Description of Michilimackinac--Prominent scenery--Geology--Arched
Rock--Sugarloaf Rock--History--Statistics--Mineralogy--Skull
Cave--Manners--Its fish, agriculture, moral wants--Ingenious
manufactures of the Indians--Fur trade--Etymology of the
word--Antique bones disclosed in the interior of the island.
Nothing can exceed the beauty of this island. It is a mass of calcareous
rock, rising from the bed of Lake Huron, and reaching an elevation of
more than three hundred feet above the water. The waters around are
purity itself. Some of its cliffs shoot up perpendicularly, and tower in
pinnacles like ruinous Gothic steeples. It is cavernous in some places;
and in these caverns, the ancient Indians, like those of India, have
placed their dead. Portions of the beach are level, and adapted to
landing from boats and canoes. The harbor, at its south end, is a little
gem. Vessels anchor in it, and find good holding. The little
old-fashioned French town nestles around it in a very primitive style.
The fort frowns above it, like another Alhambra, its white walls
gleaming in the sun. The whole area of the island is one labyrinth of
curious little glens and valleys. Old green fields appear, in some
spots, which have been formerly cultivated by the Indians. In some of
these there are circles of gathered-up stones, as if the Druids
themselves had dwelt here. The soil, though rough, is fertile, being the
comminuted materials of broken-down limestones. The island was formerly
covered with a dense growth of rock-maples, oaks, ironwood, and other
hard-wood species, and there are still parts of this ancient forest
left, but all the southern limits of it exhibit a young growth. There
are walks and winding paths among its little hills, and precipices of
the most romantic character. And whenever the visitor gets on eminences
overlooking the lake, he is transported with sublime views of a most
illimitable and magnificent water prospect. If the poetic muses are ever
to have a new Parnassus in America, they should inevitably fix on
Michilimackinac. Hygeia, too, should place her temple here, for it has
one of the purest, driest, clearest, and most healthful atmospheres.
We remained encamped upon this lovely island six days, while awaiting
the arrival of supplies and provisions for the journey, or their being
prepared for transportation by hand over the northern portages. Meats,
bread, Indian corn, and flour, had to be put in kegs, or stout linen
bags.
The traders and old citizens said so much about the difficulties and
toils of these northern portages that we did not know but what we,
ourselves, were to be put in bags; but we escaped that process. This
delay gave us the opportunity of more closely examining the island. It
is about three and a half miles long, two in its greatest width, and
nine in circumference. The site of Fort Holmes, the apex, is three
hundred and twelve feet above the lake. The eastern margin consists of
precipitous cliffs, which, in many places, overhang the water, and
furnish a picturesque rocky-fringe, as it were, to the elevated plain.
The whole rock formation is calcareous. It exhibits the effects of a
powerful diluvial action at early periods, as well as the continued
influence of elemental action, still at work. Large portions of the
cliffs have been precipitated upon the beach, where the process of
degradation has been carried on by the waves. A most striking instance
of such precipitations is to be witnessed at the eastern cliff, called
Robinson's Folly, which fell, by its own gravitation, within the period
of tradition. The formation, at this point, formerly overhung the beach,
commanding a fine view of the lake and islands in all directions, in
consequence of which it was occupied with a summer-house, by the
officers of the British garrison, after the abandonment of the old
peninsular fort, about 1780.
The mineralogical features of the island are not without interest. I
examined the large fragments of debris, which are still prominent, and
which exhibit comparatively fresh fractures. The rock contains a portion
of sparry matter, which is arranged in reticulæ, filled with white
carbonate of lime, in such a state of loose disintegration that the
weather soon converts it to the condition of agaric mineral. These
reticulæ are commonly in the slate of calcspar, crystallized in minute
crystals. The stratum on which this loose formation rests is compact and
firm, and agrees in structure with the encrinal limestone of Drummond
Island and the Manitouline chain. But the vesicular stratum, which may
be one hundred and ten or twenty feet thick, has been deposited in such
a condition that it has not had, in some localities, firmness enough
permanently to sustain itself. The consequence is, that the table-land
has caved in, and exhibits singular depressions, or grass-covered,
cup-shaped cavities, which have no visible outlet for the rain-water
that falls in them, unless it percolates through the shelly strata.
