USA > Michigan > History of Michigan, civil and topographical, in a compendious form; with a view of the surrounding lakes > Part 6
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The vast alluvion, stretching from the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi, displayed a bountiful tract of fertile soil, adorned with the richest vegetation, and watered by sparkling streams- those blue veins of the globe which circulate life and vigor through every part of its system. Inland seas rolled along like oceans through the wilderness. Herds of deer, elk, and buffalo, wandered through the plains, fed on the islands of the rivers, or drank at the rivulets of the oak-lands. Fish of the greatest value and abundance glided through the waves ; flocks of water-fowl wheeled their course along the shores, or dipped in the current; and snow-white gulls skimmed the surface, or were tossed on the crest of the billows. The adventurers, in advancing along the islands in Lake Erie, the Detroit River, and river St. Clair, saw all around them a glorious scene of waters and forests, as yet untouched by the hand of civilization, and inhabited by savages as strange as their own wilderness. Upon the frontier of Michigan, dense woods of lofty trees extended across a belt of fifteen miles, over a level surface, sometimes almost inundated by heavy rains, now expanding into splendid tracts of scenery, and now broken by dismal swamps. Grape-vines, of large size, hung pendant from the boughs of the trees, or clustered around their enormous trunks. As the travellers advanced into the interior, across that belt, through Indian trails, a more beautiful scene opened before them. The country be-
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.
gan to swell into graceful undulations and mound-like hills -- covered, as far as the eye could reach, with groves of oak, free of undergrowth, like extended parks-or to expand in rich prairies and crystal lakes. Luxuriant flowers, of various and gorgeous colors, which now eminently mark the forest scenery of Michigan, covered the whole surface of the ground. It seemed as if nature, amid the solitude, fresh in her virgin bloom, had adorned her bosom with the fragrant roses of spring in honor of her Maker ; and, vain of her charms, had set these lakes upon the landscape, as watery mirrors, to reflect her own beauty. It was such scenes which colored the des- criptions of the French travellers through that region.
The Baron La Hontan,* a soldier of great accomplishments, who travelled through the lakes about the year 1688, thus des- cribes lake Erie :
" The Lake Erie is justly dignified with the illustrious name of Conti, for assuredly 'tis the finest upon earth. You may judge of the goodness of the climate from the latitude of the countries that surround it.
" Its circumference extends to two hundred and thirty leagues ; but it affords every where such a charming prospect, that its banks are deeked with oak trees, elms, chesnut trees, walnut trees, apple trees, plum trees, and vines which bear their fine clusters up to the very tops of the trees, upon a sort of ground that lies as smooth as one's hand. Such orna- ments as these are sufficient to give rise to the most agreeable idea of a landscape in the world. I cannot express what vast quantities of deer and turkies are to be found in these woods, and in the vast meads that lie upon the south side of the lake. At the bottom of the lake we find wild beeves, upon the banks of two pleasant rivers that disembogue into it without cataracts or rapid currents. It abounds with sturgeon and white fish, but trouts are very scarce in it, as well as the other fish that we take in the lakes of Hurons and Illinese. "Tis clear of shelves, rocks, and banks of sand ; and has fourteen or fifteen fathom water. The savages as-
* La Hontan's Voyages -- a rare work, filled with antique plates, illustrative of savage life, and published in Europe, may be found in our American libraries.
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CHARLEVOIX.
sure us that it is never disturbed by high winds, except in the months of December, January, and February, and even then but seldom ; which I am very apt to believe, for we had very few storms when I wintered in my fort in 1688 ; though the fort lay open to the lake of Hurons. The banks of this lake are commonly frequented by none but warriors, whether the Iroquese, the Illinese, the Onmamis, &c. ; and 'tis very dan- gerous to stop there. By this means it comes to pass that the stags, roe-bucks, and turkies, run in great bodies up and down the shore, all around the lake. In former times the Errier- ronons* and the Andastogueronons lived upon the confines of the lake ; but they were extirpated by the Iroquese as well the other nations marked on the map."f
Peter Francis Xavier de Charlevoix, the polished Jesuit and accomplished historian of New France. having been com- missioned by the French Government, passed through this re- gion in 1721, and he breaks out in the following eloquent and glowing terms, descriptive of the country ; addressed to the Dutchess de Lesdiguieres, as he coasted along the bank of Lake Erie :
" The first of June being the day of Pentecost, after having sailed up a beautiful river for the space of an hour, which has its rise, as they say, at a great distance, and rims betwixt two fine meadows, we passed over a carrying-place of about sixty paces in breadth, in order to avoid turning round a point, which is called the Long Point. It is a very sandy spot of ground, and naturally bears a great quantity of vines. The following days I saw nothing remarkable, but coasted along a charming country, hid, at times, by very disagreeable pros- pects, which, however, are of no great extent. Wherever I went ashore I was enchanted by the beauty and variety of a landscape, which was terminated by the noblest forests in the whole world. Add to this, that every part of it swarms with water-fowl. I cannot say whether the woods afford game in
* Notwithstanding the account by Hennepin, it is fairly to be inferred that Lake Erie derives its name from this tribe.
