South and Eastern borders of Lake Michigan--Their Flora and
Fauna--Incidents of the journey--Topography--Geology, Botany, and
Mineralogy--Indian Tribes--Burial-place of Marquette--Ruins of the
post of old Mackinac--Reach Michilimackinac after a canoe journey
north of four hundred miles.
It was now the last day of August. Having partaken of the hospitalities
of Mr. Kinzie, and of Captains Bradley and Green, of Fort Dearborn,
during our stay at Chicago, and completed the reorganization of our
parties, we separated on the last day of the month, at two o'clock P.
M.; Gov. Cass and his party, on horseback, taking the old Indian trail
to Detroit, and Capt. Douglass and myself being left, with two canoes,
to complete the circumnavigation of the lakes. We did not delay our
departure over thirty minutes, but bidding adieu to Dr. Wolcott, whose
manners, judgment, and intelligence had commanded our respect during the
journey, embarked with two canoes; our steersmen immediately hoisted
their square sails, and, favored by a good breeze, we proceeded twenty
miles along the southern curve, at the head of Lake Michigan, and
encamped.
Within two miles of Chicago, we passed, on the open shores of the lake,
the scene of the massacre of Chicago, of the 15th of August, 1812, being
the day after the surrender of Detroit by Gen. Hull. Gloom hung, at that
eventful period, over every part of our western borders. Michilimackinac
had already been carried by surprise; and the ill-advised order to
evacuate Chicago, was deemed by the Indians an admission that the
Americans were to be driven from the country. The Pottawattomies
determined to show the power of their hostility on this occasion. Capt.
Heald, the commanding officer, having received Gen. Hull's order to
abandon the post, and having an escort of thirty friendly Miamis, from
Fort Wayne, under Captain Wells, had quitted the fort at nine o'clock
in the morning, with fifty-four regulars, a subaltern, physician, twelve
militia, and the necessary baggage wagons for the provisions and
ammunition, which contained eighteen soldiers, women and children. They
had not proceeded more than a mile and a half along the shore of the
lake, when an ambuscade of Indians was discovered behind the sand-hills
which encompass the flat sandy shore. The horrid yell, which rose on the
discovery being made, was accompanied by a general and deadly fire from
them. Several men fell at the first fire, but Capt. Heald formed his
men, and effected a charge up the bank, which dispersed his assailants.
It was only, however, to find the enemy return by a flank movement, in
which their numbers gave them the victory. In a few moments, out of his
effective force of sixty-six men, but sixteen survived. With these, he
succeeded in drawing off to a position in the prairie, where he was not
followed by the Indians. On a negotiation, opened by a chief called
Mukudapenais, he surrendered, under promise of security for their lives.
This promise was afterwards violated, with the exception of himself and
three or four men. Among the slain was Ensign Ronan, Dr. Voorhis, and
Capt. Wells. The latter had his heart cut out, and his body received
other shocking indignities. The saddest part of the tragedy was the
attack on the women and children who occupied the baggage wagons, and
were all slain. Several of the women fought with swords. During the
action, a sergeant of infantry ran his bayonet through the heart of an
Indian who had lifted his tomahawk to strike him; not being able to
withdraw the instrument, it served to hold up the Indian, who actually
tomahawked him in this position, and both fell dead together.[138] The
Miamis remained neuter in this massacre. Mr. Kinzie, of Chicago, of
whose hospitalities we had partaken, was a witness of this transaction,
and furnished the principal facts of this narrative.
[138] Gouverneur Morris recites a similar incident at the battle of
Oriskany, in 1777.--_Coll. New York Hist. Soc._
The morning (Sept. 1) opened with a perfect gale, and we were _degradè_,
to use a Canadian term, all day; the waves dashed against the shore with
a violence that made it impossible to take the lake with canoes, and
would have rendered it perilous even to a large vessel. This violence
continued, with no perceptible diminution, during the day. As a mode of
relief from the tedium of delay, a short excursion was made into the
prairie. I found a few species of the unio, in a partially choked up
branch of the Konamek. Capt. Douglass improved the time by taking
observations for the latitude, and we footed around ten miles of the
extreme southern head of the lake. It is edged with sand-hills, bearing
pines. A few dead valves of the fresh-water muscle were found on the
shore.
On the following day the wind lulled, when we proceeded fifty-four
miles, passing in the distance the remains of the schooner Hercules,
which went ashore in a gale, in November, 1816, and all on board
perished; her mast, pump, spars, and the graves of the passengers, among
which, was that of Lieut. W. S. Eveleth, U. S. A., were pointed out to
us. We landed a few moments at the entrance of the River du Chemin,[139]
where the trail to Detroit leaves the lake shore. The distance to that
city is estimated at three hundred miles. Ten miles beyond this spot we
passed the little River Galien, where, at this time, the town and harbor
of New Buffalo, of Michigan, is situated, and we encamped on the shore
twelve miles beyond it.