Portions of it, subject to this structure, have been pressed off during
changing seasons, by frosts, and carried away by rains, creating that
castellated appearance of pinnacles, which gives so much peculiarity to
the rocky outlines of the island.
The ARCHED ROCK is an isolated mass of self-sustaining rock, on the
eastern facade of cliffs; it offers one of those coincidences of
geological degradation in which the firmer texture of the silicious and
calcareous portions of it have, thus far, resisted decomposition. Its
explanation, is, however, simple: The apex of this geological monument
is on a level, or nearly so, with the Fort Holmes summit. While the
diluvial action, of which the whole island gives striking proofs,
carried away the rest of the reticulated or magnesian limestone, this
singular point, having a firmer texture, resisted its power, and remains
to tell the visitor who gazes at it, that waters have once held dominion
over the highest part of the island.
Before dismissing the subject of the geological phenomena of this
island, it may be observed that it is covered with the erratic block or
drift stratum. Primitive or crystalline pebbles and boulders are found,
but not plentifully, on the surface. They are observed, however, on the
highest summit, and upon the lower plain; one of the best localities of
these boulders, exists on the depressed ground, leading north, in the
approach to Dousman's Farm, where there is a remarkable accumulation of
blocks of granite and hornblende drift boulders. The principal drift of
the island consists of smooth, small, calcareous pebbles, and, at deeper
positions, angular fragments of limestone. Sandstone boulders are not
rare. Over the plain leading from the fort north by way of the Skull
Rock, are spread extensive beds of finely comminuted calcareous gravel,
the particles of which often not exceeding the size of a buck-shot,
which makes one of the most solid and compact natural macadamized roads
of which it is possible to conceive. Carriage wheels on it run as
smoothly, but far more solid, than they could over a plank floor. This
formation appears to be the diluvial residuum or ultimate wash, which
arranged itself agreeably to the laws of its own gravitation, on the
recession of the watery element, to which its comminution is clearly
due. It would be worth transportation, in boxes, for gravelling
ornamental garden-walks. The soil of the island is highly charged with
the calcareous element, and, however barren in appearance, is favorable
to vegetation. Potatoes have been known to be raised in pure beds of
small limestone pebbles, where the seed potatoes had been merely covered
in a slight way, to shield them from the sun, until they had taken root.
The historical reminiscences connected with this island are of an
interesting character. It appears from concurrent testimony, that the
old town on the peninsula was settled about 1671,[22] which was seven
years before the building of Fort Niagara. In that year, Father
Marquette, a French missionary, prevailed on a party of Hurons to locate
themselves at that spot, and it was therefore the first point of
settlement made northwest of Fort Frontenac, on Lake Ontario. It was
probably first garrisoned by La Salle, in 1678, and continued to be the
seat of the fur trade, and in many respects, the metropolis of the
extreme northwest, during the whole period of French domination in the
Canadas. After the fall of Quebec, in 1759, it passed by treaty to the
British government, but much against the wishes of the Indian tribes,
who retained a strong partiality for their early friends, the French.
Pontiac arose at this time, to dispute the English authority in the
northwest, and with confederates projected a series of bold attacks upon
the forts extending from the Ohio to this post. Most of these were
successful, but he was defeated at Detroit, where he commanded in
person, after a series of extraordinary movements. While he was
pressing the siege of the garrison, he enjoined neutrality upon the
French inhabitants, who were nevertheless called on to furnish cattle
and corn for the subsistence of his warriors. It is remarked on good
authority that, for these supplies, he issued evidences of debt. When
General Bradstreet marched to the relief of the fort, with an army of
three thousand men, the spirit and laconic temper of the warrior were at
the same time evinced. He sent a deputation of chiefs to meet the herald
of the British general, at Maumee, with the laconic and symbolic
message: "I stand in the path."
[22] Neither Fort Niagara nor Fort Ponchartrain (at the present site
of Detroit) were then in existence. The foundation of the former was
laid by La Salle, in 1678; the latter had not been erected when La
Hontan passed through the country, in 1688.--_Herriot's Travels
through Canada_, p. 196.
