trust for the pur-
chasers by a board of seven trustees, five of whom are
to be visitors who own or rent cottages, and two to
be residents of the village. There is no ecclesiastical
organization in connection with the building, nor any
denominational color or control. The motive in the
movement has been, first, to preserve the old sanctuary
as a historic relic of the island and memorial of early
mission work; and, second, to use it as a chapel for
union religious services during the few weeks when
summer tourists crowd the island.
1 Miss Woolson's " Anne."
2 Repaired and restored in 1895.
CHAPTER XIII
OuE Island in its dimensions is tliree miles east
and west, and two miles north and south. It has a
crescent shaped harbor, which gives the same out-
line to the village nestling on the rounded beach.
There can be few places so small and circumscribed
that can furnish so many pleasing impressions. In
its antiquarian interest, in its unlikeness to the out-
side world, in its dim traditions, and in its entrancing
charms of natural scenery, there is found every vari-
ety for the eye, the taste and the imagination. While
small enough to steam around it in an hour on the
excursion boats, it is yet large enough to admit of
long secluded walks through its quiet, gentle woods.
In the three score years or more that visitors have
been coming here, there have grown up for it such
tributes and terms of admiration as. Gem of the
Straits, Fairy Isle, Tourists' Paradise, Princess of
the Islands, and such like.
Eising almost perpendicularly out of the water,
one hundred and fifty feet high, with its white stone
cliffs and bluffs, and twice that height back on the
crest of the hill, and covered with the densest and
greenest foliage, it is an object of sight for many miles
in every direction. Throughout we find that de-
velopment and variety of beauty which nature makes
when left to herself. The trees are the maple, and
pine, and birch, and old beeches with strait and far-
156
CURIOSITIES IX STOiVE
157
reaching branches and with rugged trunks, on Avhich
can be seen initials and dates running back many
years — the mementos of visitors of long ago. The
hardy cedar abounds also, and the evergreen spruce,
larch and laurel, and tamarack. Throughout the
woods running in diiferent directions, are winding
roads, arched and shaded by the overhanging tree-
ARCH ROCK.
tops, as if they were continuous bowers, and bewitch-
ing footpaths and trails; the fragrance of the fir and
the balsam is everywhere, and a buoyancy in the
atmosphere which invites to Avalking — the whole
tract being safe, always, for even children to wander
in. You come upon patches of the delicate wild
strawberry with its aromatic flavor, the wild rose, the
blue gentian, profuse beds of daisies, said to be of
158 EAELY MACKIXAC
the largest variety in America, the curious " Indian
pipes," luxuriant ferns in dark nooks, forever hidden
from the sun, and thickest coverings of moss on
rocks and old tree trunks. Then always, from every
quarter and in every direction, are to be seen the
great waters of the lakes, so many " seas of sweet
water," as they were described by Cadillac, the early
French commander in this region — Huron to the
east and Michigan on the west, with the Mackinac
Straits between, and all so deep, so pure, so beau-
tifully colored; and whether in the dead calm,
when smooth as a floor, or sliiumiering and glisten-
ing in the sunshine, or in the silvery sheen of
the moon at night, or again tossing and billowing in
the storm — always exercising the power of a spell
upon the beholder. Ever in sight, too, are the neigh-
boring islands, standing out in the midst as masses
of living green ; and the light-houses with their faith-
ful, friendly night work; and the young cities on the
two mainlands in opposite directions; and always the
picturesque old fort. Then, scattered over the is-
lands are glens, and dells, and springs, and fantastic
rock formations, (" rock-osities " they were some-
times facetiously called in early days). j\Iany of
these formations are interesting in a geological point
of view as well as for their marked appearance and
their legendary associations ; and two of them, Sugar
Loaf and Arch Rock, have been much studied by sci-
entists, and are pictured in certain college text books
to illustrate the teachings of natural science.