[139] Michigan City, of the State of Indiana, is located near this
spot. This city has its harbor communicating with Lake Michigan
through this creek. It has a newspaper, branch bank, railroad, and
(in 1853) 2,353 inhabitants.
We had been travelling on a slightly curved line from Chicago to the
spot, in the latitude of 41° 52´ 20´´, and had now reached a point where
the course tends more directly to the northeast and north. By the best
accounts, the length of Lake Michigan, lying directly from south to
north, is four hundred miles. There is no other lake in America, north
or south, which traverses so many degrees of latitude, and we had reason
to expect its flora and fauna to denote some striking changes. We had
passed down its west, or Wisconsin shore, from Sturgeon Bay, finding it
to present a clear margin of forest, with many good harbors, and a
fertile, gently undulating surface. But we were now to encounter another
cast of scenery. It is manifest, from a survey of the eastern shore of
this lake, that the prevalent winds are from the west and northwest, for
they have cast up vast sand dunes along the coast, which give it an arid
appearance. These dunes are, however, but a hem on the fertile prairie
lands, not extending more than half a mile or more, and thus masking the
fertile lands. Water, in the shape of lagoons, is often accumulated
behind these sand-banks, and the force of the winds is such as to choke
and sometimes entirely shut up the mouth of its rivers. We had found
this hem of sand-hills extending around the southern shore of the lake
from the vicinity of Chicago, and soon found that it gave an appearance
of sterility to the country that it by no means merited. On reaching the
mouth of St. Joseph's River (3d), a full exemplification of this
striking effect of the lake action was exhibited. This is one of the
largest rivers of the peninsula, running for more than a hundred and
twenty miles through a succession of rich plains and prairies; yet its
mouth, which carries a large volume of water into the lake, is rendered
difficult of entrance to vessels, and its lake-borders are loaded with
drifts of shifting sand.
The next day's journey carried us fifty miles; and, on proceeding ten
miles further on the 4th, we reached the mouth of the Kalamazoo.[140]
Before reaching this river, I discovered on the beach a body of detached
orbicular masses of the calcareous marl called septaria--the ludus
helmontii of the old mineralogists. On breaking some of these masses,
they disclosed small crystalline seams of sulphuret of zinc. The
Kalamazoo irrigates a fine tract of the most fertile and beautiful
prairies of Michigan, which, at the date of the revision of this
journal, is studded with flourishing towns and villages.
[140] KALAMAZOO. This word is the contraction of an Indian phrase
descriptive of the stones seen through the water in its bed, which,
from a refractive power in the current, resembles an otter swimming
under water. Hence the original term, Negikanamazoo. This term has
its root forms in _negik_, an otter, the verb _kana_, to hide, and
_ozoo_, a quadruped's tail. The letter _l_ is the mere transposition
of _l_ in native words passing from the Indian to the Indo-French
language.
Fifteen miles further progress towards the north, brought us to the
mouth of Grand River--the Washtenong of the Indians--which is, I believe
the largest and longest stream of the Michigan peninsula. It is the
boundary between the hunting-grounds of the Pottowattomies (who have
thus far claimed jurisdiction from Chicago) and the Ottowas. The latter
live in large numbers at its rapids and on its various tributaries.[141]
The next stream of note we encountered was the Maskigon, twelve miles
north of Grand River, where we encamped, having travelled, during the
day, fifty-four miles. The view of this scene was impressive from its
bleakness, the dunes of sand being more at the mercy of the winds. I
found here a large, branching specimen of the club-fungus, attached to a
dead specimen of the populus tremuloides, which had been completely
penetrated by these drifting sands, so as to present quite the
appearance, and no little part of the hardness and consistency, of a
fossil. The following figure of this transformation from a fungus to a
semi-stony body, presents a perfect outline of it as sketched in its
original position.
[141] OTTOWAS. So late as 1841, the number of the tribe, reported to
the Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Michigan, was 1,391, which
was divided into 13 villages, scattered over its whole
valley.--_Schoolcraft's Report on Indian Affairs_, Detroit, A. S.
Bagg, 1840.
[Illustration]
On the day of our departure from the Maskigon, we enjoyed fine weather
and favorable winds, and proceeded, from the data of Captain Douglass,
seventy miles, and encamped a few miles beyond the Sandy River. In this
line of coast, we passed, successively, the White, Pentwater, and
Marquette. Of these, the latter, both from its size and its historical
associations, is by far the most important; for it was at this spot,
after having spent years of devotion in the cause of missions in New
France--in the course of which he discovered the Mississippi River--that
this zealous servant of God laid down in his tent, after a hard day's
travel, and surrendered up his life. The event occurred on the 8th of
May, 1675, but two years after his grand discovery. Marquette was a
native of Laon, in Picardy, where his family was of distinguished rank.