The execution of the plan of attack on Old Fort Mackinac appears to have
been intrusted to Minnawanna, a Chippewa chief, who, in addition to his
own people, was aided by the Sacs. The Ottowas afterwards expressed
displeasure in not having been admitted to a participation in the
attack. The plan was ingeniously laid. The king's birthday, the 4th of
June (1763), having arrived, the Chippewas and Sacs turned out to play,
for a high wager, at ball. Many of the garrison, and the commanding
officer himself, came out to witness the sport; and there was such a
feeling of security that the gates of the fort were left open. To put
the troops more off their guard, the ball had been thrown over the
picket, and when once there, it was natural that it should be followed
by the opposite parties, heated with the contest and eager for victory.
But this artifice was the accomplishment of the plan. The war-whoop was
immediately sounded, and an indiscriminate slaughter commenced. A few
moments of intense anxiety ensued. They were passed by the officers
eagerly listening for the roll of the drum. But they were passed in
disappointment. There was no call of this kind to concentrate
resistance. Panic and slaughter raged in their most fearful forms. None
were spared who were deemed friendly to the English interest but such as
were effectually secreted. Some of the soldiers who escaped the first
onset, were incarcerated in a room, where they were sacrificed to glut
the vengeance of a chief, who did not arrive till the principal work of
slaughter had been accomplished.
This event sealed the fate of the old fort and the town on the
peninsula. The British afterwards took possession of the island, which
had served to give name to the peninsular fort. The town was gradually
removed, by pulling down the buildings, and transporting the timber to
the island, till there was not a building or fixture left; and the site
is now as silent and deserted as if it had never been the scene of an
active resident population.
The Island of Michilimackinac appears to have been occupied first as a
military position by the British, about 1780, say some seven years after
the massacre of the garrison of the old peninsular fort of the same
name.
Wherever Michilimackinac is mentioned in the missionary letters or
history of this period, it is the ancient fort, on the apex of the
Michigan peninsula, that is alluded to.
The present town is pleasantly situated around a little bay that affords
good clay anchorage and a protection from west and north winds. It has a
very antique and foreign look, and most of the inhabitants are, indeed,
of the Canadian type of the French. The French language is chiefly
spoken. It consists of about one hundred and fifty houses and some four
hundred and fifty permanent inhabitants.
It is the seat of justice for the most northerly county of Michigan.
According to the observation of Lieut. Evelith, the island lies in north
latitude 45° 54´, which is only twenty-three minutes north of Montreal,
as stated by Prof. Silliman.[23] It is in west longitude 7° 10´ from
Washington.
[23] Tour from Hartford to Quebec, p. 341.
Col. Croghan's attempt to take the island, during the late war, was most
unfortunate. He failed from a double spirit of dissension in his own
forces, being at odds with the commanding officer of the fleet, and at
sword's points with his second in command, Major Holmes. After entering
the St. Mary's, and taking and burning the old post of St. Joseph's,
where nobody resisted, instead of sailing direct to Mackinac, a
marauding expedition was sent up this river to St. Mary's, and when the
fleet and troops finally reached Mackinac, instead of landing at the
town, under the panic of the inhabitants, it sailed about for several
days. In the mean time the island filled with Indians from the
surrounding shores.
Fort "Mackina" is eligibly situated on a cliff overlooking the town and
harbor, and is garrisoned by a company of artillery. The ruin of Fort
Holmes, formerly Fort George, occupies the apex of the island, and has
been dismantled since the British evacuated it in 1815.[24]
[24] Tour from Hartford to Quebec, p. 341.
It happened that the British authorities on the island of St. Joseph,
got intelligence of the declaration of war, in 1812, through Canada,
before the American commander at Mackinac heard of it. Mustering their
forces with such volunteers, militia, and Indians as could be hastily
got together, they proceeded in boats to the back of the island, where
they secretly landed at night with some artillery, and by daylight the
next morning got the latter in place on the summit of Fort Holmes, which
completely commanded the lower fort, when they sent a summons of
surrender, which Captain Hanks, the American commanding officer, had no
option but to obey.
Colonel Croghan, the hero of Sandusky, attempted to regain possession of
it, in 1814, with a competent force, and after several demonstrations of
his fleet about the island, by which time was lost and panic in the
enemy allayed, he landed on the northern part of it, which is depressed,
and his army marched through thick woods, most favorable for the
operations of the Indians, to the open grounds of Dousman's Farm, where
the army was met by Colonel McDouall, who was eligibly posted on an
eminence with but few regular troops, but a heavy force of Indian
auxiliaries and the village militia. Major Holmes, who gallantly led the
attack, swinging his sword, was killed at a critical moment, and the
troops retreated before Colonel Croghan could reach the field with a
reinforcement. Thus ended this affair.