t New Voyages to North America, by the Baron La Hontan, Lord-lieutenant of the French colony at Placentia in Newfoundland, vol. 1, page 217.
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.
equal profusion ; but I well know that on the south side there is a prodigious quantity of buffaloes. Were we all to sail, as I then did, with a serene sky, in a most charming cli- mate, and in water as clear as that of the purest fountain ; were we sure of finding every where secure and agreeable pla- ces to pass the night in, where we might enjoy the pleasure of hunting at a small expense, breathe at our ease the purest air, and enjoy the prospect of the finest countries in the uni- verse ; we might possibly be tempted to travel to the end of our days. I recalled to mind those ancient patriarchs who had no fixed place of abode, who lived in tents, who were in a manner the masters of all the countries they passed through, and who enjoyed, in peace and tranquillity, all their produc- tions without the plague inevitable in the possession of a real and fixed estate. How many oaks represented to me that of Mamre ! How many fountains put me in mind of that of Jacob ! Each day a new situation, chosen at pleasure, a neat and com- modious house built and furnished with all necessaries in less than a quarter of an hour, and floored with a pavement of flowers, continually springing up on a carpet of the most beautiful green ; on all sides simple and natural beauties, un- adulterated and inimitable by any art."*
In advancing towards Detroit, Charlevoix remarks :
" It is pretended that this is the finest part of all Canada ; and really, if we can judge by appearances, nature seems to have denied it nothing which can contribute to make a country delightful. Hills, meadows, fields, lofty forests, rivulets, foun- tains, rivers ; and all of them so excellent in their kind, and so happily blended, as to equal the most romantic wishes. The lands, however, are not equally proper for every kind of grain, but most of them are of a wonderful fertility ; and I have known some produce good wheat for eighteen years running, without any manure ; and besides, all of them are proper for some particular use. The islands seem placed on purpose for the pleasure of the prospect ; the river and lake abound in fish, the air is pure; and the climate temperate and extremely wholesome."t
* Charlevoix's Journal, vol. 2, page 2. t Ibid, vol. 2, page 6.
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CHARLEVOIX.
After describing the general location and character of the Indians along the banks of the river near Detroit, and the advantages of that position as the site of a town, the jea- lousy which, at this early period, existed between the French and English in obtaining the dominion of the coun- try is exhibited in the subjoined remarks. His design was to remove the objections which had been urged to a large settlement at Detroit from its proximity to British influence. " As for what has been said, that by making a settlement at the Narrows we should bring the fur trade too much within reach, there is not a man in Canada who does not agree that we can never succeed in hindering the Indians from carrying them their commodities, let them be settled where they will, and with all the precautions we can possibly take, except by causing them to find the sanie advantage in trading with us as in the province of New-York." Charlevoix gives an in- teresting description of a council of the chiefs of the three villages which were near Detroit. Its first object was to persuade the chiefs of the three villages to prohibit the selling of brandy to their tribes, and the second point was to combine these tribes with the French in a war against the Foxes. He was struck with the splendid and dignified eloquence of the Huron and Potawatamie chiefs, in which they expatia- ted upon the evil consequences of that stimulant upon the Indian tribes ; but at the same time they affirmed that the French might use their pleasure in selling the Indians bran- dy ;* and that they had done well, had they not supplied them with any ; but that they had become so accustomed to it, they could no longer be without it. In regard to the second point, it was concluded that nothing could be determined in refer- ence to a war with the Foxes, until there was a general coun- cil of all the nations who acknowledged Onondio (the In- dian name of the French king) for their father. They doubted not that the war might be deemed necessary ; but the Indians would probably have but little confidence in the
* Numerous discussions had before been held between the ecclesiastics and M. de Frontenac, as well as the Baron d'Avangour, regarding the propriety of selling ardent spirits to the Indians ; and the Jesuits finally prevailed in abolish- ing the practice.
