EMBARKATION FROM DETROIT, &c.
On the 4th of August the steam-packet, _Sheldon Thomson_, left Detroit
for the Upper Lakes, her ultimate destination being Green Bay, with
the United States’ Commissioners, bound on the errand heretofore
alluded to, and which we shall notice again by-and-by;--three companies
of troops for the frontier garrisons;--several parties of ladies
and gentlemen; some in pursuit of pleasure, some of materials for
science and literature; some of business; some families returning, or
emigrating to those new and remote settlements;--with pigs, poultry,
&c. &c. As near as we recollect, the number of souls on board,
including troops, commissioners and suite, ladies and gentlemen, and
the crew--was not far from _two hundred and fifty_.
The rarity of this expedition gave it some importance. The character
of the company, but especially the objects of the mission from
Government to the Indians of the North-West, magnified the interest
not inconsiderably. It is true there is some sailing craft habitually
employed in this line of navigation. It is also true, that one of the
steam-packets of Lake Erie, ordinarily makes a trip into those remote
regions, some two or three times in a season; as encouragements offer.
But Detroit is reckoned the common limit of the crowd, who flock to the
west in the summer; and a trip beyond is quite notable, and esteemed
a great treat with the curious, and with all who have a taste for
novel, wild, and romantic scenery; or an ambition to see that which is
seldom seen by the common herd of travellers. It is confessed, that an
expedition to the North Pole, is somewhat more important to the persons
concerned;--and if they have the good luck to get back again, it may be
more important to the world. If Captain Symmes had lived to accomplish
his expedition to the centre of the earth, that would at least have
been more interesting. It is possible, it may not yet be understood,
all the world over, that the earth is hollow, and to be entered by a
passage towards the imaginary poles; the polar points being themselves
of course in the celestial regions, and therefore unattainable to man.
This important discovery was made by the above-named Captain Symmes,
of Ohio, United States.
It is not pretended, that the particular expedition, which makes the
subject of our story, can claim a paramount importance, with either of
those just alluded to. But still it attracted considerable attention.
All the newspapers of the country--at least very extensively--announced
it long beforehand;--that is--the proprietors of the steam-packet took
care to put it in circulation, for the greater profit of the voyage,
by attracting the attention of the curious, and offering motive to the
enterprising. It was by this sort of newspaper puffing, that the author
was drawn into the train; as was the fact with a great portion of the
company.
On the morning of the 4th of August, the city of Detroit was in no
little bustle, and the wharf, along-side of which lay the _Sheldon
Thomson_, with her signals snapping in the wind, exhibited a most busy
swarm of human beings, running to and fro, in the way of preparation.
At _eleven_ o’clock A. M. the gun was fired, and the packet bore away
for Lake St. Clair, under all the force of wind and steam, and with
as fine a day, as the sun ever made upon the earth. Indeed the scene
and the occasion were quite inspiriting; and the objects in view wore
the aspect of many powerful and romantic attractions. The beautiful
city of Detroit began to recede, while the packet, borne along between
the Canadian shore and Hog Island, (a name, it must be confessed, ill
deserved by a thing so beautiful) glided in fine style into the opening
expanse of Lake St. Clair.
Lake St. Clair, as before recognized, is an expansion of the strait,
nearly in a circular form, with a diameter of thirty miles; and in
consequence of the depression of all its shores, and there being
no hills in the immediate interior, the position of a vessel in
any part of its border, opens from the deck a shoreless sea in the
distant prospect. The centre of the lake presents a beautiful and
enchanting _looming up_ of the shores, as the sailors call it, in all
directions; and the marginal forests, broken every here and there, by
the indentations of the coast, seem to hang suspended in the horizon,
between the sea and the heavens, and play and dance before the eye, in
a sort of fairy vision. The images of this kind, fore and aft, and on
either side, were continually changing their forms, and showing the
most fantastic shapes, as the vessel wended her serpentine course,
by the channel through the lake, from its southern to its northern
border. For Lake St. Clair is an exception to all the others, in this
particular: that its waters are generally shallow, except in the
channel; and that channel is perpetually changing by the effect of
storms, and requires a frequent survey for the direction of the pilot.
Indeed this body of water is hardly worthy to be dignified with the
name of a _Lake_, in comparison of the others, and might as well be
considered, as a flooding of low lands--which seems to be the exact
truth. The main current of water through it, however, always maintains
a channel, sufficient for all the purposes of navigation, though it is
somewhat devious.
