USA > Michigan > A history of the northern peninsula of Michigan and its people, its mining, lumber and agricultural industries, Volume I > Part 15
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BIRDS, FISHES AND REPTILES
The native birds of the Upper Peninsula number more than two hundred species, and it is impossible in this work to give them all men- tion. Included in the number are eagles, hawks, crows, owls, herons, ravens, blackbirds, dueks, geese, pigeons, partridge (ruffled grouse), jays, woodpeckers, king-fishers, snipe, plover, loons, swallows, sparrows, shrikes, grosbeaks, waxwings, creepers. wrens, orioles and humming birds. Among the true song birds are larks, robins, thrushes, bluebirds, warblers and gold-finches. The birds range in size from the bald-headed eagle (Haliapus Leucocephalus) to the tiny ruby-throat humming bird (Throchilus Colubris), and in beanty from the awkward grey brant (Branta Bernicla) to the vivid scarlet tanager (Pyranga Rubra) and golden woodpecker (Colaptis Aurates).
The waters that wash the shores of the Northern Peninsula and very nearly convert it into an island, as well as those of the numerons in- terior lakes and streams, are filled with fine fish, the most celebrated among them being the whitefish (Coregonus quadrilateralis). Among others, valued alike by the commercial fishermen und the sportsmen, are the gamy bass in three varieties, locally known as rock, black, and Oswego bass. Of the tront there are four varieties-brook, lake, rain- bow and Siscowe (cisco). Other species common to these waters are the dory, pike, pickerel, musealunge, herring, blue-fish, sun-fish and sturgeon, this last being the largest of all our native fresh water fishes, the flesh of which was considered of great value by the Indians and is considerably used by the white people. Its roe has been manufactured
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into caviar to a limited extent in the Upper Peninsula. Among varie- ties of less worth are bull-heads, catfish, lawyers and bill-fish or gar- pike.
The serpent life in the Upper Peninsula is limited to a few harm- less varieties, the largest being a constrictor known locally as the pine snake; others are the small black snake, the grey puff adder, the striped garter snake, and, very rarely the rattle snake.
Turtles are represented by three species: the snapping turtle, mud turtle and the painted tortoise.
The toad family is represented by the common garden toad, two or more varieties of frogs and the hylos, or tree toad, a variety that changes color in conformity with the object it rests upon. Closely allied to the frogs are the spotted and striped salamanders, and the hideous water dog ealled by fishermen "hell-bender." These latter resemble lizards but are not poisonous. Eels also are found to some extent.
Vol. 1-7
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CHAPTER VII PRELIMINARY HISTORICAL EVENTS
THE CABOT DISCOVERIES-JACQUES CARTIER-ROBERVAL'S ATTEMPTED COLONIZATION-QUEBEC FOUNDED BY CHAMPLAIN-RECOLLET AND JESUIT MISSIONARIES-JEAN NICOLET, UPPER PENINSULA VISITOR- SEARCHING FOR A NORTHWEST-DEATHS OF CHAMPLAIN AND NICOLET.
The history of Michigan as an organized law-making community has scarcely a hundred years of existence, but the territory now embodied in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and that immediately adjacent thereto, figured so prominently in the early history of the United States that it becomes a necessity, in order to appreciate the peculiarity of the settlement and exploration of our territory, the growth and na- ture of its population and the development of its resources, to consider the conditions and ambitions of the various nations which took part in the events leading up to its settlement.
In its early history, following that during which it was solely pos- sessed by the red men, this section was part of Canada, or New France as it was at first called. It is impossible to tell just when the first Eu- ropeans visited the Upper Peninsula proper, but we know it was at a very early date in American history, and before the settlers along the middle Atlantic seaboard had thought of crossing the Alleghanies.
To speak by comparison is often the best method of speaking under- standingly, and, therefore recurring briefly to the discovery of Amer- iea by Columbus, we are informed by history of the ambitions that im- mediately arose in the breasts of the varions Enropean rulers, and that it was not long, in the then methods of measuring events, before ex- plorers from England and France were vieing with the Spanish in the extension of the new world discoveries.
