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Early  Mackinac: 


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'THE   FAIRY  ISLAND." 


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A     SKETCH 


BY 


Meade  C.  Williams. 


Name.  -Indian  Legends.— Indian  Character.— French 
English  and  American  Flags.— Old  Fort.— Mili- 
tary History,  and  War  op  1812.— Fur  Trade. 
—Early  Village  Life.— Christian  Mis- 
sions and  Churches.— Natural  At- 
tractions.—Antiquities. 


BUSCHART     BROS.,      PRINT. 
ST.     LOUIS,     MO. 


><\W\ 


TO    ALL     THOSE 
WHO    HAVING    ONCE    KNOWN 

THE  ISLAND  OF  THE  STRAITS 

STILL    REMEMBER    ITS    CHARM, 

AND    REMAIN    UNDER   THE    POWER    OP    ITS    SPELL, 

THIS    BOOK    IS    DEDICATED. 


CONTENTS. 


rnoe. 

PBKFACE 6 

CHAPTER    L 

The  Island's  name — Its  etymology— Its  sacredness  In  the  Indian's 
mind— Indian  legends— Poetic  vein  in  Indian  nomenclature— The 
passing  of  the  Indian 7 

CHAPTER    H. 

Early  settling  under  the  French  flag— Pioneer    military    post    on 

northern  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— Wawatam— Skull  Cave 15 

CHAPTER    HI. 
Removal  to  the  island  proposed— Transfer  effected— Major  Sinclair 

— Captain  Robertson  (Robinson)— Rum— Building  the  fort 25 

CHAPTER    IV. 

American  Independence  achieved— England's  delay  in  surrendering 
Mackinac— A    second  treaty  required  to  secure  American  oc- 
cupation—Greenville    treaty    with    the    Indians— Fur    trade — 
Washington  Irving's  description  of  Mackinac— Another  picture.    33 
CHAPTER    V. 

War  of  1812  opens— "British  Landing"— Fort  Mackinac  captured  by 
the  British— Of   great  importance  to  British  interests — Official 

reports— Building  of  Fort  Holmes  (Fort  George) 42 

CHAPTER    VI. 

American  expedition  to  recover  Mackinac— Effects  entrance  at 
"British  Landing"— The  battle— Major  Holmes  killed— Ameri- 
can forces  withdraw- Destroy  British  supplies  in  Georgian  Bay- 
Blockade  effected— Blocade  raised— Mackinac  again  ceded  to 
United  States  in  1815— Old  cannon — Early  officers  at  the  fort — 

Fort  given  over  to  State  of  Michigan 00 

CHAPTER    VIL 

Early  citizens  of  the  island— Ramsey  Crooks  as  connected  with  the 
fur  trade— Robert  Stuart,  resident  partner  In  the  Astor  Fur  Co. 
—Henry  R  Schoolcraft,  government  agent,  scientist  and  ex- 
plorer—His literary  works  and  character , , 64 


CONTENTS.  5 

CHAPTER    VIII.  phqe. 

Jesuit  missions— Marquette— Church  of  St.  Ann  at    Old   Mackinac, 
and    on  the   island— Trinity  Church— Mission  School    and    Old 

Mission  Church— Story  of  Chuska — Old  Church  restored 73 

CHAPTER    IX. 
Exceeding     beauty    of     the    island — "Woods— Vegetation— Water 
views — Curiosities  in  stone — Arch  Rock— Sugar  Loaf — Robinson's 

Folly  and  its  legends 87 

CHAPTER    X. 
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 93 


LIST  OP  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Bird's  eye  view  of  Mackinac  Island Frontispiece  . 

La  Hontan's  Sketch,  1688 10 

Fort  Mackinac 32 

Mackinac  Beach 41 

Henry  R.  Schoolcraft 69 

Old  Mission  Church  81 

Sugar  Loaf 91 

Arch  Rock 93 

Tangle  wood ^ 

One  of  the  Drives 106 


PREFACE. 


I  have  had  thirteen  summers  at  Mackinac.  Fellow  visi- 
tors there  have  often  suggested  that  I  should  furnish,  in 
written  form,  some  studies  of  the  island. 

While  it  is  believed  this  sketch  may  have  interest  for  the 
general  reader,  it  at  the  same  time  carries  a  local  coloring 
which  nviy  more  particularly  appeal  to  those  who  know  the 
place.  As  the  charm  of  the  locality  is  due,  in  no  small 
degree,  to  that  halo  of  antiquity  which  hangs  over  it,  I  have 
felt  warranted  in  restricting  myself  to  early  Mackinac,  with 
but  slight  allusion  to  anything  short  of  sixty  years  ago. 

This  sketch  embodies  the  result  of  considerable  research 
among  books  and  documents.  Some  fifty  different  works 
have  been  consulted.  Generally,  though  not  always,  these 
are  indicated  in  the  narrative.  As  the  reader  will  preceive,  I 
am  greatly  indebted  to  the  various  writings  of  Henry  R. 
Schoolcraft.  I  would  also  express  my  special  sense  of 
obligation  to  the  valuable  series  of  "Collections  and  Research- 
es," a  work  carried  on  by  the  Michigan  Pioneer  and  Historical 
Society.  These  Collections,  at  present,  number  twenty-six 
volumes.  The  use  they  make  of  the  important  "Haldimand 
Papers"  of  Canada,  brings  to  hand  much  of  the  early  military 
history  of  the  Straits  and  of  the  Island  fort.  Instead  of  a 
foot-note  reference  in  every  case,  I  make  here  a  general 
acknowledgement. 

During  the  progress  of  my  work  I  have  had  great  satis- 
faction in  a  correspondence  with  Col. Win.  Montague  Ferry,  of 
Park  City,  Utah,  a  son  of  the  Rev.  Wni.  M .  Ferry,  of  the 
Island  Mission  work  of  long  ago,  and  who  well  remembers 
Mackinac  as  the  home  of  his  childhood  days. 
St.  Louis,  Mo.,  (Ingleneuk, 

June,  1897.  Mackinac  Island.) 


&  u  tafia 
EARLY   MACKINAC. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Michilimackinac  was  the  old-time  name,  not 
for  our  beautiful  island  alone,  but  for  all  the 
country  round  about  us,  north  to  Lake  Superior  and 
west  to  the  head  of  Green  Bay.  It  was  the  island 
only  that  was  first  thus  called.  The  word  grew 
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  old 
histories,  reports,  and  other  documents,  I  have 
found  Mishlimakina,  Missilimakinac,  Mishilmaki, 
Michilimachina,  Missilimakina,  Michiliakimawk; 
while  in  one  standard  history,  when  this  region  is 
spoken  of,  it  invariably  appears  as  Michilimaki- 
naw.*  In  its  abbreviated  form  it  has  been  writ- 
ten Mackinack,  Macina,  Maquina,  Mackinac,  Mack- 
inaw. In  all  the  earlier  periods  following  the  set- 
tlement of  the  island  by  the  whites,  in  books  of 
travel  and  of  history,  the  two  ways  of  writing  it 
were  used  interchangeably,  though  the  form  Mack- 
inaw was  most  commonly  adopted.  Also  in  many 
of  the  early  maps  and  atlases  it  is  so  given.  Steam- 
boat companies  running  boats  to  the  island,  gener- 
ally advertised  them  as  of  the' "Mackinaw  Line," 
and  likewise  business  firms  here  so  wrote  the  word 

*Henry  Adams'  "History  of  the  United  States."  7 


y  EARLY  MACKINAC. 

-—at  least  as  frequently  as  the  other  form.  So  this 
was  quite  general  during  all  that  time,  except  that 
the  official  name  of  the  military  post  held  to  the 
termination  "ac."  But  since  the  railroad  compan- 
ies 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  pronuncia- 
tion, however,  without  attempting  to  settle  the 
question  by  the  laws  of  orthoepy,  it  may  be  re- 
marked that  it  is  considered  very  incorrect;  and  to 
the  ears  of  residents,  and  old  habitues  and  lovers  of 
the  island,  it  is  almost  distressful  to  hear  it  pro- 
nounced anything  else  than  Mackinaw.  A  com- 
promise 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. 
The  c  must  never  be  sounded. 

The  origin  of  the  word  is  in  some  obscurity. 
All  agree  that  the  first  part  of  it,  "Michi,"  means 
great.  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  fol- 
lows the  Michi,  we  are  not  so  sure.  The  common 
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  large  turtle.  Hence 
that  it  became  known  as  the  land  of  the  Great 
Turtle. 


ORIGIN   OF  THE   WORD.  9 

Schoolcraft,  who  is  the  best  authority  on  all 
questions  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  inferior  and  diminutive  order,  instead  of 
belonging  to  the  Indian  collection  of  gods;  a  kind 
of  pukwees,  or  fairies,  or  sprites,  rather  than 
Manitous. 

Heriot,  an  English  traveler  in  North  America, 
and  who  published  his  "Travels  through  the 
Canadas, "  in  1807,  touched  at  Mackinac  and  reports 
as  the  origin  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 
possessors  it  had  received  the  appellation  of  Michi- 
limackinac." 

Perhaps  these  different  views  can  in  a  manner 
be  combined.  The  turtle  was  held  in  great  rever- 
ence by  the  Indians.  In  their  mythology  it  was 
regarded  as  a  symbol  of  the  earth  and  addressed  as 
mother.*  The  fancied  physical  resemblance  of  the 
island  could  easily  work  in   with   their   mythical 

*Andrew  Lang  in  his  "Myths,  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,  generally  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  mind  that  the  world  rested 
on  the  back  of  a  turtle. 


10  EARLY  MACKINAC. 

idea  of  the  turtle,  apart  from  its  having  any  ety- 
mological connection.  And  thus  whatever  way  the 
name  is  studied  it  becomes  associated  with  some 
Indian  conception  of  spirit.  All  singular  or  strik- 
ing formations  in  the  work  of  nature — objects  that 
were  of  an  unusual  kind  or  very  large  and  impos- 
ing, as  lofty  rocks,  overhanging  cliffs,  mountains, 
lakes  and  such  like — these  poor  untutored  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.  They 
regarded  it  as  their  sacred  island,  and  a  favorite 
haunt  of  their  gods,  and  cherished  for  it  feelings 
akin  to  awe;  and  from  the  surrounding  regions 
would  bring  their  dead  for  burial  in  its  soil.  The 
island  seems  to  have  been  rather  their  place  of 
resort  and  temporary  sojourn  than  of  permanent 
abode. 

There  is  something  very  fascinating  in  the 
fragments  of  early  Indian  fancies  and  traditions 
and  legends  which  are  associated  with  our  island. 
It  is  interesting,  too,  to  note  how  the  legends  and 
the  mythology  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,  coining  over  the 
waters  from  the  sunrise  in  the  east,  he  would  touch 
the  beach  at  the  foot  of  Arch  Rock;  that  the  large 


LEGENDARY.  11 

mass  of  stone  which  had  fallen  from  the  face  of  the 
cliff  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  in  stately  step  to  "Sugar  Loaf," 
which  in  fancy  they  made  to  be  his  wigwam,  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.  Ignace 
and  in  different  parts  of  the  northern  peninsula,  and 
yet  others  which  formerly  stood  on  the  island — 
that  these  strange,  uncanny  looking  rock  forma- 
tions, by  a  modification  of  fancy,  they  would 
personify  with  great  giants  or  monsters  who  tower- 
ed over  them  as  sentinels  to  note  whether  they 
made  due  offerings  and  sacrifices  to  Manitou,  their 
success  in  the  hunting  and  trapping  being  condi- 
tioned on  this  kind  of  religious  fidelity.* 

The  Indians,  so  spontaneously  recognizing  the 
world  of  spirits,  were  fruitful  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 

♦Schoolcraft  noted  a  curious  fact  among  the  Chippewas— that  they 
fancied  the  woods  and  shores  and  islands  were  inhabited  by  innumerable 
spirits  who  during  the  summer  season  were  wakeful  and  quick  to  hear 
everything  that  was  spoken,  but  during  the  winter  existed  only  in  a 
torpid  state.    The  Indian  story  tellers  and  legend-mongers  were  there- 
fore very  free  in  amusing  their  listeners  with  fanciful  and  mysterious 
tales  during  the  winter,  as  the  spirits  were  then  in  a  state  of  inactivity  V  vAxj  o. 
and  could  not  hear.    But  their  story  telling  was  suspended  the  moment   ^*  <k«\\*^ 
the  piping  of  the  frog  announced  that  spring  had  opened.    That  he  had     ^o^  Vj<t-c\ 
endeavored,   but  in  vain,   to  get  any  of  them  to  relate  this   sort   of        v*.,,.*^ 
imaginary  lore  at  any  other  time  than  in  the  winter.    They  would  always    >•*«   <j.V,Sn 
evade  his  attempts  by  some  easy  or  indifferent  remark.  ^J^S  ~*>y* 


12  EARLY   MACKINAC. 

words  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  or  un- 
couth looking  objects  of  nature — while  our  white 
pioneers  and  prospecting  miners  and  avanl  couriers 
of  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  Scuttle-hole,'' and  such  like,  the  Indians 
generally  gave  them  some  expressive  and  harmoni- 
ous 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  was  told  by  an  old  resident  who  had  passed 
the  whole  of  an  extremely  long  life  on  the  island,* 
that  once,  long  ago,  ?  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  Niagara  was  "Thunder  of  the  Waters,"  as  that 
for  the  gentle  falls  now  within  the  limits  of  the 
City  of  Minneapolis  was  Minnehaha,  or  "Laughing 
=»  /  Waters."  The  familiar  white  fish  of  these  regions 
L,«^  '  '  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  a  name  which  signified 
the  "Far  off  sight  of  water."  Their  name  for 
General  Wayne,  who  did  so  much  to  overthrow 

♦Ignace  Pelotte,  died  Ftb.  1897. 


c- 


POETIC  VEIN  13 

their  power  in  the  west,  was  "Strong  Wind;"  while 
the  American  soldiers  from  their  use  of  the  sabre 
and  sword  in  battle,  were  kno\*n  as  the  "Long 
Knives."  Their  conception  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."  A  little  son  of  Mr. 
Schoolcraft,  when  he  was  Government  agent  at  the 
Sault,  was  admiringly  called  by  the  Chippewas, 
Penaci,  or  "The  Bird;"  and  the  English  authoress, 
Mrs.  Jameson,  when  visiting  there,  after  "shooting 
the  rapids"  with  the  Indian  guides,  was  re-named 
'  'The  woman  of  the  Bright  Foam. ' '  As  their  whole 
life  and  range  of  observation  was  constantly  asso- 
ciated with  tempests,  forests,  waters  and  skies,  and 
all  the  various  phenomena  of  physical  nature,  this 
gave  shape  to  their  conceptions  and  their  question- 
ings. It  has  always  seemed  very  significant  that 
when  John  Eliot,  the  pioneer  missionary  to  the 
Indians  in  New  England,  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ago,  began  his  instructions  among  them,  he 
wTas  met  at  once  by  their  eager  and  long  pent-up 
questions  of  wonder:  "What  makes  the  sea  ebb 
and  flow?"  "What  makes  the  wind  blow?"  "What 
makes  the  thunder?" 

