USA > Michigan > History of Michigan, civil and topographical, in a compendious form; with a view of the surrounding lakes > Part 2
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Treaty of Greeneville. : 340
Note VIII. to page 219.
Early Travellers through the Lakes.
345
Note IX.
Proclamation of Gen. Hull.
346
Note X.
Geology of Michigan.
Note XI.
366
Principal Rivers.
Note XII.
Constitution of Michigan. .
.
382
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.
CHAPTER I.
General view of French Colonization-Voyages of Jacques Cartier-Hochelaga Roberval's Voyage-Samuel Champlain's Voyage-Jesuits sent to Canada -Company of New France -- Death of Champlain-Religious Institutions in Canada-Failure of the Company of New France-Rival claims of the En- glish and French-Iroquois and Algonquins-Marquis d' Argenson appoint- ed Governor-Condition of the Colonies-Count de Frontenac-Discovery of the Mississippi-Discovery of the mouth of the Mississippi.
DURING the fifteenth and a greater part of the sixteenth century, the principal monarchs of Europe devoted their en- terprise to the discovery of new worlds. Now, the energies of mankind are employed in their colonization. The Italian states, and especially the Republics of Venice and Genoa, the Portuguese and the Spaniards, France and England, em- barked in the project of exploration. The design of the ad- venturers was to aggrandize themselves by founding new empires, and their motive was the love of gain and dominion. A spirit of adventure kindled the more active youth of those states, who were employed in the study of navigation and the kindred sciences. They burned with zeal to traverse vast and trackless oceans, stretching away thousands of miles toward unknown coasts, which their fancy had painted in glowing colors as a second Eden ; and to plant the banners of their country upon shores adorned with the richest scene- ry, whose caves were encrusted with gems, whose streams glided over beds of silver, and where the rocks were based on solid gold. Monarchs and subjects, nobles and priests, sailors, artisans, soldiers, and nuns, freely gave their patronage or individual service to the great work. Columbus and the Cabots, Gaspar de Cortereal, Giovanni Verazzano, and other
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.
daring mariners, had each, in their own behalf or under the auspices of their respective governments, crossed the sea for these objects. The French directed their projects to the dis- covery and settlement of the more northern parts of the coun- try around the St. Lawrence, because the Spaniards occupied the territory of Florida, and the English held possession of the middle portion of the contment.
About ten years after the voyage of Verazzano, Jacques Cartier, a mariner of St. Malo, was granted a commission from Francis I. to push his discoveries into the then un- known regions of America. On the 20th of April, 1534, he accordingly embarked upon the expedition with two ships, each of sixty tons burthen, and a good crew of sixty-one men. This first voyage of Cartier was, however, limited to a sur- vey of the northern coast of Newfoundland. When he had landed upon the shores and seen the natives, he was in- duced, from the precarious state of the weather and the ad- vanced season, to return to St. Malo ; and on the 15th of Sep- tember, 1534, he came to anchor in that port, reserving fur- ther discoveries for a future voyage.
On his return, Cartier was received with much favor, and having given a favorable account of his voyage, he soon enter- ed upon a second expedition. His squadron on this second voyage consisted of three ships, the Great Hermina of about 120 tons, which Cartier commanded in person, the Little Hermina of 60 tons, and the Hermirillon of 40 tons. Before they embarked, a solemn and gorgeous pageant was performed in the church for their spiritual comfort. Having confessed, and received the sacrament, the crew were drawn up in the cathedral, and, standing before the altar, received also the benediction of the Bishop, who was arrayed in the most costly sacerdotal robes.