My attention was directed to the plaster stated to exist on the St.
Martin Islands. These islands compose a small group lying about nine or
ten miles north-northeast of Michilimackinac. Captain Knapp, of the
revenue service, had been requested to take me to the spot with the
revenue cutter under his command. I was accompanied by Captain Douglass,
of the expedition, and by Lieutenant John Pierce, U. S. A., stationed at
the fort.
The gypsum exists in a moist soil, not greatly elevated, during certain
winds above the lake. Pits had been dug by persons visiting the locality
for commercial purposes. It occurs in granular lumps of a gray color, as
also in foliated and fibrous masses, white, gray, chestnut color, or
sometimes red. No difficulty was encountered in procuring as many
specimens as were required. This group of islands is noticeable, also,
for the large boulder masses of hornblende and granite rock, which are
found imbedded in, or lying on the surface, along with fragments of
breccia, quartz, &c. This drift is more abundant, on all the islands I
have seen, as we approach the north shores of Lake Huron. Having
completed the examination of these islands, we returned to the harbor
after an agreeable excursion.
To observe the structure and character of the Island of Michilimackinac,
I determined to walk entirely around it, following the beach at the foot
of the cliffs. This, although a difficult task, from brush and debris,
became a practicable one, except on the north and northwest borders,
where there was, for limited spaces, no margin of debris, at which
points it became necessary to wade in the water at the base of low
precipitous rocks. In addition to the reticulated masses of limestone
covered with calcspar from the fallen cliffs, the search disclosed small
tabular pieces of minutely crystallized quartz and angular masses of a
kind of striped hornstone, gray and lead colored, which had been
liberated from similar positions in the cliffs. On passing the west
margin of the island, I observed a bed of a species of light-blue clay,
which is stated to part with its coloring matter in baking it, becoming
white.
While the British possessed the island, they attempted to procure water
by digging two wells at the site of Fort George (now Holmes), but were
induced to relinquish the work without success, at the depth of about
one hundred feet. Among the fragments of rock thrown out, are
impressions of bivalve and univalve shells, with an impression
resembling the head of a trilobite. These are generally in the condition
of chalcedony, covered with very minute crystals of quartz. I also
discovered a drift specimen of brown oxide of iron, on the north
quarter. This sketch embraces all that is important in its mineralogical
character.
This island appears to have been occupied by the Indians, from an early
period. Human bones have been discovered at more than one point, in the
cavernous structure of the island; but no place has been so much
celebrated for disclosures of this kind, as the SKULL CAVE. This cave
has a prominent entrance, shaded by a few trees, and appears to have
been once devoted to the offices of a charnel-house by the Indians. It
is not mentioned at all, however, by writers, till 1763, in the month of
June of which year the fort of old Mackinac on the peninsula, was
trea-cherously taken by the Sac and Chippewa Indians. An extensive and
threatening confederation of the western Indians had then been matured,
and a large body of armed warriors was then encamped around the walls of
Detroit, under the leadership of Pontiac, who held the garrison in close
siege day and night. The surrender of Canada to Great Britain, which had
followed the victory of General Wolfe at Quebec, was distasteful to
these Indians, and they attempted the mad project of driving back beyond
the Alleghanies the English race; making a simultaneous assault upon all
the military posts west of that great line of demarcation, and preaching
and dealing out vengeance to all who had English blood in their veins.
Alexander Henry, a native of Albany,[25] was one of those enterprising
men who had pushed his fortunes West, with an adventure of merchandise,
on the first exchange of posts, and he was singled out for destruction,
as soon as the fort was taken. He had taken refuge in the house of a
Frenchman named Longlade, where he was concealed in a garret by a Pawnee
slave, and where he hid himself under a heap of birch-bark buckets, such
as are employed in the Indian country, in the spring season, in carrying
the sap of the sugar-maple. But this temporary reprieve from the Indian
knife seemed only the prelude to a series of hairbreadth escapes, which
impressed him as the direct interposition of Providence. At length, when
the scenes of blood and intoxication began to abate a little, an old
Indian friend of his, called Wawetum, who had once pledged his
friendship, but who had been absent during the massacre, sought him out,
and having reclaimed him by presents, in a formal council, took him into
his canoe and conducted the spared witness of these atrocities three
leagues across the waters of Lake Huron in safety to this island.
