pense, which denoted that, for want of more victims, the work of death was done.

The Indians now gathered about the house of Langlade, and asked him if any of the English had taken shelter there. Langlade replied that none had to his knowledge, but that they might examine for themselves. Two or three of the savages coming to the garret door, demanded the key, and, unlocking it, went in.

By this time Henry had concealed himself behind a heap of birch-bark vessels which were used in the making of maple-sugar, where the dark color of his clothes, aided by the absence of light in the room, prevented him from being seen, so that the Indians, satisfying themselves that there was no one there, soon went away. There was a mat in the room, and Henry, laying himself down on it, soon fell asleep. It was not long, however, before he was awakened by the wife of Langlade, who informed him that most of the English had been despatched, but that he might hope to escape. The shades of night now came on, and the trader sought again in slumber to forget the horrors of the scene.

He was not, however, so easily to escape. Langlade's wife, notwithstanding the encouragement she had held out to him, determined to make known his place of concealment, saying that the Indians would murder her if the trader was found secreted in her house. Accordingly, she took the key and gave it to Wenniway, a chief of the most hideous appearance. This warrior was more than six feet in height, and his naked body was painted all over with a mixture of grease and charcoal, as was his face, with the exception of a circular ring around each of his eyes. Accompanied by a body of savages, he entered the garret, and approaching the trembling trader, grasped him by the collar, and fixing his eyes steadfastly upon him, raised his knife, as if about to plunge it into his breast; but, suddenly checking himself, he dropped the fatal weapon and said, "I won't kill you. I have lost a brother, whose name is Musinigon. You shall be called after him."

But the sufferings of the trader were not yet at an end. He was stripped of his clothes and carried to L'Arbre a Croche as a prisoner. Here, however, his friend Wawatam, faithful to his promise of protection, appeared in his behalf, ransomed him, and accompanied the trader to the island of Mackinaw, where he concealed him from a band of drunken savages in what is now called the Scull Rock.

The fort of Michilimackinac was now burned to the ground. Seventy of the English soldiers had been massacred, and, to complete the sanguinary deed, the bodies of many of them were boiled and eaten by the savages. The lives of the remainder, as well as of the prisoners taken at St. Joseph and Green Bay, were spared, and on the return of peace they were all released, either with or without ransom. At the close of these tragical events a number of Indian canoes arrived with English traders, who were beaten, insulted, and marched to the prison lodge.

After the work of devastation had been finished, many of the Indians retired to the island of Mackinaw, while others repaired to Detroit, to aid Pontiac in the siege of this post. This chief, however, soon found that his enemies were too formidable for him. General Bradstreet now arrived to relieve the fort, at the head of an army of three thousand men. On his way he had destroyed the villages of the hostile savages, laid waste their corn-fields along the rich bottoms of the Maumee, dispersed the natives in every direction, and reached Detroit without opposition. The Indians, perceiving that they could no longer contend against so power

ful a foe, laid down their arms, and thus the war was brought to a close. Of Pontiac, after his discomfiture, but little is certainly known. Disappointed and mortified at the failure of his plans, he retired to Illinois, where he was assassinated about the year 1767 by an Indian of the Peoria tribe. The character of this chief was bold and strongly marked. Excelled by none of his race in courage, strength, and energy, he possessed traits which pointed him out for a leader. To have had sufficient influence to bring the numerous tribes of the West, along a frontier of a thousand miles, to co-operate with him in his desperate undertaking, must have required much more than ordinary talents. Although destitute of those principles of honor which prevail among civilized nations in the operations of war, he possessed a larger share of humanity than is commonly found among savages. Undismayed by difficulties, and far-seeing and comprehensive in his plans, he fought from a sense of justice and in defence of the rich domain which had been bequeathed to him by his ancestors.

THE FUR-TRADE AND AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

From the year 1679, when La Salle and Hennepin crossed Lake Erie with the first vessel that had ever disturbed the waters of that lake, the face of the country had been, down to the time of the English occupation, but little changed. During the period of the French power in this quarter, the fur-trade had been vigorously carried on along the great chain of lakes, and through every channel in which it could be made to circulate, either by companies chartered for that object, or by individual enterprise. The coureurs des bois, who acted, says La Honton, "like East Indiamen and pirates," returning periodically from their inland voyages to swell the population at the different posts, brought with them in bark canoes the furs and peltry which they had collected, and deposited them at the factories erected to receive them; from thence they were at regular seasons transported to the headquarters of the trade at Montreal and Quebec, where they were shipped for Europe.

The principal channels through which this traffic was carried on between the upper and lower provinces continued to be the Ottawa river or Lake Erie, the packs, when the latter course was adopted, being transported across the portage of Niagara Falls upon the backs of the traders.