On the 15th of May, 1535, Cartier, the French admiral, weighed anchor, and set sail for Newfoundland. The voy- age was tempestuous. Arriving within sight of Newfound- land, the mariners passed to the west, and entering the gulf on the day of St. Lawrence, they gave that name to the broad sheet of water which was spread out before them. This name
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was afterwards extended to the river. In September, Cartier ascended the St. Lawrence as far as the island of Orleans. He was, however, here opposed in his progress by a body of Indians, who probably considered the white men as intruders, although in other respects he was received with generous hospitality by the natives. In order to discourage his advance into the interior, they made him bountiful presents of corn and fish. Finding this of no avail, the Indians resorted to conjury, supposing they might terrify him into compli- ance. A circle was drawn upon the sand by a prominent sa- chem, and the savages, who had collected thick around it, being ordered to retire, the French mariner was beckoned within this circle. A speech having been concluded, Cartier was presented two or three small children, amid the yells of the surrounding savages. Finding these arts also unavailing, the chief resorted to a species of deception, which is now in common practice among the Indians. They dressed three men like devils, wrapped them in black and white dog skins, their faces were painted black as coal, while they had horns on their head more than a yard long .* These Indian jugglers having performed certain feats, declared that the Great Spirit had uttered maledictions against the French, and that there was so much ice and snow in the country, certain death would await the white men if they advanced. Theships of Car- tier having been safely moored, he advanced up the St. Law- rence, notwithstanding the opposition of the savages, and soon arrived at the principal village on the island of Hochelaga, where Montreal now stands. That region he found in the possession of a branch of the Wyandot or Huron tribe of In- dians, who had driven out the preceding inhabitants, and es- tablished themselves in their place.
Having climbed the hill at the base of which lay the vil- lage, he beheld spread around him a gorgeous scene of woods and waters, promising glorious visions of future opulence and national strength. That hill he called Mont-royall, and this name was afterwards extended to the island of Montreal. At that period, more than three centuries ago, the village of
* Hakluyt, vol. 3, page 269.
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.
Hochelaga was surrounded by large fields of corn and stately forests. The hill called Mont-royall was fertile and highly cultivated. "The form of the village was round, and encom- passed with timber, with three courses of ramparts, framed like a sharp spire, but laid across above. The middlemost of them was made and built as a direct line, but perpendicu- lar. These ramparts were framed and fashioned with pieces of timber laid along the ground, very well and cunningly joined together after this fashion. The enclosure was in height about two rods. It had but one gate, which was shut with piles, stakes, and bars. Over it, and also in many places of the wall, there were places to run along, and ladders to get up, full of stones for its defence. In the town there were about fifty houses, about fifty paces long and twelve or fifteen broad, built of wood, covered over with the bark of the wood as broad as any board, very finely and cunningly joined to- gether. Within these houses there were many rooms, lodg- ings, and chambers. In the midst of these there was a great court, in the middle whereof they made their fire. They lived in common together. Then did the husbands, wives, and children, each one retire themselves to their chambers. They also had on the tops of their houses, garrets, where they kept their corn to make their bread, which they called cara- conny."*
At that time the savages prepared their corn with mortars and pestles, and they made different kinds of pottage with corn, peas, beans, and muskmellons ; and they had in their houses certain vessels, as big as any " butt or tun," in which they preserved their fish. Their main support was hunting, fishing, and husbandry. The most valuable thing in the world to them was called cornibotz, and of these they made beads, and wore them about their necks, " even as we do chains of gold and silver."
* This aspect of an Indian village in 1535 may perhaps throw some light on the ancient monuments of an unknown race, which are now scattered over the west, and which are supposed to belong to a people settled in North America before the Indians. It was probably like a modern Indian village, somewhat modified in its defences by the belligerent character of that age.
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CANADIAN COLONIZATION.
Cartier was at that time told by the natives, that the right and ready way to Saguenay was west-north-west ; and that there were people, far distant in that region, who were clad as the French, and lived in towns, who were very honest, and had "great stores" of gold and copper ; that there were west- ward three great lakes and a sea of fresh water (probably Lake Superior), of which no man had found the end; that there was a certain river running south-west, (the Mississip- pi,) of which there was a month's sailing to go down to a certain land, where there was no ice or snow, where the inhabitants continually warred against one another, and where there was a great abundance " of oranges, almonds, nuts, and apples .* "
Erecting a cross and shield emblazoned with the arms of France, the emblem of the state and church, denoting that the French king was the rightful discoverer of the country, Cartier named the region New France. On the 5th of Oc- tober the French mariner left the village of Hochelaga, and spent the winter on the river St. Croix. The representations of Cartier, who was known to possess a candor equal to his energy and judgment, somewhat checked the progress of French enterprise. The country which he visited abounded with no gold or precious stones, and its shores were alleged to be bleak and stormy. In consequence, the project of coloni- zation was not renewed until about four years after his re- turn to France, which occurred during the next summer.
In 1540, François de la Roque, Seigneur de Roberval, was granted an extensive charter by Francis I. which covered the whole of that region, and it invested him with all the power possessed by the French king within its bounds. During the summer of that year, Roberval sailed for America, with a squadron of five vessels under the supreme naval com- mand of Cartier. This voyage was effected without any serious accident, and a fort was erected on some part of the coast now unknown, of which Cartier was left commandant.
* That region is supposed to be Florida. Among other articles of curious workmanship, which were presented to Cartier, was a great knife of red copper, which came from Saguenay.
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.
Having suffered from the severity of the season and the an- noyance of the Indians, who opposed the advance of the French, he soon re-embarked his colony for France. On his way back he met Roberval on the banks of Newfound- land, with vessels laden with men, provisions, and arms ; and returning with him to the fort, he assumed the command while Roberval sailed up the St. Lawrence. No authen- tic accounts, bearing directly on the exploration of Canada for the space of sixty years from that time, have come down to us, excepting the disastrous expedition of the Marquis de la Roche, and the voyages of M. de Chauvin to Tadousac, about the year 1600; domestic troubles, covering the French em- pire with gloom, swept all projects of foreign discovery from the face of the kingdom .*
At length a company of merchants was formed at Rouen, through the agency of M. Pontgrave, an intelligent partner in a house at St. Malo, and M. Chatte, the governor of Dieppe, for the purpose of foreign colonization. This Com- pany was invested with the same privileges which had before been granted to la Roque for the purpose of exploring the country and establishing colonies along the St. Lawrence. Samuel Champlain, who was a partner in the Company, led the expedition in 1603, and in 160S this energetic and hardy pioneer had founded the city of Quebec.t The design of this Company was to reap the profits of the fur trade, as the wilderness abounded with the fur-bearing animals ; and a spot having been selected for his colonial establishment, Cham- plain left at that point a few settlers, who soon commenced building rude huts and clearing the lands.
The foundation of the hatred of the Iroquois Confederacy towards the French, whose wars with the Colonists are identified with the early history of New France, was, doubt-
* The following is said to be the origin of the name of Canada, although it is a doubtful question. When the Spanish first visited the country in pursuit of gold, they remarked in their disappointment Aca-nada, here is nothing. These words were so often repeated to the French by the Indians, that it was believed to be the name of the country.
t Quebec, says Charlevoix, is derived from Quebeis, an Algonquin word sig- nifying a strait.
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CANADIAN COLONIZATION.
less, laid at this time by Champlain ; although Cartier had before advanced up the St. Lawrence, taken against their will, and carried across the Atlantic, some of their principal sachems, Donnaconna, Taignaogny, and Domagaia, the first of whom died in France. The Hurons and Algonquins were then in league against the Iroquois, and Champlain, as a point of policy, joined these two nations against the latter tribes. Having, however, explored the country and acquired a ge- neral knowledge of its circumstances, he returned home, and succeeded in organizing a new Company under the patronage of the Prince of Conde, who assumed the title of viceroy of New France. Arriving in Canada in 1612, he brought four Recol- lets to the colony for the conversion of the savages, and five years afterwards he was appointed lieutenant under Marshal de Montmorency, who had succeeded the Prince of Condé in the vice-royalty. During the same year he had introduced his family into Canada, and employed his talents and enterprize in encouraging the colonists in the disheartening labors of the forest, in consolidating the French power, and in repelling the attacks of the Iroquois.
The Duke de Ventadour had entered into holy orders in 1622, and, for the purpose of strengthening the influence of the French and converting the Indians, he soon sent into Canada a number of Jesuits. Troubles, however, soon sprang up. The Sieur de Caen, with a body of Protestants, had embarked in the Canadian fur trade, and from religious jealousies or mercantile rivalry, they soon came to open and bitter collision with the Catholics.
