The French never have succeeded as colonists, and their want of success
can only be ascribed to an amiable want of energy. When located at any
spot, if a Frenchman has enough, he seeks no more; and, instead of
working as the Englishman or the American does, he will pass his time
away, and spend his little surplus in social amusements. The town of
Detroit was founded as early as the city of Philadelphia, but,
favourably as it is situated, it never until lately rose to any thing
more than, properly speaking, a large village. There is not a paved
street in it, or even a foot-path for a pedestrian. In winter, in rainy
weather, you are up to your knees in mud; in summer, invisible from
dust: indeed, until lately, there was not a practicable road for thirty
miles round Detroit. The muddy and impassable state of the streets has
given rise to a very curious system of making morning or evening calls.
A small one-horse cart is backed against the door of a house; the ladies
dressed get into it, and seat themselves upon a buffalo skin at the
bottom of it; they are carried to the residence of the party upon whom
they wish to call; the cart is backed in again, and they are landed dry
and clean. An old inhabitant of Detroit complained to me that people
were now getting so proud, that many of them refused to visit in that
way any longer. But owing to the rise of the other towns on the lake,
the great increase of commerce, and Michigan having been admitted as a
State into the Union, with Detroit as its capital, a large Eastern
population has now poured into it, and Detroit will soon present an
appearance very different from its present, and become one of the most
flourishing cities of America. Within these last six years it has
increased its population from two to ten thousand. The climate here is
the very best in America, although the State itself is unhealthy. The
land near the town is fertile. A railroad from Detroit already extends
thirty miles through the State; and now that the work has commenced, it
will be carried on with the usual energy of the Americans.
Left Detroit in the Michigan steam-vessel for Mackinaw; passed through
the Lake St Clair, and entered Lake Huron; stopped at a solitary wharf
to take in wood, and met there with a specimen of American politeness or
(if you please) independence in the gentleman who cut down and sold it.
Without any assignable motive, he called out to me, "You are a damned
fool of an Englishman;" for which, I suppose, I ought to have been very
much obliged to him.
Miss Martineau has not been too lavish in her praises of Mackinaw. It
has the appearance of a fairy isle floating on the water, which is so
pure and transparent that you may see down to almost any depth; and the
air above is as pure as the water, so that you feel invigorated as you
breathe it. The first reminiscence brought to my mind after I had
landed, was the description by Walter Scott of the island and residence
of Magnus Troil and his daughters Minna and Brenda, in the novel of the
"Pirate."
The low buildings, long stores, and out-houses full of nets, barrels,
masts, sails, and cordage; the abundance of fish lying about; the
rafters of the houses laden with dried and smoked meat; and the full and
jolly proportions of most of the inhabitants, who would have rivalled
Scott's worthy in height and obesity, immediately struck my eye; and I
might have imagined myself transported to the Shetland isle, had it not
been for the lodges of the Indians on the beach, and the Indians
themselves either running about, or lying stripped in the porches before
the whisky stores.
I inquired of one of the islanders, why all the white residents were
generally such large portly men, which they are at a very early age; he
replied, "We have good air, good water, and what we eat agrees with us."
This was very conclusive.
I enquired of another, if people lived to a good old age in the island;
his reply was quite American--"I guess they do; if people want to die,
they can't die here--they're obliged to go elsewhere."
Wandering among the Indian lodges (wigwams is a term not used
now-a-days), I heard a sort of flute played in one of them, and I
entered. The young Indian who was blowing on it, handed it to me. It
was an imperfect instrument, something between a flute and a clarionet,
but the sound which it gave out was soft and musical. An islander
informed me that it was the only sort of musical instrument which the
Northern tribes possessed, and that it was played upon by the young men
only when they were _in love_. I suspected at first that he was
bantering me, but I afterwards found that what he said was true. The
young Indian must have been very deeply smitten, for he continued to
play all day and all night, during the time that I was there.
"If music be the food of love, play on."