The condition of this trade under the French, although depending much on the peculiar character of the people, was essentially modified by the positive operation of the laws. The government of the colony was, it is true, exercised with apparent mildness, but still it was impressed with those harsh principles which characterized the most aristocratic period of the Bourbons. Even the form of land distribution, founded on the Coutume de Paris, was extended to the French colonies of the West. Its operation was exceedingly oppressive, and greatly retarded the growth of the settlement. It confined the energies of the people to narrow tracts of land, granted under burdensome conditions, placing them in the power of seigneurs, which was but another name for masters, instead of opening the broad and fertile bosom of the West to free and unencumbered industry, such as is now effecting such extraordinary changes in that region under the equal laws of our own Republic. The people under this system were but the mere appendages of large corporations, parts of a vast machine which was planned and kept in motion solely for the benefit of royal monopolies.

It has been remarked that the aspect of things in these remote regions was but little changed after they came into the possession of the English

The chapels and the forts continued in much the same state; the little farms of the French, surrounded by pickets, stretched along the banks of the streams as before; and the country presented a variegated aspect of French, English, and Indian manners. The red coats of the British regulars contrasted very strikingly with the peasant garb of the French farmers, and with the wild and fantastic dress of the natives.

The insurrection being quelled, a system of conciliatory measures was adopted to secure the good-will of the disaffected tribes; small grants of land were made around the posts, and the Indians themselves were induced to cede portions of their territory for a trifling consideration to the French colonists. These grants were made, however, without any authority from the British Government. The French settlements extended along the banks of the Detroit and St. Clair rivers to the distance of about twenty miles above and below the town, with here and there a lonely hut of some French trader at a favorable point in the interior. Detroit continued to be the most prominent post, and three years after the Pontiac war the town contained not less than a hundred houses, independent of the barracks. On the west side of the town lay the commons, which received the name of the King's Garden. The fort was surrounded by pickets and mounted with small cannon, was garrisoned by two hundred men, and the commandant exercised a sort of arbitrary power under the general supervision of the governor-general of Canada.

Meanwhile the Hudson's Bay Company, which had been long a rival of the old French companies, extended its operations through the wilderness which had been the ranging ground of the French traders. This company had been chartered in 1669 by Charles II. That charter, granted to a company of English merchants, authorized them to occupy a very extensive region north of Canada for the prosecution of the fur-trade, to establish military posts for the defence of their persons and property, and to traffic with the native tribes.

From 1763 to the close of the three following years, the trade from Montreal with the interior had been greatly diminished, the Indians carrying on most of their traffic with the agents of the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1766 individual adventurers began to extend their operations along the lake shores in the same track that had formerly been pursued by the French, and soon came in collision with the large companies which were striving to occupy for their exclusive benefit this extensive region. Thus the course of the trade continued to present the same wild features which had characterized it under the former regime.

The English made but little change either in the laws or in their administration, and pursued the same general policy as had their predecessors the French. The commandants of the posts, although responsible to the governor-general at Quebec, were still possessed of a discretionary power which was all but absolute, and which they exercised in a highly arbitrary manner, as perhaps was necessary among such a population as they had to deal with. Whenever any crime was committed, however, which required a formal trial, it was customary for these officers to summon a jury of the most respectable inhabitants, and to abide by their decision.

A semblance of the criminal laws of England was, it is true, introduced, but these laws were administered without any regard to fixed principles or to established rules. A single example will suffice to show the manner in which legal proceedings were conducted in 1776.

Governor Hamilton, at that time the commanding officer at Detroit, being informed of a theft committed by a Canadian Frenchman, directed

Philip Dejean and twelve jurors to hear and adjudge the case: they accordingly proceeded to the trial, and convicted the individual of the crime alleged against him. The record of this trial has come down to us, and it is a most singular document. Lord Dorchester, however, then governor of Canada, was no sooner made acquainted with the proceedings in this case, so contrary to every principle of law, than he issued a warrant for the arrest of Hamilton and Dejean, though, unfortunately, they had both previously left the country.

In 1774 an act was passed, called the Quebec Act, establishing the boundaries of Canada, including Michigan, and extending thence to the Mississippi and Ohio rivers on the south, and north from the St. Lawrence to the latitude of 52°, or to the lands of the Hudson's Bay Company. This act granted to the Catholic inhabitants the free exercise of their religion, the undisturbed possession of their Church property, and the right in all matters of litigation to demand a trial according to the former laws of the province. But this right was not extended to the settlers on lands granted by the English crown. The criminal laws of England were introduced into Canada, and the crown reserved to itself the right of establishing courts of civil, criminal, and ecclesiastical jurisdiction.