In order to adjust these dissensions, and to consolidate the French power in the colony, Cardinal de Richelieu or- ganized what was termed the Company of New France. This Company was comprised of one hundred associates, who engaged to send to Canada three hundred tradesmen, and to supply them with all necessary utensils for three years ; after which time they were to grant to each workman sufficient land for his support, besides grain for seed. The Company also stipulated to colonize the lands embraced in their charter, with six thousand inhabitants before the year 1643, and to pro-
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.
vide each settlement with three Catholic priests, whom they were to support for fifteen years. The cleared land was then to be granted to the Catholic clergy for the mainte- nance of the church. Certain prerogatives were at the same time reserved to the French king. The principal were, re- ligious supremacy, homage as sovereign of the country, the right of nominating the commandants of forts and the officers of justice, and, on each succession to the throne, the acknow- ledgment of a crown of gold weighing eight marks. The Company was also invested with the right of conferring titles of distinction, some of which were required to be confirmed by the king. The right to traffic in peltries, and to engage in other commerce, excepting the cod and whale fisheries, was at the same time granted in the charter.
The king of France also presented the Company two ships of war, upon condition that the value should be refunded, if fifteen hundred French inhabitants were not transported into the colonies by their agency within the first ten years. At the same time the descendants of Frenchmen inhabiting Canada, and all savages who should be converted to the Catholic faith, were permitted to enjoy the same privileges as natural-born subjects; and all artificers, sent out by the Company, who had spent six years in the French colonies, were permitted to re- turn and settle in any trading town in France. The charter granting these privileges was executed in 1627, and, under more favorable circumstances, it might have conferred upon the partners solid and permanent advantages. The design was to strengthen the rights of France to the territory which she claimed in North America, while the principal object of the grantees seemed directed to the benefit of themselves by the prosecution of the fur trade.
M. Champlain was soon appointed governor. For the first few years, however, the colony, from various causes connect- ed with its remote position from the parent country, the hard- ships of the forest and the hostility of the savages, suffered extremely and was almost on the point of breaking down. ; Ships had been sent out from France for supplies, but they were captured by Sir David Kertk, then in the employment
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CANADIAN COLONIZATION.
of the English crown. The depredations of the Iroquois kept the energies of the colonists in check, and crippled their strength until the year 1629, when the French adventurers were involved in the deepest distress. At this juncture Si David Kertk appeared before Quebec with an English squad- ron, and compelled Champlain to surrender that fortress and all Canada to England. The generous terms of Kertk's capi- tulation, however, induced most of the French emigrants to re- main, and in 1632 the country was restored to France by the treaty of St. Germain.
Immediately on this event, vigorous efforts were made to advance the colonization of the country. Champlain, who had been re-appointed Governor, soon sailed with a squadron pro- vided with the necessary supplies and armaments, and arrived in Canada, where he found many of the former colonists. At that time the colonial system was better organized ; mea- sures were adopted to reconcile existing differences, growing out of the mixed and somewhat immoral principles of the emigrants, and to prevent the introduction into the colony of any but individuals of fair character. In 1635 a college of the order of the Jesuits was established at Quebec under the direction of the Marquis de Gamache, and this institution was of great advantage in improving the morals of the people, which had grown to a state of open licentiousness.
During that year the colony suffered a great misfortune in the death of Champlain. With a mind warmed into enthu- siasm by the vast domain of wilderness which was stretched around him and the glorious visions of future grandeur which its resources opened, a man of extraordinary hardi- hood and the clearest judgment, a brave officer and a scientific seaman, his keen forecast discerned, in the magnifi- cent prospect of the country which he occupied, the elements of a mighty empire, of which he had hoped to be the founder. With a stout heart and ardent zeal he had entered upon the project of colonization, he had disseminated valuable know- ledge of its resources by his explorations, and had cut the way through hordes of savages for the subsequent successful pro- gress of the French towards the lakes. Upon the death of
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.
Champlain, Montmagny was appointed Governor. But al- though he entered into the views of his predecessor, Mont- magny did not possess that practical knowledge and ripe ex- perience which might have enabled him to carry out the pro- jects of Champlain ; and by consequence, the fur trade was all that was prosecuted with any degree of energy under his ad- ministration.