[25] _Vide_ Henry's Travels, New York, 1809, 1 vol. 8vo.
To this place they were accompanied by the actors in this tragedy to the
number of three hundred and fifty fighting men,[26] and he would now,
under the protection of Wawetum, have been safe from immediate peril,
but that in a few days a prize of two canoes of merchandise in the hands
of English traders was made, amongst which was a large quantity of
liquor. Hereupon, Wawetum, foreseeing another carousal, and always
fearful of his friend, requested him to go up with him to the mountain
part of the island. Having ascended it, he led him to this cave, and
recommended him to abide here in concealment until the debauch was over,
when he promised to visit him.
[26] Henry, p. 109.
Breaking some branches at its mouth for a bed, he then sought its
recesses, and spreading his blanket around, laid down and slept till
morning. Daylight revealed to him the fact that he had been reposing on
dry human bones, and that the cave had anciently been devoted by the
Indians as a sepulchre. On announcing this fact to his deliverer, two
days afterward, when he came to seek him, Wawetum expressed his
ignorance of it, and a party of the Indians, who came to examine it in
consequence of the announcement, also concurred in declaring that they
had no tradition on the subject. They conjectured that the bones were
either due to the period when the sea covered the earth--which is a
common belief with them--or to the period of the Huron occupancy of this
island, after that tribe were defeated by the Iroquois, in the St.
Lawrence valley.
So much for tradition.
This island has been long known as a prominent point in the fur trade.
But of this I am not prepared to speak. It was selected by Mr. J. J.
Astor, in 1816, as the central point of outfit for his clerks and agents
in this region; and the warehouses erected for their accommodation
constitute prominent features in its modern architecture. The capital
annually invested in this business is understood to be about three
hundred thousand dollars. This trade was deemed an object of the highest
consequence from the first settlement of Canada, but it was not till
1766, agreeably to Sir Alexander Mackenzie, that it commenced from
Michilimackinac.[27] The number of furred animals taken in a single
year, the same author states to be one hundred and eighty-two thousand
two hundred; of which number, the astonishing proportion of one hundred
and six thousand were beavers.[28] Estimating each skin at but one
pound, and the foreign market price at four dollars per pound, which are
both much below the average at this era, this item of beaver alone would
exceed by more than one-third the whole capital employed, taking the
data before mentioned, and leave the seventy-six thousand smaller furred
animals to be put on the profit side. No wonder that acts of perfidy
arose between rivals, such as the shooting of Mr. Waden at his own
dinner-table, where he was entertaining an opponent or copartner in the
trade; or the foul assassination of Owen Keveny on the Rainy Lakes.[29]
Indeed, the fur trade has for a long period been more productive, if we
are to rely on statements, than the richest silver mines of Mexico or
Peru.
[27] Mackenzie's Voyages, Hist. Fur Trade, vii.
[28] Mackenzie, xxiv.
[29] Report of the Trials of De Reinhard, &c. Montreal, 1818.
Society at Michilimackinac consists of so many diverse elements, which
impart their hue to it, that it is not easy for a passing traveller to
form any just estimate of it. The Indian, with his plumes, and gay and
easy costume, always imparts an oriental air to it. To this, the
Canadian, gay, thoughtless, ever bent on the present, and caring nothing
for to-morrow, adds another phase. The trader, or interior clerk, who
takes his outfit of goods to the Indians, and spends eleven months of
the year in toil, and want, and petty traffic, appears to dissipate his
means with a sailor-like improvidence in a few weeks, and then returns
to his forest wanderings; and boiled corn, pork, and wild rice again
supply his wants. There is in these periodical resorts to the central
quarters of the Fur Company, much to remind one of the old feudal
manners, in which there is proud hospitality and a show of lordliness on
the one side, and gay obsequiousness and cringing dependence on the
other, at least till the annual bargains for the trade are closed.
We were informed that there is neither school, preaching, a physician
(other than at the garrison), nor an attorney, in the place. There are,
however, courts of law, a post-office, and a jail, and one or more
justices of the peace.
There is a fish market every morning, where may be had the trout--two
species--and the white fish, the former of which are caught with hooks
in deep water, and the latter in gill nets. Occasionally, other species
appear, but the trout and white fish, which is highly esteemed, are
staples, and may be relied on in the shore market daily; whole
canoe-loads of them are brought in.