On the eastern part of the island you come on cer-
tain openings which the earlier French termed Grands
Jardins. Schoolcraft says no resident pretended to
SUGAR LOAF 161
know their origin; that they had evidently been
cleared for tilling purposes at a very early day, and
that in his time there were mounds of stones, in a
little valley near Arch Eock, which resembled the
Scotch cairns, and which he supposes were the stones
gathered out in the preparation of these little fields.
These openings continued, at times, to be utilized for
planting purposes to a period within the memory of
persons now living on the island. For a long time
past, however, they have been left alone, and nature
has beautifully adorned them with a very luxuriant
and graceful growth of evergreen trees and parterres
of juniper in self-arranged grouping and order, mak-
ing each such place appear as if laid out and culti-
vated on the most artistic plans of landscape garden-
ing.
For summer comfort — that is, for the escape of
heat and the enjoyment of sifted, clean, delicious air
— there can be no place excelling. As an old-time
frequenter once said of it : " It must be air that came
from Eden and escaped the curse." The immense
bodies of water in the necklace of lakes thrown about
the island become the regulator of its temperature.
The only complaint that visitors ever make of the cli-
mate, is that it is not quite warm enough, and that
blankets can not be " put away for the summer," but
are in nightly requisition, and that the " family
hearthstone " claims July and August as part of its
working season. Malaria and hay fever are un-
known. Dr. Daniel Drake, of Cincinnati, an emi-
nent medical authority in his day, thus wrote from
the island: " To one of jaded sensibilities, all around
162 EAELY MACKIXAC
liim is refreshing. A feeling of security comes over
him, and when, from the rocky battlements of Fort
Mackinac, he looks down upon the snrroimding
wastes, they seem a monnt of defense against the host
of annoyances from which he has sought refuge —
the historic associations, not less than the scenery of
the island, being well fitted to maintain the salutary
mental excitement." ^
The island has its legends, and folk-lore, and tra-
ditionary tales of romance and tragedy. There is
not so much of this, however, as many suppose. It
is small in area and its scope for scenes, and tales,
and associations is limited. Reference has already
been made to Arch Kock as the gateway of entrance,
in the Indian mind, for their Manitou of the lakes,
Avhen he visited the island, and to Sugar Loaf as his
fancied wigwam, and to other rock formations which
towered above the ground and Avere personified into
Avatching giants. The Devil's Kitchen, on the south-
west beach, has also been mentioned, but as divested
of all mystery and association with the dim and early
past. Chimney Eock and Fairy Arch are but appro-
priate names for interesting natural objects. The
lofty, jutting cliff known as Pontiac's Look-out, is
undoubtedly an admirable look-out spot, and is often
so used now, as it probably often was in the days of
Indian strifes Avhen canoes of Avar parties Avent to and
fro over the Avaters of the Straits. But Ave can not
vouch for its ever having been Pontiac's Avatch-toAver.
1" Treatise on the Principal Diseases of North America," p.
348.
" Hygeia. too. should place her temple here; for it has one
of the purest, driest, cleanest and most healthful atmospheres."
— Schoolcraft.
SUGAR LOAF
163
For although the intlnence of that chieftain was felt
in these remote parts, his home was near Detroit ;
and while we read of his traveling to the East and
the South, and as having had part in the battle of
Braddock's defeat near Pittsburgh, we find nothing
to show that he had ever been so far north as our is-
land, or at least
had ever sojourned
there. Lover's
Leap, rising ab-
ruptly 145 feet
above the lake, is
too good a pinna-
cle, and too suit-
able for such sadly
romantic purpose,
as far as precipi-
tous height and
frightful rocks be-
neath are con-
cerned, n(jt to have
suggested the tale
of the too faithful,
heart-sore Indian
-MXEY ROCK.
maiden. The story of Skull Cave has already been
told ; and although a piece of history, as far as the
name of Henry the trader figures in it, should be
justly regarded with as much interest as if it be-
longed to myth and fable) ; But at the same time,
with all the modifications whicli a sober realism may
demand, there is begotten in the mind of everyone
who breathes the soft and dreamy air, and surrenders
himself to the Avitchery of the little island, an im-
164
EARLY MACKINAC
pression of the weird, and the mystical, and the po-
etic, however little defined and embodied it may be.