Parkman  represents  the  Jesuit  missionaries 
in  Canada,  two  centuries  since,  as  testifying  that 
the  Indians  had  a  more  acute  intellect  than  the 
peasantry  in  Prance.  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. 
Many  reasons,  or  causes,  might  be  assigned  for 


14  EARLY   MACKINAC. 

this.  One  reason  is  that  which  was  given  by  a 
very  thoughtful  Indian  in  a  speech  on  a  certain 
occasion  long  ago,  before  a  company  of  government 
agents  here  on  our  island  beach.  Said  he,  very 
n  flectively :  "The  white  man  no  sooner  came  than 
he  thought  of  preparing  the  way  for  his  posterity; 
(he  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, 
reference  is  had  to  manifestations  of  their  mental 
character  as  seen  in  earlier  days,  and  not  to  Indian 
life  of  the  present,  as  seen  in  the  western  reserva- 
tions.* 

*Catlin,  who  ranks  next  to  Schoolcraft  in  his  study  of  the  Indians,  In 
an  extensive  classification  of  qualities,  contrasts  their  original  character 
in  their  "primitive  and  disabused  state"  with  their  secondary  character 
after  "being  beaten  into  a  sort  of  civilization."  From  being  handsome 
he  says  they  had  become  ugly;  from  free,  enslaved;  from  affable,  re- 
served; from  bold,  timid;  from  warlike,  peaceable;  from  proud,  humble; 
from  independent,  dependent;  from  healthy,  sickly;  from  sober, 
drunken;  from  increasing,  decreasing;  from  landholders,  beggars. 


CHAPTER  II. 

The  annals  of  our  island  since  its  discovery 
and  occupation  by  the  whites  carry  us  back  to  an 
early  day.  Explorers  from  France  and  settlers 
from  Canada  were  here  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ago.  Traces  of  French  and  Indian  mixture 
are  everywhere  seen.  Indian  wars  and  massacres 
have  reddened  these  shores.  Stories  of  English 
power  victorious  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  headquarters  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  commerce  in  the  western  country.  *  Christianity, 
too,  has  had  here  its  early  enterprises,  at  the 
hands  first  of  the  French  Jesuit  missionaries  of  the 
17th  Century,  and  afterwards  of  Protestantism. 

In  regard  to  early  military  annals,  history 
points  to  the  fact  that  with  the  exception  of  the 
brief  abandonment  by  the  French  forces  from  about 
1701  to  1714,  this  region  of  the  straits  had  been  a 
seat  of  continuous  military  occupation   from  the 

♦Detroit,  Vincennes.  St.  Louis,  Lake  Winnipeg,  Lake  of  the  Woods, 
and  other  far  distant  points  were  but  dependencies  of  Michilimackinac, 
as  the  metropolis  of  the  Indian  trade. 

15 


16  EARLY   MACKINAC. 

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  Hags  have 
floated  over  a  fort  in  these  Straits  of  Mackinaw 
during  this  long  period  past.  These  have  been  in 
the  order  of  French,  English  and  American.  The 
French  were  the  pioneers.  They  established  Fort 
Michilimackinac,  over  where  now  the  town  of  St. 
lgnace  stands,  four  miles  across  on  the  northern 
peninsula.  This  was  about  two  hundred  and 
twenty-five  years  ago. 

Baron  La  Hontan,  who  had  come  from  France 
to  Canada  at  an  early  age  and  afterwards  became 
Lord  Lieutenant  of  a  French  Colony  in  Newfound- 
land, visited  our  Mackinac  neighborhood  in  1688. 
In  a  publication  of  his  travels  in  North  America  he 
gives  three  letters  from  the  Michilimakiuac  settle- 
ment of  that  day.  *  As  accompanying  his  picture 
on  the  adjoining  page  he  thus  writes:  '-You  can 
scarce  believe  what  vast  sholes  of  white  fish  are 
catched  about  the  middle  of  the  channel,  between 
the  continent  and  the  isle  of  Missilimakinac.  The 
Outaouasf  and  the  Hurons  could  never  subsist 
here,  without  that  fishery;  for  they  are  obliged  to 
travel  about  twenty  leagues  in  the  woods  before 
they  can  kill  any  harts  or  elks,  and  it  Avould  be  an 
infinite  fatigue  to  carry  their  carcasses  so  far  over 
land.  This  sort  of  white  fish,  in  my  opinion,  is  1  lie 
only  one  in  all  these  lakes  that  can  be  called  good; 

♦The  book  was  first  published  in  French,  1705.    Afterwards  an  en- 
larged edition  appeared  in  English  form,  1735. 
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LA  hontan's  letter.  17 

and  indeed  it  goes  oeyond  all  other  sorts  of  river 
fi.sh.  Above  all,  it  has  one  singular  property, 
namely,  that  all  sorts  of  sauces  spoil  it,  so  that  it 
is  always  eat  either  boiled  or  broiled,  without  any 
manner  of  seasoning. 

"In  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  northward;  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 
points  of  the  compass,  i.  e.,  sometimes  in  one  way, 
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 
winter  as  well  as  in  summer. 

''The  Outaouas  and  the  Huron s  have  very 
pleasant  fields,  in  which  they  sow  Indian  corn, 
pease  and  beans,  besides  a  sort  of  citruls  and 
melons.  Sometimes  the&e  savages  sell  their  corn 
very  dear,  especially  when  the  beaver  hunting 
happens  not  to  take  well;  upon  which  occasion 
they  make  sufficient  reprisals  upon  us  for  the  ex;* 
truvagant  price  of  our  commodities. " 


18  EARLY   MACKINAC. 

For  a  short  interval  the  French  Government, 
under  the  instigation  of  the  post  Commander, 
Cadillac,  withdrew  the  garrison  (as  already  men- 
tioned) and  abandoned  this  region  as  a  military 
seat,  in  favor  of  the  new  settlement  at  Detroit. 
That  was  about  the  opening  of  last  century.  But 
this  vacating  was  soon  seen  to  be  bad  policy,  and 
in  1714  the  fort  was  re-established.  "When,  how- 
ever, the  restored  fort  becomes  known  again  in 
history  it  is  found  located  on  the  Southern  Penin- 
sula, across  the  Straits,  where  now  stands  the 
railroad  town,  Mackinaw  City.  Whether  on  the 
return  from  Detroit  the  military  at  once  located  the 
fort  there,  or  first  resumed  the  old  site  at  St. 
Ignace,  and  removed  to  the  other  Peninsula  at  some 
later  period,  is  not  definitely  known.  At  any  rate 
it  was  the  same  mHitary  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  southwesterly  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 
Abraham  in  1759,  all  this  country  around  came  un- 
der the  English  flag.  The  Indians,  however,  liked 
better  the  French  dominion  and  their  personal  re- 
lations with  the  French  people  than  they  did  the 
English  sway  and  English  associations,  and  they 
did  not  take  kindly  to  the  transfer.     One  reason 


PONTIAC'S   CONSPIRACY.  19 

for  this  preference  is  said  to  have  been  that  the 
French  were  accustomed  to  pay  respect  to  all  the 
Indians'  religious  or  superstitious  observances, 
whereas  an  Englishman  or  an  American  was  apt, 
either  to  take  no  pains  to  conceal  his  contempt  for 
their  superstitions  or  to  speak  out  bluntly  against 
them.  To  this  can  be  added  the  well  known  fact  of 
the  greater  readiness  of  the  French  to  intermarry 
and  domesticate  with  the  Indian.* 

This  strong  feeling  of  discontent  under  the 
change  of  empire,  on  the  part  of  the  Indians,  was 
fanned  and  skillfully  directed  by  that  great  leader 
and  diplomate,  Pontiac  ;f  and  "The  Conspiracy  of 
Pontiac"  is  the  well-known  title  of  one  of  Park- 
man's  series  of  North  American  history.  This 
conspiracy  was  no  less  than  a  deep  and  compre- 
hensive scheme,  matured  by  this  most  crafty 
savage  chief,  for  a  general  Indian  rising,  in  which 
all  English  forts,  from  the  south  to  the  upper 
lakes,  were  to  be  attacked  simultaneously,  and  the 
English  rule  forever  destroyed.  The  Indians  would 
vauntingly  say,  '  'You  have  conquered  the  French, 
but  you  have  not  conquered  us."  Out  of  twelve 
forts,  nine  were  taken,  but  not  long  held. 


*  "When  the  French  arrived  at  this  place,"  said  a  Chippewa  Chief  at 
a  council  once  held  at  the  Sault,  "they  came  and  kissed  us.  They  called 
us  children  and  we  found  them  fathers.  We  lived  like  brothers  in  the 
same  lodge."— Schoolcraft,  in  an  address  before  the  Michigan  Historical 
Society  in  1830. 

"In  force  of  character,  subtlety,  eloquence  and  daring,  Pontiac 
was  perhaps  the  most  brilliant  man  the  Indians  of  North  America  have 
produced."—"^.  History  of  Canada ,' ■  by  Chas.  G.  D.Roberts.  Schoolcraft 
rated  him  in  the  same  way.  Drake,  in  his  "Indians  of  the  Northwest,' 
says  of  him:  "His  fame  in  his  time  was  not  confined  to  his  own  continents 
but  the  gazettes  of  Europe  spread  it  also." 


20  EARLY  MACKINAC. 

While  this  scheme  was,  of  course,  a  failure  in 
its  larger  features,  the  plot  against  the  old  post  of 
Miehilimackinac  across  the  water  succeeded  only 
too  well.  The  strategy  and  horrors  of  that  capture 
read  like  a  tale  of  fiction.  The  story  is  old,  but  to 
repeat  it  in  this  sketch  will  not  be  amiss.  It  may 
be  introduced  under  the  title  of 

AN   HISTORIC  BALL    GAME. 

In  1763  a  band  of  thirty -five  English  soldiers 
and  their  officers  formed  its  garrison.  Encamped 
in  the  woods  not  far  off  was  a  large  number  of  In- 
dians. One  morning  in  the  month  of  June,  with 
great  show  of  friendliness,  the  Indians  invited  the 
soldiers  to  witness  their  match  game  of  ball,  just 
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  celebra- 
ting mood,  some  indulgence  was  shown,  discipline 
for  a  time  relaxed,  gates  were  left  ajar  and  the 
soldiers  and  officers  carelessly  sauntered  and  look- 
ed on,  enjoying  the  sport.  In  the  course  of  play, 
and  as  a  part  of  the  pre-concerted  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  terrifying 
"whoop"  was  given.  The  squaws,  as  sharing  in 
the  plot,  were  standing  near  with  tomahawks  con- 
cealed under  their  blankets.     These  were  seized, 

*Baggatlway  was  their  kind  of  ball  game, 


Alexander  henry.  2l 

and  then  followed  a  most  shocking-  massacre.  The 
surprise  of  the  fort  and  the  success  of  the  red  men 
were  complete. 

The  details  of  this  dreadful  event  are  vivid- 
ly and  harrowingly  given  by  the  English  trader, 
Alexander  Henry,  sojourning  at  the  time,  with  his 
goods,  within  the  stockade,  and  who  was  a  partici- 
pant in  the  dreadful  scenes  and  experiences.  The 
humble  Henry  may  well  be  called  the  Father  of 
History,  like  another  Herodotus,  as  far  as  this 
episode  is  concerned.  Excepting  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  descrip- 
tion of  the  stratagem  and  its  success,  and  the  terri- 
ble scenes  enacted,  is  the  chief  source  of  informa- 
tion; and  one  can  take  up  no  history  of  this  period 
and  this  locality  without  seeing  how  all  writers  are 
indebted  to  his  plain  and  simple  narrative. 

When  the  fort  was  captured  by  the  savages, 
he  himself  was  hidden  for  the  first  night  out  of 
their  murderous  reach,  but  was  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  impending,  the  suspense  in  which  made 
his  sensations,  if  possible,  only  the  more  distress- 
ful and  torturing.  It  was  not  enough  that  his 
goods  were  confiscated  and  his  very  clothes  strip- 
ped off  his  body,  but  his  savage  captors  thirsted 


22  EARLY   MACKINAC. 

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  horrors 
there  came  a  turn  which  Henry  says  gave  "a  new 
color  to  my  lot.  "  During  his  residence  at  the  post 
before  the  massacre,  a  certain  Chippewa  Indian 
named  Wawatam,  who  used  to  come  frequently  to 
his  house,  had  become  very  friendly  and  told  him 
that  the  Great  Spirit  pointed  him  out  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  the  chiefs  he  asked  the  release  of  his 
brother,  the  trader,  at  the  same  time  laying  down 
presents  to  buy  off  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 
where  he  received  the  utmost  kindness. 

A  day  or  two  afterwards,  fearing  an  attack  of 
retaliation  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  hun- 
dred 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  invoice  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  pro- 
tect him  when  the  Indians  were  in  liquor,  and 
besides,  as  he  frankly  confessed,   "he  could  not 


ALEXANDER   HENRY.  23 

himself  resist  the  temptation  of  joining1  his  com- 
rades in  the  debauch."  He-therefore  took  him  up 
the  hill  and  back  in  the  woods,  and  hid  him  in  a 
cave,  where  he  was  to  remain  hidden  "until  the 
liquor  should  be  drank."  After  an  uncomfortable 
and  unrestful  night,  Henry  discovered  next  morn- 
ing, to  his  horror,  that  he  had  been  lying  on  a  heap 
of  human  bones  and  skulls.  This  charnel-house 
retreat  is  now  the  well-known  "Skull  Cave"  of  the 
Island,  one  of  the  regular  stopping  places  of  the 
tourists'  carriages. 

But  we  cannot  follow  trader  Henry's  fortunes 
farther.  In  a  relation  between  guest  and  prisoner, 
and  generally  treated  with  respect,  moving  with 
the  band  from  one  place  to  another,  following  the 
occupation  of  a  hunter,  and  taking  up  with  Indian 
life  and  almost  fascinated  by  it,  he  at  length  finds 
himself  at  the  Sault,  where  soon  an  opportunity 
opened  for  his  deliverance  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  af  terwards  became  blind  and  was  accidental- 
lyburned  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 
respect  to  Henry's  thrilling  tale.  But  there  is 
reason  to  think  it  entirely  trustworthy.  It  is  con- 
tained in  a  book  which  he  wrote,  entitled  "Travels 
and  Adventures  in  Canada  and  the  Indian  Terri- 
tories, between  1760  and  1766."    It  was  first  pub- 


24  EARLY  MACKINAC. 

lished  in  1808,  and  is  dedicated  to  Sir  Joseph 
Banks,  "Baronet  of  his  Majesty's  Privy  Council 
and  President  of  the  Royal  Society."  Some  copies 
contain  the  author's  portrait.  It  has  long  been 
out  of  print,  and  copies  of  it  to-day  are  very  rare 
and  command  a  high  price.  Mr.  Henry'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  enthu- 
siastic 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  rela- 
tion to  the  Michilimackinac  shores  and  waters 
which  the  Odyssey  does  to  the  shores  of  Sicily.* 

•The  chronological  order  in  which  early  travelers  and  visitors,  who 
have  left  any  annals  of  their  journeys,  came  to  this  region,  may  be 
stated  as  follows:  Niccollet,  in  1634;  Marquette,  1(571:  L,aSalle  and 
Hennepin.  1079:  L.aHontan.  1088;  Charlevoix,  1721;  Alexander  Henry.  1702: 
Capt.  John  Carver,  1766. 


CHAPTER  III. 