The passage over Lake St. Clair, in a day of such unrivalled physical
glories, in such a company, on such an expedition, leaving the regions
of civilization behind us, and just about to plunge into the regions
of barbarism;--or rather, flying from a world, violated by the track
and by the hand of man, into a world of virgin waters and into a virgin
wilderness--all vast, and their proper character inconceivable, except
by actual inspection; such a passage might well make an apology for the
indulgence of some trifling ingredients of poetry and romance. Every
heart seemed light and buoyant, as the clouds floating in the sky, and
its affections active, as the elements by which the bark, which made
their home, was wafted along;--and all prospects bright and cheering,
as the sun, which shone upon the scene. The climate and aspects of the
heavens seemed changed. The clouds, such, as a clear atmosphere and
its brisk currents fold together in their fleecy robes, and toss along
in sublime and majestic sport;--the shores and islets successively
receding in one direction, and coming into view from another;--a new
and fine steamer, dashing through the waves, with all her sails set
to the breeze, and crammed with a population, like bees upon the
hive, in a summer’s day, all life and bustle;--the _toute ensemble_
presented a scene, as picturesque, as could well be grouped, under a
traveller’s eye. And then again the variety of character on board:
three detachments of raw recruits, bidding adieu to the common world,
and going to occupy the frontier posts, to keep the peace between the
traders and Indians, between the Indians themselves, and if needs be,
between the querulous parties of Canadians and Americans, strolling
in those regions;--a Commission from Government, on their way to
settle disputes and negotiate treaties with the aboriginal tribes of
the North-West;--traders, voyagers of pleasure and observation, and
friends going to visit friends, in those distant retreats;--a vicar
general from the pope of Rome, with plenipotentiary powers of remission
and retention in things spiritual, and of supervising the interests
of the Catholic church; together with two Protestant clergymen and a
missionary of Mackinaw;--men, women, and children of all grades, and
all conditions--and withal the rare character of the excursion;--all
these things together, as might be supposed, contributed to lend an
interest and a charm to the expedition, so auspiciously commenced, not
easily conceived by any one, who did not make one of the party.
About four o’clock, P.M., we found ourselves; hard upon what may be
called, with the greatest propriety, the _Delta_ of the river St.
Clair, which discharges itself by about _fifty_ mouths into the lake
of the same name. The principal navigable channels are _five_. The
extended marshes, challenging the utmost scope of the eye, lying
only a few inches higher than the water, and all waving with heavy
burdens of high _prairie_ grass;--the meandering mouths of the river,
shooting in every direction, and insulating the region in the most
fantastic forms;--the thick and impenetrable copses of wood, of larger
and smaller extent, springing up here and there, in all their various
shapes, until after a few miles they are merged in one unbroken
forest, and seeming to vie with the outlets of the river in creating
a variety of their own peculiar kind;--these several and combined
features, changing their forms continually, as we ascended the channel
selected, like the coming and flitting visions of creative fancy,
might almost dispossess a sober man of his senses, and persuade him,
by a world of reality, that he was in a world of illusions. And then
to see the French huts--for the French are to be found, scattered
along the old line of trading posts, from Quebec to Detroit, from
Detroit to Mackinaw, at the head of Lake Huron, from Mackinaw across
the North-West Territory to _Prairie du Chien_, on the Mississippi;
and from the last point along the banks of that mighty river, to the
Gulf of Mexico--to look upon the habitations of that indolent race,
so mean and sordid, as they are, resting upon the river’s brink, and
demonstrating by their every feature a dull and lazy existence, akin
to that of the savage;--and now and then to see a group of Indians,
old and young, male and female, some entirely naked, and others with
the rag of a shirt, or blanket never washed, pendant and ready to
drop by its rottenness from their shoulders--darting out of a thicket
upon the bank, and running and jumping with frantic, or joyous signs
and exclamations of amazement, to see such a great _canoe_, so full
of people, and rushing up against the tide, drawn, as they imagine,
by great sturgeons, harnessed under water;--we a wonder to them and
they a very piece of romance to us;--who, fresh from the centre of
civilization, and unaccustomed to these scenes, would not gaze with
interest, and imagine himself dreaming?--