This impression is increased in the sense of charm
imparted by the dim and shadowy past of a noble
but untutored race of nature's children in connection
with a spot of such rare attractiveness, and which, dis-
similar in formation and character from all the other
SUGAR LOAF.
land about, seems as though it were separate from the
ordinary seats of life.
Arch Eock has long been celebrated. It appears
as if hanging in the air, and as a caprice of nature.
It is a part of the precipitous cliff-side, and stands a
hundred and forty feet above the water's edge. It
has been accounted for by the more rapid decomposi-
tion of the lower than of the upper parts of the cal-
AECH EOCK 165
careous stone bank — wliich process, however, it used
to be thought, was fast extending to the whole. Mc-
Ivenney in his "' Tour of the Lakes," published in
1827, thus writes: "This arch is crumbling, and a
few years will dej^rive the island of Michilimackinac
of a curiosity which it is worth visiting to see, even
if this were the only inducement." The latter re-
mark is most true, but we are glad he was so mis-
taken in the first part of his sentence. The arch has
survived the unfortunate prophecy for seventy years,
and bids fair still to hold on. It is true, however,
that some portions may have fallen, and the surface
of the cross-way been reduced, since the days when
boys played on it, and when, according to an early
tradition, a lady rode horse-back over the span.
Sugar Loaf is another curiosity in stone ; conical
in shape, like the old-fashioned form in which hard,
white sugar used to be prepared. Including the
plateau out of which it rises, it is two hundred and
eighty-four feet high, erect and rugged, in appear-
ance somewhat between a pyramid of Egypt and an
obelisk. Like the Arch, it is a " survival of the fit-
test " — the softer substance about it being worn
away and carried off in the process of geological
changes, and leaving it solitary among the trees.
Robinson's Folly is the lofty, broad and blunt pre-
cipitous cliff at the East end of the island, one hun-
dred and twenty-seven feet above the beach. The
origin of the name is uncertain, save that it is asso-
ciated in some way with the English Captain Robert-
son (Robinson) who belonged to the fort garrison for
seven years, and, as already mentioned, was its com-
mandant from 1782 to 1787. There are no less than
166 EAELY MACKIXAC
five traditionary stories, or legends, in explanation of
the name. These stories vary from the prosaic and
trifling, to the very romantic and tragical. A com-
mon acconnt is that he built a little bower house on
the very edge of the cliff which he made a place of re-
sort, and revelry mayhap, in snmmer days ; and that
once, either by a gale of wind or by the crnmbling
of the onter ledge of stone, the house fell to the beach
below. One version of the legend has Robinson him-
self in the house at the time, and, like a devoted sea
captain " going down wath his ship," dashed to death
in the fall. Another is that on one occasion when a
feast and carousal w^ere projected on the cliff, and
when the things of good cheer were all in readiness,
and the participants, led by their host, delaying for a
little their arrival, some lurking Indians, watchful
and very hungry, stole a march on the company and
devoured all that was in sight.
The other tales are of a different hue. One is,
that once wakdng near this spot the Captain thought
he saw just before him, and gazing at him, a beautiful
maiden. On his attempting gallantly to approach
Lor, she kept receding, and walking backwards as she
iiKivcd ^he came dangerously near the edge. As he
rushed forward to her rescue, the girl proved to be but
a phantom and dissolved into thin air, while the im-
])etuous captain w^as dashed to death on the rocks be-
low. Yet another is of this order: That Robertson
(Robinson) had been one of the garrison force at
the old fort across the Straits at the time of the mas-
sacre in 1763, and had been saved by an Indian girl
who was exceedingly attached to him. After re-
moving to the island, and bringing a white bride
TJOBIXSOX'S FOLLY.
