The winter of 1670-71 the beloved Father Marquette passed upon the island, while building his chapel at St. Ignace, across the straits. At that time Michilimackinac Island was regarded as the capital of that province of New France to which it had given its name. The province included. the country west of Quebec and southward to, and along the Ohio, to the western boundary of what is now Minnesota, and all the country drained into Lakes Superior and Huron.

Marquette, the heroic missionary, was the first white man to attempt a permanent settlement in this vicinity, and he gives an interesting account of the "island famous in these regions. It is the key and as it were the gate for all the tribes of the south, as the Sault is for those of the north, there being in this section of country only those two passages by water, for a great number of nations have to go by one or other of these channels to reach the French settlements."

Of all the missions the one at Michilimackinac, among the Hurons and Ottawas, was the largest and most fervent, as in ten years the converts numbered 1,600. After Father Marquette there was an unbroken line of Jesuit missionaries until the suppression of that Order in France gave their work its death-blow. The record of those early missionaries is a chapter of American history full of personal devotion to a high ideal, energy, courage, and perseverance. We may not withhold the homage of respect from men of the character of Jogues, Allouez, Marquette, and hosts of others; men of intelligence and education who cheerfully abandoned all that life had to offer among their own people, to accept hardships and suffering among nomadic barbarians.

Although their hopes of converting and civilizing the Indian were not realized, those first teachers accomplished much in thoroughly practical lines. The lay brethren were skilled workers in metals, and thus were powerful auxiliaries in winning the good will of the aborigines. They were the first manufacturers in the West; they visited the mines in the far north for copper, to make into crucifixes and ornaments for the Indian converts. A historian says:

"They made known the existence of salt springs in New York and of copper on Lake Superior; they identified the ginseng and enabled France to open a lucrative trade in it

with China; they planted the first wheat in Illinois and made the first sugar in Louisiana.»

Many of the voyagers and adventurers became Indians in their mode of life; it was their readiness to intermarry and domesticate with the Indians, as well as to pay outward respect to their religious or superstitious views, that gave them so great an influence, while the English made no attempt to conceal their contempt for their views and customs, or to disguise their aversion. When the French began to manifest an intention of securing a foothold in the lake country by planting strongly fortified posts along the rivers and lakes, the apprehensions of the natives were allayed by the assurance that the object was to prevent the encroachments of the English. In a council held at the Sault, an Ojibway chief spoke of their harmonious relations with the French, saying:

"When the French came to this place they kissed us; they called us children and we found them fathers; we lived like brothers in the same lodge.»

Fort Michilimackinac was first established at St. Ignace, the southernmost point of the upper peninsula of Michigan, at a date not positively determined. In 1700 Cadillac, the commander at Detroit, induced the French government to withdraw the garrison from the north and abandon that military post in favor of the new province of Detroit. As this removal proved unwise, the fort was reëstablished in 1714, but was placed at the northern point of the southern peninsula. The historian Tuttle says:

"It stood so close to the water's edge that in a west wind the waves break against the stockade. Near by is a cluster of white Canadian houses roofed with bark and protected by fences of strong, round pickets. Numerous houses, barracks, and other buildings form a smaller square within, and in the vacant place which they enclose appear the red uniforms of the British soldiers, the gray coats of Canadians, the gaudy Indian blankets mingled in picturesque confusion, while a multitude of squaws, with children of every hue, strolled restlessly about the place."

Such is the picture after the decisive battle on the Heights of Abraham, when the whole country came under British rule. The transfer was not pleasing to the Indians, who preferred French dominion. Though the fur trade of the

northwest had its beginning with French colonization, for many years the English had pressed their claims. This rivalry between the two nations, the enterprise of the traders, the ease with which the Indians could obtain from the representatives of one nation whatever was denied by the other, and the occasional failure of promised supplies, were some of the turning-points in this struggle in the wilderness. It was not at all difficult for savage partisanship to shift from one side to the other whenever the fickle na

English for the fur trade with the Indians resulted in pouring into the wilderness floods of French brandy. The English colonists offset this advantage by the manufacture of cheap rum. The taste for those fiery stimulants, once roused in a savage, could not be appeased, and much that was tragic in the early history of this region is truthfully ascribed to the liquor introduced among the regular supplies and later as an article of traffic. Schoolcraft says: "The effects of ardent spirits in the lodges was equal to the appearance

tives found their interests neglected or jeopardized.