THE CABOT DISCOVERIES
Fourteen months before Columbus discovered the mainland of the continent, John Cabot and his son Sebastian, in 1497, discovered the coast of Labrador, and the following year the son, Sebastian, explored the coast of Newfoundland and reported the great quantities of codfish
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that were there. This was fourteen years before Ponce de Leon landed near St. Augustine and named that country "Florida." The reports of Cabot seem to have attracted the fishermen of the globe, for, by the year 1504, the coast of Newfoundland was visited by fishermen from many different parts of Europe. It is probable some may have been there eurlier, but there are no recognized authentic records of any earlier visit than that of Cabot. It is apparent that a profitable and immediately available commodity was the greatest allurement to the early navigators of the then unknown seas and the abundance of cod- fish that could be had for the taking made the vicinity of the Gulf of St. Lawrence a center of the greatest attraction.
Naturally the explorations were pushed from the gulf up the river of the same name, and, with the penetration of the country through that source, came the introduction of the fur trade, which almost at once became attractive and very profitable. These ready sources of profit continued to be attractive to the European adventurers and they played a prominent part in the strifes and warfares that followed, not only between the communities of the new but also the natives of the old world.
It was twenty-seven years after Cabot discovered the coast of Lab- rador, before JJohn Verrazzano, a Florentine navigator, explored the lower coast and entered (1524) the harbors of New York and Newport. Upon the report of Verrazzano, and his description of the coast, the French based a claim to North America.
While the French were pushing their explorations in the north the Spanish were pressing forward in the regions of the Gulf of Mexico, allured by the glare of the gold and the abundance of silver that ex- isted there; and by 1526 Don Jose de Vasconcellos had explored from the Gulf of Mexico as far inland as Arizona.
JACQUES CARTIER
In 1534, May 12th, Jacques Cartier, with two vessels and 122 men. reached Newfoundland and there erected a cross bearing the French arms to indicate the French dominion, and after sailing up the St. Lawrence as far as Anticosti he returned to France, only to return the following year, when he sailed up the St. Lawrence river and arrived at the present site of Montreal October 2, 1535. He found there an Indian village, Hochelaga, and back of the village was the mountain which he named "Mount Royal," which was eventually shortened to the present "Montreal." Cartier, with his men, spent a hard winter on the St. Lawrence, losing twenty-five of their number by scurvy, and in the following spring (1536) he returned to France taking with him the Indian chief Donnaconna, and nine lesser chiefs, who were induced by deceit to enter the ships. If not the first, this is an early illustration of the impositions that were practiced by the Europeans upon the na- tive Indians and it is very probable that like and worse acts on the part of the white visitors found real effect in the bloody massacres, and the
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brutal treatment of white settlers at the hands of the Indians that fol- lowed in later years. These visits by Cartier were the first directly un- der the auspices of the government of France, and they were at the in- stance of the king, who caught the inspiration of the people and believed. not only that the territory in the vicinity of the St. Lawrence with its reported riches in furs and minerals would be a valuable ac- quisition and of great importance to France, but also that through the St. Lawrence there would be found a through passage to China; and it was in a search for such a northwest passage that many expeditions were sent out by the various old world monarchs.
It was in 1539 that DeSoto landed in Florida, and, with his six hundred men, marched across the country, reaching the Mississippi river in 1541 with a remnant of his original force; and it was the same year that Cartier sailed on his third voyage to the St. Lawrence. This time Cartier sailed, expecting to be followed immediately by Lord Roh- erval (Jean Francis de la Roque, Sieur de Roberval) who had received a commission granting to him the government of New France, and who, as such governor, had made Cartier captain general of the expedition ; and they proposed to form a colony in their new possessions and there search for the wealth of minerals said to exist therein, of which reports had come to the early explorers through the Indians, and their reports undoubtedly had reference to the minerals of Lake Superior. Cartier arrived at his destination in August, 1541, and while waiting and con- tinually expecting the arrival of Lord Roberval, he built two forts and prepared for the winter. Roberval came in the following spring, but not until Cartier, disheartened by the hardships of a dreary winter, had broken up his colony and started for Franee.