Started in a birch canoe for Sault St Marie, a small town built under
the rapids of that name, which pour out a portion of the waters of Lake
Superior. Two American gentlemen, one a member of Congress, and the
other belonging to the American Fur Company, were of the party. Our
crew consisted of five Canadian half-breeds--a mixture between the
Indian and the white, which spoils both. It was a lovely morning; not a
breath of air stirred the wide expanse of the Huron, as far as the eye
could scan; and the canoe, as it floated along side of the
landing-place, appeared as if it were poised in the air, so light did it
float, and so clear and transparent are these northern waters. We
started, and in two hours arrived at Goose Island, unpoetical in its
name, but in itself full of beauty. As you stand on the beach, you can
look down through the water on to the shelving bottom, bright with its
variety of pebbles, and trace it almost as far off as if it had not been
covered with water at all. The island was small, but gay as the gayest
of parterres, covered with the sweet wild rose in full bloom (certainly
the most fragrant rose in the world), blue campanellos, yellow
exeranthemums, and white ox-eyed daisies. Underneath there was a
perfect carpet of strawberries, ripe, and inviting you to eat them,
which we did, while our Canadian brutes swallowed long strings of raw
salt pork. And yet, in two months hence, this lovely little spot will
be but one mass of snow--a mound rising above to serve as a guide to the
chilled traveller who would find his way over the frozen expanse of the
wide Huron Lake.
As soon as our Canadians had filled themselves to repletion with raw
pork, we continued our route that we might cross the lake and gain the
detour, or point which forms the entrance of the river St Marie, before
it was dark. We arrived a little before sunset, when we landed, put up
our light boat, and bivouacked for the night. As soon as we put our
feet on shore, we were assailed by the mosquitoes in myriads. They
congregated from all quarters in such numbers, that you could only see
as if through a black veil, and you could not speak without having your
mouth filled with them. But in ten minutes we had a large fire, made,
not of logs or branches, but of a dozen small trees. The wind eddied,
and the flame and smoke, as they rose in masses, whirled about the
mosquitoes right and left, and in every quarter of the compass, until
they were fairly beaten off to a respectable distance. We supped upon
lake-trout and fried ham; and rolling ourselves up in our Mackinaw
blankets, we were soon fast asleep.
There was no occasion to call us the next morning. The Canadians were
still snoring, and had let the fires go down. The mosquitoes, taking
advantage of this neglect, had forced their way into the tent, and
sounded the reveille in our ears with their petty trumpets; following up
the summons with the pricking of pins, as the fairies of Queen Mab are
reported to have done to lazy housemaids. We kicked up our half-breeds,
who gave us our breakfast, stowed away the usual quantity of raw pork,
and once more did we float on the water in a piece of birch bark. The
heat of the sun was oppressive, and we were broiled; but we dipped our
hands in the clear cool stream as we skimmed along, listening to the
whistling of the solitary loon as it paddled away from us, or watching
the serrated back of the sturgeon, as he rolled lazily over and showed
above the water. Now and then we stopped, and the silence of the desert
was broken by the report of our fowling-pieces, and a pigeon or two was
added to our larder. At noon a breeze sprung up, and we hoisted our
sail, and the Canadians who had paddled dropped asleep as we glided
quietly along under the guidance of the "timonier."
After you have passed through the river St Clair, and entered the Huron
lake, the fertility of the country gradually disappears. Here and there
indeed, especially on the Canadian side, a spot more rich than the soil
in general is shewn by the large growth of the timber; but the northern
part of the Lake Huron shores is certainly little fit for cultivation.
The spruce fir now begins to be plentiful; for, until you come to the
upper end of the lake, they are scarce, although very abundant in Upper
Canada. The country wears the same appearance all the way up to the
Sault St Marie, shewing maple and black poplar intermingled with fir:
the oak but rarely appearing. The whole lake from Mackinaw to the
Detour is studded with islands. A large one at the entrance of the
river is called St Joseph's. The Hudson Bay Company had a station
there, which is now abandoned, and the island has been purchased, or
granted, to an English officer, who has partly settled it. It is said
to be the best land in this region, but still hardly fit for
cultivation. It was late before our arrival at the Sault, and we were
obliged to have recourse to our paddles, for the wind had died away. As
the sun went down, we observed a very curious effect from the refraction
of tints, the water changing to a bright violet every time that it was
disturbed by the paddles. I have witnessed something like this just
after sunset on the Lake of Geneva.
We landed at dusk, much fatigued; but the Aurora Borealis flashed in the
heavens, spreading out like a vast plume of ostrich feathers across the
sky, every minute changing its beautiful and fanciful forms. Tired as
we were, we watched it for hours before we could make up our minds to go
to bed.