Читать книгу Summary Narrative of an Exploratory Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi River, in 1820 - Henry Rowe Schoolcraft - Страница 6

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.

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.

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.

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.