Cartier suffered many hardships and privations in his several voy- ages, which brought to the attention of the world the country tributary to the Gulf and River St. Lawrence, and thus he was a prominent factor in the events that early led to recognition by the world of the ad- vantages existing in the region of the great lakes, which region found its early center of attraction in the first central settlement west of Mon- treal at Michilimackinac, or Macinac. Cartier therefore is entitled to and is accorded prominent mention in the history of the Upper Penin- sula, and reward for all those hardships endured can now be accorded him in no better or more enduring manner than by our recognition of him as among the foremost of the world's explorers.
ROBERVAL'S ATTEMPTED COLONIZATION
Lord Roberval, in 1542, brought with him two hundred colonists who attempted to form a colony still farther up the stream than that of Cartier's, but after the hardships of one winter the colony was broken up and the members returned to France. These repeated attempts to colonize this northern country are here referred to, to illustrate the per- sisteney with which the inhabitants of sunny France, time after time, bared themselves to the rigors of Canadian winters, with but scant
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shelter, in the interest of extending the dominion of France, over a country that was full of promises of abundant reward. The inquiring disposition of an explorer naturally elicited from the natives some in- formation regarding the country tributary to the great river, and each recurring voyage increased the information, and awakened an increased interest in the old, in the opportunities which seemed to be open to them in the new world. In 1547 Roberval, undaunted by the hardships of his earlier experience, set out on a second colonizing expedition, but, with his entire company, was lost in the passage. The repeated fail- ures in attempted colonization combined with the death of the king and wars at home, lost to this region the attention of France for a consider- able period; and little is recorded of events in the region of St. Law- rence for some fifty years that followed the failure of Roberval's at- tempt to colonize and form a government.
For a long period following, the interest in legitimate exploration seems to have given way to a period of buccaneering, participated in by English, French and Spanish alike, in which vessels and settlements of one were preyed upon by the others, and the Indians were preyed upon by all; and there were spread upon the early pages of American history blots that can never be effaced.
In 1565, Menendez, a Spanish commander, founded St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest city in the United States, and in the spirit of the times he immediately proceeded to massacre the people in Ribault's French settlement at Fort Caroline, putting most of them most cruelly to the sword.
In 1576 the coast of Labrador was again visited by an explorer, but this time by an Englishman, Sir John Frobisher, who discovered what he thought was gold in the rocks of the country, and from which sup- posed discovery grew a famous bubble of large proportions, which, when it burst, carried consternation and ruin to many who were included in the noble families of England.
It was in 1582 that Sir Walter Raleigh, with a patent from Queen Elizabeth, sent out explorers with the result that "Virginia" was named in honor of the Virgin Queen of England; and the city of Raleigh, Virginia, was founded in 1587, in which year "Manteo," an Indian chief, was baptized there and made "Lord of Roanoke," the first and only pecrage ever created by England in America; and he was the first Indian baptized by an English minister.
In 1598 Marquis de La Roche obtained the right to colonize and command New France, and he attempted to colonize Sable Island with a lot of criminals which he assembled for the purpose, and whom he left on the island, where, for years, they lived like wild men, subsisting upon fish and such food as they could gather. At the end of five years, in 1603, there remained but twelve of the entire colony and these twelve remaining criminals, after the hardened experience of their wild life, by the assistance of the king of France entered the Canadian fur trade. The effect upon history of the treatment which such men would likely
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accord the Indians, in prosecuting their trade for furs, can well be left to the imagination, and probably cannot be fully measured by that.
Prior to this, and in 1599, Pontgrave, a French trader, procured a patent authorizing him to colonize New France, and he placed sixteen men at the mouth of Saguenay river, on the St. Lawrence, to obtain furs. and thus we have a record of an early beginning of the fur trade that a little later tempted the pioneers into the region of the great lakes and to the Upper Peninsula. These men were not prepared to stand the cold and some of them died, while the others were scattered and took up life with the Indians.