The precise moment of his death was not witnessed, his men having
retired to leave him to his devotions, but returning, in a short time,
found him lifeless. They carried his body to the mission of old
Michilimackinac, of which he was the founder, where it was
interred.[142]
[142] PLACE OF INTERMENT OF MARQUETTE. It is known that the mission
of Michilimackinac fell on the downfall of the Jesuits. When the post
of Michilimackinac was removed from the peninsula to the island,
about 1780, the bones of the missionary were transferred to the old
Catholic burial-ground, in the village on the island. There they
remained till a land or property question arose to agitate the
church, and, when the crisis happened, the whole graveyard was
disturbed, and his bones, with others, were transferred to the Indian
village of La Crosse, which is in the vicinity of L'Arbre Croche,
Michigan.
It rained the next morning (6th), by which we lost two hours, and we had
some unfavorable winds, but, by dint of hard pushing, we made forty-five
miles, and slept at Gravelly Point. In this line we passed successively,
at distances of seventeen and thirty miles, the rivers Manistic and
_Becsie_, which is the Canadian phrase for the anas canadensis. Clouds
and murky weather still hovered around us on the next morning, but we
left our encampment at an early hour. Thirteen miles brought us to the
Omicomico, or Plate River, nine miles beyond which found us in front of
a remarkable and very elevated sand June, called the Sleeping Bear--a
fanciful term, derived from the Indian, through the French _l'ours qui
dormis_. Opposite this feature in the coast geology, lie the two large
wooded islands called the Minitos--well-known objects to all mariners
who venture into the vast unsheltered basin of the southern body of Lake
Michigan. Thirty miles beyond this sandy elevation, brought us to the
southern cape of Grand Traverse Bay, where we encamped, having advanced
fifty-two miles. This was the first place where we had noticed rocks in
situ, since passing the little Konamic River, near Chicago. It proved to
be limestone, of the same apparent era of the calcareous rock which we
had observed at Sturgeon Bay and the contiguous west shore of Lake
Michigan. The line of lake coast included in this remark is three
hundred and twenty miles; during all which distance the coast seems, but
only seems, to be the sport of the fierce gales and storms, for there is
reason to believe that the formations of drift clay, sand, and gravel
rest, at various depths, on a stratification of solid, permanent rock.
To us, however, it proved a barren field for the collection of both
geological and mineralogical specimens. There were gleaned some rolled
specimens of organic remains, of no further use than to denote the
occurrence of these in some part of a vast basin. There was a specimen
of gypsum from Grand River. The few patches of iron sand I had noticed,
were hardly worthy of record after the heavy beds of this mineral which
we had passed in Lake Superior. The same remark may be made of the few
rolled fragments of calcedonies, and other varieties of the quartz
family, gleaned up along its shores, for neither of these constitute a
reliable locality.
[Illustration: Petrified leaf of the _Fagus Ferruginea_.]
Of the floræ and fauna we had been observant, but the sandy character of
the mere coast line greatly narrowed the former, in which Captain
Douglass found but little to preserve, beyond the parnassia caroliniana
and seottia cerna.[143] The fury of the waves renders it a region wholly
unfitted to the whole tribe of fresh-water shells. A petrifaction of the
fagus ferruginia, brought from a spring on the banks of the St. Joseph's
River by Gov. Cass, on his home route, on horseback, presented the
petrifying process in one of its most perfect forms (_vide_ p. 206).
Surfeited with a species of scenery in which the naked sand dunes were
often painful to the eye, from their ophthalmic influence, and of
geological prostrations which seemed to lay the coast in ruins, we were
glad to reach the solid rock formations, supporting, as they did, a soil
favorable to green forests.
[143] Dr. John Torrey, _Am. Journ. Science_, vol. iv.
A partial eclipse of the sun had been calculated for the 5th of
September (1820), to commence at seven o'clock, twenty minutes; but,
though we were on the lake, and anxious to note it, the weather proved
to be too much overcast, and no effects of it were observed. This
eclipse was observed, according to the predictions, at Philadelphia.