In their earliest intercourse with the whites the natives gave broad reaches of territory for a trifling consideration; in receiving a few yards of cloth or a gay blanket an Indian felt that he obtained a full equivalent for what he supposed was to be a joint occupancy of land for mutual benefit. In those days the possession of a knife or hatchet made its owner a man of mark, on a level with the white man he had previously regarded as his superior.

The rivalry between the French and

of a grizzly bear among them." A trader in the employ of the Hudson Bay Fur Company wrote: "The Indian's liquor must be strong enough to be inflammable, as he always tests it by pouring a few drops. into the fire.»

The strong feeling of discontent among the Indians increased with the passing years, and in 1763 was fanned to a flame by the daring and brilliant leader, Pontiac. He sent messengers to all the nations, bearing the war-belt of wampum and the red-stained tomahawk, to call a grand council to meet in April of that year on

the banks of the river Ecorse, not far from Detroit.

The sachems assembled, and Pontiac, plumed and painted for war, with the cunning and eloquence of which he was master, appealed to their hopes, ambitions, hatred of the English, and love for the French, and urged them to stand together against a common foe. With stern stoicism he reverted to their former condition when they relied upon the lake, river, forest, and meadow for food and clothing.

"You have forgotten the traditions and customs of your forefathers. You have bought guns, knives, kettles, and blankets from the white men until you can no longer do without them, and what is worse, you have drunk the fire-water that turns you into fools. Fling all of these things away; live as your wise forefathers lived; as for these English,- these dogs dressed in red who have come to rob you of your hunting-grounds and drive away the game, you must lift the hatchet against them. Wipe them from the face of the earth and you will be once more happy and prosperous.»

His plan was for a general uprising, a simultaneous attack upon all the lake posts, and the design against the isolated garrison at Michilimackinac was only too successful.

The war whoop sounded; the Indians, debauched and frenzied by liquor taken from the store-house, fell upon the weak garrison, and the horrors of the massacre and the sufferings of the prisoners can neither be imagined nor described.

For a year after, the fort was deserted; then the British returned, and the question of removing to the island, seven miles away, was considered, The unrivalled fishing-grounds, splendid natural harbor, with the superiority of the location as a protection against Indian attacks, were urged as advantages, and in due time the transfer was ordered. The treaty and agreement with the Indians was signed by four Chippewa chiefs, to whom £5,000 was paid. Later, dissatisfaction arose and hostilities were threatened; but a gun was sent from Detroit, and one shot from "the arrow that thunders" settled all opposition.

A government building and a few houses were built, and work begun upon the fort, which was not finished for three years, though King George's troops took possession in 1780. With fort and garrison removed, the settlers had no alternative but to follow; the houses were taken down and transported across the straits, either

floated over or drawn on sleds the next winter, and set up on the island, where several still stand, landmarks of British occupancy.

The block houses, officers' quarters, walls, and magazines were built of the limestone of the island. These still look down upon village and lake from the brow of the hill, one hundred and fifty feet from the water. A massive wall surrounded the buildings, surmounted by a strong palisade of cedar posts, ten feet high, pointed at the top. To prevent the Indians from scaling the palisade, each picket was protected by sharp iron prongs with hooks on the inside. Through the posts were numerous holes for muskets, for defence against an approaching foe.

No story of the settlement of this section would be complete without an allusion to the fur trade, a gigantic enterprise conducted here by methods unknown in other lands. The Northwest Company was a powerful organization which for years held a lordly rule over wintry lakes and boundless forests. Its success led to other enterprises of which the almost unknown island in the unexplored region of the lakes became the commercial centre. The value of the traffic is shown in a record for 1804:

"The goods entered at the Michilimackinac custom house yielded a revenue of $60,000.»

John Jacob Astor was the first American to establish an independent company, which, like the others, had its grand central mart on the island. For several years all of the goods and most of the employees came from Montreal. Everything needful for living, as well as goods for the traders, were brought in boats as far as practicable, then boats and lading were borne on the shoulders of the coureurs des bois, as they made their way in Indian file through the wild, dense forests to other navigable streams, finally to embark on Lake Huron. From the island, trappers and traders went about Lake Superior and its tributary waters, or followed the Mississippi, Missouri and Arkansas rivers into the wild regions they watered. In from four to ten months they returned with their peltries, which were sorted and appraised, and accounts were settled. The men received in exchange blankets, tools, hatchets, cloth, useless trinkets, and the most coveted of all the white man's goods, the maddening

fire-water. Days of rioting and feasting would follow, until their hard-earned money disappeared. The furs were packed in bundles of one hundred pounds weight for ease in making portages, and shipped in large canoes requiring a crew of eight men. These bateaux were thirty or forty feet in length by four in width, "made of birch bark sewed with fibres of the roots of the spruce tree and covered with resin of pine." Light enough to be borne on the shoulders, they were capable of carrying a cargo of from two to four tons.