A larfre ledge formerly projected from the top of this cliff, overhanging
the beach and commanding a view of the lake and the surrounding
islands. On that ledge it is probable the fateful summer house
had been erected. In course of time this projecting part broke
and fell to the beach below. The rocks to-day seen at the base
are doubtless some of the fragments. The whole of the crag did
not sheer off at once, as an old drawing, made in 1839, shows a
portion still remaining.
EOBINSOX'S FOLLY 169
there, the Indian girl followed him and dwelt in a
lodge he had built for her on the brow of the great
cliff, nnrsing her jealousy and revenge. She begged
one last interview with him before leaving the place
forever. On the Captain's granting this, and stand-
ing beside her on the edge, she suddenly seized his
arm in her frenzy and leaped off, dragging him with
her to death.
There is one more of this harrowiugly tragical
kind, in the attempt to explain the naming, which
had much currency in earlier days, and is given in
tourists' notes of sixty years ago: That Robinson
had married an amiable and attractive Indian girl,
Wintemoyeh, the youngest daughter of Peezhicki, a
great war chief of the ChippcAvas, and had brought
her to his home at the fort. This aroused the deadly
hatred of Peezhicki, who had reserved the girl for
one of the warriors of his tribe. Robinson celebrated
liis marriage by giving a banquet feast in his bower
on the cliff. The bride was present, and a company
of guests. The father learned of the feast and con-
cealed himself in the cedar bushes to shoot the man
wlio had taken his daughter. A faithful sergeant, (the
story even gives his name, MacWhorter), was pres-
ent and saw the Indian level his gun. lie sprang up
to protect the Captain, and himself received the shot
and fell dead. Robinson then grappled with the
fierce chief, and in the struggle the two men came
dangerously near the brow. The Indian, with his
tomahawk raised, took a step or two backward to get
better poise for his blow. This brought him to the
very edge. A piece of stone gave way and he fell,
but saved himself by catching at the projecting root
170 EARLY MACKIXAC
of a tree. The girl now seeing her husband safe and
only her father in danger, sprang forward to his
help. He was thus able to raise himself to where
she stood. Then seizing her aronnd the waist, he
dashed off from the cliif and both perished together.
The first two of these stories concerning the famons
cliff, might very naturally snggest the name " Folly."
Bnt the others smack more of profound tragedy,
spiced with romance. Of course, Eobinson was not
in the massacre affair of long before, across the
straits ; he being at that time in army service, imder
Gen. Bouquet, against the Indians in Eastern Penn-
sylvania. That he met his death on the island by
falling over the cliff, or even in a more normal man-
ner, is a supposition only, without any evidence.
There is reason to suppose he still " lived to fight
another day " after leaving the island post. It may
be added, too, that at the period of his Mackinac
command he had already seen over thirty years of
service in the English army, and was no longer in
the romance and lively heyday of yonth. There
must, however, have been something about a summer
bower or hut, and something about feasting, and
something about a dreadful fall, which illustrated
the " folly " of establishing a pleasure resort on the
very brow of a dreadful precipice. Viewed to-
gether, these stories all become interesting as throw-
ing some light on the origin of myths, and as show-
ing how traditions, exceedingly variant, may yet have
some of the same threads running through them all.
But I -would not philosophize. I simply rehearse
these stories, the trivial and the grave, and leave
them to the imagination and the choice of the reader.
CHAPTER XIV
From an early day the island's charm of sylvan
and water scenery and its delightful snmnier air, to-
gether with its historical associations and its flavor
of antiquity, gave it a wide-spread fame. There are
but few places anywhere in our country that are
older as tourist resorts. Seventy and eighty years
ago visitors were coming here, despite the difficulty
and tedium in that time, of reaching so remote a
point. Persons of high distinction in public life
and in the walks of literature, and travelers from
foreign countries, were often among the visitors;
and our island has figured in many descriptive
books of travel. As some of these authors wrote so
appreciatingly of the island, and as those particular
books of long ago are now out of print and not easily
accessible, I think the readers of this sketch will be
pleased to see a few extracts. These writers all
speak of having known the island by reputation in
advance of their coming, and of being drawn by its
fame.