The  victory  of  the  Indians  over  at  the  old  fort 
on  the  Southern  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, 
however,  the  question  of  transferring  the  military 
seat  of  the  Michilimackinac  region  across  the 
Straits  to  our  island  came  up,  and  was  duly  con- 
sidered. Major  Sinclair  made  a  careful  prelimi- 
nary examination.  In  a  letter  written  in  October, 
1779,  he  says:  "I  employed  three  days  from  sun  to 
sun  in  examining  the  Island  of  Mackinac,  on  which 
I  found  great  quantities  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  abundance  of  lime- 
stone. *  *  The  situation  is  respectable,  and  con 
venient  for  a  fort."  He  also  mentions  that  he 
found  on  the  island  "a  run  of  water,  sufficient  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  whose 
headquarters  were  at  Quebec.  The  superiority  of 
the  island,  as  a  strong  position  against  Indian 
attacks,  and  Indian  threats  and  insults,  was  pointed 

85 


26  EARLY  MACKINAC. 

out;  also  its  advantages  in  having  one  of  the  best 
harbors  in  the  upper  country,  and  as  respects  the 
fishing  interests  likewise.  It  is  thought,  too, 
that  the  transfer  was  somewhat  connected,  in  the 
British  mind,  with  the  American  war  of  the  Revo- 
lution, which  was  then  in  progress.  Sinclair  spoke 
of  the  "liability  of  being  attacked  by  the  Rebels," 
at  the  old  fort,  and  that  the  place  might  "justly  be 
looked  upon  as  the  object  of  a  separate  expedi- 
tion." As  a  precautionary  measure,  he  made  every 
trader  take  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  king,  and  to 
hold  in  "detestation  and  abhorrence  the  present 
unnatural  and  horrid  rebellion."  At  any  rate,  the 
garrison  did  not  feel  safe  in  a  mere  stockade  of 
timbers  on  the  mainland.  Gen.  Haldimand  ac- 
cordingly gave  orders  for  the  removal.  The  fol- 
lowing 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.* 

"Sir — Having  long  thought  it  would  be  expedi- 
ent to  remove  the  fort,  etc.,  from  its  present 
situation  to  the  Island  of  Michiliinackinac,  and 
being  encouraged  in  this  undertaking  by  advanta- 
ges enumerated  by  Lt.  Gov.  Sinclair,  that  must 
result  from  it,  and  the  earnest  desire  of  the  traders, 


♦Major  DePeyster  was  of  American  birth,  and  had  served  in  the 
British  army  in  various  parts  of  this  country,  besides  commanding  at 
Mackinac,  and  afterwards  at  Detroit.  He  held  a  commission  for  77 
years,  and  lived  to  the  age  of  98.  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, 


REMOVAL  TO  THE   ISLAND.  27 

I  have  given  directions  that  necessary  preparations, 
by  collecting  materials,  etc.,  be  made  with  as  much 
expedition  as  possible,  as  the  strength  of  that  post 
will  admit  of.  I  am  sure  it  is  unnecessary  to 
recommend  to  you  to  furnish  him  every  assistance 
he  may  require,  and  that  Detroit  can  afford,  in  for- 
warding this  work,  farther  than  by  giving  you  mv 
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 
village;  the  old  block  houses  were  built,  and  His 
Majesty's  troops  took  possession  on  the  13th  of 
July,  1780,  Major  Sinclair  commanding,  though 
the  entire  removal  was  only  gradually  effected. 

The  Indians,  as  proprietors  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  Governor  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  trans- 
action. 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  vessel  was  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 


28  EARLY  MACKINAC. 

cannon's  mouth  at  once  settled  the  question,  and 
the  poor  Indians  had  no  more  to  say. 

The  old  site  being  abandoned  (since  when  it  is 
often  referred  to  as  "Old  Mackinaw." )  and  the 
garrison  removed,  the  families  of  the  little  settle- 
ment, could  not  do  otherwise  than  follow  the  fort. 
Many  of  the  houses  were  taken  down  and  trans- 
ported piecemeal  across  the  straits,  and  set  up 
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  compensate  for  the  loss  and  ex- 
pense incurred,  on  the  ground  that  their  removal 
was  in  the  interest  of  the  State  and  the  public  wel- 
fare. What  response  was  made  to  this  petition  I 
have  found  no  record  which  tells. 

The  first  commandant  of  the  island.  Major 
Sinclair,  was  also  known  as  Lieutenant  Governor. 
It  appears  that  he  had  been  appointed  inspector 
and  superintendent  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  fre- 
quently spoken  of  in  the  records  as  Gov.  Sinclair,  as 
well  as  Major.  It  seems  to  have  been  on  this  ac- 
count, as  an  officer  with  a  more  embracing  scope, 
rather  than  as  of  higher  military  rank,  that  he 
superseded  Major  DePeyster,  in  command  at  old 
Mackinac,  in  1779.  After  the  transfer  he  remain- 
ed two  years  in  charge  of  the  new  post.  Sinclair 
appears,  from  the  style  of  his  letters  and  reports,  a 
more  cultured  and  better  educated  man  than  some 
of  his  cotemporaries  among  the  officers  of  that 


CAPTAIN   ROBERTSON.  29 

period.  But  his  services  as  a  post  commandant 
and  general  manager  of  affairs,  seem  to  have  been 
unsatisfactory,  because  of  his  lavish  expenditures, 
and  because  of  "abuses  and  neglects  in  different 
shapes,  "  as  it  was  said.  He  was  continually  being 
cautioned  from  headquarters  in  regard  to  his 
financial  transactions.  For  half  a  century  and 
more,  after  he  left  the  post,  the  inhabitants  con- 
tinued 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  reck- 
lessness in  expenditure  while  on  the  island  led  to 
his  imprisonment  for  debt.  He  speaks  himself,  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 
Folly ''  cease  to  be  visited  and  talked  about? 

The  official  annals  of  that  time  show  a  great 
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  orthogra- 
phy, prosaic  and  practical,  and  perhaps  not  quite 
fulfilling  the  sentimental  and  romantic  ideal  which 


oO  EARLY  MACKINAC. 

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  contour  of  the  island  and  the  location 
of  the  fort,  and  the  harbor  bearing  the  name, 
"Haldimand's  Bay,"  named,  presumably,  in  honor 
of  the  English  commander  of  the  province.*  In  a 
letter  of  April,  1783,  the  Captain  commends  the 
climate  of  Mackinac  as  "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  Indian's  God. "  And  yet  again  he  pours  forth 
his  complaint:  "Rum  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  re- 
lations of  the  whites  and   the  military   with  the 

♦The  name  was  evidently  given  up  after  the  Island  changed  Its  flag 
In  the  early  days,  subsequent,  It  was  familiarly  designated  by  the  island 
people  as  'The  Basin." 


THE    FORT    GRADUALLY   BUILT.  31 

Indians.  We  find  Major  Sinclair,  his  predecessor, 
as  commandant  of  the  fort,  writing  to  General 
Haldimand  in  1781,  as  follows:  "The  Indians  can- 
not be  deprived  of  nearly  their  usual  quantity  of 
rum,  however  destructive  it  is,  without  creating 
much  discontent."  There  is  a  sad  vein  running 
through  all  this  early  history,  made  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."* 

Robertson,  (Robinson)  was  in  command  from 
1782  to  1787.  There  are  intimations  of  his  having 
been  disapproved  at  Gen.  Haldimand's  head- 
quarters. Captain  Scott  succeeded  him — "sent  in 
the  room  of  Robertson,"  as  the  record  reads.  It  is 
reported  of  Scott,  that  '  'he  gained  infinite  credit 
at  Mackinac  but,  poor  fellow,  his  pocket  had  paid 
for  it."  He  was  followed  by  Captain  Doyle,  who 
seems  to  have  remained  in  command  of  the  post 
until  its  delivery  to  the  United  States. 

The  fort  was  not  built  complete  at  once,  but 
gradually  took  on  its  dimensions  and  its  strength. 
In  1789,  after  an  inspection  by  the  Engineer's 
Department,  the  fortifications,  as  originally  design- 
ed, were  reported  as  being  only  in  part  executed, 
and  that  the  work  had  been  discontinued  for  some 

*H.  M.  Robinson  in  his  interesting  book,  'The  Great  Fur  Lund," 
descriptive  of  the  regions  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  says  of  the 
Indians  liquor,  "It  must  be  strong  enough  to  be  inflammable,  for  he 
always  tests  it  by  pouring  a  few  drops  in  the  fire." 

"The  effects  of  ardent  spirits  in  the  lodge,  are  equal  to  the  appear- 
ance of  a  grizzly  bear  amongst  them.  "— Schoolcraft. 


.32  EARLY   MACKINAC. 

years,  and  that  in  the  mean  time  a  strong  picket- 
ing 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  whole 
design  of  the  fort.)  And  yet  again,  in  1793,  the 
commandant.  Captain  Doyle,  writes  concerning  tin 
"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  re- 
ceived orders  from  His  Excellency,  Maj.  Gen. 
Clarke,  to  that  purpose;"  also  asking  for  "an 
engineer  and  some  artificers  to  render  the  misera- 
ble fortress  in  some  degree  tenable  " 

It  is  not  a  fort  of  to-day's  construction.  It  is 
a  military  structure  of  a  century  ago,  a  memento 
of  the  past,  and  replete  in  historic  reminiscence. 
As  a  fortification,  it  is  a  curious  mixture  of  Ameri- 
can frontier  post  and  old-world  castle.  Its  thick 
walls  and  sally-ports,  and  bastions  and  ditch, 
along  with  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  overlooking  old  "officer's  quar- 
ters"— all  this  makes  it  a  striking  and  picturesque 
object,  a  sort  of  mountain  fortress,  and  certainly 
something  unique  in  this  country. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Although  the  war  of  the  Revolution  had  been 
fought,  arid  American  independence  acknowledged; 
and  the  Treaty  of  Paris  in  1783  had  secured  all  this 
upper  lake  country  on  the  same  boundary  lines  as 
we  have  them  to-day,  yet  it  was  thirteen  years 
afterwards  before  the  American  flag  floated  over 
the  island  fort.  It  was  the  same  also  in  respect  to 
four  or  five  other  posts  which  were  situated  on  the 
American  side  of  the  lakes.  Washington,  then 
President,  sent  Baron  Steuben  to  Gen.  Haldimand, 
commissioned  to  receive  them;  but  Haldimand  re- 
plied he  had  no  instructions  from  his  government 
to  make  the  delivery,  and  that  he  could  not  even 
discuss  the  subject.  The  Government,  too,  by 
John  Adams,  our  minister  to  England,  had  insisted 
on  the  same,  but  without  effect.  England  urged 
in  explanation  of  her  course,  that  it  was  due  to  an 
imperfect  fulfillment  on  our  side  of  some  of  the 
treaty  stipulations.  It  required  another  treaty 
(this  matter,  however,  being  only  one  of  many 
points  embraced  in  it)  before  the  tardy  transfer  of 
these  stations  on  the  confines  was  effected.  It  was 
then  agreed  that  on  June  1st,  1796,  they  should 
be  evacuated  by  the  English.  Owing  to  delays  on 
the  part  of  Congress,  our  occupation  of  the  posts 
was  deferred  beyond  that  date.  As  Washington 
said  in  his  address  to  Congress,  December,  1796: 

£3 


34  EARLY   MACKINAC. 

"The  period  during  the  late  session,  at  which  the 
appropriation  was  passed  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  with  propriety  on  the  subject, 
arrangements  were  cordially  and  promptly  con- 
cluded for  their  evacuation,  and  the  United  States 
took  possession  of  them,  comprehending  Oswego, 
Niagara, Detroit,  MichilimackinacandFt.  Miami."* 
In  the  case  of  Fort  Mackinac,  it  was  not  until 
October  2nd,  of  that  year,  that  the  actual  transfer 
was  made. 

But,  besides  negotiating  with  the  English  in 
the  recovery  of  Mackinac,  the  American  govern- 
ment had  to  deal  with  another  class  of  proprietors 
— the  original  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  Greenville)  was  made  in  August,  1795, 
by  which  "a  tract  of  land  was  ceded  on  the  main, 
to  the  north  of  the  island  on  which  the  post  of 
M  ichilimackinac  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."  f  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. 

♦American  State  Papers.   tHolmes'  American  Annals,  Vol.  2,  p.  402. 


REPAIRS   ORDERED.  35 

Perhaps  the  unfinished  state  of  the  post,  as 
reported  in  1792,  and  the  complaint  made  of  its 
condition  in  1793,  and  its  sore  need  of  repairs, 
(referred  to  above),  may  be  explained  on  the 
ground  that  the  English  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  expenditure  on  it. 
In  fact,  we  find  Captain  Robertson  saying  in  a 
letter,  as  early  as  1784,  that  in  compliance  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  traders, 
surrounded  as  I  am  by  a  great  number  of  Indians 
not  in  the  best  humor. "  It  is  probable,  therefore, 
that  when  at  length  it  came  into  our  hands  it  was  in 
need  of  considerable  attention,  for  we  find  Washing- 
ton, in  the  same  address  to  Congress  just  quoted 
from,  saying  of  these  posts  that  "such  repairs  and 
additions  had  been  ordered  as  appeared  indispen- 
sable."* It  is  also  probable  that  the  American 
force  sent  to  occupy  the  post  at  the  departure  of 
the  British  soldiers  was  quite  imposing,  as  we  have 
Timothy  Pickering,  Washington's  Secretary  of 
War,  in  his  report  of  February,  1796,  saying:  "To 
appear  respectable  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  effects. "  *     Accordingly,    the 

♦American  State  Papers. 


36  EARLY   MACKINAC. 

first  detachment  to  occupy  Mackinac,  as  an  Ameri- 
can garrison,  consisted  of  four  officers,  one  com- 
pany of  Artillery  and  Engineers,  and  one  company 
of  Infantry,  Major  Henry  Burback  being  in  com- 
mand 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 
succeeding.  It  soon  became,  however,  a  great 
commercial  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. 
Later  many  of  those  engaged  in  it  combined,  and 
about  1787  formed  the  famous  "Northwest  Com- 
pany, **  which  became  a  most  powerful  organization, 
and  which  "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."  Its  headquarters  was  Fort 
William,  on  Lake  Superior,  and  the  fields  of 
operation  lay  principally  in  far  northern  latitudes. 
The  success  of  this  company  led  to  similar  enter- 
prises in  the  territory  lying  south  and  west,  with 
our  island  as  the  head-center.  There  was  a 
"Mackinaw  Company,"  and  a  "Southwestern 
Company,"  which,  uniting  under  John  Jacob  Astor, 
became  the  "American  Fur  Company."  This, 
together  with  other  lines  of  traffic  which  it  stimu- 
lated, made  the  island  for  many  years  a  great  com- 
mercial seat.    It  is  reported,  for  instance,  for  the 


WASHINGTON    IRVING'S  SKETCH.  37 

year  1804,  that  the  goods  entered  at  the  Mackinac 
Custom  House  yielded  a  revenue  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  archi- 
tecture 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  northwest  and  the  head 
waters  of  the  Missouri,  in  the  interest  of  Mr. 
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  more  goods  and  to  engage  more  recruits. 
Irving  thus  describes  the  place: 

"It  was  not  until  the  22nd  of  July  that  they 
arrived  at  Mackinaw,  situated  on  the  island  of  the 
same  name,  at  the  confluence  of  Lakes  Huron  and 
Michigan.  This  famous  old  French  trading  post 
continued  to  be  a  rallying  point  for  a  multifarious 
and  motley  population.      The  inhabitants    were 


38  EARLY   MACKINAC. 

amphibious  in  their  habits,  most  of  them  being  or 
having  been  voyageurs  or  canoe- men.  It  was  the 
great  place  of  arrival  and  departure  of  the  south- 
west fur  trade.  Here  the  Mackinaw  Company  had 
established  its  principal  post,  from  whence  it  com- 
municated with  the  interior  and  with  Montreal. 
Hence  its  various  traders  and  trappers  set  out  for 
their  respective  destinations  about  Lake  Superior 
and  its  tributary  waters,  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  Montreal. 
Mackinaw  was,  therefore,  for  a  great  part  of  the 
year,  very  scantily  peopled;  but  at  certain  seasons, 
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  pub- 
lie  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  the  booths 
and  cabins,  buying  all  kinds  of  knick-knacks, 
dressing  themselves  out  finely,  and  parading  up 
and  down,  like  arrant  braggarts  and  coxcombs. 
Sometimes  they  met  with  rival  coxcombs  in  the 
young  Indians  from  the  opposite  shore,  who  would 


WASHINGTON  IRVING'S  SKETCH.  39 

appear  on  the  beaeh,  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. 