The enterprise of the people was not wholly confined to the fur-trade. The mineral region upon the shores of Lake Superior had been visited as early as 1773; a project was formed for working the copper ore discovered there, and a company in England had obtained a charter for that object. This company consisted of the Duke of Gloucester, Mr. Secretary Townshend, Sir Samuel Tutchet, Bart., Mr. Baxter, consul of the Empress of Russia, Mr. Cruikshank, Sir William Johnston, Bart., Mr. Bostwick, and Alexander Henry, the English fur-trader who figured so conspicuously in the fall of Michilimackinac. A sloop was accordingly purchased, and the miners commenced their operations. They soon found, however, that the expenses of blasting and of transportation were too great to warrant the prosecution of the enterprise, and it was abandoned. Previous to this, a company of English adventurers had embarked in the same project, but they also gave it up on account, as they said, "of the distracted state of affairs in America."

In 1783 several influential merchants, who had been individually engaged in the fur-trade, entered into partnership for its more vigorous prosecution, though without any charter, and established what was styled the Northwest Company. The stock of this company was divided into sixteen shares. No money was paid in, but each of the partners engaged to furnish his proportion of the goods necessary to carry on the trade.

In 1787 the shareholders appointed from their number special agents to import from England such goods as might be required, and to store them at Montreal. The plan they adopted for conducting the trade was similar to that which had been pursued by the French. The European goods were, by the orders of the agents, made into such articles as were wanted by the traders and Indians, and packed up and forwarded, and the money for the outfits was also supplied by them.

Storehouses were erected in convenient and accessible situations on the borders of the lakes, and the posts formerly occupied by the French were employed for the same purpose. Connected with these there were also trading-houses and places where the various persons employed in carrying on the trade might be accommodated. Agents were sent to Detroit, Mackinaw, the Saute de Ste. Marie, and the Grand Portage near Lake Superior, where the furs were deposited when brought from the interior, and whose

business it was to have them packed and sent to Montreal for shipment to England.

The most important point of the fur-trade was the Grand Portage of Lake Superior, situated in a remote region to the northwest, where the greatest quantity of furs could be collected. Here the proprietors of the establishment, the guides, clerks, and interpreters, messed together in a large hall hung round with elk-horns, ornamented pipes, hatchets, and other implements used by the Indians in war and peace, while the canoemen, or coureurs des bois, were allowed nothing but a dish which they called "hommony," consisting of Indian corn boiled in a strong alkali and seasoned with fat.

The persons employed in this traffic were a motley and very peculiar race. Besides the clerks, interpreters, and guides, there was a numerous body, half Indian and half French, which had been constantly increasing in this quarter from the frequent intermarriages between the traders and the native women. The canoes employed by them were of large size, each one being capable of containing ten men and about sixty-five packages of furs. The European goods purchased for this traffic consisted of blankets, cutlery, glass beads, and other trinkets, besides different articles that were obtained at Montreal.

These goods were ordered from England the season before they were wanted, shipped from London the following spring, and arrived in Čanada early in the summer. Here they were made up into packages of a convenient size, weighing each about ninety pounds, sent to the interior the next spring, exchanged for furs during the succeeding winter, and the following autumn these furs were received at Montreal and shipped for London.

Thus this interesting trade, which had been carried on for more than a century, still continued to circulate in its ordinary channels along the waters of the lakes. But the spirit of mercantile rivalry was carried to a great extent, and, unhappily, excited all the worst passions in the human breast. The Hudson's Bay and Northwest Companies, the respective boundaries of which were not very clearly defined, came into active and desperate collision, and made repeated attacks upon the trading-posts of each other. Lord Selkirk, however, having placed himself at the head of the Hudson's Bay Company, succeeded at length in uniting the stock of the two companies, and thus put an end to the strife. These two companies held dominion over the territory bordering on the lakes, and studied only to keep it a barren, howling waste, that they might the better fill their own coffers.

The American Revolution was now about to break forth. The people of the English colonies at the East had declared that they would not submit to be taxed by the mother-country unless they were represented in the British Parliament. A duty having been imposed upon tea, a vessel lying in Boston harbor with a quantity of it on board had been taken possession of by a party of the inhabitants, and the obnoxious article was thrown into the sea. From this may be dated the commencement of a struggle which, in the desperation with which it was fought and the magnitude of its results, is scarcely paralleled in history.

During this eventful struggle, the wilderness then comprising the territory of the present State of Michigan, with but a small population, consisting principally of British soldiers and persons connected with the furtrade, from its remote situation was but little affected by the war, though the Indians within its borders were employed to harass the American settlements upon the frontiers of New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.