In 1843, the Countess Ossoli, better known as our
American Margaret Fuller, of Boston, spent nine
days in Mackinac, as part of a protracted journey
she made in the northwest, and which she detailed in
her book, " Summer on the Lakes." She expressed
in advance her pleasurable anticipation of " the most
celebrated beauties of the island of Mackinac ; " and
171
172
EAELY MACKINAC
then adds her tribute to " the exceeding beauty of the
spot and its position." She arrived at a time when
nearly two thousand Indians (and " more coming ev-
ery day") were encamped on the beach to receive
their annual payments from the government. As the
vessel came into the harbor " the Captain had some
rockets let off which greatly excited the Indians, and
their wild cries re-
sounded along the
shores." The is-
land was " a scene
of ideal loveliness,
and these wild
forms adorned it
as looking so at
home in it." She
represents it as a
"pleasing sight,
after the raw,
crude, staring as-
semblage of houses
everywhere sure to
be met in this
country, to see the
old French town,
mellow in its col-
oring, and with the harmonious effect of a slow
growth which assimilates naturally with objects
around it." Concerning Arch lioek, she says : " The
arch is perfect, whether you look up through it from
the lake, or down through it to the transparent
waters." She both ascended and descended " the
steep and crumbling path, and rested at the summit
LESLIE A\K
A SCEXE OX THE BEACH 173
beneath the trees,. and at the foot ii^Don the cool mossy
stones beside the lapsing wave." Sugar Loaf rock
strnck her as having '' the air of a helmet, as seen
from an eminence at the side. The rock may be
ascended by the bold and agile. Half way up is a
niclie to which those, who are neither, can climb a
ladder." The woods she describes as " very full in
foliage, and in Augiist showed the tender green and
pliant life of June elsewhere." She gives us a view
from the bluflfs on the harbor side : " I never wished
to see a more fascinating picture. It was an hour of
the deepest serenity; bright blue and gold with rich
shadows. Every moment the sunlight fell more
mellow. The Indians were grouped and scattered
among the lodges ; the women preparing food over
the many small fires; the children, half naked, Avild
as little goblins, were playing both in and out of
tlie water; bark canoes upturned upon the beach,
and others coming, their square sails set and with
ahuost arrowy speed." And a familiar picture is
this : " Those evenings we were happy, looking over
the old-fashioned garden, over the beach, and the
pretty island opposite, beneath the growing moon."
A two-volume book (published anonymously and
giving no clue to its author, except that he was a
practicing physician of Xew York City), titled
^' Life on the Lakes, or a Trip to the Pictured
Eocks," describes a visit to Mackinac in 1835.^
" Though the first glance," he says, " at any looked
for object is most always disappointing, it is not
so when you first see Mackinac." A moonlight
1 The avithor is supposed to have been Dr. Chandler E. Gil-
man, of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York.
174 EARLY MACKHS^AC
view of the island from the waters, he thus de-
scribes: "' The scene was enchanting; the tall white
cliff, the whiter fort, the winding, yet still precipi-
tous pathway, the village below buried in a deep,
gloomy shade, the little bay where two or three
small, half-rigged sloops lay asleep upon the water."
It reminded him of descriptions he had read of
Spanish scenery, " where the white walls of some
Moorish castle crow^n the brow of the lofty Sierra."