"Now  and  then  a  chance  party  of  'North- 
westers' appeared  at  Mackinaw  from  the  rendez- 
vous at  Fort  William.  These  held  themselves  up 
as  the  chivalry  of  the  fur  trade.  They  were  men 
of  iron,  proof  against  cold  weather,  hard  fare,  and 
perils  of  all  kinds.  Some  would  wear  the  north- 
west button,  and  a  formidable  dirk,  and  assume 
something  of  a  military  air.  They  generally  wore 
feathers  in  their  hats,  and  affected  the  'brave. ' 
'Jesuis  un  homme  du  nord!"' — 'I  am  a  man  of  the 
north, '  one  of  these  swelling  fellows  would  exclaim, 
sticking  his  arms  akimbo  and  ruffling  by  the  South- 
westers,  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-glorious  name  of  'pork  eaters.'  *  * 
The  little  cabarets  and  sutlers'  shops  along  the 
bay  resounded  with  the  scraping  of  fiddles,  with 
snatches  of  old  French  songs,  with  Indian  whoops 
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,  would  be  the  most  likely  to  see. 
Although  the  resident  population  was  very  small, 
there  were,  at  the  same  time,  the  families  of 
settled  homes,   and  with  the  social  interests  and 


40  EARLY  MACKINAC. 

sympathies  and  pleasures  common  to  American 
village  life — subject  of  course  to  many  inconven- 
iences and  privations  incident  to  their  remoteness 
in  a  wilderness  world.  I  find  a  pleasing  descrip- 
tion written  by  a  lady,  who  was  taken  to  the  island 
when  a  child,  in  the  year  1812,  just  before  the 
war  opened  and  who  spent  the  years  of  her  girlhood 
there.  * 

The  houses  of  the  village  at  that  time,  she 
says,  were  few,  quaint  and  old.  Every  house  had 
its  garden  enclosed  with  cedar  pickets.  These  were 
kept  whitewashed,  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 
was  all  that  was  needed,  as  there  were  no  vehicles 
of  any  description,  except  dog-trains  or  sleds  in 
the  winter.  There  were  no  schools,  no  physician, 
and  no  resident  minister  of  religion.  Occasionally 
a  priest  would  come  on  visitation  to  the  Catholic 
flock.  In  winter  the  isolation  was  complete. 
Navigation  closed  usually  by  the  middle  of  October, 
and  about  eight  months  were  passed  in  seclusion 
from  the  outer  world.  The  mail  came  once  a  month 
"when  it  did  not  miss."  There  were  no  amuse- 
ments other  than  parties.     The  children,  however, 

♦Mrs.  H.  S.  Baird,  who  published  her  Reminiscences  in  a  Green  Bay 
Newspaper,  1882,  and  found  In  the  'Wisconsin  Historical  Collections," 
VoL  9. 


v 


C*£ 


ANOTHER  EARLY  DESCRIPTION.  41 

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  current  it 
would  break  up  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  Le  Caneau  du  Nord  came.  As 
the  canoes  neared  the  town  there  would  come 
floating  on  the  air  the  far-famed  Canadian  boat 
song.  The  voyageurs  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." 


ft  i  a  r  { o 


CHAPTER  V. 

The  year  1812  brought  our  second  war  with 
the  mother  country.  In  it  our  little  island  played 
a  part,  and  indeed  it  may  be  said  to  have  "opened 
the  ball."  The  very  first  scene  of  the  war  was 
enacted  here.  The  two  governments  had  been 
under  strained  relations  for  some  time  before,  and 
on  the  19th  of  June,  of  that  year,  the  state  of  war 
was  declared  by  President  Madison.  It  was  a 
mystery  at  the  time,  and  something  which  excited 
clamor  and,  in  the  frenzy  of  the  hour,  even  insinu- 
ations of  treachery  against  high  officials  at  Wash- 
ington, that  the  English  commanders  in  Canada 
knew  the  fact  so  much  in  advance  of  our  own. 
One  explanation  is  that  our  very  deliberate  Secre- 
tary 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,  com- 
mander of  the  department  of  Michigan,  said  he  did 
not  receive  information  of  the  fact  until  fourteen 
days  after  war  was  declared;  while  General  Brock, 
the  British  commander  opposite,  had  official 
knowledge  of  it  four  or  five  days  sooner.  And 
likewise  Lieutenant  Hanks,  of  our  island  post,  was 
in  blissful  ignorance  of  the  fact,  until  he  saw  the 
British  cannon  planted  in  his  rear,  just  four  weeks 
after  war  had  been  determined  upon. 


THE  FORT  SURPRISED  43 

The  English  officer,  Captain  Roberts,  com- 
manding at  the  Island  of  St.  Joseph,  on  the  near-by 
Canada  border,  had  received  orders  immediately  to 
undertake  the  capture  of  the  strategic  point  of 
Mackinac.  He  gathered  a  force,  consisting  of 
Canadian  militia  (the  English  Fur  Co's  voyageurs 
and  other  employees),  and  a  large  number  of  In- 
dians, besides  having  the  regular  soldiers  of 
the  garrison.  The  expedition  was  admirably 
managed.  An  open  attack  in  front  would  have 
been  impossible  of  success.  So,  secretly  sailing 
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  American  commandant  and  his  little  hand- 
ful 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  impos- 
sible, and  thus  again  the  flag  was  raised  over  its 
walls  that  had  first  floated  there.  Pothier,  an 
agent  of  the  Northwest  Fur  Company,  who  ac- 
companied the  expedition  and  commanded  a  part 
of  the  force,  thus  laconically  reported  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    hundred    and 


44  Early  mackinac. 

twenty  Indians,  exclusive  of  the  garrison.  With 
that  force  we  left  St.  Joseph  on  the  16th,  at  eleven 
o'clock  A.  M. ,  landed  at  Michilimackinac  at  three 
o'clock  the  next  morning,  summoned  the  garrison 
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  ex- 
pedition, but  failed;  that  two  days  after  the  capitu- 
lation, they  came.  But  he  intimates  that  this  band 
was  in  an  undecided  state  of  mind  and  partly  inclin- 
ed 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  guns  was  brought 
up  with  much  difficulty  to  the  heights  above  the 
fort  and  in  readiness  to  open  about  ten  o'clock,  at 
which  time  a  summons  was  sent  in  and  a  capitula- 
tion soon  after  agreed  on.  I  took  immediate 
possession  of  the  fort  and  displayed  the  British 
colors." 

As  presenting  an  American  account  of  the 
surprise  and  capture,  the  official  report  of  Lieut. 
Hanks  is  herewith  given.  It  was  made  to  Gen. 
Hull,  his  commanding  officer,  and  was  issued  from 
Detroit,  whither  the  officers  and  men  of  the  cap- 
tured garrison  had  been  sent  on  parole: 


LIEUT.  HANKS'  REPORT.  45 

"Detroit,  August  12th,  1812. 

"Sir: — I  take  the  earliest  opportunity  to  ac- 
quaint Your  Excellency  of  the  surrender  of  the 
garrison  of  Michilimackinac,  under  my  command, 
to  His  Britannic  Majesty's  forces,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Captain  Charles  Roberts,  on  the  17th 
ultimo,  the  particulars  of  which  are  as  follows: 
On  the  16th,  I  was  informed  by  the  Indian  interpre- 
ter that  he  had  discovered  from  an  Indian,  that  the 
several  nations  of  Indians  then  at  St.  Joseph  (a 
British  garrison,  distant  about  forty  miles)  intend- 
ed to  make  an  immediate  attack  on  Michilimack- 
inac.    *  *  * 

'I  immediately  called  a  meeting  of  the  Ameri- 
can gentlemen  at  that  time  on  the  island,  in  which 
it  was  thought  proper  to  dispatch  a  confidential 
person  to  St.  Joseph,  to  watch  the  motions  of  the 
Indians. 

"Captain  Michael  Dousraan,  of  the  militia,  was 
thought  the  most  suitable  for  this  service.  He 
embarked  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.  He  was  landed  on  the  island  at  daybreak, 
with  positive  directions  to  give  me  no  intelligence 
whatever.  He  was  also  instructed  to  take  the  in- 
habitants 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 
guard,  but  should  they  go  to  the  fort,  they  would 
be  subject  to  a  general  massacre  by  the  savages, 
which  would  be  inevitable  if  the  garrison  fired  a 


46  EARLY    MACKINAC. 

gun.  This  information  I  received  from  Dr.  Day,* 
who  was  passing  through  the  village  when  every 
person  was  flying  for  refuge  to  the  enemy.  I 
immediately,  on  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  possession 
of  the  heights  that  commanded  the  fort,  and  one 
piece  of  their  artillery  directed  to  the  most  defense- 
less 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,  f 
This,  Sir,  was  the  first  information  I  had  of  the 
declaration  of  war.  I,  however,  had  anticipated  it, 
and  was  as  well  prepared  to  meet  such  an  event 
as  I  possibly  could  have  been  with  the  force  under 
my  command,  amounting  to  fifty-seven  effective 
men,  including  officers.  Three  American  gentle- 
men, who  were  prisoners,  were  permitted  to  ac- 
company the  flag.  From  them  I  ascertained  the 
strength  of  the  enemy  to  be  from  nine  hundred  to 

♦The  Post  surgeon. 

tAs  to  the  difference  in  the  hour  which  appears  in  these  three 
official  statements,  it  is  probable  each  writer  had  in  mind  some 
different  stage  of  the  event.  The  question  of  the  surrender  of  the 
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,  ajain,  Captain 
Roberts  may  have  noted  the  time  of  writing  his  demand  at  his  own 
headquarters  and  Lieut.  Hanks  the  time  It  reached  his  hands. 


LIEUT.   HANKS'   REPORT.  47 

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  works,  if 
necessary.*  After  I  had  obtained  this  information 
I  consulted  my  officers,  and  also  the  American 
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  garri- 
son 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  con- 
nected with  it;  and  I  do  further  request,  that  the 
Court  may  be  specially  directed  to  express  their 
opinion  on  the  merits  of  the  case. 

"Porter  Hanks, 
1 'Lieutenant  of  Artillery.'''' 
"His  Excellency  Gen.  Hull, 

"Commanding  the  N.  W.  Army.''' 

It  is  not  necessary  to  discuss  the  question 
whether  the  surrender  at  Fort  Mackinac,  without 
a  show  of  resistance,  was  justifiable.  The  garrison 
was  but  a  handful  of  men.     By  no  fault  of  his,  the 

*A  discrepancy  in  the  estimate  of  troops  as  made  by  opposing  sides, 
especially  in  reports  from  the  battle  field,  is  very  common.  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  voyagrurs  and  regulars  were  concerned,  and  makes 
no  mention  whatever  of  the  large  number  of  Indian  allies. 


48  EARLY   MACKINAC. 

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  re- 
strain 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  upper  lakes.  It  exposed  Detroit  and  all 
lower  Michigan.  It  greatly  terrified  General  Hull, 
who  commanded  the  department  of  Michigan.  It 
arrested  his  operations  in  Canada.  He  said:  "The 
whole  northern  hordes  of  Indians  will  be  let  down 
upon  us."  His  surrender,  just  one  month  later, 
was  in  part  due  to  the  panic  it  caused — one  histor- 
ian of  that  day,  saying:  "Hull  was  conquered  at 
Mackinac." 

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, they  built  a  very  strong 
earth- work  on  the  high  hill,  a  half  mile,  or  little 
more,  back  of  the  post,  which  they  called  Fort 
George,  in  honor  of  the  King  of  England.  This 
fortification  still  remains,  now  known  to  all  visitors 

♦John  Askin,  of  the  British  storekeeping  department,  and  present 
with  the  besieging  force,  said,_that  had  the  soldiers  of  the  fort  tired  a 
gun,  he  firmly  believed  not  a  soul  of  them  would  have  been  saved. 


CONSTRUCTING  FORT  HOLMES.  49 

as  Fort  Holmes.  In  its  construction  the  citizens  of 
the  village  were  impressed,  every  able  bodied  man 
being  required  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  formidable  investment  of  Fort  Mackinac  which 
led  to  its  speedy  surrender.  A  moment's  reflection 
will  show  this  could  not  have  been  the  case.  The 
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  Roberts  says  in  his  report,  "one 
of  those  unwieldy  guns  was  brought  up  with  much 
difficulty;"  and  that  far  the  Fort  Holmes'  site 
figured  in  the  demonstration  against  Lieut.  Hanks' 
command.  The  fortification  itself,  however,  being 
the  scientific  work  of  military  engineers,  and  in- 
volving a  protracted  period  of  hard  labor,  was  con- 
structed afterwards  at  the  British  commandant's 
leisure.  The  other  one  of  Captain  Roberts  "two 
six-pounders,"  together  with  the  great  bulk  of  his 
men,  including  his  Indians,  we  may  suppose,  oc- 
cupied 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. 
McDonall  assumed  charge  in  the  spring  of  1814. 
This  officer's  name  often  appears  as  McDouall. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

By  Commodore  Perry's  victory  on  Lake  Erie, 
and  General  Harrison's  victorious  battle  of  the 
Thames,  the  autumn  of  1813  found  the  Americans 
in  possession  of  Lake  Huron,  and  nearly  all  of 
Michigan.  The  re  capture  of  Mackinac  was  deter- 
mined on.  In  the  early  spring  of  1814,  an  expedi- 
tion for  this  purpose  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  un- 
der Commodore  Sinclair,  and  a  land  force  of  750 
men,  under  command  of  Col.  Croghan.  The  object, 
besides  the  retaking  of  Mackinac,  was  also  to 
destroy  the  English  post  at  St.  Joseph,  and  to  in- 
flict whatever  damage  it  could  on  the  military 
stores  and  shipping  of  the  enemy  on  the  neighbor- 
ing border  of  Canada.  These  war  brigs  and  other 
vessels  of  the  squadron  were  the  largest  ever  seen, 
up  to  that  time,  on  the  waters  of  St.  Clair  and 
Huron.  The  commanders,  instead  of  sailing  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  supplies.  They  then  turned 
back  for  Mackinac  Island,  where  they  arrived  on 
the  25th  of  July.  But  no  success  awaited  them 
there. 