In 1811 several associations of fur-dealers united with Mr. Astor in the famous "American Fur Company," with a capital of $2,000,000. Its strength was augmented by the passage of a law "that no foreigner should engage in trade with the Indians who did not become a citizen." Then came the war of 1812, which sadly interfered with all business, as the first blow of that war was struck on this island. The frontier posts were not informed of the declaration of war by President Madison, owing to unpardonable negligence of the War Department. Although the British outposts were promptly informed, Lieutenant

Hanks, in charge of the military post of Michilimackinac, only learned the important fact four weeks later, when a British cannon was planted behind the fort. From an island on the Canadian border a fleet of boats had set out, containing, besides the regular soldiers of the garrison, Canadian militia and a large force of Indians, numbering in all 1,008 men under Captain Roberts. The expedition was admirably conducted, and the men disembarked at three o'clock on the morning of July 17, on the pebbly beach, northwest of the island, still known as "British Landing."

The warning shot of the gun was followed by the appearance of an officer, flag in hand, demanding the surrender of the fort. He stated the strength of the force and intimated that an indiscriminate slaughter by the savages would result if there was a movement toward resistance. As Lieutenant Hanks was taken completely unawares, with a garrison of but 57 men, it would have been hopeless and fatal to refuse a surrender. The soldiers were paroled and sent to Detroit; the citizens were summoned to take the oath of allegiance to the British government. The

majority acquiesced, but seven men resolutely refused to turn traitors even in such an emergency; they were sent away with the soldiers and not allowed to return until peace was declared.

The seizure of Mackinac was of the utmost importance to British interests, as in wresting from the United States this valuable military post they held command of the upper lakes, and the gateway to the fur trade of a great region was transferred to our allied enemies. They seized the spoils of war and proceeded to strengthen their position by an earthwork and block house upon the hill where their cannon was placed. For this work every able-bodied man in the village was impressed, each one who could wield a pick or shovel was compelled to contribute three days' labor.

In the following autumn, through the brilliant victories of General Harrison and Commodore Perry, our flag again floated over every influential post upon the lakes, with the exception of Mackinac. An attempt to recapture the island in 1814 was disastrous. Colonel Sinclair, in command of the United States troops, made several attempts to land on Round Island to erect a battery. After a week of futile efforts he determined to follow the example of the enemy and disembark at British Landing.

But the situation was entirely different. Beyond the pebbly beach lay the Dous

and

man farm, and across its
open fields were dense
thickets where plumed
and painted savages
were in ambush,
every out-post was
guarded. The moment
an advance was ordered,
the Indians opened fire
upon the troops, who
vainly struggled against
an unseen foe. To pre-
vent a general massacre
a retreat was ordered,
but the loss was severe.

It was resolved to starve out the garrison by preventing the arrival of supplies, and thus force a surrender. A blockade was rigidly maintained until a loaf of bread sold for one dollar, and horse-meat and fish were the principal food. In open boats the enemy went out to break the blockade, capturing the blockading vessels, which were the very ones which one year before had figured so honorably on Lake Erie under Commodore Perry. This is not a bit of history calculated to delight the heart of a loyal American, but as a feat of prowess it demands a word of appreciation from the vanquished party. The island remained in the hands of the British until after the peace and settlement secured by the treaty of Ghent.

The fort was a favorite one, and the enemy was reluctant to abandon it. The retiring commandant wrote to a friend:

"Our negotiators have shown themselves profoundly ignorant of the concerns of this part of the empire. . . . I am prostrated with grief at the restoration of this fine island. - a fortress built by Nature for herself. »

He was chagrined to include in the transfer guns that told of English humiliation in the Revolutionary War; cannon were restored with such inscriptions as, "Taken from Cornwallis," "Taken at Saratoga." He candidly admitted,

"As an Englishman I feel a strong temptation to a breach of that good faith which in all public treaties it is infamy to violate."

When the British captured the fort in 1812 there were little clearings where gardens had been made by the soldiers: one large plateau was filled with potatoes.