In describing his stay on the island he makes inter-
esting mention of a Sunday service he attended at
the Old Mission Church. He reports the building
as neat and commodious, thongh the congregation
was small. There was no Protestant clergyman on
the island, but Mr. Schoolcraft (the ruling elder of
the church) conducted the ser^'ice and read from
some book a very good sermon. The singing of the
choir was excellent, and was led by a sergeant of the
fort. The whole appearance of the congregation,
he thought, was very striking; officers and privates
of the garrison, with the marks of rank of the one
class, and the plainer uniforms of the other, were
mingled together in the body of the church ; there
were well-dressed ladies and gentlemen of the vil-
lage along with those of simpler attire ; and here and
there were Indians wearing blankets, and standing
about the doors were others of that race in their or-
dinary savage dress.
He mentions in evident astonishment, and as con-
veying a hint about the island climate, his eating
cherries and currants in Mr, Schoolcraft's garden
in the month of September. And as a piece of
harmless pleasantry, we may yet give another of
CAPTAIX MARRYATT 175
his observations of sixty-two years ago: "There
are more cows in Mackinac than in any other place
of its size in the known world, and every cow has at
least one bell."
English visitors in their tours of observation
through the United States were often drawn thither
— making the long jonrney to these npper lakes, and
stopping off to see the island of whose fame they had
heard. Captain Marryatt, first an officer of celeb-
rity in the English navy, bnt more known in this
country as a novelist largely given to sea tales, was
here in the summer of 1837. In his " Diary of
America " he writes of Mackinac : " It has the ap-
pearance of a fairy island floating on the water,
which is so pure and transparent that yon may see
down to almost any depth, and the air above is as
pure as the water that you feel invigorated as you
breathe it.^ The first reminiscence brought to my
mind after I had landed was the description by
Walter Scott of the island and residence of Magnus
Troil and his daughters ]\Iinna and Brenda, in the
novel, ' The Pirate.' " The appearance of the vil-
lage streets, largely given to sails, cordage, nets, fish
barrels and the like, still further suggested the re-
semblance to his mind, and he says he might have
imagined himself " transferred to that Shetland
Isle, had it not been for the lodges of the Indians
on the beach, and the Indians themselves, either
1 Marryatt's admiration of the transparent waters suggests
what I find related of a certain lady of long ago, that once sail-
ing in the harbor and gazing with rapt fondness into the pel-
lucid depths, she enthusiastically exclaimed: "Oh, I could
wish to be drowned in these pure, beautiful waters! "
176 EARLY MACKHs^AC
running about or lying on the porches before the
whisky stores,"
There were also two lady visitors here from Eng-
land, in the days of early Mackinac: Mrs. Jameson
and Miss Harriet Martineau. Both have high rank
and distinction in English literature. Each of
them published her impressions of Mackinac after
returning home. In their admiration and enthu-
siasm for the island they could not be surpassed by
the most devoted American visitor who ever touched
these shores.
Mrs. Jameson is well known as the writer of such
books as '^ Sacred and Legendary Art," "■ Legends of
the Madonna," '^ Essays of Art, Literature and So-
cial Morals," " Memoirs of the Early Italian Paint-
ers," etc. Miss Martineau w^as of more vigorous
intellect, and her writings deal more with subjects
of political economy and social philosophy. She
it was, too, who translated and introduced into Eng-
land tlie writings of the French philosopher Comte.
As both these books which touch on Mackinac, writ-
ten over sixty years ago, were descriptive of travels,
and not of the same general interest which attaches
to their other writings, they are now out of print and
have become rare.
Mrs. Jameson's visit was in the summer of
1837. She came up Lake Huron from Detroit by
steamboat, and arrived in the harbor at early dawn.
She thus describes her first view of the island as
she had it from the deck of the vessel: "We were
lying in a tiny bay, crescent-shaped. On the east
the whole sky was flushed with a deep amber glow
flecked with softest shadows of rose color, the same
MES. JAMESOX 177
splendor reflected in the lake ; and between the glory
above and the glory below stood the little mission-
ary church, its light spire and belfry defined against
the sky." She speaks of the " abrupt and pictur-
esque heights robed in richest foliage," and of the
" little fortress, snow-white and gleaming in the
morning light;" of an encampment of Indian wig-
wams, ("picturesque dormitories," she calls them)
up and down the beach on the edge of the lake which,
" transfused and unruffled, reflected every form as
in a mirror, ... an elysian stillness and balmy se-
renity enwrapping the whole." And, again, we
hear her speaking of " the exceeding beauty of this
little paradise of an island, the attention which has
been excited by its enchanting scenery, and the sa-
lubrity of its summer climate."