The  English  fully  appreciated  the  great  value, 

50 


REINFORCING   THE   POST.  51 

strategically  and  commercially,  of  Mackinac  and 
were  determined  to  hold  it.  They  took  strong 
measures  for  its  defense.  Col.  McDonall,  who  had 
been  sent  there  in  May  of  that  year  as  the  new 
commandant,  was  a  very  energetic  and  skillful 
soldier.  He  brought  with  him  fresh  troops  from 
Canada,  ammunition  and  provisions,  and  other 
things  needful.  Besides  this  fact,  the  garrison 
were  by  no  means  ignorant  of  the  expedition  in 
their  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  wrote:  "After  our  ar- 
rival at  the  island  all  hands  were  employed 
strengthening  the  defences  of  the  fort.  For  up- 
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 
which  they  had  built,  Fort  George,  (now  Fort 
Holmes,  and  already  referred  to)  batteries  were 
placed  at  various  points  outside  the  walls  which 
commanded  the  approaches  to  the  beach.  One 
was  on  the  height  overlooking  the  ground  in  front 
,of  the  present  Grand  Hotel,  another  on  the  high 
knoll  just  west  of  the  fort,  while  others  lined  the 
east  bluff  between  the  present  fort  grounds  and 
Robinson's  Folly. 

Our  American  officers  at  first  thought  of  erect- 
ing 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 


52  EARLY   MACKINAC. 

sent  over  a  large  detachment  of  Indians,  who 
forced  the  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  with  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,  divining  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  made,  and  the  taking  of 
the  fort  be  attempted,  under  cover  of  the  guns  of 
the  vessels.  But  Captain  Sinclair,  who  described 
the  fort  hill  as  a  "perfect  Gibraltar,  *'  found  that 
his  vessels  would  only  be  exposed  to  a  raking  fire 
from  the  heights  above  without  his  being  able  to 
elevate  the  guns  sufficiently  for  return  shots. 

After  hovering  about  the  island  for  a  week  it 
was  concluded  there  was  no  other  way  than  to 
imitate  the  plan  of  the  successful  enemy,  two  years 
before.  So  they  sailed  around  to  "British  Land- 
ing" and  disembarked,  August  4th,  and  marched  as 
far  as  the  Dousman  farm  (now  Early's  farm).  But 
the  conditions  were  entirely  different  from  those  of 
two  years  ago,  and  the  movement  was  ill-starred, 
and  a  melancholy  failure-  According,  however,  to 
the  reports  made  by  the  joint  commanders  of  the 


FAILURE   OF  THE   ATTACK.  53 

expedition,  it  was  not  so  much  their  plan  to  at- 
tempt the  storming  of  the  works,  as  to  feel  the 
enemy's  strength  and  to  establish  a  lodgment  from 
which  by  slow  and  gradual  approaches,  and  by 
siege,  they  might  hope  for  success.  All  such  ex- 
pectations were  soon  dissipated.  Facing  the  open 
field  on  the  Dousman  farm  were  the  thick  woods. 
This  was  a  perfect  cover  to  the  Indian  skirmishers, 
who,  concealed  in  their  vantage  points,  hotly  at- 
tacked 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. 
Major  Andrew  Hunter  Holmes,  next  in  command 
to  Colonel  Croghan,  was  one  of  the  slain  in  this 
most  unfortunate  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  tradition  is  that  the  Major  had 
been  warned  that  morning,  by  a  civilian  aboard  the 
vessel,  not  to  wear  his  uniform  which  wrould  make 
him  a  target,  but  that  he  declined  the  friendly  ad- 
vice saying,  that  if  it  was  his  day  to  fall  he  wras 
ready.* 

Major  Holmes  was  a  Virginian,  an  intelligent 
and  promising  young  officer  who  enjoyed  the 
friendship  of  Thomas  Jefferson.  He  had  already 
distinguished  himself  iri  a  battle  near  Detroit,  and 
had  performed  well  a  special  service  assigned  him 

*Charles  J.  Ingersoll  in  -Sketch  of  the  Secund  War,"  Vol.  2. 


54  EARLY   MACKINAC. 

in  this  same  expedition,  when  at  the  Sault  St. 
Marie.  In  the  official  reports  of  the  Mackinac 
battle  he  was  referred  to  as  that  "gallant  officer, 
Major  Holmes,  whose  character  is  so  well  known 
to  the  war  department;"  and  again  as  "the  valuable 
and  ever-to-be  lamented  officer."  His  body  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  McDonall 
and  taken  to  Detroit  for  burial.  A  very  fitting 
tribute  to  his  memory  was  it,  that  when  in  the 
following  year  the  island  again  came  under  our 
flag,  the  name  of  the  new  fort  on  the  summit 
heights,  which  had  been  built  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 
expedition  returned  down  the  lake  to  Detroit,  the 
most  of  the  soldiers  being  sent  to  join  General 
Brown's  forces  on  the  Niagara. 

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 
supplies  could  now  come  only  from  Canada  through 
the  Georgian  Bay.  Near  the  mouth  of  the  Not- 
tawTasaga  river  at  the  southeast  corner  of  that  bay, 
near  a  protecting  block  house,  was  the  schooner 
"Nancy"  loaded  with  six  months'  supplies  of  pro- 
visions intended  for  the  Mackinac  fort.  A  de- 
tachment of  the  American  troops  landing  there 
blew  up  the  block  house  and  destroyed  the 
schooner  and  her  supplies.  There  remained  now 
nothing  more  to  do  than  to  so  guard  the  waters 


SCARCITY   OF  PROVISIONS.  55 

that  the  destitution  of  the  island  could  not  be  re- 
paired. 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 
for  a  dollar  on  the  streets,  and  the  men  of  the 
garrison  were  killing  horses  for  meat. 

The  following  extract  from  a  letter  written  by- 
one  of  the  English  officers  depicts  the  situation 
within  the  fort  at  this  time:  "After  the  failure  of 
the  attack,  the  Americans  established  a  blockade  by 
which  they  intercepted  our  supplies.  We  had  but 
a  small  store  of  provisions.  The  commander  grew 
very  anxious.  The  garrison  was  put  on  short  al- 
lowances. Some  horses  that  happened  to  be  on 
the  island  were  killed  and  salted  down,  and  we  oc- 
casionally were  successful  in  procuring  fish  from 
the  lake.  To  economize  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  Mc- 
Donall  in  his  letters  to  the  department  begging  and 
entreating  for  supplies. 

There  were  yet  other  embarrassments.  Al- 
though thoughout  the  whole  period  the  Indians  of 
the  Mackinac  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  be- 


56  EARLY  MACKINAC. 

came  very  clamorous, "  another  officer  said.  And 
Col.  McDonall  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. "  He 
was  embarrassed,  too,  by  their  flocking  to  the 
island  and  requiring  to  be  fed. 

But  relief,  and  that  by  their  own  sagacity  and 
daring,  was  at  hand  for  the  beleaguered  garrison. 
When  the  "Nancy"  and  the  block  house  on  the 
Nottawasaga  were  destroyed,  the  officers  in  charge 
of  that  supply  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  situ- 
ation, 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  volunteers  from  the  garrison  and 
Indians,  making  in  all  about  seventy  men.  These 
set  forth  on  the  bold  errand.  The  Scorpion  and 
Tigress  were  then  cruising  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Detour.  On  a  dark  night,  rowing  rapidly  and  in 
silence,  they  approached  first  the  Tigress,  which 
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  Mackinac.  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  companion  ship 


BRITISH   APPRECIATION   OF   MACKINAC.  57 

unaware  of  its  change  of  fortune.  Night  coming 
on  she  anchored  some  two  miles  off.  About  day- 
light 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  bit  of  history,  except  to 
say  that  candor  and  justice  compel  our  highest 
admiration  for  this  English  feat  of  daring  and 
prowess. 

This  ended  all  attempts  to  dislodge  the  Eng- 
lish 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  were  loath  to  give  it  up.  Col.  McDonall, 
the  able  and  successful  commandant,  spoke  with 
strong  feeling  of  the  '  'unfortunate  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  "in- 
judiciously ceded"  by  the  English  government. 
John  Jay,  our  American  representative  in  the  con- 
ference 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  at  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  ap- 


58  EARLY  MACKINAC. 

pears  in  negotiating  the  treaty  of  1815  that  the  com- 
missioners of  the  crown,  even  when  feeling  obliged 
to  forego  a  large  part  of  their  demands,  still  held 
out  for  the  island  of  Mackinac  (and  Fort  Niagara) 
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  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,  f  With  that 
treaty  the  question  was  finally  and  conclusively 
settled. 

The  posts  of  the  English  which  had  been  captur- 
ed 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  interesting  fact  mentioned  in  a  private 
letter  which  Colonel  McDonall  wrote  to  his  friend 
and  fellow  officer  of  the  English  army,  Captain 
Bulger.  He  says  that  in  the  equipment  of  Fort 
Mackinac,  at  the  time  he  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  restoration  of  the  fort, 
guns  which  told  of  English  defeat  and  humiliation 
in  the  Revolutionary  war;  and  that  as  an  English- 
man he  felt  "a  strong  temptation  to  a  breach  of 

♦Henry  Adams'  '•History  of  the  United  States,"  voL  9,  p.  34. 
tHlnsdale's  "Old  lforthve$t."  p.  185. 


HISTORIC   CANNON.  59 

that  good  faith  which  in  all  public  treaties  it  is  in- 
famy to  violate." 

Surely  it  adds  to  our  antiquarian  and  patriotic 
interest  in  the  old  fort  to  know  that  guns,  captured 
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  re- 
mote 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  keeping  off  American 
troops  from  the  island,  and  thus,  as  it  were,  re- 
deeming themselves  in  English  eyes  from  the  bad 
fortune  incurred  in  our  war  for  independence,  they 
again  fell  to  our  hands.  And  we  can  appreciate 
Col.  McDonall'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  eome 
of  the  British  officers  when  by  Hull's  surrender 
several  brass  cannon  fell  to  their  hands  which  our 
forces  had  captured  in  the  war  of  the  Revolution — 
they  "saluted  them  with  tears."* 

It  is  vain  to  surmise  the  history  of  those  in- 
teresting guns  subsequent  to  1815.  How  long  they 
remained  at  the  island  post,  and  whether  in  time 
they  were  sent  to  the  smelter's  furnace,  or  are  still 
in  honorable  preservation  somewhere  with  other 
war  relics,  we  cannot  say.     In  this  connection  it 

*" History  of  the  Late  War  in  the  Western  Country." 


60  EARLY   MACKINAC. 

may  be  well  to  remark  concerning  that  old  fashion- 
ed 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  action  or  a  British  gun  which  ho  captured  is 
uncertain;  that  it  was  left  here  long  ago  by  one  of 
the  government  revenue  vessels.  That  it  was  put 
in  charge  of  the  Mackinac  Custom  House,  and  that 
it  used  to  serve  on  4th  of  July  and  other  national 
occasions  which  called  for  celebration  "at  the 
cannon's  mouth." 

Upon  their  withdrawal  from  Mackinac,  the 
English  garrison  established  themselves  on  Drum- 
mond's  Island  in  the  northern  end  of  Lake  Huron, 
and  maintained  a  strong  post  there.  It  was  after- 
wards decided,  however,  by  the  joint  commission 
ers  in  settling  the  boundary  lines  between  the 
United  States  and  Canada,  that  that  part  of  the 
lake  in  which  Drummond's  Island  lay  belonged  to 
the  United  States  side  of  the  line.  Accordingly  in 
1828  the  British  garrison  removed,  and  the  island 
was  turned  over  to  our  government. 

Col.  Anthony  Butler  was  the  American  officer 
to  whom  the  fort  was  delivered  July,  1815,  but  he 
remained  only  until  the  arrangements  for  evacu- 
ation were  completed,  when  he  withdrew  to 
Detroit,  and  Captain  Willoughby  Morgan  became 
the  first  commandant  under  the  restored  American 
regime.  From  that  time  on  there  was  a  long 
succession  of  regular  army  soldiers  and  officers, 
inhabiting  the  old  quarters  and  barracks.     Many 


SOME   OF   THE   FORT'S   EARLY   OFFICERS.         61 

of  the  officers  who  afterwards  acquired  high  rank 
and  distinction  during  our  civil  war,  1861-1865, 
either  in  the  Union  Army  or  Southern,  had  been  in 
service  here  as  young  Captains  or  Lieutenants. 
Among  them  were  Gen.  Sumner,  Gen.  Heintzel- 
man,  Gen.  Kirby  Smith,  Gen.  Silas  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  incidentially  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  later,  as  commander  of  Vicks- 
burg,  with  Grant's  besieging  army  around  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 
remained  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  theConfederate  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 

♦Occasionally  at  other  times,  also,   the  garrison  would  be  tempor- 
arily sent  elsewhere,  but  this  never  meant  the  giving  up  of  the  post. 


62  EARLY    MACKINAC. 

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  recup- 
erative climate  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  sentry,  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  government,  by  formal  act  of 
Congress  abandoned  the  fort,  and  gave  it  over, 
together  with  the  National  Park  of  eleven  hundred 
acres,  to  the  State  of  M  ichigan.  The  fort  was  dis- 
mantled, the  old  cannon  were  removed  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  numer- 
ous other  well  equipped  posts,  the  department  is 
maintaining  for  its  troops,  this  old-fashioned  one 
was  not  an  absolute  necessity.  Nor  do  we  ques- 
tion for  a  moment  the  propriety  of  making  the 
State  of  Michigan  the  legatee  and  successor  to  this 
property,  if  the  general  government  was  determin- 
ed to  dispossess  itself  of  it.  It  could  not  have  been 
more  suitably  bestowed,  if  it  had  to  pass  into  other 
hands.  The  commissioners,  to  whose  charge  it  is 
now  committed,  appreciate  and  will  cherish  that 
historic  and  patriotic  interest  which  attaches  to  the 


ITS  MILITARY   HISTORY    CEASES.  63 

old  fort,  and  will  keep  the  grounds  intact  and  care- 
fully 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  regret  that  the  national 
government  should  have  forsaken  the  island.  For 
sentimental  reasons  alone,  even  had  there  been  no 
other,  the  old  fort  should  have  been  retained  as  a 
United  States  post.  A  military  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  Fort  Marion,  the 
old  Spanish  fortification  at  St.  Augustine,  Fla.,  it 
is  doubtful  if  there  be  another  on  this  whole  conti- 
nent, which  could  boast  of  so  long  a  period  of  con- 
tinuous occupation  as  old  Fort  Michilimackinac, 
which  was  established  first  at  St.  Ignace  in  the 
17th  century,  then  removed  to  old  Mackinaw,  and 
since  1780  has  been  located  on  our  island. 


v*«*  #* 


MartQ 


CHAPTER  VII. 

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,  Johu  Dousman,  Edward  Biddle,  Gurdon 
S.  Hubbard,  Samuel  Abbot  and  Ambrose  Daven- 
port. John  Dousman,  Abbott  and  Davenport  were 
the  deputation  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  between  Captain  Roberts  and  himself. 
After  the  English  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  refusing  to  do  this — Messrs.  Daven- 
port, Bostwick,  Stone,  and  the  two  Dousmans.* 
With  the  exception  of  Michael  Dousman,  who  was 
permitted  to  remain  neutral,  they  were  obliged  to 
leave  their  homes  and  their  property  until  the 
close  of  the  war.  Besides  these,  there  were  after- 
wards three  men  in  particular  who  figured  in  large 
spheres,  and  were  in  reputation  in  other  parts  of 
the  land  as  well  as  in  this  remote  wilderness  point. 
These  were  Ramsey  Crooks,  Robert  Stuart  and 
Henry  R.  Schoolcraft. 