The name of this island is said to signify a great turtle, to which it
has a fancied resemblance, when viewed from a distance. Mikenok, and
not Mackenok, is, however, the name for a tortoise. The term, as
pronounced by the Indians, is Michinemockinokong, signifying place of
the Great Michinamockinocks, or rock-spirits. Of this word, _Mich_ is
from _Michau_ (adjective-animate), great. The term _mackinok_, in the
Algonquin mythology, denotes in the singular, a species of spirits,
called turtle spirits, or large fairies, who are thought to frequent its
mysterious cliffs and glens. The plural of this word, which is an
animate plural, is _ong_, which is the ordinary form of all nouns ending
in the vowel _o_. When the French came to write this, they cast away the
Indian local in _ong_, changed the sound of _n_ to _l_, and gave the
force _mack_ and _nack_, to _mök_ and _nök_. The vowel _e_, after the
first syllable, is merely a connective in the Indian, and which is
represented in the French orthography in this word by _i_. The ordinary
interpretation of great turtle is, therefore, not widely amiss; but in
its true meaning, the term enters more deeply into the Indian mythology
than is conjectured. The island was deemed, in a peculiar sense, the
residence of spirits during all its earlier ages. Its cliffs, and dense
and dark groves of maples, beech, and ironwood, cast fearful shadows;
and it was landed on by them in fearfulness, and regarded far and near
as the _Sacred Island_. Its apex is, indeed, the true Indian Olympus of
the tribes, whose superstitions and mythology peopled it by gods, or
monitos.
Since our arrival here, there has been a great number of Indians of the
Chippewa and Ottowa tribes encamped near the town. The beach of the lake
has been constantly lined with Indian wigwams and bark canoes. These
tribes are generally well dressed in their own costume, which is light
and artistic, and exhibit physiognomies with more regularity of features
and mildness of expression than it is common to find among them. This is
probably attributable to a greater intermixture of blood in this
vicinity. They resort to the island, at this season, for the purpose of
exchanging their furs, maple-sugar, mats, and small manufactures. Among
the latter are various articles of ornament, made by the females, from
the fine white deer skin, or yellow birch bark, embroidered with colored
porcupine quills. The floor mats, made from rushes, are generally more
or less figured. Mockasins, miniature sugarboxes, called mo-cocks,
shot-pouches, and a kind of pin and needleholders, or housewives, are
elaborately beaded. But nothing exceeds in value the largest
merchantable mockocks of sugar, which are brought in for sale. They
receive for this article six cents per pound, in merchandise, and the
amount made in a season, by a single family, is sometimes fifteen
hundred pounds. The Ottowas of L'Arbre Croche are estimated at one
thousand souls, which, divided by five, would give two hundred families;
and by admitting each family to manufacture but two hundred pounds per
annum, would give a total of forty thousand pounds; and there are
probably as many Chippewas within the basins of Lakes Huron and
Michigan. This item alone shows the importance of the Indian trade,
distinct from the question of furs.
During the time we remained on this island, the atmosphere denoted a
mean temperature of 55° Fahrenheit. The changes are often sudden and
great. The island is subject to be enveloped in fogs, which frequently
rise rapidly. These fogs are sometimes so dense, as to obscure
completely objects at but a short distance. I visited Round Island one
day with Lieut. Mackay,[30] and we were both engaged in taking views of
the fort and town of Michilimackinac,[31] when one of these dense fogs
came on, and spread itself with such rapidity, that we were compelled to
relinquish our designs unfinished, and it was not without difficulty
that we could make our way across the narrow channel, and return to the
island. This fact enabled me to realize what the old travellers of the
region have affirmed on this topic.
[30] Lieut. Eneas Mackay. This officer, after the return from this
expedition, went through the regular grades of promotion in the army,
and had at the period of his death, which took place in 1850, at St.
Louis, Missouri, reached the brevet rank of colonel.
[31] For the view from this point, see Information respecting the
History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United
States, vol. iv. Plate 42.
We were received during our visit here in the most hospitable manner, as
well as with official courtesy, by Capt. B. K. Pierce, the commanding
officer, Major Puthuff, the Indian agent, and by the active and
intelligent agents of Mr. John Jacob Astor, the great fiscal head of the
Fur Trade in this quarter.