Mrs. Jameson made quite an extended stay at
Mackinac, the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Schoolcraft,
at their home in the Old Agency — " The house em-
bowered in foliage, the ground laid out in gardens,
the gate opening on the very edge of the lake."
She pictures Mrs. Schoolcraft with '' features de-
cidedly Indian, accent slightly foreign, a soft,
plaintive voice, her language pure and remarkably
elegant, refined, womanly and unaffectedly pious."
She saw the island throughout, taking tramps over
it and " delicious drives," and writes of it as " won-
derfully beautiful — a perpetual succession of low,
rich groves, alleys, green dingles and bosky dales."
After her glowing description, she sums up by say-
ing, " It is a bijou of an island. A little bit of fairy
ground, just such a thing as some of our amateur
travelers would like to pocket and run away with
178 EARLY MACKIXAC
(if they could) and set down in the midst of their
fish ponds; skull-cave, wigwams, Indians and all."
Miss Martineau spent two years in this country,
traveling extensively through the States and writing
her impressions. She puhlished tw^o books as the
outcome of this journeying, ^' Society in America,"
and afterwards, her " Retrospect of Western Trav-
eling." It was in July, 1836, that she visited
Mackinac, and it is in the first named of these two
books that she tells of it. She came by way of
Lake Michigan, from Chicago, traveling in a slow-
going sail-vessel, and approaching the island in the
evening towards sun-setting time. As did Mrs.
Jameson, so Miss Martineau first pictures it as
viewed from the vessel: " We saw a white speck be-
fore us; it was the barracks of ]\rackinaw, stretch-
ing along the side of its green hills, and clearly vis-
ible before the town came into view. The island
looked enchanting as we approached, as I think it
always must, though we had the advantage of see-
ing it first steeped in the most golden sunshine that
ever hallowed lake or shore."
The day of her arrival was the 4th of July, and,
" The colors were up on all the little vessels in the
harbor. The national flag streamed from the gar-
rison. The soldiers thronged the walls of the bar-
racks; half-breed boys were paddling about in their
canoes, in the transparent waters; the half-French,
half-Indian population of the place were all abroad
in their best. An Indian lodge was on the shore,
and a picturesque dark group stood beside it. The
cows were coming down the steep green slope to the
MISS MARTINEAU 179
milking. Xotliing could be more bright and joy-
ous."
Describing the appearance of the village, she
took note of some of the old French houses, ^' dusky
and roofed with bark. The better houses stand on
the hrst of the three terraces which are distinctly
marked. Behind them are swelling green knolls ;
before them gardens sloping down to the narrow
slip of white beach, so that the grass seems to grow
almost into the clear rippling waves. There were
two small piers with little barks alongside, and piles
of wood for the steamboats. Some way to the right
stood the quadrangle of missionary buildings, and
the white missionary church. Still further to the
right was a shrubby precipice down to the lake; and
beyond, the blue waters."
She did not leave the vessel that evening, but some
of the party having met the commandant of the
fort, an engagement was made for an early walk
in the morning. So they were up and ashore at
five o'clock, and under the escort of the officer they
took in the beauties of the hill and the woods. And
thus she tells us of it : " Xo words can give an idea
of the charms of this morning walk. We wound
about in a vast shrubbery, with ripe strawberries
under foot, wild flowers all around, and scattered
knolls and opening vistas tempting curiosity in ev-
ery direction." Coming suddenly on Arch Rock,
which she calls the " Natural Bridge of IMackinaw,"
she is '^ almost struck backwards " by the grandeur
— " the horizon line of the lake falling behind the
bridge, and the blue expanse of waters filling the
180 EARLY MACKINAC
entire arch ; shrubbery tufting the sides and dan-
gling from the bridge, the soft, rich hues in which
the whole was dressed seeming borrowed from the
autumn sky."