Mr.  Crooks  came  to  America  from  Scotland,  as 
a  young  man.      His  carper  was  an    active    and 

♦Biddle  and  Hubbard  were  not  then  residents  of  the  island.  64 


RAMSEY  CROOKS.  65 

stirring  one.  He  was  known  in  connection  with 
the  fur  trade,  it  is  said,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific.  His  business  involved  much  of  perilous 
journeying  and  startling  adventure  in  the  north 
and  in  the  far  west.  He  was  with  Hunt's  expedition 
across  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  to  the  Pacific 
coast,  as  far  back  as  1811,  and  again  the  next  year 
he  made  the  same  overland  journey  back  to  the 
East.  He  was  an  educated,  intelligent  man,  well 
experienced  in  human  nature,  and  highly  rated  for 
his  judgment,  his  enterprise  and  his  integrity. 
He  was  one  of  Mr.  Astors  right  hand  men  in  the 
extensive  business  of  the  fur  company.  In  the 
American  expedition  against  the  island  in  1814,  in 
the  attempt  to  dislodge  the  English,  he,  together 
with  Davenport  and  John  Dousman,  had  ac- 
companied the  squadron — the  latter  two  as  expatri- 
ated 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.  New  York,  afterwards,  was  his 
home;  and  on  Astor's  selling  out,  he, became  chief 
proprietor  and  the  president  of  the  company.  It  is 
said  of  him  that  he  concentrated,  in  his  remi- 
niscences, the  history  of  the  fur  trade  in  America 
for  forty  years.     He  died  in  New  York  in  1859. 


♦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  sufferings  and  losses,  he  ought 
to  have  been  remunerated  by  the  Government 


66  EARLY  MACKINAC. 

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 
enterprise  and  adventure.  He  first  lived  in  Mon- 
treal, and  served  with  the  Northwestern  Pur  Co. 
In  1810  he  connected  himself,  together  with  his 
uncle,  David  Stuart,  with  Mr.  Astor's  business, 
and  was  one  of  the  party  that  sailed  from  New 
York  by  the  ship  "Tonquin"  to  found  the  fur  trade 
city  of  Astoria,  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  In  1812,  it 
being  exceedingly  important  that  certain  papers 
and  dispatches  be  taken  from  Astoria  to  New 
York,  and  the  ship  in  the  meantime  being  destroy- 
ed, and  there  being  no  way  of  making  the  trip  by 
sea,  Stuart  was  put  at  the  head  of  a  party  to  under- 
take the  journey  overland.  Ramsey  Crooks  was 
one  of  the  band.  This  trip  across  the  mountains 
and  through  the  country  of  wild  Indians,  and  over 
arid  plains,  involved  severe  hardships  and  peril, 
and  illustrated  the  nerve,  and  vigor,  and  resources 
of  the  young  leader.  The  party  was  nearly  a  year 
on  the  way.  In  1819  he  came  to  Mackinac  and  be- 
came a  resident  partner  of  the  American  Fur 
Company,  and  superintendent  of  its  entire  business 
in  the  west.  He  was  remarkably  energetic  in 
business,  a  leader  among  men,  and  a  conspicuous 
and  forceful  character  wherever  he  might  be 
placed.  In  the  lack  of  hotel  accommodations  his 
home  was  constantly  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  appointed  by  the  Government  as 


ROBERT   STUART.  67 

Indian  Commissioner  for  all  the  tribes  of  the  north- 
west, 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  prom- 
nent  in  church  work  and  always  bore  a  high 
Christian  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  the  boat  laid  awhile  at  the  dock,  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  Fur  Company  work  of 
the  island,  which  these  two  men  did  so  much  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.  In  her  interesting 
book  "Wau-Bun,  the  'Early  Day'  in  the  North- 
west," 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 
with  their  articles  of  traffic;  and  if  to  these  was 
added  the  squadron  of  large  Mackinaw  boats  con- 
stantly arriving  from  the  outposts  with  the  furs, 
peltries  and  buffalo  robes  collected  by  the  distant 
traders,  some  idea  may  be  formed  of  the  extensive 


68  EARLY  MACKINAC. 

operations  and  the  important  position  of  the 
American  Fur  Company,  as  well  as  of  the  vast 
circle  of  human  beings  either  immediately  or  re- 
motely connected  with  it." 

Henry  R.  Schoolcraft  lived  on  the  island  from 
1833  to  1841.  He  was  a  native  of  the  State  of  New 
York.  He  was  a  student,  an  investigator  into  th«> 
facts  and  phenomena  of  nature,  a  remarkable 
linguist,  a  great  traveler  and  explorer,  and  a 
proline  writer.  He  was  given  to  archaeological 
researches;  he  explored  the  valley  of  the 
Mississippi;  he  investigated  the  mineral  resources 
of  much  of  the  west,  particularly  of  Missouri;  and 
ho  discovered  the  source  of  the  Mississippi  river. 
His  great  work,  and  by  which  he  is  most  known, 
was  that  in  connection  with  the  Indian  race,  having 
spent  thirty  years  of  his  life  in  contact  with  them. 
Besides  his  travels  among  the  tribes  throughout 
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  en- 
camped 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  Government 
with  the  tribes.  While  living  at  the  Sault,  ho 
married  a  half-blood  Indian  girl.  Her  father,  Mr. 
John  Johnston,  was  an  Irish  gentleman  of  good 
standing,  who,  dwelling  in  the  wilderness  country 
of  Lake  Superior,  had  found  a  wife  in  the  daughter 
of  an  Indian  Chief.     Thisdaughter,  Miss  Johnston, 


HENRY   R.     SCHOOLCRAFT.  69 

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 


HENRY  R.  SCHOOLCRAFT,  LL    D. 

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  com- 
manding one  of  the  most  pleasing  and  captivating 


70  EARLY  MACKINAC. 

views  of  lake  scenery."*  Every  subject  of  scien- 
tific interest,  all  the  physical  phenomena  of  the 
island,  and  its  antiquities  and  historic  features,  and 
all  questions  pertaining  to  the  Indians  and  their 
race  characteristics,  their  habits  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,  read- 
ing the  books  of  note  as  they  appeared  and  himself 
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.  Visitors  of  note,  from  Europe  as  well  as 
from  the  Eastern  States,  coming  to  the  island,  were 
frequently  calling  at  his  house  with  letters  of  intro- 
duction. He  was  voted  a  complimentary  member- 
ship in  numerous  scientific,  historical  and  antiqua- 
rian societies,  both  in  this  country  and  in  the  old 
world.  He  had  correspondents  among  scholars 
and  savants  of  the  highest  rank.  His  opinions  and 
views  on  subjects  of  which  he  had  made  a  study 
were  greatly  prized.  The  eminent  Sir  Humphrey 
Davy,  of  England,  for  instance,  expressed  the 
highest  appreciation  of  certain  contributions  of 
scientific  interest  which  Mr.    Schoolcraft  had  pre- 

*In  the  minds  of  some  now  living  on  the  island  he  has  been  confused 
with  his  brother,  James  Sehooleraft.  who  also  lived  in  the  village  and 
was  murdered  by  a  John  Tanner,  in  1S1C. 


HENRY    R.     SCHOOLCRAFT.  71 

pared  in  his  island  home;  and  Charles  Darwin,  in 
his  work,  "The  Descent  of  Man,"  quotes  with  ap- 
proval 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  ap- 
probation respecting  a  contribution  he  had  written 
for  the  American  Geological  Society.  Bancroft 
conferred  with  him  before  writing  those  parts  of 
his  "History  of  the  United  States,"  which  pertain 
to  the  Indians,  and  was  in  frequent  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  National 
Institute  of  France.  Among  his  frequent  corres- 
pondents, as  he  was  an  active  Christian  and  in 
sympathy  with  all  church  interests,  were  the 
secretaries  of  different  missionary  societies  in  the 
East,  seeking  his  opinion  and  his  counsel  in  refer- 
ence 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  extensive  journeys  in  distant  wilder- 
ness 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  almost  every  day  for  many 
years. 

Mr.  Schoolcraft  removed  from  the  island  to 
New  York  in  1831,  and  after  an  extensive  travel 
through  Europe,  devoted  himself  principally  to 


72  EARLY  MACKINAC. 

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  "Ethno- 
logical Researches  among  the  Red  Men,"  which 
was  prepared  under  the  direction  and  patronage  of 
Congress.  It  is  in  six  large  volumes  with  over 
300  colored  engravings,  and  was  issued  in  the  best 
style  of  the  printer's  art.  It  is  a  thesaurus  of  in- 
formation, 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  Rev.  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  interest- 
ed in  the  welfare  of  mankind. " 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

With  the  explorer,  the  trader  and  the  soldier, 
in  the  early  days  of  the  French  occupation,  there 
came  also  the  missionary.  More  than  two 
centuries  ago  pioneer  Jesuit  priests  planted  the 
cross  in  these  wilds  of  the  upper  lakes;  first  at 
Sault  Ste.  Marie,  as  early  as  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  since,  and  then  in  1671  in  our  Michilimackinac 
region  of  St.  Ignace,*  on  the  northern  mainland, 
four  miles  across  from  the  island.  The  latter  work 
is  associated  particularly  with  Marquette,  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  acquainted  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  re- 
finement and  his  spirituality  were  added  the  en- 
thusiasm and  daring  of  the  explorer.  He  went  out 
to  find  new  countries  as  also  to  preach  in  the  pagan 
wilds.  In  1673,  accompanied  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  as  far  as  to  a 

*Point  Iroquois,  as  it  was  first  known.  73 


74  EARLY  MACKINAC. 

point  some  thirty  miles  below  the  mouth  of  the 
Arkansas  river,  almost  to  the  Louisiana  line. 
There  the  southern  journey  was  ended  and  the  re- 
turn trip  was  begun — ascending  the  Mississippi, 
entering  the  Illinois  and  thus  reaching  Lake 
Michigan  again.  Bat  for  Marquette  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  without  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  savages.  Subsequently,  on  the  re-establish- 
ment of  the  fort  on  the  southern  peninsula  opposite, 
the  Catholic  mission  was  revived  and  the  Church 
of  St.  Ann  was  organized — the  church  and  the 
entire  settlement  of  families, as  well  as  the  garrison, 
being  within  the  palisade  enclosure.  When  in 
1780  the  fort  was  removed  to  the  island — and  the 
settlers  following— the  church  was  also  removed, 
its  logs  and  timbers  being  taken  down  separately 
and  then  rejointed  and  set  up  again.     It  stood  on 


MADAM  LA  FRAMBOISE.  75 

the  old  burying  lot  south  of  the  present  Astor 
House.  Subsequently  it  was  removed,  to  another 
site.  An  addition  was  made  extending  its'  length, 
and  the  old  church  continued  to  stand  until  it  gave 
way  to  the  present  large  edifice,  built  on  the  same 
spot,  in  1874.  As  an  organization,  however,  the 
church  dates  far  back  to  the  early  days  over  at 
old  Mackinaw.  The  ground  on  which  the  building 
now  stands  was  a  bequest  to  the  parish  by  a  Madam 
La  Framboise,  who  lived  near  by,  with  the  stipula- 
tion that  at  death  her  body  should  be  buried  under 
the  altar,  in  case  the  church  should  be  removed  to 
the  place  indicated.  This  being  done,  the  condi- 
tions 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  re- 
markable energy  and  enterprise,  and  on  the  death  of 
her  husband  ably  managed  the  business  he  had  left. 
She  acquired  the  rudiments  of  education  after  her 
marriage,  being  taught  by  her  husband,  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.  Her  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  distaut  intervals.  In  1782, 
a  petition  signed  by  the  merchants  and  other  in- 


76  EARLY  MACKINAC. 

habitants  of  the  village,  was  addressed  to  General 
Haldimand,  the  English  Governor  General  of  the 
Province,  asking  that  the  Government  take  steps 
to  aid  in  securing  a  cure,  or  minister  of  religion, 
for  the  stated  maintenance  of  services.  There  ap- 
pears nothing  to  show  that  this  was  granted.  The 
fur  trade  brought  an  element  of  population  of  a 
very  mixed  character.  There  were  the  educated 
officers  and  clerks  of  the  company,  and  the 
voyageurs  and  trappers,  who  spent  most  of  their 
time  in  the  woods  and  on  the  water,  with  Mackinac 
as  their  place  of  resting  and  wage- payment,  and 
the  place  of  the  reckless  wasting  of  their  hard, 
earned  money.  One  who  knew  well  the  early 
character  of  the  island,  said  of  it,  that  few  places 
on  the  continent  had  been  so  celebrated  a  locality 
for  wild  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  responsibilities  than  the  humble 
voyageurs  and  courier  des  bois;  that  they  broke  gener- 
ally, nine  out  of  the  ten  commandments  without  a 
wince,  but  kept  the  other  very  scrupulously,  and 
would  flash  up  and  call  their  companions  to  a  duel 
who  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  short  time  as  far  back  as  1802;  not,  however,  es- 


EPISCOPAL   CHURCH   ORGANIZED.  77 

tablishing  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 
telegraph  system,  visited  the  island,  and  made  a 
short  stay.  The  same  Dr.  Morse  was  the  author  of 
"Morse's  Geography,"  once  extensively  used  in 
our  schools,  and  still  well  remembered.  In  earlier 
years  the  fort  was  a  chaplaincy  post,  and  the 
clergyman  in  charge,  the  Rev.  Mr.  O'Brien,  from 
1842  until  the  opening  of  the  civil  war  in  1861, 
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  ministration  of  the  Rev.  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  building  was  used,  and  in  1882  the  present 
Trinity  Church  building  was  erected,  under  the 
leadership  of  the  Rev.  M.  C.  Stanley.  This  re- 
mains still  the  only  organized  Protestant  church 
on  the  island.  It  has,  generally,  a  resident  clergy- 
man in  charge.  The  Rt.  Rev.  Thomas  F.  Davies, 
D.D.,  bishop  of  the  diocese  of  Michigan,  being  a 
summer  cottager  on  the  island,  frequently  officiates 
during  the  visitors'  season. 

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  suitable  plan  to  advance  their  civilization 


78  EARLY   MACKINAC. 

and  happiness.  *'  *  He  arrived  at  the  island,  June 
16th,  in  the  evening,  and  writes  of  the  view  that 
greeted  his  eye  in  the  morning —  *  *  "the  fort  look- 
ing down  from  the  high  bluff,  and  a  fleet  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  House  to  large  and  at- 
tentive audiences.  A  week-day  school  and  a 
Sabbath-school  were  formed  for  the  children,  and 
arrangements  effected  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  mission  at  Mackinac. 
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  well  as  from  near  at 
hand.  The  mission  was  established  in  1823.  The 
Rev.  Wm.  Ferry,  a  Presbyterian  minister  from  the 
East,  was  appointed  superintendent. 

The  Mission  was  designed  chiefly  as  a  school 
for  the  training  of  Indian  youth.  It  opened  with 
twelve  pupils.  The  secoud  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, 

♦From  letter  of  instructions  written  him  by  John  C.  Calhoun,   Secre- 
tary of  War,  Feb.  1820. 