About that period a number of religions institutions were founded in Canada, ostensibly for the christianization of the Indians, but probably for the extension of the French power through the wilderness, by pressing the sanctions of the Church upon the credulous minds of the savages. At Sillery, a few miles above Quebec, a Catholic seminary was founded for their instruction ; and it was placed under the superin- tendence of three nuns from Dieppe, who had been sent out through the agency of the Duchesse d' Arguillon. The convent of St. Ursula was also established at Quebec by Medune de la Paltrie, a young widow of rank, who had en- gaged several sisters of the Ursulines at Tours, with whom she sailed from Dieppe in a vessel chartered at her own expense. A seminary of the order of St. Salpicius was also founded at Montreal. This was consecrated by the Jesuits with great pomp, and the whole Island of Montreal was grant- ed by the king for its support.
The Company of New France, however, did not fulfil the object of its charter. Little was done by that body, either to encourage the settlement of the country or for the advance- ment of agriculture. The attention of the ministers of the crown was, moreover, diverted from the complaints of the French Colonists, by men who had an important interest in directing the physical labor of the colonies into those channels whence the most sudden wealth could be accumulated ; by the partners of the Companies desiring to concentrate the energies of the people upon the fur trade. In the remote points of the wilderness around the St. Lawrence, forts of rude construction had been erected ; but these were merely posts of defence, or depots of the trade, the dominion of which, at that early period, stretched through tracts of wilder-
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CANADIAN COLONIZATION.
ness large enough for kingdoms. The character of the fe- males connected with the church was too generally impure, and that of most of the men was openly profligate. The sol- diers, who had been from time to time despatched from France to protect the French Colonies in Canada, were also lax in their morals, and they came without women. The energies of the people were cramped by the Iroquois, who hung like hungry wolves around the track of the colonists, seek- ing to glut their vengeance against the French, by butcher- ing their people and plundering their settlements whenever opportunity ocenrred. Montr. al Had been attacked by the savages, and its entire destruction was only prevented by the arrival of M. d' Aillebout from France with a reinforce- ment in 1647. During the same year the institution of the " Daughters of the Congregation " was founded by Mar- querite Bourgeois.
While these French settlements were advancing in Cana- di, a rival power had sprung up on the Atlantic sea-board. The English, whose discoveries and colonization were nearly contemporaneons with those of the French, had spread their vil- lages along the castern sea-coast of the United States. First stimulated by the same general objects as those of the French, the fishery and the fur trade, the English strength was gra- daally augmented by colonies founded in this wilderness on account of oppression abroad, and afterwards led by the stur- dy pilgrims of New England, the Dutch of New-York, the Quakers of Pennsylvania, the liberal genins of Lord Baltimore and other enterprising adventurers. While the English were scattered along the son-coast, the French occupied, or pretend- ed to occupy, the vast wilderness around the Great Lakes and west of the Alleghany Maintains. They both held possession of their respective tracts under the authority of their respec- tive governments, and claimed them on the same grounds- priority.of discovery, conquest, and appropriation. They were both rivals in the tur trade, and it was the effort of each to sabvert the power of the other. The prize at stake was a country of unbounded resources and magnificent features ; and the struggle to attain it was made between two nations,
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.
whose constitution has evinced in every period of their subsequent history repugnant principles. In the Ameri- can wilderness was exemplified, too, the all-grasping power of national ambition. Here, waving over the same soil, were found two hostile banners of rival nations, who were striving to wrest from each other the dominion of a country possessed and claimed by barbarians. Here also was demonstrated that code of civilized ethics, founded on the reasoning of the schools, which taught the two nations to attach to themselves barbarians opposed to each other from immemorial feuds, and to place deadly weapons in their hands. Quebec and Montreal, the French forts on the most important streams in Canada and the north-western lakes, Oswego and Niagara, Le Boeuf and Duquesne, were the strong-holds of the French power ; while the English settle- ments, during the early period of French colonization, were confined chiefly to the country now embraced in Virginia, Pennsylvania, New-York, and New-England.
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