USA > Michigan > A History of Northern Michigan and Its People, Volume I > Part 10
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"The good father expressed but one wish. He wanted to reach his mission at Michilimackinac and there seek his reward from the One he had served so well. It was perhaps one of the greatest incidents of devotion and physical endurance anywhere recorded in the annals of Michigan history. The two paddlers worked ceaselessly, day after day, paddling eighteen and twenty hours of each twenty-four, taking the frail canoe against the great surges of storm-tossed Lake Michigan. A kind Providence, indeed, watched over the little vessel and gave strength to the paddlers.
"Up the east shore of Michigan they made their way, camping when flesh and blood no longer could stand the strain, but getting away after an hour or two of sleep. Death gained steadily, however, and when opposite the mouth of the river which subsequently was to bear his name the face of the Little White Father told his devoted voyageurs that death was very near. They nodded and increased the pace. A gesture of the thin hand stayed them. Pere Marquette, too, realized the end was near and directed them to land upon the little peninsula formed between what now is Pere Marquette lake and Lake Michigan.
"The sturdy paddlers carried the wasted figure ashore and hur- riedly built a rough hut upon the sandy beach of the great lake. Then, at the behest of the dying father, the men went to snatch a few moment's rest. They sank into a sleep seemingly as deep as death itself, but at the first faint call from the lips of the priest they were up and stand- ing at his side. They arrived just in time to receive his benediction.
"They hollowed a grave out of the sand on the beach and erected a rough cross above the resting place of the mortal remains of the im- mortal Pere Marquette. Then they took up the sorrowful journey, the bearers of sad tidings to the mission at Michilimackinac.
"Perhaps a year of two later a hunting party of the Ottawas found the grave and the cross. Remembering the kindness of the Little White Father they exhumed the body, prepared, it for burial in accordance with tribal custom and started for Michilimackinac with a great funeral escort of warrior laden canoes.
"On approaching the mission they were met by another great flotilla of canoes and all formed into funeral formation and to the accompani- ment of the death chant of the Indians, the body of Pere Marquette was taken to the mission he loved and there, amid great ceremony, con- signed to its permanent resting place.
"This is the story of the death of Pere Marquette. They named the river that flowed by and the small lake it forms in passing after the Little White Father. In the early days they called the settlement that
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has since grown to the city of Ludington, Pere Marquette. Each day sees from two to a dozen great car ferries steaming past that scene of his death with the name 'Pere Marquette' emblazoned in big white letters on the port and starboard bows. Locomotives pass within hear- ing of that historic spot with 'Pere Marquette' inscribed upon the tender, drawing all sorts of railway vehicles upon which are also found these historically magic words.
"There is a sincere regret in Ludington that the name of the city was ever changed from the original Pere Marquette. There is a move- ment on foot at present to mark the approximate spot of his death with a suitable monument. It is said the exact spot has been swallowed up by the shifting sands and now lies under the water of Lake Michigan, but the fact remains that Pere Marquette died within a few steps of the deserted village of Butters and that from the exact spot of that historic deathbed scene of more than two centuries ago, one might now see the solitary smokestack of the old Butters sawmill."
CADILLAC AND MICHILIMACKINAC
Prior to the founding of Detroit, in 1701, the old town of Michili- mackinac (Mackinaw City), was the headquarters of the military, trad- ing and exploring expeditions conducted by the French government. With the establishment of the Northwest Fur Company, in 1694, An- toine de la Mothe Cadillac was appointed to the command at Michili- mackinac, where the natives were exhibiting the same feelings of un- rest and hostility that pervaded practically all Indian nations at that period. This fur company established its base of operations at Michili- mackinac, thereby largely increasing the number of traders that ranged throughout the surrounding country with that place as the center of operations; and a more extensive armed force seemed essential, and was provided for the subjugation of the natives in that section. The coming of Cadillac as commander, and his methods of government were so obnoxious to, and were so resisted by the missionaries of the locality, that it became notorious that he meant to destroy their missions.
In writing from Michilimackinac to the governor general, August 3, 1695, Cadillac said : "The village is one of the largest in all Canada; there is a fine fort of pickets, and sixty houses that form a street in a straight line. There is a garrison of well-disciplined chosen soldiers, consisting of about two hundred men, besides many others who are resi- dents here during two or three months of the year." He also com- ments on the air as being penetrating, and therefore making the daily use of brandy a necessity to prevent sickness. He speaks of the In- dian villages in the vicinity being about a pistol shot distant from the French village, and of its having a population of six thousand or seven thousand persons. He also speaks of their occupation, and says that all lands are cleared for about three leagues around the village, and that they were very well cultivated, and of them he says: "They produce a sufficient quantity of Indian corn for the use of both the French and the savage inhabitants. The question is then, what reason can there be for this prohibition of intoxicating drinks in regard to
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the French who are here now ? Are they not subjects of the king, even as others ? In what country, then, or in what land, until now, have they taken from the French the right to use brandy, provided they did not become disorderly ?"
