fact that the water of the latter lake is clear and very cold. The quantity in the last-named lake is very great. The sisquovette, which are not found in other portions of the lake waters, are seen in great abundance in Lake Superior. They sometimes grow to the weight of eight or ten pounds.

The principal fish which are found in the surrounding lakes and interior waters of the country are the sturgeon, whitefish, Mackinaw trout, salmon trout, common trout, muskalunge, pickerel, pike, perch, herring, the rock bass, the white and black bass, catfish, pout, common eel, bullhead, roach, sunfish, dace, sucker, carp, mullet, billfish, swordfish, bullfish, stone-carrier, sheep's-head, the gar, and many other kinds. The muskalunge, Mackinaw trout, and whitefish are deemed most valuable. The former is sometimes caught weighing forty pounds. The Mackinaw trout resembles in lustre and appearance the salmon. The whitefish, a very delicious fish, is similar to the shad, with brighter scales, which appear like burnished silver. This fish has been celebrated by the French travellers from the earliest period, and Charlevoix, who travelled through this region in 1720, once declared that "nothing of the fish kind could excel it." Great numbers of trout and whitefish are taken upon the lakes and shipped to Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania, besides those which are consumed in the State.

The northern part of the lower peninsula of Michigan, bordering on Lake Huron, has not yet been thoroughly surveyed and brought into market. The soil of this section of the State is not so favorable for agricul ture as that of the southern portion. It is more wet and marshy, abounds with pine, and is broken by sandhills and swamps. It has been remarked that the portion of the State bordering on Lake Superior is broken and rocky; and, although containing some elevated table-lands which may be adapted to cultivation, it may be considered unfavorable to agriculture. It has, however, been ascertained to be a rich mineral region. The most settled portion of the State has been organized into counties, as the advance of population has required.

From the brief view which has been taken of the productions of the soil, it is clearly perceived that it affords a variety of resources. The low and densely-wooded land upon the immediate shore of the lower lakes, where the streams run sluggishly over beds of clay, is strikingly contrasted with the more rolling character of the oak lands, extending from this belt towards the centre, dotted as they are by natural ponds of pure water, and coursed by more rapid streams, which have their beds upon sand or gravel; and these in turn are entirely distinct from the more primitive, rocky, and rugged portion lying in that part of the upper peninsula bordering on the shores of Lake Superior. Exhibiting different degrees of fertility, the southern part, from its undulating character and its clear streams, affords a greater inducement for present settlement than the level strip to which allusion has been made, or the more primitive and rocky region of the north. It happens, accordingly, that emigration has in a great measure crossed this strip and sought the more rolling country, leaving the marshes and the mouths of the streams which flow into the eastern side; a section of the State somewhat unfavorable to settlement from the configuration of the land, but from the fact that it has been productive of the class of bilious disorders prevailing in the greater portion of our new country.

FIRST ADVANCE OF THE FRENCH MISSIONARIES AND TRAVELLERS.

The wide region stretching away in a luxuriant expanse of forest, river, and prairie, from the shores of the great lakes westward to the banks of the

Mississippi, was first explored and colonized by the French. That portion of the French territory now comprised in the Canadas, the original point of French settlement, was long the centre of its trade, commerce, and religion; yet the government claimed the country, both by right of discovery and appropriation, that extended far beyond the boundaries of their actual colonization. Nor were the settlers who had established themselves upon the banks of the St. Lawrence at any time wanting in zeal and enterprise in extending their explorations. It was early the avowed object of that government to carry the cross of the Roman Catholic Church to the remotest bounds of the Western territory, and thus to secure the advantages of its great resources. The principal directors of the ecclesiastical establishments that were collected at Quebec, found it their policy to become informed of the condition of the domain upon the great lakes; and as early as 1634, the Jesuits, Brebœuf and Daniel, joined a party of Hurons who were returning from that walled city, and, passing through the Ottawa river, raised the first hut of the Society of Jesus upon the shore of Lake Iroquois, a bay of Lake Huron, where they daily rang a bell to call the savages to prayer, and performed all those kind offices which were calculated to secure the confidence and affection of the tribes on the lake shores. In order to confirm the missions, a college was founded in Quebec during the following year; and a hospital was established at the same place for the unfortunate of every class, both civilized and savage. Three nuns of Dieppe, in France, were selected to advance into the Canadian wilderness in 1639; an Ursuline convent, for the education of girls, was also erected; and at Silleri a small band of the Hurons was trained to the civilization and faith of the French, for the purpose of spreading the religion and influence of their colonies through the Western wilderness. A plan for the establishment of missions, not only among the Algonquins of the North, but also south of Lake Huron and in Michigan, was formed, indeed, within six years after the discovery of Canada.

The French were at this period excluded from the navigation of Lake Ontario by the hostility of the Mohawks, and their canoes had never ruffled the waters of Lake Erie. The Ottawa, in consequence, was the only avenue to the West; and in 1641, Pijart and Charles Raymbault were found roaming as missionaries among the tribes of Lake Nipissing.

In September, 1641, the first bark canoe, laden with French Jesuits, was paddled through the Ottawa river for the Falls of St. Mary, and, passing by the islands of Lake Huron, they reached these falls after a navigation of seventeen days. At this place they found a large collection of Indians from the neighboring tribes, many of whom had never seen civilized men, and had never heard of the true God. The white men were invited to dwell among them; for, said the savages, "We will embrace you as brothers; we will derive profit from your words." Raymbault, the first missionary to the tribes of Michigan, feeble with consumption, during the next year returned to Quebec. Thus the French at this early period had advanced their missionary posts beyond the shores of Lake Huron and to the outlet of Lake Superior. Father Jaques and Bressani, Jean de Brebœuf, Chaumonotot, Claude Dablon, Mesnard, and others, while carrying the cross through the forests of the Northwest, were not to be impeded by tortures and burnings, nor death even, from their darling projects. They toiled and suffered, were struck down with the tomahawk; they lived the life of beggars, and died the death of martyrs; were covered with burning bark, and scalded with boiling water, and scarred with hot iron, until the gentle Lallemand cried out amid his tortures, "We are made a spectacle unto the world, and to

angels, and to men;" but with the zeal of ancient martyrdom the Jesuits pressed on from the strongholds of Quebec, filling the ranks of the dead as one after another fell, advancing to the remote boundaries of the lake shores the cross and the lilies of the Bourbons.

During the month of August, 1654, two young fur-traders having joined a band of the Ottawas or Algonquins, in their bark canoes, upon an exploration of five hundred leagues, reappeared after two years before St. Louis with a fleet of fifty canoes. