9th. The schooner "White Pigeon," (the name of an Indian chief,) enters the harbor, with a mail from Detroit. "A mail! a mail!" is the cry. Old Saganosh and five Indian families come in. The Indians start up from their wintering places, as if from a cemetery. They seem almost as lean and hungry as their dogs--for an Indian always has dogs--and, if they fare poor, the dogs fare poorer.
Resumed my preparations at the garden hot-beds.
The mail brought me letters from Washington, speaking of political excitements. The project for an Indian academy is bluffed off, by saying it should come through the Delegate. Major Whiting writes that he is authorized to have a road surveyed from Saginaw to Mackinack.
10th. Engaged at my horticultural mound. The weather continues mild.
11th. Transplanting cherry trees.
12th. Complete hot-bed, and sow it in part.
14th. The calmness and mildness of the last few days are continued. Spring advances rapidly.
15th. Mild, strong wind from the west, but falls at evening. Write to Washington respecting an Indian academy.
Walking with the Rev. Wm. M. Ferry through the second street of the village (M.), leading south, as we came near the corner, turning to Ottawa Point, he pointed out to me, on the right hand, half of a large door, painted red, arched and filled with nails, which tradition asserts was the half of the door of the Roman Catholic church at old Mackinack. The fixtures of the church, as of other buildings, were removed and set up on this spot. I afterwards saw the other half of the door standing against an adjoining house.
16th. Wind westerly. Begin to enlarge piazza to the agency. A party of Beaver Island Indians come in, and report the water of the Straits as clear of ice, and the navigation for some days open.
The schooner "President," from Detroit, dropped anchor in the evening.
17th. The schooners "Lawrence," "White Pigeon," and "President," left the harbor this morning, on their way to various ports on Lake Michigan, and we are once more united to the commercial world, on the great chain of lakes above and below us. The "Lawrence," it will be remembered, entered the harbor on the 14th of March, and has waited thirty-two days for the Straits to open.
18th. Wind N.E., chilly. It began to rain after twelve o'clock A.M., which was much wanted by the gardens, as we have had no rain for nearly a month. All this while the sun has poured down its rays on our narrow pebbly plain under the cliffs, and made it quite dry.
I was present this morning at the Mission, at the examination of the Metif boy Thomas Shepard, and was surprised at the recklessness and turpidity of his moral course, as disclosed by himself, and, at the announcement of the names of his abettors.
The fate of this boy was singular. He set out alone to return to Sault Ste. Marie, where his relations lived, across the wilderness. After striking the main land, his companions returned. All that was ever heard of him afterwards, was the report of Indians whom I sent to follow his trail, as the season opened, who found a spot where he had attempted, unsuccessfully, to strike a fire and encamp. From obscure Indian reports from the channels called Chenos, the Indians there had been alarmed by news of the inroads of Na-do-was (Iroquois), and seeing some one on the shore, in a questionable plight, they fired and killed him. This is supposed to have been Thomas Shepard.
19th. Wind westerly--chilly--cloudy--dark.
20th. The "Austerlitz," and "Prince Eugene," two of Mr. Newbery's vessels, arrived during the afternoon. Rain fell in the evening.
21st. The schooner "Nancy Dousman" arrived in the morning from below. A change of weather supervened. Wind N.E., with snow. The ground is covered with it to the depth of one or two inches. Water frozen, giving a sad check to vegetation.
22d. This morning develops a north-east storm, during which the "Nancy Dousman" is wrecked, but all the cargo saved: a proof that the harbor is no refuge from a north-easter. The wind abates in the evening.
23d. Wind west, cloudy, rainy, and some sleet. About midnight the schooner "Oregon" came in, having rode out the tempest under Point St. Ignace.
24th. Still cold and backward, the air not having recovered its equilibrium since the late storm.
25th. Cloudy and cold--flurries of snow during the day.
26th. The weather recovers its warm tone, giving a calm sky and clear sunshine. The snow of the 21st rapidly disappears, and by noon is quite gone, and the weather is quite pleasant. The vessels in the harbor continue their voyages.
27th. S. A boat reaches us from the Sault, showing the Straits and River St. Mary to be open. It brought the Rev. Mr. Clark, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, who occupies Mr. F.'s position, before the soldiery, in the evening.
28th. The atmosphere is still overcast, although the thermometer ranges high.
Levake, a trader for the Indian country, went off about two o'clock P.M. On granting him his license, I directed him to take no ardent spirits. He therefore ordered a barrel of whisky to be taken back to the American Fur Company's store, where he had purchased it. Mr. Abbot, the agent, sent it back to him. Mr. Levake finally remanded it. Mr. Abbot said, "Why! Mr. Schoolcraft has no authority to prevent your taking it!" The moment, in fact, the boats leave the island they enter the Indian country, where the act provides that this article shall not be taken on any pretence. This was an open triumph of the Agent of the United States against the Fur Company. I wrote to the Rev. Mr. Boutwell, at Leech Lake, by this opportunity.
29th. The atmosphere has regained its equilibrium fully. It is mild throughout the day. Indians begin to come in freely from the adjacent shores. Sow radishes and other early seeds.
30th. The schooner "Napoleon," and the "Eliza," from Lake Ontario, come in. The Indian world, also, seems to have awaked from its winter's repose. Pabaumitabi visits the office with a large retinue of Ottawas. Shabowawa with his band appear from the Chenoes. Vessels and canoes now again cross, each other's track in the harbor.
Visit to Isle Rond--Site of an ancient Indian village--Ossuarie--Indian prophet--Traditions of Chusco and Yon respecting the ancient village and bone deposit--Indian speech--Tradition of Mrs. La Fromboise respecting Chicago--Etymology of the name--Origin of the Bonga family among the Chippewas--Traditions of Viancour--Of Nolan--Of the chief Aishquagonaibe, and of Sagitondowa--Evidences of antique cultivation on the Island of Mackinack--View of affairs at Washington--The Senate an area of intellectual excitement--A road directed to be cut through the wilderness from Saginaw--Traditions of Ossaganac and of Little Bear Skin respecting the Lake Tribes.
1834. May 1st. At last "the winter is gone and past," and the voice of the robin, if not of the "turtle," begins to be heard in the land. The whole day is mild, clear, and pleasant, notwithstanding a moderate wind from the east. The schooner "Huron" comes in without amail--a sad disappointment, as we have been a long time without one.
I strolled up over the cliffs with my children, after their return from school at noon, to gather wild flowers, it being May-day. We came in with the spring beauty, calledmiscodeedby the Indians, the adder's tongue, and some wild violets.
The day being fine and the lake calm, I visited the Isle Rond--the locality of an old and long abandoned village. On landing on the south side, discovered the site of an ancient Indian town--an open area of several acres, with graves and boulder grave stones. Deep paths had been worn to the water. The graves had inclosures, more or less decayed, of cedar and birch bark, and the whole had the appearance of having been last occupied about seventy years ago. Yet the graves were, as usual, east and west. I discovered near this site remains of more ancient occupancy, in a deposit of human bones laid in a trenchnorthandsouth. This had all the appearance of one of the antique ossuaries, constructed by an elder race, who collected the bones of their dead periodically. The Indians call this islandMin-nis-ais, Little Island. Speakingofit, the local terminationingis added.
During the day the old Indian prophet Chusco came in, having passed the winter at Chingossamo's village on the Cheboigan River, accompanied by an Indian of that village, who calls himself Yon, which is probably a corruption of John, for he says that his father was an Englishman, and his mother a Chippewa of St. Mary's.
Chusco and Yon concur in stating that the old town on Round Island was Chi Naigow's, where he and Aishquonaibee's[68]father ruled. It was a large village, occupied still while the British held old Mackinack, and not finally abandoned until after the occupancy of the island-post. It consisted of Chippewas. Chi Naigow afterwards went to a bay of Boisblanc, where the public wharf now is, where he cultivated land and died.[69]
[68]A Chief of Grand Traverse.
[69]His daughter, who was most likely to know, says he died at Manista. See prior part of Journal.
These Indians also state, that at the existence of the town on Round Island, a large Indian village was seated around the present harbor of Mackinack, and the Indians cultivated gardens there. Yon says, that at that time there was a stratum of black earth over the gravel, and that it was not bare gravel as it is now.[70](He is speaking of the shores of the harbor.)
[70]At Mackinack, they, in some places, raise potatoes in clean gravel.
Yon says that a man, called Sagitondowa, is now living at Chingassamo's village, who once lived in Chi Naigow's village at Minnissais--and that he is about his age. Yon was about seventy. He further says that the traverse to Old Mackinack was made directly from the old town, on Round Island, and that it was from thence they-went over to get rum.
Chusco made the following speech: "Nosa, when I first spoke to you it was at the camp of the Strong Wind (Gen. Wayne). You then told me that I should not be troubled with the smoke, (meaning intrusion from settlement.) It was said to me that a place should be provided by our Great Father for us. My home was then at Waganukizzi, the place of the crotched tree (L'Arbre Croche).
"About twenty men had the courage to go, and united in the treaty. Chemokoman was one of them. The old chief Niskauzhininna did not go. He was afraid of the Americans. I carried my ancient implements, which you know I have forever laid aside. (He was the Seer.)
"The English did not come up to their promises. The land was lost. The posts were lost. They were all given up, and we only were the sufferers. Hard is our fate.
"Strong Wind said to the chiefs that there should be a place for the old and disabled, where they should have food. We were absent at this treaty all summer. We came back late in the fall."
"Forty winters have past. I am poor and old, and cannot go about any more. Look at me. I want a house and a shelter. Tell me, shall I have it?"[71]
[71]In the treaty of 28th March, 1836, a dormitory was provided for the Indians visiting the post of Mackinack. Chusco was granted an annuity in coin.
2d. Having, on the 19th of April, called the attention of Mrs. La Fromboise, an aged Metif lady, to the former state of things here, she says that the post of Chicago was first established under English rule, by a negro man namedPointe aux Sables, who was a respectable man.
The etymology of Chicago appears to be this:--
Chi-cag,Animal of the Leek or Wild Onion.Chi-cag-o-wunz,The Wild Leek or Pole-cat Plant.Chi-ca-go,Place of the Wild Leek.
Chi-cag,Animal of the Leek or Wild Onion.Chi-cag-o-wunz,The Wild Leek or Pole-cat Plant.Chi-ca-go,Place of the Wild Leek.
She also says that Captain Robinson, while commanding at Mackinack, discharged a negro servant named Bonga, who afterwards, with his wife, purchased the house and lot in which Mr. Wendell now lives (the old red house next Dousman's, south), where he kept a tavern, and maintained a respectable character. He afterwards sold out and went to Detroit, and lived with Mr. Meldrum.
She adds: "The son of this Bonga was the late Bonga, who died as acomme, at Lake Winnepec, of the Fond du Lac Department. The present Stephen Bonga of Folleavoine, a trustworthy trader, is the grandson of this Bonga--Robinson's freed slave. His connections are Chippewas, and all speak the Chippewa language fluently."
Having seen and known this Bonga, the grandson, I was led to remark that climate and intermarriage have had little or no appreciable effect on the color of the skin.
The traditions of Mr. Viancourt, one of the oldest French residents of Point St. Ignace, who visited the office (24th April), relate that he was born the year Montreal was taken, 1759. That Mackinack (the island) was first occupied four years after.
He further says that Gov. Sinclair built a small fort on Black River, and that he gave his name to that part of the straits which have since been called St. Clair.[72]Says he has been on the island forty-seven years, consequently came in 1788.
[72]Consult Charlevoix's Journal. Is not so, go far as the origin of the name is concerned.
The late Mr. J.B. Nolin, of Sault St. Marie, remarked to John Johnson, Esq., that Governor Sinclair came up with troops the year after the massacre at old Mackinack; and that he landed with a broad belt of wampum in his hands.
Aishkwagon-ai-bee, or the feather of honor, first chief of the Chippewas of Grand Traverse Bay, Lake Michigan, says that the Nadowas (Iroquois) formerly lived at Point St. Ignace--that they fell out with the Chippewas and Ottawas on a certain day, at a ball-playing, when a Chippewa was killed. Hereupon, the Chippewas and Ottawas united their strength and drove them away, destroying their village.
The Chippewas and Ottawas then divided the land by natural boundaries. Grand Traverse Bay fell to the Chippewas.
Another Indian tradition respecting the old village on Isle Rond, was gleaned:--
Sagitondowa visits the office: he says he lacks one year of fifty. His earliest recollections are of the old village on Round Island. It was then (say 1783, the close of the American Revolutionary War) a large village, and nearly half the island in cultivation. It was not finally abandoned until lately.
Having his attention called to the deposit of old bones exposed by the action of the lake, he finally said he knew not how they came there; that they must be of ancient date, and were probably of the same era with the bones in the caves of the island of Mackinack. He said when he was young there was no village on that part of the bay of Mackinack situated between the old Government house, and the present Catholic church. This was formerly a cedar swamp. There was a village near Porkman's (Mr. Edward Biddle's), and another near the Presbyterian Church.
3d. Seed the borders around the garden lots with clover and timothy, united with oats. Continue to plant in hot-beds, and in the ornamental mound. The "Huron" departs up the lake, the "Austerlitz" returns.
Drove out in my carriage with Mrs. Schoolcraft and children, round the island. I found no traces of snow or ice.
5th. A gale from the east, which began to show itself yesterday.
The schooner "Lady of the Lake" comes in,without a mail. During the afternoon, the wind also brings in the "Marengo," with a mail, and in the night, the "Supply."
6th. Wind from the S.W. and W. Rain, chilly, cloudy.
7th. A complete counterpart of the weather of yesterday.
8th. The same weather in every respect, with light snow flurries. The last four or five days have been most disheartening weather for this season, and retarded gardening. The leaves of the pie plant have been partially nipped by the frost.
9th. Clear and pleasant--wind west. Drove out with Mrs. Schoolcraft and children to see the arched rock, the sugar-loaf rock, Henry's cave, and other prominent curiosities of the island. There are extensive old fields on the eastern part of the island, to which the French apply the term ofGrands Jardins.No resident pretends to know their origin. Whether due to the labors of the Hurons or the Wyandots, who are known to have been driven by the Iroquois to this island from the St. Lawrence valley, early in the 17th century; or to a still earlier period, when the ancient bones were deposited in the caves, is not known. It is certain that the extent of the fields evince an agricultural industry which is not characteristic of the present Algonquin race. The stones have been carefully gathered into heaps, as in the little valley near the arched rock, to facilitate cultivation. These heaps of stones, in various places might be mistaken for Celtic cairns.
10th. The schooner "Mariner," our old friend, comes into port with forty emigrants for Chicago. During the evening the "Commerce" and "America" join her.
11th. S. Cold north-west wind, gloomy and cloudy.
12th. A report is received that the President has communicated a protest to the Senate on the expression of their views respecting the removal of the deposits.
I told a party of Ottawas, who applied for food, that their Great Father was not pleased that his bounties should be misused by their employing them merely to further their journeys to foreign agencies, where the counsels they got were such as he could not approve. That hereafter such bounties must not be expected; that the poor and suffering would always find the agency doors open, but I should be compelled to close them to such as turned a deaf ear to his advice, if their practices in visiting these foreign assemblies were persisted in.
13th. A slight snow covers the ground in the morning, it melts soon, but the day is ungenial, with S.W. wind, and cloudy atmosphere.
14th. A powder of snow covers the ground in the north, the wind in the N.W. It varies from N.W. to S.W., and by ten o'clock, A.M., it is pleasant and clear. Plant garden corn, an early species cultivated by the Ottawas.
15th. Cold and clear most of the day.
16th. Young Robert Gravereat first came to the office in the capacity of interpreter. It is a calm and mild day; the sun shines out. The thermometer stands at 50° at 8 o'clock, A.M., and the weather appears to be settled for the season. Miss Louisa Johnston comes to pass the summer.
15th. Ploughed potato land, the backward state of the season having rendered it useless earlier. Even now the soil is cold, and requires to lay some time after being ploughed up.
The steamer "Oliver Newberry" arrives in the afternoon, bringing Detroit dates of May 5th, and Washington dates a week later.
The new brig "John Kinzie" enters the harbor on the 19th, bringing up Gov. D.R. Porter, of Pennsylvania, and suit, with forty passengers.
20th. I may now advert to what the busy world has been about, while we have been watching fields of floating ice, and battling it with the elements through an entire season. A letter from E.A. Brush, Esq., Washington, March 13th, says: "Nothing is talked about here, as I may well presume you know from the papers, but the deposits and their removal, and their restoration; and that frightful mother of all mischief, the money maker (U.S. Bank). Every morning (the morning begins here at twelve, meridian) the Senate chamber is thronged with ladies and feathers, and their obsequious satellites, to hear the sparring. Every morning a speech is made upon presentation of some petition representing that the country is overwhelmed with ruin and disasters, and that the fact is notorious and palpable; or, that the country is highly prosperous and flourishing, and that everybody knows it. One, that its only safety lies in the continuance of the Bank; and the other, that our liberties will be prostrated if it is re-chartered. Of course, the well in which poor truth has taken refuge, in this exigency, is very deep.
"But the Senate is, at this moment, an extraordinary constellation of talent. There is Mr. Webster, and Mr. Clay, and Mr. Calhoun, and a no-way inferior, Mr. Preston, the famous debater in the South Carolina troubles, and Mr. Benj. Watkins Leigh, the equally celebrated ambassador near the government of South Carolina. All are ranged on one side, and it is a phalanx as formidable, in point of moral force, as the twenty-four can produce. Mr. Forsyth is the atlas upon whose shoulders are made to rest all the sins of the administration. Every shaft flies at him, or rather is intended for others through him; and his Ajax shield of seven bull hides is more than once pierced, in the course of the frequent encounters to which he is invited, and from which they will not permit him to secede. But it is all talk. They will do nothing. A constitutional majority in the Senate (two-thirds) is very doubtful, and a bare one in the House, still more problematical. Of course, you are aware that the executive has expressed its unyielding determination not to sign a bill for the re-charter, or to permit a restoration of the deposits.
"Houses are cracking in the cities, as if in the midst of an earthquake, and there is hardly a man engaged in mercantile operations (I might say not one) who will not feel the 'pressure.'"
Major W. Whiting writes from Detroit, March 28th: "I spoke of the project of a road to Mackinack, which you wished me to bear in mind. The Secretary approved the project, and the Quarter-Master General said it might be done without a special appropriation. I was authorized to have the survey made as soon as the season will permit, and an officer has reported to me for that purpose. He will start from Saginaw some time in the next month, to make a reconnoisance of the country, and will appear at the head of the peninsula when perhaps you little expect such a visitor.
"As soon as the survey shall be completed, the cutting out will be put under contract. When this road shall be completed, you will feel more neighborly to us. The express will be able to perform the journey in half the time, and, of course, the trips can be multiplied."
June 4th. Reuben Smith, a Mission scholar of the Algonquin lineage, determines to leave his temporary employment at the agency, and complete his education at the eastward.
5th. Ossiganac, an Ottawa, who was formerly interpreter at the British post at Drummond Island, says that Ottawa tradition points back to the Manitouline Islands, as the place of their origin. They call those islands Ottawa Islands, and Lake Huron Ottawa Lake. They call Lake Superior Chippewa Lake. All the Ottawas, he says, of L'Arbre Croche, Grand River, &c., came from the Ottawa or Manitouline Islands. The French first found them there.[73]
[73]This is pretty well for Indian tradition, but is not so, in truth, as Charlevoix's Hist. of New France denotes.
They migrated down Lake Michigan, and lived with the Potawattomies. After awhile, the Potawattomies growing uneasy of their presence, accused them of using bad medicine, which was the cause of their people dying. The Ottawas replied, that if they were jealous of them, they would retire, and they accordingly withdrew up the peninsula. While in the course of withdrawing, one of their number was killed by the Potawattomies.
6th. Ossiganac, at an interview at my house this afternoon, says that the Ottawas of Maumee, Ohio, sent a message to the Ottawas of L'Arbre Croche, in Governor Hull's time--consequently between 1805 and 1812--saying: "We were originally of one fire, and we wish to come back again to you, that we may all derive heat again from the same fire."
The Ottawas of L'Arbre Croche replied: "True, but you took a coal to warm yourselves by. Now, it will be better that you remain by your own coal, which you saw fit long ago to take from our fire. Remain where you are." From that day the Ottawas of Maumee have said nothing more about joining us.
Now (1834) the Potawattomies come with a request to join our fire. Shall we receive them, when we refused our brethren, who are more nearly related to us? I think not.
7th. The Little Bear Skin, Muk-ons-e-wy-an-ais, of Manistee, inquires respecting the truth of a rumor, that the Potawattomies, since selling their lands at Chicago, are coming to the North, amongst the Ottawas and Chippewas. He deprecates such a movement. Says the habits of the Potawattomies are so different that they would not be satisfied were they to come. Their horses are their canoes. They know nothing of traveling by water; beyond shore navigation. They are sea-sick on the lakes.
Little Bear Skin says he lives on the first forks of the Manistee. Although a Chippewa, he is in the habit of cultivating gardens. He is originally, by his parents, from the North--is related to the St. Mary's and Taquimenon Indians. He himself was born on the Manistee. He is a temperance man.
Cherry trees in full bloom. The steamer "Uncle Sam" enters the harbor, being the first of a line established to Chicago.
9th. Apple and plum trees pretty full in flower.
10th. Mrs. Robert Stuart makes a handsome present of conchological species from foreign localities to be added to my cabinet.
15th. Major Whistler interdicts preaching in the fort. Mr. B. Stuart, having returned recently from the East, resumes the superintendence of the Sabbath School at the Mission, from which I had relieved him in the autumn.
I have written these sketches for my own satisfaction and the refreshment of my memory, in the leading scenes and events of my first winter on the island, giving prominence to the state and changes of the weather, the occurrences among the natives, and the moral, social, and domestic events around me. But the curtain of the world's great drama is now fully raised, by our free commercial and postal union with the region below us; new scenes and topics daily occur, which it would be impossible to note if I tried, and which would be useless if possible. Hereafter my notices must be of isolated things, and may be "few and far between."
Trip to Detroit--American Fur Company; its history and organization--American Lyceum; its objects--Desire to write books on Indian subjects by persons not having the information to render them valuable--Reappearance of cholera--Mission of Mackinack; its history and condition--Visit of a Russian officer of the Imperial Guards--Chicago; its prime position for a greatentrepôt--Area and destiny of the Mississippi Valley.
1834. About the first of July, I embarked for Detroit, for the purpose chiefly of meeting the Secretary of War, during his summer refuge from the busy scenes at Washington. There were some questions to be decided important to my duties at Mackinack and St. Mary's, arising from recent changes in the laws or regulations. He wrote to me on the 21st of July, from the White Sulphur Springs, in Virginia, that he should probably reach Detroit before the 10th or 12th of August; but his delay had been protracted so much, that after reaching the city I felt compelled to return to my agency without seeing him.
One reason for this step, which operated upon my mind, was the change in the partnership and management of the affairs of the American Fur Company, consequent on Mr. John Jacob Astor's withdrawal from it. This company was founded by this noted and successful merchant's having purchased, at the close of the war, about 1815, the trading posts, consisting of buildings, property, &c., of the British North-West Company, who had been so long the commercial, and to all practical intents, the political lords of the regions of the north-west. He organized the concern in shares, under an act of incorporation of the Legislature of New York, and began operations by establishing his central point of interior action at Michilimackinack. This was in 1816. From data submitted at a treaty at Prairie du Chien by Mr. R. Stuart, the whole capital invested in the business, was not less than 300,000 dollars. The interior sub-posts were spread over the entire area of the frontiers up to the parallel of 59° north latitude, extending to the Missouri. Together with the posts, indeed, the North-West Company turned over, in effect, some of its agents and the principal part of its clerks, interpreters, and boatmen for this area, who were, I believe, without a single exception, foreigners, chiefly Canadian French, Scotchmen, Irishmen, and perhaps a few Englishmen.
Congress passed an act the same year (1816) providing that this trade should be carried on under licenses, by American citizens, who were permitted, however, to employ this class of foreigners, by entering into bonds for their proper conduct. This created a class of duties for the agents, on the line of the Canada frontiers, which was at all times onerous. To carry on the trade at all, the old and experienced "servants of the N.W.," as they were called, were necessary, and it was sometimes essential to take out the license in the names of American boys, or persons by no means competent, by their experience in this trade, to conduct the business, which was, in fact, still in the hands of the old employees.
It was a false theory, from the start, that ardent spirits was one of the articles necessary to trade. Congress entertained an opinion of its injuriousness to the character of the Indians, and passed laws excluding it. This constituted another class of duties of the agents who were entrusted with their execution, and required them to "search packages," and to judge of the probabilities of all persons applying for licenses keeping the laws.
To expect that this mixed body of foreigners would exert any very favorable political influence on the mass of Indian minds in the north-west, was indulging a hope not very likely to be fulfilled. They were employed to glean the Indian lodges of furs, and expected to make good returns to their employers at Michilimackinack; and, if they kept the ground of neutrality with respect to governments, it was considered as exempting them from censure.
The great body of the Indians in the upper lakes, and throughout the north-west, extending to the sources of the Mississippi, were averse to the American rule. Many of them had been embodied to fight against the Americans, who were successively met by ambuscade, surprise, or otherwise, as at Chicago, at Michilimackinack, Brownstown, River Raisin, Maumee, Fort Harrison, and other places. They had been assembled in large bodies, by the delusive prophesyings of Elksatawa, and by the not less delusive promises of the agents of the British Indian Department, on the lines, that the Americans were to be driven back to the line of the Illinois, if not of the Ohio--an old and very popular idea with the lake Indians from early days.
The lake Indians had suffered severely from the war, chiefly from the camp fevers and irregularities. They had finally been defeated--their great war captain killed, their false prophet driven from the Wabash into Canada; and, to crown the whole, were themselves abandoned, one and all, by their allies, at the treaty of Ghent. Many never returned to the homes of their fathers--entire villages were depopulated, and their sites overgrown in a few years with shrubbery. Those who came back from the active campaign of 1814, were sullen and desponding. As an evidence of what they had suffered, and how completely they had been abandoned by their allies, the transactions of the first treaty at Springwells, at the close of the war, may be referred to. The tribes were literally starving and in rags.
The agents of the Executive and Governors, who were appointed to conduct their intercourse after the war, were, in reality, called to execute a high class of diplomatic functions, second only in general importance to those required at the prime courts of Europe. The several classes of duties which have been described denote, to some extent, in what this importance consisted. Eighteen years had now elapsed since this important commercial company had furnished traders to the discomfited tribes. During twelve years of this period I had had charge of the intercourse with by far the largest and most unfriendly and warlike of the tribes; and, when I saw that Mr. Astor had disconnected himself from the concern which he had organized; and that, to some extent, new agents and actors were called to the field, I felt anxious to be at my post, to supervise, personally, the intercourse act, and to see that no improper persons should enter the country.
15th. Dr. L.D. Gale, of New York, writes me that the American Lyceum has resolved to enlarge the scope of its objects. "We have, therefore," he remarks, "as we now stand, 1. The department of education. 2. The department of physical science. 3. Moral and political science. 4. Literature and the arts. The influence of the society has been very much enlarged since its last meeting, and it now enrolls amongst its active members many, indeed I may say a large share of the most valuable men of science of the United States. The chief object of the physical science department is to obtain, as far as possible, a report of the recent history and progress, and, in some cases, the future prospects of the different departments. So that we may be enabled to form a volume of transactions that shall embrace all that is new or recent in the departments, posted up to the present time.
"The subject of the antiquities of the western countries of the United States, and especially the remains of towns and fortifications, which appear to have been built by a civilized population, has been frequently agitated this side of the Alleghanies, and it was thought by the executive committee that justice would be done to the subject in your hands. They have, accordingly, requested that you would consent to give them a paper on the subject. They presumed that you were in possession of much interesting and valuable matter that has never yet come to the eyes of the world."
26th. I have been often written to, by persons at a distance wishing for information on the Indian tribes, or their languages, or antiquities, and uniformly responded favorably to such applications, sending a little where it was not practicable to do more. It has ever appeared to me, that the giving of information was just one of those points which rendered me not a whit more ignorant myself, and might add something to the knowledge, as it certainly would to the gratifications of others. The only good objection is, that time and attention is required for every such effort. But cannot this be easily redeemed from waste hours, when the object is to add to the moral gratifications of others?
A letter was addressed to me, this day, from a Mr. H. Newcomb, Alleghany, near Pittsburg, which certainly seems a little onerous in the tax it imposes on my time; as the writer announces his intention of publishing two or three volumes, on the subject of the Indians, and presents a formidable array of subjects respecting which he is to treat. In only one respect it strikes me as singular, namely, that any writer west of the Alleghanies should set down to write a work on such a subject, without personal observation. In older areas, where the Indian has disappeared, books must alone be relied on; but in the West, there should be something fresh, something distinctive and personal, to give vitality to such a work. The writer observes, "I have not yet been able to obtain materials for the first two volumes satisfactory to myself."
August 1st. Mr. Theodore Dwight, Jr., writes: "Cannot a syllabic, or semi-syllabic alphabet, be applied to our Indian tongues?"
Rev. Leonard Woods, Jr., of New York, Editor of the New York Theological Review, desires a paper on the subject of the American Indians. "I have found," he says, "that while the subject is one of very general interest, there are few who possess the requisite information to do it justice."
15th. The cholera, which first appeared in this country in 1833, made its second appearance in Detroit, in the month of July. It was not, however, of the same virulence as the first attack. "From present appearances," writes a friend at that place, "the cholera is vanishing." Having matters of eminent concern there, I determined to make a brief visit to the place. My health was very good, and had never, indeed, been subject to violent fluctuations of the digestive functions, and, after attaining the object, I returned to Mackinack. I again visited Detroit for a short time, during the latter part of August, and resumed my position at Mackinack in September. Indian affairs, in the upper lakes, were now hastening to a crisis, which in a year or two, developed themselves in extensive sales of territory by the Indians, who, as game failed, saw themselves in straits. These events will be mentioned as they take definite shapes of action.
Sept. 2d. Mr. David Green, Secretary of the Board of Commissioners for American Missions, Missionary Rooms, Boston, depicts a crisis in the mission at Mackinack. "Your favor by Mr. Ferry," he remarks, "has come to hand. As you anticipated, he has requested our Missionary Board to relieve him from the missionary service, and they, though with much reluctance, have granted his request. He seems fully convinced that he is not likely to be hereafter useful, to any great extent, in connection with the Mackinack mission; and that the claims of his family call him to a different situation. This movement on his part, though he has before suggested that such a step might be expedient, was quite unexpected by us at this time; and I fear that we shall not find it easy to obtain a suitable man to fill his place. No such person is now at our disposal. I have written to the Rev. Dr. Peters, of New York, Secretary of the American Home Missionary Society, stating the circumstances of the place, inquiring if it would not properly fall within that portion of the Lord's Vineyard, and whether they could not furnish a suitable man to cultivate it.
"That Society, as well as ours, is, I believe, pressed for missionaries on every hand. The prayers of all the Lord's people should be, in these exigencies, 'Send forth laborers into thy harvest.'Men of devoted piety and zeal, and of high intellectual character, and judgment, and enterprise, are needed in great numbers both in our own land and abroad. The want of such men is now the most serious impediment which our societies have to contend with.
"You may be assured, sir, that we shall do all in our power, consistent with the claims of our other missions, to send some person to Mackinack; but we cannot promise to succeed immediately. Mr. Ferry, we hope, will remain the next spring.
"Some embarrassment is felt by our Board, from the fact that foreign fields, offering access to densely populated districts, where millions speaking the same language, can be easily approached--are more attractive to the candidates for the missionary work than the small, scattered, and migratory bands of our Indians.
"I fear that a preference of this nature will cause our friends--the Indians--to be neglected, if not forgotten. As Providence seems, in so many ways, to be against the Indians, I often fear that no considerable portion of them are ever to enjoy the blessings of civilization and Christianity. But we must leave them in the hands of God, after using faithfully the means which he places at our disposal."
"We are glad to hear that you still approve of the course pursued by our missionaries in the north-west, and that the advancement of the cause of Christ, in that quarter, is still a subject of care with you, and truth, and divine grace, will enable you rightly to bear the responsibility in this respect, which rests on you."
I have put in italics, in the above letter, a high moral truth, which accords with all my observation and experience on the frontiers; and upon the due appreciation and carrying out of which, the success of the missionary cause over the world, in my judgment, depends. It is a sentence that should be inscribed in letters of gold in every missionary room in America. It is certainly a mistake to send feeble men on the frontier, who are not deemed to have sufficient energy, talents, and sound discretion to enter foreign fields. Our frontiers are full of cavillers, and shrewd and bold gainsayers of Christianity, men of personal energy and will, who generally stand aloof from such efforts, and who, when they come into contact with missionary laborers, judge them by common rules of judgment--who are, indeed, not the best fitted to estimate "devoted piety and zeal," but who are, nevertheless, disposed to respect it, in proportion as it is joined with "high intellectual character, and judgment, and enterprise." In the frequent want of this--we do not include Mackinack in this category--is to be sought the true cause of our failures with the Indians, to whom the strange and intense story of the Gospel appears at first in something as wild and marvelous as some of their own relations; and who are, at any rate, firmly fixed in their heathenish rites and devotions to a subtil system of deism, and the invocation of gods of the elements and demons.
With respect to the mission of Mackinack, its influence, on the whole, has been eminently good, and not evil. Mr. Ferry possessed business talents of a high order, with that strict reference to moral responsibilities and accountabilities, which compose the golden fibres of the Gospel net. He sought to bring all, white and red men, into this net; and its influences were extensively spread from that central point into the Indian country. He gathered, from the remotest quarters, the half-breed children of the traders and clerks, into a large and well organized boarding school, where they were instructed in the points essential to their becoming useful and respectable men and women. They were then sent abroad as teachers and interpreters, and traders' clerks, over a wide space of wilderness, where they disseminated Gospel principles. Many of their parents also embraced Christianity. Many of the girls turned out to be ladies of finished education and manners, and married officers of the army or citizens. There were some pure Indian converts of both sexes, among whom was the chief prophet of the Ottawas--the aged Chusco. In 1829, after seven years' labor, he witnessed a revival among the citizens of that town, which appeared to be his crowning labor, and it had the effect to renovate the place, and for many years to drive vice and disorder, if not entirely away, into holes and corners, where they avoided the light. He came to this island first, to begin his mission, I believe, in 1822. The effort to set up a mission there seemed as wild and hopeless, to common judgments, as it would be to dig down the pyramids of the Nile with a pin. I defended its course of proceedings from an unjust attack in the legislative council of the territory, in 1830, having had extensive opportunities to scan its principles and workings--which were only offensive to worldly men, because, in upholding the Gospel banner, a shrewd knowledge of business transactions was at the same time evinced. To be a fool in worldly things is sometimes supposed, by the wits of the world, to be an evidence of pious zeal.
6th. Being on my passage this day up the River St. Clair, in the steamboat "Gen. Gratiot," in company with several others, I asked Capt. Wm. Thorn several historical questions respecting the settlement of Michilimackinack. The following memoranda embrace his replies: He is a native of Newport, Rhode Island, although he was for many years engaged, before the transfer of posts in 1796, in sailing British vessels on the lakes, and therefore deemed, when he was taken prisoner during the late war, to have been a British subject.
He says he began his voyages to old Mackinack seven years before the removal of the post to the Island. This was, he says, in 1767. The post was then in command of a Capt. Glazier, afterwards of De Peyster (who subsequently commanded at Detroit), then of Patrick Sinclair (who had previously built a fort at the mouth of Pine River--St. Clair Co. seat), and then of Gov. Sinclair (so called). The Indians, at the massacre of the garrison of old Mackinack, did not burn the fort. It was re-occupied, and it was not till the breaking out of the revolutionary war that the removal from the main to the island took place. It must have been (if he is correct as to the period of seven years) in 1774, and the occupancy of the island is, therefore, coincident with the earliest period of the movement for Independence--fifty-nine years.[74]
[74]Seeante.
Previous to that era, Mackinack was the spot where the men stopped to shave and dress preparatory to the traverse. About the time Capt. Thorn first began sailing to old Mackinack, the Indians plundered a boat at the island while the owner stopped to dress, in consequence of which the interpreter at the old post (Hanson, I think) went over to demand redress, and killed the depredator, an Indian.
My inquiries on this topic of old men, red and white, which were commenced last spring, may here drop. It is now rendered certain that the occupancy of old Mackinack--the Beekwutinong of the Indians--was kept up by British troops till 1774; between that date and 1780 the flag was transferred (the letters of the commanding officers to their generals would alone give this date). The principal traders, probably, went with it; the Indian intercourse likewise. Some residents lingered a few years, but the place was finally abandoned, and the town site is now covered with loose sand. The walls of the fort, which are of stone, remain, and the whole site constitutes an interesting ruin. The post was first founded by Marquette as a missionary station about 1668.
11th. Major Whiting, of Detroit, writes a letter of introduction in the following terms:--
"Captain Tchehachoff, of the Russian Imperial Guards, is traveling through our country with a view to see its extent and null--its geographical and scenic varieties. As he proposes to visit Michilimackinack, I wish him to become acquainted with you, who can give him so much information relative to those portions of it which he may not be able to visit. I have put into his hands some of your works, which may have anticipated something you will have to say.
"He is, probably, the first Russian who has been on our N.W. interior since the enterprising gentlemen who thought to speculate on the 'copper rock.' But Capt. Tchehachoff has no other views than those of an enlightened and disinterested observer. I am sure that it will give you pleasure to show him all kindly attentions."
Capt. Tchehachoff visited the island during the month, and accepted an invitation to spend a few days with me. He repaid me for this attention with much agreeable conversation and many anecdotes of Russia, Germany (where he was educated), and Poland. He possesses a character of extreme interest to me, as being a Circassian, or descendant of that people, who are the local representatives of the Circassian race. He was very fair in complexion, and possessed a fine, manly, tall, and well-proportioned figure, and a beautiful red and white countenance, with dark hair and eyes. He spoke English very well, but with a broad Scottish, or rather provincial accent, on some words, which he had evidently got from his early teacher--whom he told me was a female--such asouwn, for own, &c.
He told me that, on Mr. Randolph's first presentation to the Russian Empress, he kneeled, although he had been notified that such a ceremony would not be expected of him. He told some very characteristic anecdotes of the wild pranks of the German students at the university. He was, I think, in some way related to descendants of Count Orloff, who was so remarkably strong and compact of muscle that he could push an iron spike, with his thumb, to its head in the sides or planking of a vessel.
Capt. Tchehachoff was certainly strong himself; he had a powerful strength of hands and arms. He used great politeness, and was very punctilious on entering the dining-room, &c. He interested himself in the apparently tidal phenomena of strong currents setting through the harbor and straits, which were in fine view from the piazza of my house, and made some notes upon them. He asked me why I had not concentrated and published my travels, and various works respecting the geology of the Western country, and the history and philology of the aboriginal tribes--subjects of such deep and general interest to the philosopher of Europe. One morning early in October (9th), he bade us an affectionate adieu, and embarked in a schooner for Chicago.
Oct. 10th. Chicago is now the centre of an intense and everyday growing commercial excitement, and however the value of every foot of ground andwaterof its site is over-estimated, and its prospects inflated, it is evidently the nucleus of a permanent city, destined to be one of the great lake capitals.
The Rev. Jer. Porter, our former pastor at St. Mary's, who was the first of his church order, I believe, to carry the Gospel there in 1833, writes me, under this date, detailing his labors and prospects. These are flattering, and go to prove that the religious element, if means be used, is everywhere destined to attend the tread of the commercial and political elements of power into the great area of the Valley of the Mississippi. Chicago is, in fact, the first and great city of the prairies, where the abundance of its products are destined to be embarked to find a northern market by the way of the lakes, without the risks of entering southern latitudes. This is an advantage which it will ever possess. Nature has opened the way for a heavy tonnage by the lake seas. Other modes of transportation may divert passengers and light goods, but the staples must ever go in ships, propelled by wind or steam, through the Straits of Mackinack.