This letter is not only authoritative evidence of the popularity of this part of the country in the eye of the Indians, but it shows that the French had attained to a considerable settlement and that the fields were made to add to the products of the forests and the waters, their quota of a substantial and varied sustenance sufficient for all.
It is also a serious commentary on existing conditions wherein a strife had grown up between the traders and the missionaries, and wherein Cadillac took the part of the traders, who in order to pro- mote advantageous bargains had brought into the country large quan-
CADILLAC
tities of brandy which they disposed of alike to the Indians and the French. This was against the protests of the missionaries, who found it seriously affected and impeded their ecclesiastical work, and was demoralizing, generally, to the inhabitants of both races. Cadillac's letter was written because of complaints made by the missionaries to the home government of this evil effect of the traffic, and Cadillac seems to have placed the advantage of a more profitable trade above the moral question of the effect upon the characters of the people, as judged from the form of his argument. He quotes upon this subject from an address to him by some of the chiefs and inhabitants as fol- lows: "Oh chief, what evil have thy children done to thee that thou shouldst treat them so badly ? Those that came before thee were not so severe upon us. It is not to quarrel with thee that we come here; it is only to know for what reason thou wishest to prevent us from
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drinking brandy. Thou shouldst look upon us as thy friends, and the brothers of the French, or else as thy enemies. If we are thy friends, leave us the liberty of drinking; our beaver is worth thy brandy, and the Master of Life gave us both, to make us happy. If thou wish to treat us as thy enemies, do not be angry if we carry our beavers to Orange (Albany) or to Cortland, where they will give us brandy, as much as we want."
This question of the effect of the liquor traffic caused serious con- flict between the missionaries on the one hand and the military and the traders on the other, from which much friction resulted at a time when they were seriously in need of the closest harmony. It is claimed to have had much to do in adding to the turbulent temper of the sav- ages, and their unrest which the events of the whole country were then but too plainly evincing; and who can tell how great a part it may have had in firing the temper of those savages to the point of the subsequent massacres? The friction thus engendered between the mis- sionaries and the military, as well as the threatening attitude assumed by the Indians, may well be considered as the cause of the disruption that soon followed, when the Jesuits withdrew from this section of the country, and their work in this vicinity was abandoned with little per- ceptible enduring effect; for, noble as was the work, it was applied al- most exclusively to the Indian race, and its effects were very largely effaced in the absolute reign of the traders that was paramount for the century to follow.
Another event of the times exhibited still further discord between the missionaries and the military, which latter were in accord with the officials of the government. The savage Iroquois had waged furi- ous wars upon the Hurons and punished them relentlessly in many en- counters, and the French believed that the Iroquois' assaults were at the instigation of the English.
The French, for the purpose of protecting their interests in this lake country against the intrusions of the English, endeavored to har. monize and unite the opposing Indian nations, and therefore form a barrier to English progress. The French and the English had clashed over the territory west of the Alleghanies, and the Jesuits who had been active as missionaries among the Iroquois found themselves out of sympathy with the Canadian officials. This is strongly evidenced by the fact that when Cadillac took up the mission of establishing a colony at Detroit but one Jesuit came with him. He was Father Nalliaut and he did not remain a day. He was later succeeded by representatives of the Recollet order.
Immediately on the return of Cadillac to Quebec, in 1697, he pre- sented to Governor Frontenac his plans for the establishment of a fort at Detroit, and the advantages of the location for that purpose. Be- fore any definite action was taken thereon Frontenac died, and was succeeded in 1698, by Louis Hector de Callieres, as governor general. Father Carheil presented to the newly appointed governor general the protest of the mission of St. Ignace against the plans of Cadillac as being calculated to destroy the missions at and about St. Ignace; but,
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notwithstanding this protest, in 1701 Cadillac obtained authority to establish a military post at Detroit.
INSECURE AND BURDENSOME LAND TENURE
We have dwelt somewhat at length on this contest at old Michili- mackinac over the liquor traffic, because its relates directly to the coun- try covered by this history, and is also the starting point of the con- flict between the advocates of temperance and anti-temperance which has continued to this day; and the reader will note that many phases of the question in 1695 and 1911 are very similar.
But the growing differences of opinion between the men of the Cross and the men of the world were not the only causes for the unpromising social and industrial conditions which were the outgrowth of French dominion. The missions were abandoned, but the form of land distribu- tion which prevailed did not encourage the settlement of the French peasantry ; the fur traders were migratory and few remained to found homes and families.