The morning of the 8th proved calm, which permitted us to cross the
mouth of Grand Traverse Bay. This piece of water is nine miles across,
with an unexplored depth, and has some 300 Chippewas living on its
borders. Six miles north of this point, we reached and crossed Little
Traverse Bay, which is occupied by Ottawas. These two tribes are close
confederates, speak dialects of the same language which is readily
understood by both, and live on the most friendly terms. The Ottowas on
the head of Little Traverse Bay, and on the adjoining coast of Lake
Michigan--which, from its principal village, bears the names of Village
of the Cross, and of Waganukizzie,[144] or L'Arbre Croche--are, to a
great extent, cultivators of the soil, and have adopted the use of hats,
and the French _capot_, having laid aside paints and feathers. They
raise large quantities of Indian corn for the Mackinac market, and
manufacture, in the season, from the sap of the acer saccharinum,
considerable quantities of maple sugar, which is put up, in somewhat
elongated bark boxes, called muckucks, in which it is carried to the
same market. We found them, wherever they were encountered, a people of
friendly manners and comity.
[144] From _Waganuk_, a crooked or croched tree, and _izzie_, an
animate termination, denoting existence or being, carrying the idea
of its being charmed or enchanted.
We were now drawing toward the foot of Lake Michigan, at the point where
this inland sea is connected, through the Straits of Michilimackinac,
with Lake Huron. A cluster of islands, called the Beaver Islands, had
been in sight on our left hand, since passing the coast of the Sleeping
Bear, which are noted as affording good anchorage ground to vessels
navigating the lake. It is twenty-five miles from the site of the old
French mission, near L'Arbre Croche, to the end of point
Wagoshance,[145] which is the southeast cape of the Straits of
Michilimackinac, and nine miles from thence to the Island. Along the
bleak coast of this storm-beaten, horizontal limestone rock, with a thin
covering of drift, we diligently passed. Night overtook us as we came
through the straits, hugging their eastern shore, and we encamped on a
little circular open bay, long after it became pitchy dark. We had
traversed a coast line of fifty-seven miles, and were glad, after a
refreshing cup of tea and our usual meal, to retire to our pallets.
[145] Little Fox Point. This word comes from _Wagoush_, a fox, and
the denominative inflection a _ainc_ or _aiñs_.
The next morning revealed our position. We were at the ancient site of
old Michilimackinac--a spot celebrated in the early missionary annals
and history of New France. This was, indeed, one of the first points
settled by the French after Cadaracqui, being a missionary and trading
station before the foundation of Fort Niagara, in 1678; for La Salle,
after determining on the latter, proceeded, the same fall, up the lakes
to this point, which he installed with a military element. The mission
of St. Ignace had before been attempted on the north shore of the
straits, but it was finally removed here by the advice of Marquette. On
gazing at the straits, they were found to be agitated by a perfect gale.
This gave time for examining the vicinity. It was found a deserted
plain, overspread with sand, in many parts, with the ruins of former
occupancy piercing through these sandy drifts, which gave it an air of
perfect desolation. By far the most conspicuous among these ruins, was
the stone foundation of the ancient fort, and the excavations of the
exterior buildings, which had evidently composed a part of the military
or missionary plan. Not a house, not a cultivated field, not a fence was
to be seen. The remains of broken pottery, and pieces of black bottles,
irridescent from age, served impressively to show that men had once
eaten and drank here. It was in 1763, in the outbreak of the Pontiac
war, that this fort, then recently surrendered to the English, was
captured, by a _coup-de-main_, by the Indians. The English, probably
doubting its safety, during the American Revolution, removed the
garrison to the island, which had, indeed, furnished the name of
Michilimackinac before; for the Indians had, _ab initio_, called the old
post Peekwutinong, or Headland-place, applying the other name
exclusively, as at this day, to the Gibraltar-like island which rises
up, with its picturesque cliffs, from the very depths of Lake Huron. The
sketch of this scene of desolation, with the Island in view, is given in
the second volume of my _Ethnological Researches_, Plate LIII.
After pacing the plain of this ancient point of French settlement in
every point, we returned to our tent about eleven o'clock A. M., and
deemed it practicable to attempt the crossing to the island in a light
canoe, for, although the gale was little if any abated, the wind blew
fair. I concurred in the opinion of Captain Douglass that this might be
done, and very readily assented to try it, leaving the men in the
baggage canoe to effect the passage when the wind fell. It cannot be
asserted that this passage was without hazard; for my own part, I had
too much trust in my nature to fear it, and, if we were ever wafted on
"the wings of the wind," it was on this occasion; our boatmen,
volunteers for the occasion, reefing the sails to two feet, and we owed
our success mainly to their good management. On rounding the Ottowa
point, which is the south cape of the little harbor of 'Mackinac, our
friends who had parted from us at Green Bay were among the first to
greet us. By the union of these two parties, the circumnavigation of
Lake Michigan had been completely made. The rate of travel along the
line traversed by them was computed at forty-five miles per day. They
had been eight days on the route. The coast line traversed by Captain
Douglass and myself, since quitting Chicago, is four hundred and
thirty-nine miles, giving a mean of forty-three miles per diem, of which
one entire day was lost by head winds.