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.
French, who had once before united with them in exterminat- ing a common enemy, but who had made peace with them before they had consulted their allies.
The Ottawas took no part in the discussions, but tney seemed to coincide in the deliberations of the council.
" On the 7th of June, which was the day of my arrival at the fort (Detroit), Mons. de Tonti, who commands here, as- sembled the chiefs of these villages I have just mentioned, to communicate to them the orders he had received from the Marquis de Vaudreuil. They heard him calmly and without interruption. When he had done speaking, the orator of the Hurons told him, in a few words, that they were going to con- sult about what he had proposed to them, and would give him their answer in a short time. It is the custom of the Indians not to give an immediate answer on an affair of any importance. Two days afterwards, they assembled at the Commandant's, who was desirous I should be present at this council, together with the officers of the garrison. Sasteratfi, whom the French call king of the Hurons, and who is, in fact, hereditary chief of the Tionnontatez, who are the true Hurons, was also present on this occasion, but as he is still a minor, he came only for form's sake ; his uncle, who governs in his name, and who is called regent, spoke in quality of orator of the nation. Now, the honor of speaking in the name of the whole, is generally given to some Huron when any of them happen to be of the council. The first view of their as- semblies gives you no great idea of the body. Imagine to your- self. madame, half a score savages, almost stark naked; with their hair disposed in as many different manners as there are persons in the assembly, and all of them equally ridiculous ; some with laced hats, all with pipes in their mouths, and with the most unthinking faces. It is, besides, a rare thing to hear one utter so much as a single word in a quarter of an hour, or to hear any answer made, even in monosyllables ; not the least mark of distinction nor any respect paid to any person whatsoever. We should, however, be apt to change our opi- nion of then upon hearing the result of their deliberations."*
· Charlevoix's Journal, vol. 2, p. S.
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CONDITION OF MICHIGAN UNDER THE FRENCH.
CHAPTER IV.
Character of the French colonists in Michigan -- Merchants -- Coureurs des Bois -- Half-breeds -- The Peasantry -- Legal Administration-Policy of the French Government -- Indian Mythology of the Lakes -- Land Distribution -- Coloni- zation increased -- Fur Trade on the lakes.
THE French emigrants scattered along the lake frontier of Michigan, previous to the year 1760, were chiefly from the provinces of Picardy and Normandy in France. Without aspiring to the aristocratic rank of the noblesse, who had con- gregated in the region of Quebec and Montreal, they were accustomed to reverence the authority which had before been exercised over them under the French monarchy in their na- tive land. The French colonies upon the shores of Michi- gan had been founded for the purpose of extending the do- minion and prosecuting the fur trade into the Indian territory. The Frenchmen who were sent ont from the head-quarters of the colonial government, were expected to undergo the hardships of the forest in accomplishing these objects; and they consisted of the commandants of the posts, merchants, Jesuits, priests, traders, soldiers, and the peasantry. A small part of the population was local. The inhabitants belonged to a system of machinery in religion and trade, which was constantly being moved from post to post.
The most prominent individuals at the trading posts, be- sides the commandants, were the French merchants, who generally had their houses near the forts, and the half-breeds, the offspring of the rangers of the woods, and the Indians. The old French merchant at his post was the head man of his settlement. Careful, frugal, without much enterprise, judg- ment, or rigid virtue, he was employed in procuring skins from the Indians or traders in exchange for manufactured goods. In the absence of any better frame of government, the merchants were reverenced as the patrons of their settlement. Their po- licy was to exercise their influence with paternal mildness, so
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN
as to prevent rebellion, to keep on good terms with the Indians in order to secure their trade ; and they frequently fostered a large number of half-breed children, who were the offspring of their licentiousness.