Grants of land were made by the French governor of Canada and Louisiana which were required to be confirmed by the King of France. The commandants of the forts were also allowed to grant permissions of occupancy to the settlers and lands were occupied by the French settlers without permission. On that ground are based some of the old French titles to land in the state. The regular grants made to the set- tlers were encumbered with the most illiberal and burdensome condi- tions, calculated to cripple the freedom of the tenant and the progress of husbandry. Even the first grant which was made at Detroit in 1707, six years after Detroit was founded, by Cadillac to Delorme, inter- preter for the King, clearly exhibits the feudal spirit of the French policy. It conveyed only thirty-two acres. The right of hunting hares, rabbits and partridges was reserved.
A further exposition of this interesting but retarding period of French dominion over the territory now covered by Northern Michigan is thus given in James H. Lanman's history of 1839: "The grantee was required to pay five livres quit-rent on the 20th of March of each year; and also the sum of ten livres in peltries, until a current money should be established, and that sum was thenceforth to be paid in money. He was also required to begin to clear and improve the concession within three months from the date of the grant on pain of forfeiture. He was required to plant, or help to plant, a long May-pole at the door of the principal manor on the 1st of May in every year. If the grantee failed in this, he was bound to pay three livres in money or peltries. He was also bound to pay for the right of grinding at the moulin bannal, or mill of the manor. All the timber wanted for the construction of fortifications, boats and other vessels, was reserved; and no person was permitted to work on the land at the trade of a blacksmith, gunsmith, armorer, or brewer, within the first ten years from the date of the grant, without the consent of the grantor. On every sale of the lands, the duty was to be paid called the lods et ventes. All effects carried to or from Montreal were required to be sold by the grantee or other Vol. I-5.
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person, who, with his family, was a resident, and not by clerks, for- eigners, or strangers. If the grantee sold to a foreigner with permis- sion, the duties required were increased to a great degree. The grantee ยท was forbidden to trade brandy with the Indians, and in some cases he was bound to obtain a brevet of confirmation within two years. Sim- ilar grants, equally burdensome, were also made in 1734, by Charles Marquis de Beauharnois, governor for the king in Canada and Louisiana, to St. Aubin; and in 1750 by De la Jonquiere to Antoine Robert, of lands on the Detroit river. The abridgment of the rights of the tenants was further effected in 1745 by an edict which passed ordaining that no country houses should be built on plantations of one acre and a half in front and forty back, and the scarcity of springs in the interior thus confined the settlements along the banks of the streams. The in- fluence of national policy is nowhere more strongly exhibited than in the contrast with that period of the sturdy American enterprise which is now acting on the soil.
"Beside the unequal and burdensome tenure of land distribution, springing from the coutume de Paris, equal and exact justice could not be administered in doubtful matters, except on application to the gov- ernor of Canada. At a subsequent period numerous grants were made by R. de Bellestre, then the commandant of Detroit; and there is on record a cause of Claude Campeau against M. Cabacier praying for an injunction to prevent the demolition of a mill when M. Landrieve was commandant of that post. In 1753 a temporary order was given, sent to the governor-general, and finally received the signature of the Marquis Du Quesne. The record shows that the government of the posts on the lakes was subject to the authority of the commandants under the cognizance of the governor-general; and it also establishes the fact that there was no organized court or settled system of jurisprudence.
"In 1749 a number of emigrants were sent out at the expense of the French government, who were provided with farming utensils and all the means necessary to advance a colony. These were settled at Detroit; but no material advantage was gained to the posts on the lakes. because there was too little energy and system in the government, and too little enterprise in the people. Surrounded by streams and for- ests yielding abundance, removed from the settled portion of the world, there was but little motive presented to their minds for the exertion of energy and ambition.
"About this period the policy of the French government was exer- cised to establish a chain of posts from Quebec to the mouth of the Mississippi, in order to secure the trade, overawe the Indians, and en- viron the English power, which was then confined to the Atlantic sea- board. In 1751 the fort of Detroit, as well as those on the upper lakes, continued to be in a weak condition. About thirty French farms or plantations were scattered along the banks of the river and the colony contained a population of about five hundred, besides the Indians in the free villages who could at that time command about four hundred warriors. Detroit was then an important point of French influence on the northwestern lakes.
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MONOPOLIES RETARD PROGRESS
"The progress of the country under the French government was obstructed by the fact that this region was long under the monopoly of exclusive companies chartered by the French crown. The design of these companies, especially the governors and intendants. was to enrich themselves by the fur trade; and accordingly they had little motive to encourage agriculture or general settlement. By that policy the intendants accumulated large fortunes by the trade, while they averted from the observation of the French crown the actual condition of the colonies in Canada. They much preferred that the French in- habitants should undergo the labor of procuring furs, while they might reap the profits, rather than that these tenants should become the free husbandmen of a fertile soil. It was reverence for rank, ignorance of the true principles of republican freedom, and, in some measure per- haps, a virtuous loyalty which they felt toward their monarch, that in- duced them to yield their allegiance to the colonial administration.
FUR TRADE ENRICHES ONLY THE RICH
"The fur trade was the principal subject of mercantile traffic upon the coast of Michigan, and its central point was the shores of the north- western lakes. Large canoes, laden with packs of European merchandise, advanced periodically through the upper lakes, for the purpose of trading for peltries with the Indians; and these made their principal depots at Michilimackinac and Detroit. In order to advance the inter- ests of the trade, licenses were granted by the French king, and un- licensed persons were prohibited from trading with the Indians in their own territory under the penalty of death. The ordinary price of these licenses was six hundred crowns. They were generally purchased from the governor-general by the merchants, and by them sold out to the Canadian traders or the Coureurs des Bois. The privilege granted in a single license was the loading of two large canoes, each of which was manned by six men, and freighted with a cargo valued at about a thousand crowns. They were sold to the traders at an advance of about fifteen per cent more than they could command in ready money at the colony. The actual profits on these voyages was generally about one hundred per cent. In this traffic the merchant acquired most of the profit, while the trader endured most of the fatigue. On the return of the expedition, the merchant took from the bulk of the profit six hundred crowns for his license, and a thousand crowns for the prime cost of the exported goods. From this sum the merchant took forty per cent for bottomry and the remainder was then divided among the six Coureurs des Bois, whose share, for all their hardship and peril, was only a small consideration.
"The active agents of the fur trade were the Coureurs des Bois, the pilots of the lakes. Sweeping up in their canoes through the upper lakes, encamping with the Indians in the solitude of the forests, they returned to the posts, which stood like lighthouses of civilization upon the borders of the wilderness; like sailors from the ocean, to whom they
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were not dissimilar in character. They were lavish of their money in dress and licentiousness. They ate, drank, and played all away, so long as their goods held out; and when these were gone, they sold their em- broidery, their lace and clothes; and they were then forced to go on another voyage for subsistence."
The scope of French enterprise upon the lakes was mainly confined to the fur trade during the whole period of the French domination; and the general course of the traffic may be known by the words of La Hontan, written at Montreal in 1865: "Much about the same day, there arrived twenty-five or thirty canoes belonging to the Coureurs des Bois, being homeward bound for the great lakes and laden with beaver skins. The cargo of each canoe amounted to forty packs, each of which weighs fifty pounds and will fetch fifty crowns at the farmer's office. These canoes were followed by fifty more of the Ottawas and Hurons, who came down every year to the colony, in order to make a better market than they can do in their own country of Michilimackinac which lies on the banks of the Lake of Hurons, at the mouth of the Lake of the Illinese. Their way of trading is as follows: Upon their arrival they encamp at the distance of five or six hundred paces from the town. The next day is spent in ranging their canoes, unloading their goods, and pitching their tents, which are made of birch bark. The next day they demand audience of the governor-general, which is granted them that same day in a public place. Upon this occasion each nation makes a ring for itself. The savages sit upon the ground with their pipes in their mouths, and the governor is seated in an arm-chair; after which there starts up an orator or speaker from one of these nations, who makes an harangue, importing that his brethern are come to visit the governor-general, and to renew with him their wonted friendship; that their chief view is to promote the interest of the French, some of whom, being unacquainted with the way of traffic and being too weak for the transporting of goods from the lakes, would be unable to deal in beaver skins if his brethren did not come in person to deal with them in their own colonies; that they know very well how acceptable their arrival is to the inhabitants of Montreal, in regard of the advantage they reap by it; that in regard the beaver skins are much valued in France, and the French goods given in exchange are of inconsiderable value, they mean to give the French sufficient proof of their readiness to furnish them with what they desire so earnestly. That by way of preparation of another year's cargo, they are come to take in exchange, fuses, powder, and ball; in order to hunt great numbers of beavers, or to gall the Iroquese, in case they offer to disturb the French settlements. And, in fine, that in confirmation of their words, they throw a porcelain colier, with some beaver skins, to the Kitchi-Okima (so they call the governor- general), whose protection they lay claim to, in case of any robbery or abuse committed upon them in the town. The spokesman having made an end of his speech, returns to his place and takes up his pipe, and the interpreter explains the substance of the harangue to the governor, who commonly gives a very civil answer, especially if the presents be valuable; in consideration of which he likewise makes them a present
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of some trifling things. This done, the savages rise up and return to their huts to make suitable preparations for the ensuing truck.
"The next day the savages make their slaves carry the skins to the house of the merchants, who bargain with them for such clothes as they want. All the inhabitants of Montreal are allowed to traffic with them in any commodity but rum and brandy; these two being excepted upon the account that when the savages have got what they wanted, and have any skins left, they drink to excess, and then kill their slaves; for when they are in drink they quarrel and fight, and if they were not held by those who are sober, would certainly make havoc one of another ; however, you must observe that none of them will touch either gold or silver.
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