GOOD   WORK   OF  THE   SCHOOL.  79 

and  bearing  the  original  name  "Mission  House,'' 
was  built.  In  1S26  the  Society  which  had  begun 
the  work  and  maintained  it  for  three  years,  was 
merged  with  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners 
for  Foreign  Missions.  Henceforth,  until  it  closed, 
the  Mackinac  Mission  was  the  work  of  that  Board 
with  headquarters  in  Boston.  For  several  years 
the  attendance  at  the  school  averaged  about  one 
hundred  and  fifty  a  year.  Major  Anderson,  of  the 
Government  service,  writing  in  1828,  says  that 
when  this  mission  building  was  erected  it  was 
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  that  at  least  fifty  more  had  sought  admission 
that  season  who  could  not  be  received  for  lack  of 
room. 

Besides  the  rudiments  of  English  education, 
the  boys  were  taught  the  more  useful  sort  of  handi- 
craft and  trades,  and  the  girls  were  taught  sewing 
and  housework.  They  were  at  all  times  under 
Christian  influence,  and  were  sj'stematically  in- 
structed in  the  truths  of  the  Gospel.  In  the 
Biography  of  Mrs.  Jeremiah  Porter,  who  before 
her  marriage  was  Miss  Chappelle,  and  who  spent 
two  years  (1830-32)  on  the  island,  is  given  an  ex- 
tract from  her  diary,  in  which  she  speaks  of  visit- 
ing the  Mission  House  and  hearing  the  young 
Indian  girls,  at  their  evening  lesson,  repeat 
together  the  23d  Psalm  and  the  55th  chapter  of 
Isaiah,  and  of  hearing  a  hymn  sung  "by  sixteen 
sweet  Indian  voices  which  was  particularly  touch- 
ing."    Thomas  L.  McKenney,  of  the  Indian  Depart- 


80  EAIILY   MACKINAC. 

mcnt,  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  com- 
missioner with  General  Cass  in  negotiating  a  trealy 
with  the  Indians  of  the  North.  Having  touched  at 
Mackinac  he  describes  his  calling,in  company  with 
Mr.  Robert  Stuart,  at  "the  Missionary  establish- 
ment in  charge  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  re- 
ported of  it:  "The  buildings  are  admirably  adapt- 
ed 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  offices  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  children,  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.  Another 
from  the  Lake  of  the  Woods.  How  far  they  have 
come  to  get  light !"  Referring  to  the  Superin- 
tendent, 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 


THE  MISSION  CHURCH.  81 

is  without  price  in  such  an  establishment.  Indeed, 
the  entire  mission  family  appeared  to  me  to  have 
undertaken  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  her  influence  and  means  she 
has  held  up  the  hands  that  were  ready,  in  the 
beginning  of  this  establishment,  to  hang  down. 
She  looks  upon  Mr.  Perry  and  his  labors  as  being 
worth  more  to  the  island  than  all  the  land  of  which 
it  is  composed;  whilst  he,  with  gratitude,  mentions 
her  kindness,  and  that  of  her  co-operating  hus- 
band. " 

Mrs.  John  Kinzie,  already  referred  to  as  being 
on  the  island  in  1830,  visited  the  Mission,  and  in 
her  book  makes  similiar  testimony  concerning  it, 
saying  among  other  things:  "Through  the  zeal 
and  good  management  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ferry,  and 
the  fostering  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  whole  time  he  remained  on 
the  island.  A  church  building,  the  historic  "Old 
Mission  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 


82  EARLY  MACKINAC. 

trading  interests  which  centered  here,  brought  to 
the  island  a  considerable  population.  Thus  large 
and  interesting  congregations  were  furnished  for 
this  church.  Besides  the  teachers  and  their 
families,  and  the  pupils  of  the  mission  school, 
there  were  many  families  of  the  village,  officers 
and  clerks  of  the  company,  traders,  native  Indian 
converts  and  others,  who  were  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 
soldiers  would  stack  their  guns  outside  in  front  of 
the  church;  one  of  the  men  would  be  detailed  to 
stand  guard  over  the  arms,  while  the  others  would 
file  into  the  pews  set  apart  for  their  accommoda- 
tion. 

The  whole  number  of  members  enrolled  during 
the  history  of  the  church  was  about  eighty,  exclu- 
sive 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  Ruling  Elders,  two  men  of  such  stand- 
ing and  public  name  as  Robert  Stuart  and  Henry 
R.  Schoolcraft. 

The  Mackinac  experiment  of  mission  work, 
unfortunately,  was  not  continued  long  enough  to 
show  the  largest  results.  Changes  took  place  on 
the  island  which  seriously  affected  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  Govern' 
ment  was  deporting  some  of  the  tribes  to  reserva- 
tions farther  West.     Mr.  Astor  retired  from  the 


STORY  OF  CHUSKA.  83 

Fur  Company,  and  that  business  lost  its  former 
magnitude.  This  involved  the  loss  of  many 
families  and  a  change  in  social  conditions.  In 
1834,  Mr.  Perry  removed  from  the  island,*  as  did 
Mr.  Stuart,  the  same  year.  Thus,  for  a  variety  of 
reasons  the  place  ceasing  to  be  an  advantageous 
point  for  the  work,  it  was  deemed  best  to  dis- 
continue it;  and  about  1836  the  land  (some  twelve 
acres)  and  the  buildings  thereon  were  sold,  and  in 
1837  the  Mission  was  formally  given  up.  During 
the  brief  history  of  the  school,  however,  not  less 
than  five  hundred  children  of  Indian  blood  and  hab- 
its acquired  the  rudiments  of  education,  and  were 
taught  the  pursuits  and  toils  of  civilized  life,  and 
many  became  Christians.  The  American  Board  at 
that  time  considered  that  the  Mackinac  Mission 
had  been  very  successful,  especially  in  its  out" 
reaching  influence  throughout  the  surrounding 
regions. 

One  instance  of  remarkable  conversion  in  the 
work  of  the  Mission,  was  that  of  an  old  Indian 
necromancer  or  "medicine  man."  His  name  was 
Wazhuska,  or  more  popularly,  Chuska.  For  40  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 

*Mr.  Ferry  settled  at  what  became  Grand  Haven,  in  Michigan, 
himself  founding  the  city  and  also  its  Presbyterian  Church,  and  con' 
tiuu3<l  to  resits  there  until  his  death  in  1 W. 


84  EARLY  MACKINAC. 

black  art. "  He  embraced  the  Christian  faith  with 
clear  perception  of  its  essential  truths,  and  with 
great  simplicity  of  spirit;  and  entirely  renounced 
all  his  "hidden  works  of  darkness,"  together  with 
the  vice  of  drunkenness  to  which  he  had  been  lam- 
entably 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  Round  Island.  This  story  of  Chuska  and  his 
conversion  by  the  power  of  divine  grace,  was  con- 
sidered 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  volume  work  published  by  act  of 
Congress.  In  his  account  of  the  case  as  given  in 
the  last  named  publication  he  furnishes  represen- 
tations of  the  crude  pictographic  charms,  and 
totoms  ar.d  symbols,  which  Chuska  was  accustomed 
to  use  in  his  pagan  incantations,  and  which  at  the 
time  of  his  conversion  he  had  surrendered  to  Mr. 
Schoolcraft.  The  tale  of  Chuska  is  also  told  by 
Mrs.  Jameson  in  the  narrative  of  her  visit  to 
Mackinac  in  1835;  and  in  Strickland's  "Old  Mack- 
inaw." 

The  Mission  given  up,  the  school  closed,  the 
teachers  and  their  families  gone,  the  trade  and  em- 
porium character  of  the  village  falling  away,  the 
church  organization  did  not  long  survive.  There 
was  no  successor  of  Mr.  Ferry  in  the  pastorate. 
Mr.  Schoolcraft,  as  an  office  bearer  in  the  church, 
and  always  actively  interested  in  its  welfare,  did  all 


THE   OLD   CHURCH.  85 

that  a  layman,  so  fully  occupied  as  he,  could  do  for 
its  maintenance,  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  probably  the  oldest  Protestant 
Church  structure  in  the  whole  Northwest.  And 
while  other  ancient  church  buildings  have  been  en- 
larged and  changed  in  the  course  of  years;  an  ex- 
tension 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  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  ap- 
pearance, with  its  old  weather-vane  and  its  wond- 
erfully bright  tin-topped  belfry — a  mute  memorial 
of  a  most  worthy  history  of  two  generations  ago. 
Despite  its  disuse  and  its  increasing  dilapidation,  it 
has  long  been  an  object  of  tender  interest,  and  has 
been  visited  by  hundreds  every  season.  It  is  gratify- 
ing, therefore, to  know  that  a  number  of  the  summer 
cottagers  and  other  visitors,  joined  by  some  of  the 
island  residents,  have  purchased  the  old  church, 
and  repaired  and  restored  it  so  as  to  present  the 
old-time  appearance  in  which  it  had  been  known 

*Miss  Woolson's  "Anne." 


86  EARLY   MACKINAC. 

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 
purchasers  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  con- 
trol. 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. 

♦Repaired  and  restored  in  1895. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Our  Island  in  its  dimensions  is  three  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  entranc- 
ing charms  of  natural  scenery , there  is  found  every 
variety  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  ad- 
mit of  long  secluded  walks  through  its  quiet,  gentle 
woods.  In  the  three  score  years  or  more  that  visi- 
tors 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. 

Rising  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.  Through- 
out we  find  that  development  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-reaching  branches  and    with 

87 


88  EARLY   MACKINAC. 

rugged  trunks,  on  which  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 
different  directions,  are  winding  roads,  arched  and 
shaded  by  the  overhanging  tree-tops,  as  if  they 
were  continuous  bowers,  and  bewitching  foot- 
paths and  trails;  the  fragrance  of  the  fir  and  the 
balsam  is  everywhere,  and  a  buoyancy  in  -the 
atmosphere  which  invites  to  walking — 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  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  beautifully  colored; 
and  whether  in  the  dead  calm,  when  smooth  as  a 
floor. or  shimmering  and  glistening  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  neighboring  islands, 
standing  out  in  the  midst  as  masses  of  living  green; 


CURIOSITIES  IN   STONE.  89 

and  the  light-  houses  with  their  faithful,  friendly- 
night  work;  and  the  young  cities  on  the  two 
mainlands  in  opposite  directions;  and  always  the 
picturesque  old  fort.  Then,  scattered  over  the 
islands  are  glens,  and  dells,  and  springs,  and  fan- 
tastic rock  formations,  ("rock-osities"  they  were 
sometimes  facetiously  called  in  early  days.)  Many 
of  these  formations  are  interesting  in  a  geological 
point  of  view  as  well  as  for  their  marked  appear- 
ance and  their  legendary  associations;  and  two  of 
them,  Sugar  Loaf  and  Arch  Rock,  have  been  much 
studied  by  scientists,  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 
certain  openings  which  the  earlier  French  term- 
ed Grands  Jardins.  Schoolcraft  says  no  resident 
pretended  to  know  their  origin;  that  they  had 
evidently  been  cleared  for  tilling  purposes  at  a 
very  esrly  da}r,  and  that  in  his  time  there  were 
mounds  of  stones,  in  a  little  valley  near  Arch  Rock, 
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, 
making  each  such  place  appear  as  if  laid  out  and 


90  EARLY   MACKINAC. 

cultivated  on  the  most  artistic  plans  of  landscape 
gardening. 

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  regula- 
tor of  its  temperature.  The  only  complaint  that 
visitors  ever  make  of  the  climate,  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  unknown.  Dr. 
Daniel  Drake,  of  Cincinnati,  an  eminent  medical 
authority  in  his  day,  thus  wrote  from  the  island: 
"To  one  of  jaded  sensibilities,  all  around  him  is  re- 
freshing. A  feeling  of  security  comes  over  him, 
and  when,  from  the  rocky  battlements  of  Fort 
Mackinac,  he  looks  down  upon  the  surrounding 
wastes,  they  seem  a  mount  of  defense  against  the 
host  of  annoyances  from  which  he  had  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 
traditionary  tales  of  romance  and  tragedy.  There 
is  not  so  much  of  this,  however,  as  many  suppose. 

*  "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. 


91 


It  is  small  in  area  and  its  scope  for  scenes,  and 
/tales,  and  associations  is  limited.     Reference  has 

already  been  made  to  Arch  Rock  as  the  gateway  of 
1  entrance,  in  the  Indian  mind,  for  their  Manitou  of 
''the  lakes,  when  he  visited  the  island,  and  to  Sugar 


SUGAR      LOAF 

/  Loaf  as  his  fancied  wigwam,  and  to  other  rock 
formations  which  towered  above  the  ground  and 
were  personified  into  watching  giants.  The  Devil's 
Kitchen,  on  the  southwest  beach,  has  also  been 
mentioned,  but  as  divested  of  all  mystery  and  as- 


92  EARLY   MACKINAC. 

sociation  with  the  dim  and  early  past.  Chimney 
Rock  and  Fairy  Arch  are  but  appropriate  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  when  canoes  of  war  parties  went  to  and  fro 
over  the  waters  of  the  Straits.  But  we  can  not 
vouch  for  its  ever  having  been  Pontiac's  watch- 
tower;  for  although  the  influence  of  that  chieftain 
was  felt  in  these  remote  parts,  his  home  was  near 
Detroit,  and  while  we  read  of  his  travelling  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  island,  or  at  least  had  ever  sojourned 
there.  Lover's  Leap,  rising  abruptly  145  feet 
above  the  lake,  is  too  good  a  pinnacle,  and  too 
suitable  for  such  sadly  romantic  purpose,  as  far  as 
precipitous  height  and  frightful  rocks  beneath  are 
concerned,  not  to  have  suggested  the  tale  of  the 
too  faithfui,  heart-sore  Indian  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  belonged  to  myth  and 
fable.  But  at  the  same  time,  with  all  the  modifi- 
cations which  a  sober  realism  may  demand,  there 
is  begotten  in  the  mind  of  every  one  who  breathes 
the  soft  and  dreamy  air,  and  surrenders  himself  to 
the  witchery  of  the  little  island,  an  impression  of 
the  wierd,  and  the  mystical,  and  the  poetic,  however 
little  defined  and  embodied  it  may  be.     This  im- 


ARCH  ROCK. 


93 


pression  is  increased  in  the  sense  of  charm  impart- 
ed by  the  dim  and  shadowy  past  of  a  noble  but  un- 
tutored race  of  nature's  children  in  connection  with 
a  spot  of  such  rare  attractiveness,  and  which,  dis- 


ARCH     ROCK. 

similar  in  formation  and  character  from  all  the 
other  land  about,  seems  as  though  it  were  separate 
from  the  ordinary  seats  of  life. 

