A BOLD VENTURE
The feast lasted until the morning sun reddened the waters of Lake
Superior and awoke the white-throats and thrushes of the island, for
Ganawa and his sons had as much to tell to Jack Dutton as he had to
tell to them.
On Michipicoten Island, Jack Dutton and Pierre Landeau had stopped only
two nights; but by this time Jack had so completely given up the idea
that he should ever see his friend Bruce on Lake Superior, that he and
Pierre had struck out for Caribou Island without leaving any message or
blazing any trees near their camp.
On the first quiet day the four rowed their boat among the big rocks in
search of Pierre Landeau’s canoe. They found it on the bottom in
fifteen feet of water, sunk by the rocks Pierre had used to balance the
craft while he was fishing. If the canoe had not sunk, Pierre might
have reached shore. But for the body of the drowned man they searched
in vain; wind and waves had carried it into deep water.
Jack Dutton put up a cross on the southern point of the island with the
brief inscription: “Pierre Landeau, Partner of Jack Dutton. 1776.”
Bruce and Jack salvaged the sunken canoe. By means of a long pole with
a hook at the end, they raised the craft on end. The stones rolled out
and the canoe rose to the surface by its own buoyancy.
Two canoes and a sailboat gave the campers more than enough room to
take away all their furs and other things. So they remained an extra
week for drying and smoking a canoe-load of caribou meat.
There was some discussion as to the route they should take to the
mainland. They rejected the plan of returning by way of Michipicoten
Island, because that route would have landed them on a shelterless
coast nearly two hundred miles from the Soo. With a steady northwest
breeze they struck out boldly for Whitefish Point, over a stretch of
open water of some sixty miles. Every man was keenly alive to the risk
they were taking. One man steered and managed the sail, while the other
three used paddle and oars. The summer breeze blew steadily in their
favor, and although the two canoes which they towed decreased their
speed, the Pirate rounded Whitefish Point when the sun was still two
hours high. They remained several days at this camp to fish and rest.
Although the adventurers brought no gold rock with them, they sold
their fur and dried meat at good prices to the traders at the Soo.
The three white men decided not to return to New England, but to remain
as traders in the Great Lakes country; and for years till the time of
his death, Ganawa camped near the post of his white sons, who saw to it
that his old age was made comfortable.
There was a strange story told by Indians and Frenchmen, which the lads
at first could not understand. The Bostonnais had made war on the
English and the king was sending over many redcoats to conquer them,
but the Bostonnais under their chief, George Washington, had driven the
English war canoes out of their harbor.
It took some time before the three white men learned the real meaning
of this story; but after some months they understood that the
long-threatened Revolutionary War had broken out, that the battle of
Lexington had been fought and that Washington had compelled the British
to evacuate Boston.
Of Hamogeesik no news ever reached the Soo. Bruce and Ray felt sure
that he had been the man that had followed them on the Michipicoten.
When Hamogeesik left the Ininiwac people a white man of bad reputation
was with him. There was a rumor that the two had planned to go to
Caribou Island. If they went, they never returned. In some way the
great wilderness of lake and forest had swallowed them up, and there
was nobody to mourn their death.
During the trying years of the Revolutionary War, Jack Dutton and the
Henley brothers did much to keep the Northwestern Indians from actively
joining the British as the Iroquois had done under their great chief
Joseph Brant.
Many streams have been polluted and many lakes have disappeared since
the days of Ganawa and his white sons, but the waters of Lake Superior
are as clear as they were at that time, and the islands of the big lake
and many parts of the shore are as wild and beautiful as they were more
than a hundred years ago.
May Gitche Gumee, the Big Blue Sea Water, its wild islands and wooded
shores remain for ever a playground and a land of joy and adventure for
All America!
THE END