But especially charming and impressive, she
thought, was the prospect from Fort Holmes. As
she looked out on the glassy lake and the green tufted
islands, she compares it to Avhat Xoah might have
seen the first bright morning after the deluge.
'^ Such a cluster of little paradises rising out of such
a congregation of waters. Blue waters in every
direction, wholly unlike any aspect of the sea, cloud
shadows and specks of white vessels. Bowery
islands rise out of it ; bowery promontories stretch
down into it; while at one's feet lies the melting
beauty which one almost fears will vanish in its
softness before one's eyes ; the beauty of the shadowy
dells and sunny mounds, with browsing cattle and
springing fruit and flowers. Thus, would I fain
think, did the w^orld emerge from the flood."
After their early walk. Miss ]\Iartineau and her
party took breakfast with the courteous commandant
at one of the old stone quarters of the fort, and sat a
while on the piazza overlooking the village and the
harbor. In response to her inquiries about the
healthfulness and the climate, the officer humorously
replied that it was so healthy people had to get off
the island to die ; and that as to the climate, they had
nine months winter and three months cool weather.
The sailing vessel on which the party were pas-
sengers was bound for Detroit, and the Captain had
already overstayed his time. So they had to leave
THE END 181
that same day.^ In reference to her departure she
writes : " We were in great delight at having seen
Mackinaw, at having the possession of its singular
imagery for life. But this delight was dashed with
the sorrow of leaving it. I could not have believed
how deeply it is possible to regret a place, after so
brief an acquaintance with it." And then she tells
how she did, just what thousands since have done,
who after visiting the island have regretfully sailed
away from it; "We watched the island as we
rapidly receded. Its flag first vanished ; then its
green terraces and slopes, its white barracks, and
dark promontories faded, till the whole disappeared
behind a headland and light-house of the Michigan
shore."
We close Miss Martineau's tribute with this com-
prehensive note of admiration : " From place to
place in my previous traveling, I had been told of
the charms of the lakes, and especially of the Island
of Mackinaw. This island is chiefly known as a
principal station of the great Northwestern Eiir
Company. Others know it as the seat of an Indian
Mission. Others, again, as a frontier garrison. It
is known to me as the wildest and tenderest piece of
beauty that I have yet seen on God's earth."
Captain ^Marryatt, who had read this description
before his visit to the island (already referred to)
said, when writing his own impressions, " Miss Mar-
tineau has not been too lavish in her praises of
^lackinaw." These testimonies by persons of wide
1 Schoolcraft in Ihs journal makes note of lier calling at his
house tluit morning, and of her expressing " an enthusiastic
adraiiatiou for the natural beauties of Michiliraackinac.
182 EARLY MACKINAC
travel, and of cultivated taste and power of observa-
tion, and visitors as tliey were from another land,
come down to ns very pleasantly from those far gone
days.
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Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections.
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Capt. Jonathan Carver's Travels Tliroiigii the Canadas.
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Drake's Indians of the North-west.
Catlin's North American Indians.
Parkman's Works.
Sir Alexander Mackenzie's Voyages, witli Account cf the Fur
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the Pacific States.
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Robert's History of Canada.
183
184 EAELY MACKIXAC
Hinsdale's Old North-west.
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Dr. \Vm. Beaumont's Experiments and Observations on the
Gastric Juice.
Dr. Drake's Treatise on the Principal Diseases of North Amer-
ica.
Gurdon Hubbard's Autobiography.
Mrs. .John Kinzie's Wau-Bun, the " Early Day " in the North-
west.
Life of Rev. Jedidiah Morse, D.D.
Rev. John H. Pitezel's Light and Shadows of Missionary Life.