Arch  Rock  has  long  been  celebrated.     It  ap- 


94  EARLY   MACKINAC. 

pears  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  decomposition  of  the  lower  than  of  the 
upper  parts  of  the  calcareous  stone  bank — which 
process,  however,  it  used  to  be  thought,  was  fast 
extending  to  the  whole.  McKenney  in  his  ''Tour 
of  the  Lakes,"  published  in  1827,  thus  writes: 
"This  arch  is  crumbling,  and  a  few  years  will 
deprive  the  island  of  Michilimackinac  of  a  curiosity 
which  it  is  worth  visiting  to  see,  even  if  this  were 
the  only  inducement. "  The  latter  remark  is  most 
true  but  we  are  glad  he  was  so  mistaken  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.  In- 
cluding the  plateau  out  of  which  it  rises,  it  is  two 
hundred  and  eighty- four  feet  high,  erect  and 
rugged,  in  appearance  somewhat  between  a  pyra- 
mid of  Egypt  and  an  obelisk.  Like  the  Arch, 
it  is  a  "survival  of  the  fittest" — the  softer  sub- 
stance 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 


ROBINSON'S   FOLLY.  95 

precipitous  cliff  at  the  East  end  of  the  island,  one 
hundred  and  twenty-seven  feet  above  the  beach. 
The  origin  of  the  name  is  uncertain,  save  that  it  is 
associated  in  some  way  with  the  English  Captain 
Robinson  (Robertson)  who  belonged  to  the  fort 
garrison  for  seven  years,  and,  as  already  mentioned, 
was  its  commandant  from  1782  to  1787.  There  are 
no  less  than  five  traditionary  stories,  or  legends,  in 
explanation  of  the  name.  These  stories  vary  from 
the  prosaic  and  trifling,  to  the  Yery  romantic  and 
tragical.  A  common  account  is  that  he  built  a 
little  bower  house  on  the  very  edge  of  the  cliff 
which  he  made  a  place  of  resort,  and  revelry  may- 
hap, in  summer  days;  and  that  once,  either  by  a 
gale  of  wind  or  by  the  crumbling  of  the  outer 
ledge  of  stone,  the  house  fell  to  the  beach  below. 
One  version  of  the  legend  has  Robinson  himself  in 
the  house  at  the  time,  and,  like  a  devoted  sea 
captain  "going  down  with  his  ship,"  dashed  to 
death  in  the  fall.  Another  is  that  on  one  occasion 
when  a  feast  and  carousal  were  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  walking  near  this  spot  the  Captain 
thought  he  saw  just  before  him,  and  gazing  at  him, 
a  beautiful  maiden.  In  attempting  gallantly  to 
approach  her,  she  kept  receding,  and  walking 
backwards  as  she  moved   she  came  dangerously 


96  EARLY   MACKINAC. 

near  the  edge.  Rushing  forward  to  her  rescue, 
the  girl  proved  to  be  but  a  phantom  and  dissolved 
into  thin  air,  while  the  impetuous  captain  was 
dashed  to  death  on  the  rocks  below.  Yet  another 
is  of  this  order:  That  Captain  Robinson  had  been 
one  of  the  garrison  force  at  the  old  fort  across  the 
Straits  at  the  time  of  the  massacre  in  1763,  and  had 
been  saved  by  an  Indian  girl  who  was  exceedingly 
attached  to  him.  After  removing  to  the  island, 
and  bringing  a  white  bride  there,  the  Indian  girl 
followed  him  and  dwelt  in  a  lodge  he  had  built  for 
her  on  the  brow  of  the  great  cliff,  nursing  her 
jealousy  and  revenge.  She  begged  one  last  inter- 
view with  him  before  leaving  the  place  forever. 
On  the  Captain's  granting  this,  and  standing  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  harrowingly  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  Chippewas,  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  the  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  concealed  himself  in  the  cedar  bushes 
to  shoot  the   man  who  had  taken  his  daughter. 


ROBINSON'S   FOLLY.  97 

A  faithful  sergeant,  (the  story  even  gives  his  name, 
MacWhorter, )  was  present  and  saw  the  Indian  level 
his  gun.  He  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  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  around  the  waist,  he 
dashed  off  from  the  cliff  and  both  perished  to- 
gether. 

The  first  two  of  these  stories  concerning  the 
famous  cliff,  might  very  naturally  suggest  the 
name  "Polly."  But  the  others  smack  more  of 
profound  tragedy,  spiced  with  romance.  Of  course, 
Robinson  was  not  in  the  massacre  affair  of  long 
before,  across  the  straits;  he  being  at  that  time  in 
army  service,  under  Gen.  Bouquet,  against  the 
Indians  in  Eastern  Pennsylvania.  That  he  met 
his  death  on  the  island  by  falling  over  the  cliff,  or 
even  in  a  more  normal  manner,  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 


98  EARLY   MACKINAC. 

and  lively  heyday  of  youth.  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  together,  these 
stories  all  become  interesting  as  throwing  some 
light  on  the  origin  of  myths,  and  as  showing  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  X. 

Prom  an  early  day  the  island's  charm  of 
sylvan  and  water  scenery  and  its  delightful  sum- 
mer air,  together  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.  Persor.s  of  high 
distinction  in  public  life  and  in  the  walks  of  litera- 
ture, and  travelers  from  foreign  countries,  were 
often  among  the  visitors;  and  our  island  has  figur- 
ed 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  ft    r 

In  1843,  the  Countess  Ossoli,  better  know 
our  American  Margaret  Puller,  of  Boston,  spc  • 
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  anticipa- 
tion of  "the  most  celebrated  beauties  of  the  island 
of  Mackinac;"  and  then  adds  her  tribute  to  "the 

99 


100  EARLY  MACKINAC. 

exceeding  beauty  of  the  spot  and  its  position." 
She  arrived  at  a  time  when  nearly  two  thousand 
Indians  (and  "more  coming  every  day")  were  en- 
camped on  the  beach  to  receive  their  annual  pay- 
ments 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  resounded  along  the  shores. "  The 
island  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  assemblage  of  houses  every- 
where sure  to  be  met  in  this  country,  to  see  the 
old  French  town,  mellow  in  its  coloring,  and  with 
the  harmonious  effect  of  a  slow  growth  which 
assimilates  naturally  with  objects  around  it. "  Con- 
cerning Arch  Rock,  she  says:  "The  arch  is  per- 
fect, 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  sum- 
mit beneath  the  trees,  and  at  the  foot  upon  the  cool 
mossy  stones  beside  the  lapsing  wave."  Sugar- 
Loaf  rock  struck  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  niche  to  which  those,  who  are  neither,  can 
climb  a  ladder. "  The  woods  she  describes  as 
"very  full  in  foliage,  and  in  August  showed  the 
tender  green  and  pliant  leaf  of  June  elsewhere." 
She  gives  us  a  view  from  the  bluffs  on  the  harbor 
side:  "I  never  wished  to  see  a  more  fascinating 
picture.     It  was  an  hour  of  the  deepest  serenity; 


A   SCENE   ON  THE  BEACH.  101 

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,  wild  as  little 
goblins,  were  playing  both  in  and  out  of  the  water; 
bark  canoes  upturned  upon  the  beach,  and  others 
coming,  their  square  sails  set  and  with  almost 
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  New  York  City), 
titled  "Life  on  the  Lakes,  or  a  Trip  to  the  Pictur- 
ed Rocks,"  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  view 
of  the  island  from  the  waters,  he  thus  describes: 
"The  scene  was  enchanting;  the  tall  white  cliff, 
the  whiter  fort,  the  winding,  yet  still  precipitous 
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  crown  the  brow  of  the  lofty 
Sierra."     In  describing  his  stay  on  the  island  he 

*The  author  is  supposed  to  have  been  Dr.  Chandler  R.  Gilman,  of  the 
College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  New  York, 


102  EARLY  MACKINAC. 

makes  interesting  mention  of  a  Sunday  service  he 
attended  at  the  Old  Mission  Church.  He  reports 
the  building  as  neat  and  commodious,  though  the 
congregation  was  small.  There  was  no  Protestant 
clergyman  on  the  island,  but  Mr.  Schoolcraft  (the 
ruling  elder  of  the  church)  conducted  the  service 
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  appear- 
ance 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  village  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  ordinary 
savage  dress. 

He  mentions  in  evident  astonishment,  and  as 
conveying  a  hint  about  the  island  climate,  his 
eating  cherries  and  currants  in  Mr.  Schoolcraft's 
•  "den  in  the  month  of  September.  And  as  a 
of  harmless  pleasantry,  we  may  give  yet 
am  a  t  of  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 
ever;r  cow  has  at  least  one  bell." 

English  visitors  in  their  tours  of  observation 
through  the  United  States  were  often  drawn 
thither — making  the  long  journey  to  these  upper 
lakes,  and  stopping  off  to  see  the  island  of  whose 
fame  they  had  heard.     Captain  Marryatt,  first  an 


CAPTAIN   MARRYATT. 


103 


officer  of  celebrity  in  the  English  navy,  but  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  appearance  of  a  fairy  island  floating 
on  the  water,  which  is  so  pure  and  transparent 


TANGLEWOOD 

that  you  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  reminis- 

*Marryatt's  admiration  of  the  transparent  waters  suggests  what  i 
find  related  of  a  certain  lady  of  long  ago.  that  once  sailing  in  the  harbor 
and  gazing  with  rapt  fondness  into  the  pellucid  depths,  she  enthusiasti- 
cally exclaimed;  'Oh,  I  could  wish  to  "De  drowned  ia  these  pure,  beauti- 
ful waters! " 


104  EARLY   MACKINAC. 

cence  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 
Minna  and  Brenda,  in  the  novel,  'The  Pirate." 
The  appearance  of  the  village  streets,  largely  given 
to  sails,  cordage,  nets,  fish  barrels  and  the  like, 
still  further  suggested  the  resemblance  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  running  about  or  lying 
on  the  porches  before  the  whisky  stores." 

There  were  also  two  lady  visitors  here  from 
England,  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  Mack- 
inac after  returning  home.  In  their  admiration 
and  enthusiasm  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  Social  Morals,"  "Memoirs  of  the 
Early  Italian  Painters,"  etc.  Miss  Martineau 
was  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  England  the  writings  of  the 
French  philosopher  Comte.  As  both  these  books 
which  touch  on  Mackinac,  written  over  sixty  years 


MRS.   JAMESON.  105 

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  be- 
come rare. 

Mrs.  Jameson's  visit  was  in  the  summer  of 
1835.  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  splendor  reflected  in  the  lake;  and 
between  the  glory  above  and  the  glory  below  stood 
the  little  missionary  church,  its  light  spire  and 
belfry  defined  against  the  sky."  She  speaks  of  the 
"abrupt  and  picturesque  heights  robed  in  richest 
foliage,"  and  of  the  "little  fortress,  snow-white 
and  gleaming  in  the  morning  light;"  of  an  encamp- 
ment of  Indian  wigwams,  ("picturesque  dormi- 
tories, "  she  calls  them)  up  and  down  the  beach  on 
the  edge  of  the  lake  which,  "transfused  and  un- 
ruffled, reflected  every  form  as  in  a  mirror,  *  *  an 
elysian  stillness  and  balmy  serenity  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  salubrity  of  its  sum- 
mer 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, 


106 


EARLY  MACKINAC. 


the  gate  opening  on  the  very  edge  of  the  lake.'* 
She  pictures  Mrs.  Schoolcraft  with  "features 
decidedly  Indian,  accent  slightly  foreign,  a  soft, 
plaintive  voice,  her  language  pure  and  remarkably 
elegant,  refined,  womanly  and  unaffectedly  pious." 


ONE     OF     THE     DRIVES 

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  saying,  "It  is  a  bijou  of  an  island.     A  little 


MISS   MARTINEAU.  107 

bit  of  fairy  ground,  just  such  a  thing  as  some  of 
our  amateur  travelers  would  like  to  pocket  and 
run  away  with  (if  they  could)  and  set  down  in  the 
midst  of  their  fish  ponds;  skull-cave,  wigwams, 
Indians  and  all." 
Hc-<^  Miss  Martineau  spent  two  years  in  this  coun- 
try, traveling  extensively  through  the  States  and 
writing    her    impressions.       She    published     t^o 

I  books  as  the  outcome  of  this  journeying,  '•Society 
in  America,"  and  afterwards,  her  "Retrospect  of 
Western  Traveling."  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  approached  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 
before  us;  it  was  the  barracks  of  Mackinaw, 
stretching  along  the  side  of  its  green  hills,  and 
clearly  visible  before  the  town  camo  into  view. 
The  island  looked  enchanting  as  we  approached, 
as  I  think  it  always  must,  though  we  had  the  ad- 
vantage of  seeing  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  garrison.  The  soldiprs  thronged  the  walks  of 
the  barracks;  half-breed  boys  were  paddling  about 
in  their  canoes,  in  the  transparent  waters;  the  half- 
French,  half- Indian  population  of  the  place  were 


108  EARLY   MACKINAC. 

all  abroad  in  their  best.  An  Indian  lodge  was  on 
the  shore,  and  a  picturesque  dark  group  stood  be- 
side it.  The  cows  were  coming  down  the  steep 
green  slope  to  the  milking.  Nothing  could  be 
more  bright  and  joyous." 

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  first  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  steam- 
boats. Some  way  to  the  right  stood  the  quad- 
rangle 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:  "No  words  can  give 
an  idea  of  the  charms  of  this  morning  walk.  We 
wound  about  in  a  vast  shrubbery,  with  ripe  straw- 
berries under  foot,  wild  flowers  all  around,  and 
scattered  knolls  and  opening  vistas  tempting  curi- 
osity in  every  direction."  Coming  suddenly  on 
Arch  Rock,  which  she  calls  the  "Natural  Bridge  of 


MISS  MARTINEAU.  109 

Mackinaw,"  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  entire  arch;  shrubbery  tufting  the  sides 
and  dangling  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  glossy  lake  and  the  green 
tufted  islands,  she  compares  it  to  what  Noah 
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  ej-es;  the  beauty  of  the 
shadowy  dells  and  sunny  mounds,  with  browsing 
cattle  and  springing  fruit  and  flowers.  Thus,  would 
I  fain  think,  did  the  world  emerge  from  the  flood." 

After  their  early  walk,  Miss  Martineau  and  her 
party  took  breakfast  with  the  courteous  comman- 
dant 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  in- 
quiries 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. 


110  EARLY   MACKINAC. 

The  sailing  vessel  on  which  the  party  were 
passengers  was  bound  for  Detroit,  and  the  Captain 
had  already  overstayed  his  time.  So  they  had  to 
leave  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  thous- 
ands since  have  done,  who  after  visiting  the  island 
have  regretfully  sailed  away  from  it:  "We  watch- 
ed the  island  as  we  rapidly  receded.  Its  flag  first 
vanished;  then  its  green  terraces  and  slopes, 
its  while  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 
comprehensive  note  of  admiration:  "Prom  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 
Fur  Company.  Others  know  it  as  the  seat  of  an 
Indian  Mission.  Others,  again,  as  a  frontier  gar- 
rison. It  is  known  to  me  as  the  wildest  and  tend- 
erest  piece  of  beauty  that  I  have  yet  seen  on  God's 
earth." 


THE    END.  Ill 

Captain  Marry att,  who  had  read  this  descrip- 
tion before  his  visit  to  the  island  (already  referred 
to)  said,  when  writing  his  own  impressions,  "Miss 
Martineau  has  not  been  too  lavish  in  her  praises  of 
Mackinaw. ' '  These  testimonies  by  persons  of  wide 
travel,  and  of  cultivated  taste  and  power  of  obser- 
vation, and  visitors  as  they  were  from  another 
land,  come  down  to  us  very  pleasantly  from  sixty 
years  ago. 


I  know  an  isle,  an  emerald  set  in  pearl, 

Mounting  the  chain  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, 
The  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. 

David  H.  Riddle. 


J