The Coureurs des Bois, or rangers of the woods, were either French or half-breeds, a hardy race, accustomed to la- bor and deprivation, and conversant with the character and habits of the Indians, from whom they procured their cargoes of furs. They were equally skilled in propelling a canoe, fishing, hunting, trapping, or sending a ball from their rifles " to the right eye" of the buffalo. If of mixed blood, they generally spoke the language of their parents, the French and Indian ; and knew just enough of their religion to be re- gardless of both. Employed by the aristocratic French fur companies as voyageurs or guides, their forms were developed to the fullest vigor, by propelling the canoe through the lakes and streams, and by carrying large packs of goods across the portages of the interior by straps suspended from their fore- heads or shoulders. These voyageurs knew every rock and island, bay and shoal, of the western waters. The ordinary dress of the white portion of the Canadian French traders was a cloth passed about the middle, a loose shirt, a " molton" or blanket coat, and a red milled or worsted cap .* The half- breeds were demi-savage in their dress as well as their cha- racter and appearance. They sometimes wore a surtout of coarse blue cloth, reaching down to the mid leg, elk-skin trowsers, with the seams adorned with fringes, a scarlet woollen sash tied around the waist, in which was stuck a broad knife, to be used in dissecting the carcases of ani- mals taken in hunting ; buck-skin moccasins, and a cap made of the same materials with the surtout.t Affable, gay, and licentious, these men were employed by the French mer- chants as guides, canoe-men, steersmen, or rangers, to ad- vance, in their large canoes, into the remotest wilderness, and to traffic their European goods for peltries, depositing them at the several French depots on the lakes, whence they were transported to Quebec and Montreal.
* Henry, p. 34. t Some of this class may now be seen on the lakes.
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. CONDITION OF MICHIGAN UNDER THE FRENCH.
The peasantry, or that portion of the French population who devoted themselves to agriculture, maintained the habits, which were brought from the provinces whence they emigrat- ed ; and these are retained to the present time. While the gentlemen preserved the garb of the age of Louis XIV, the peasants wore a long surtout, sash, red cap, and deer-skin moccasins. This singular mixture of character was made more strange by the Indians who loitered around the posts, the French soldiers, with blue coats turned up with white fac- ings, and short clothes, and by the number of priests and Jesuits who had their stations around the forts. Agriculture was but little encouraged, either by the policy of the fur trade or the industry of the inhabitants. It was limited to a few patches of corn and wheat, which were cultivated in pro- found ignorance of the principles of good husbandry. Their grain was ground in windmills. The enterprise of the French women was directed to the making up of coarse cot- ton and woollen clothes for the Indian trade. Their amuse- ments were confined to dancing to the sound of the violin, in simple and unaffected assemblies at each other's houses ; or in attending the festivals of their church, hunting in the forests, or paddling their canoes across the silent streams .* The wilderness gave them abundance of game; and the lake-herring, the bass, the pike, the gar, the mosquenonge, and sturgeon, swarmed in the waters. The Mackinaw trout, sometimes weighing fifty pounds, pampered their taste; and the white fish, of which, says Charlevoix, " nothing of the fish kind can excel it," flashed its silver scales in the sun.
The administration of the law was such as might properly be expected, where no civil courts were organised and all was elemental. The military arm was the only effective power to command what was right and to prohibit what was wrong. The commandant of the fort, under the cognizance of the Governor-general of Canada, was the legislator, the judge, and the executive. Acompact and ripened frame of juris-
* For important facts connected with this period, I am indebted to a manu- script, submitted by the kindness of John R. Williams, and furnished him by a contemporary.
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.
prudence can only exist, where there is sufficient intelligence to mark ont and adjudge the rule of civil right and physical pow- er to enforce it. But the natural courtesy of the French of every grade, the mildness of the jurisdiction which was exercised over them by the commandants of the forts, tended to do away that motive for quarrel which results from the sharp collisions of men in densely-settled states. By consequence there was little litigation. A notarial book was kept, in which were re- corded all the circumstances and relations of the colonists, the marriages, the conveyances of lands, contraets, the conduet of the emigrants, the date of their emigration, the articles delivered to them in consideration of their cultivating the soil, so that the Catholic priest or the commandant of the fort might look upon their condition as upon a map. No efforts were made for general education, and all the knowledge acquired by the younger portion of the colonists was obtain- ed from the priests and referred to the tenets of the Catholic church.