QUEBEC FOUNDED BY CHAMPLAIN
In 1603 Champlain made his first visit to Canada and with his com- pany later established the first permanent European settlement in New France, at what is now Quebec. He explored the surrounding country, and did much in the way of establishing friendly relations with the In- dians, greatly to the advantage of his then future work of exploration, settlement and development of the country. At the site of Montreal, Champlain found absolutely no trace of the flourishing Indian village of Hochelaga which existed there at the time of Cartier's visit, eighty years earlier. Champlain continued his work of exploration and col- onization and in 1605 explored the coast of Cape Cod.
In 1606 James I of England granted to the London Company and also to the Plymouth Company, each a right to colonize territory in eer- tain latitudes, each grant extending from the Atlantic westward to the Pacifie. The spirit of colonization seems to have thoroughly revived at this period and in 1607 the London Company founded Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the new world, and only one year in advance of the first permanent French settlement in North America at Quebec, in 1608.
At this period there was trouble between the Indian tribes, and the warlike Iroquois were a continual menace to the more peaceable Hurons and other neighboring tribes, and in 1609 Champlain joined a war party against the Iroquois. The French arms greatly terrified the In- dians and Champlain's part in that campaign was the first step in the trouble that followed between the French and the Indians. It was in that campaign that Champlain discovered the lake which bears his name.
In 1610 Champlain returned to France for the purpose of making arrangements with the French goverment concerning the American fur trade, and on his return to Canada, in 1611, he went at once to the island of Montreal to establish a trading post, and there held a trading assembly with the Hurons, who came there from the shores of Lake Huron and the intervening country for the purpose of trade. At that time there came with the Indians a young Frenchman whose name is not recorded, who had the year previous made the first known visit by a white man to the shores of Lake Huron and who had there win- tered with the Hurons, studying their customs and habits of life.
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By this time a three-fold interest in New France was made mani- fest-First the discovery of the northwest passage to China; secondly, the development of the fur trade, and thirdly, the conversion of the sav- age inhabitants. All these were factors in the movements then to fol- low that led to the early discovery of the remaining great lakes and induced the pioneer visits to what is now the Upper Peninsula. The religious tenets of the King of France led him to direct his efforts largely to the work of imparting to the natives a knowledge of the Christian religion and it was the aim of the missionaries to Christianize and civilize the native inhabitants, and develop the country through their advancement, rather than to colonize it with Europeans. The commercial interests which then were confined principally to the trade in furs did not harmonize with the good work of the missionaries and their practices went far to counteract it.
In 1613 Champlain, having heard reports of the great waterways to the northwest, and that there was a connection between the Ottawa river and the great lakes, started out in search thereof, hoping to find the coveted water route to China. He passed up the Ottawa river and spent the following winter with the Indians, but returned in the spring disgusted with the false reports that had taken him on that adventure.
It was in the year 1613, when the French had pushed their explora- tions far into the Huron country, that the Dutch first began their set- tlements at New York and Albany, and English hostility to the French was evidenced by the destruction of a French Jesuit colony at Mount Desert on the coast of Maine, at the hands of the English from James- town, under orders of Governor Dale, and by the further acts of the English who, under Captain Samuel Argall, proceeded to Nova Scotia and destroyed the settlement at St. Croix, leaving the settlers to wan- der and subsist as best they could among the Indians the following winter. These were the first overt acts of hostility in the long contest between France and England in the new world, a contest which in- volved the question of who should govern the territory of the lakes in- cluding the Upper Peninsula, and in which the resources of the Upper Peninsula and its immediate surroundings formed a prominent sub- ject of contention.
It was in 1614 that Captain John Smith explored the coast and made a map of New England which gave to that country that name.
RECOLLET AND JESUIT MISSIONARIES
In May, 1615, five years before the landing of the Pilgrims in New England, Father Joseph le Carron, a Franciscan friar of the Recollet branch, came to New France with three other priests as the first mis- sionaries to convert the natives and settlers of New France to the Cath- olic faith. They came at the solicitation of Champlain, and the first mass upon Canadian soil was said upon their arrival, and they imme- diately began their work among the Indians, penetrating the wilderness to the streams that flow to Lake Huron.
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In 1617 Champlain personally traversed the shores of Lake Huron. The Recollet friars were the only missionaries to New France until 1624, and in that year the Jesuits made their first appearance and be- gan active work among the Indian tribes; and it is to the Jesuits that we are indebted for the principal records of the early history of the section of which we now write. In 1625, other Jesuit missionaries, in- eluding Jean de Brebeuf, came to join the colony at Quebec, and Duke de Ventadour, a Jesuit, being viceroyal governor, the Jesuits set out with a view to the establishment of an exclusively Jesuit government of the new territory, and thus a new strife between the Jesuits and the Recollets was added to the already many contentions which had to be met by the pioneers of New France. Brebeuf spent the following win- ter with the Algonquin Indians, and the following year went on a mis- sion to the Hurons where he remained for three years teaching the Gospel to and studying the customs of the Indians.
While the missionaries were thus vigorously prosecuting their work the fur traders had illustrated to the people of France something of the wealth which existed in the fur trade, and in 1627 Cardinal Rich- elieu, who then controlled the destiny of France, constituted himself "Grand Master and Superintendent of Navigation and Commerce." He annulled the private trading rights to the Caens, and founded a company called the Hundred Associates, with himself at the head, and Louis the Thirteenth gave this company full power over all the terri- tory "from Florida to the Arctic Circle," and from the Atlantic to the headwaters of the St. Lawrence. This company received a monopoly of the fur trade, forever, and of all other trades for fifteen years; it was also granted and assumed fendal proprietorship of the country and forbade the Huguenots to enter New France. The Company of the Hundred Associates was "the government," with absolute sway in all branches of government and trade, and to it the king donated two ships of war. Champlain was an active member in this powerful company, which, in return for its grants of monopoly, agreed to make certain provisions for colonists, and stipulated that the emigrants should be French Roman Catholics, and none other, and that there should be three priests in each settlement.
The conflict between England and France was heightened by the zeal of the Catholics and by the opposing claims under their direet grants of territory in the new world; and the Huguenots, angered at their exclusion from New France by the government of the Hundred Associates, lent aid to the English who had determined to conquer the French possessions in America.
In 1628 an English fleet, under the command of three French Hu- guenot brothers named Kirk, descended from the Seoteh, met in the St. Lawrence and completely destroyed a Freneli fleet with supplies for Quebec. In 1629 the Recollet priests were driven from Canada by the hostility of the Jesuits and as a part of their movement to exclusively control New France.
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The new world had by this time become known to the countries of Europe as a country of great promises, embracing a wide range of climate, rich topographical features, abundance of minerals, and won- derful waterways which opened the country to the commerce of the world; in short, as an unlimited field for the exercise of human in- genuity and the expansion of wealth.
It was an open field, and a contest was fairly on. The claims of the English, French and Spanish to territory in the new world were in direct confliet, and remained to be settled, amieably or by conquest, and the welfare of the settlers was destined to be seriously affected by the methods adopted. It became the lot of the settlers of the lake re- gions and in the vicinity of the St. Lawrence to be hampered by the hardships and vicissitudes of an extensive warfare, participated in not only between two nations, professedly Christian, but made most horri- ble by the additional tortures of the barbarous savages, who were in- duced to participate in the contest. The easy waterway access to the northwest, including the Upper Peninsula, made possible the explora- tion of this country at the time when the pilgrims were settling the New England coast country and the Dutch were along the Hudson, but had not penetrated to the interior of New York.
At the same time the conflicting claims of England and France, and the fact that the abundant Indian population was stirred by the war existing between the two nations, rendered extremely hazardous the undertakings of our early pioneers; and no doubt retarded for nearly a half a century the permanent settlement which our natural resources invited.
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