The social condition of the French upon the lakes was ac- cordingly of a less ambitious cast than the colonial establish- ments at Quebec and Montreal. At those places were concen- trated all the pomp and splendor which belonged to the French government in this part of America. There, were collected the noblesse, the bishop, the colleges of the Jesuits, and all that was imposing in the Canadian state as well as the church. The emigrants on the lakes were of more humble origin, who were despatched to these posts for the purpose of building them up and arranging convenient depôts for the trade, as it circu- lated through the whole extent of the north-western waters. These emigrants were sent out from the head-quarters of the colonial establishments, and provided by the ageney of the government, through the commissary's department, with can- vass for tents, hoes, axes, sickles, a certain amount of grain, ve- nison, powder, ball, and eattle ; a part of which were to be re- turned within a specified time when a certain amount of land should be cleared .*
* See a notarial record of 1747 in French, now preserved at Detroit.
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CONDITION OF MICHIGAN UNDER THE FRENCH.
The volatile and migratory disposition natural to the French people, increased by the roving habits of the fur trade, was under the rigid surveillance of the Catholic clergy. The Jesuits and the priests exercised an inquisitorial power over every class of the little commonwealth upon the lakes, and the community became thus subjected thoroughly to their in- fluence, which was artful, though mild and beneficent. The utmost satisfaction was experienced by the French colonists in attending the ordinances of the church, and kneeling upon the floor of the rude chapel before the altar, counting their beads, or making the sign of the cross upon their foreheads with holy water from the baptismal font. The Jesuits and priests, with their long gowns and black bands, were, however, not so successful with the savages. By them the clergy were deemed " medicine men" and jugglers, on whom the destinies of life and death depended. If a silver crucifix, the painting of a Ma- donna, a carved saint, an ancient book, or the satin vestments of the priests, embroidered with flowers of purple and gold, sometimes came before their eyes, it was believed that they were but implements of incantation, by which the souls of those on earth were to be spirited away to heaven. It was naturally thought that this was the peculiar province of the mission- aries ; and there is evidence of an Iroquois warrior, who threat- ened the life of a Catholic priest who ministered beside the mat of an aged savage on the verge of death, unless he should res- cue the dying Indian from the grave .* The contrast derived from this state of things was extraordinary. The lonely al- tar, erected from rough stones under the clustering boughs of the wilderness, adorned with rude candlesticks, crosses and censers wrought from the copper of the lakes, was often sur- rounded by Indians, naked, or arrayed in the rough costume of their tribes, the wrought skin of the elk, the deer, and the buffalo, with the cincture of the war eagle, only worn by eminent warriors, crowning their heads; with necklaces of bears' claws, and moccasins embroidered with the stained quills of the porcupine : and they gazed at the strange exor-
* Anonymous Missionary Journal of Travels in Canada, published in Paris. 8
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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.
cisms which they saw before them, or heard the cnant and the requiem as they went up to heaven amid the yell of the panther and the howling of the wolf. The influence of religion acting upon the rough and savage features of barbarism, stamps the scene with a mild beauty springing from contrast, like the rainbow which bends upon the storm ! No sculptured mar- ble adorned the soil ; no golden lamps flamed upon the co- lumns of ancient cathedrals, attesting the presence of luxury and the arts. But the solitary bark chapels of the missionaries, surmounted by the cross, looked out upon a domain of prai- ries, waters, and forests, the palace could not boast of.
" Iris all hues ; roses and jessamine, Reared high their flourished heads between, and wrought Mosaic; under foot the violet, Crocus, and hyacinth, with rich inlay Broidered the ground, more colored than with stones Of costliest emblem."
Another fact, which tended to strengthen the singular charac- ter of the coast of Michigan at that period, was the Indian mythology of the north-western lakes. Whether this Indian mythology was founded on the circumstance, that the region of the lakes had been long the central point of the Algonquin power, where their systems had been organized for ages ; whether it sprang from the bold and solitary features of the lake scenery inspiring the savage mind with superstition ; or how far it has since been moulded with the instructions of the Jesuits, which assumed the form of allegory in order to impress the savage mind-is not now clearly known. This my- thology, did, however, in fact, exist, and has been transmitted to the present time. The rocks and islands, lakes and streams, groves and cataracts, around the shores of Michigan, like those of the Grecian and Roman states, each had its presiding genii, good or evil ; and the Indian legends not only accounted for the creation of the earth and every prominent object of na- ture, but also peopled the stars with spirits . Fairies of the land and the water floated through the forests and danced along the streams. Spirits, or " manitou's" of darkness, performed their orgies amid thunder-storms, upon the shores of the
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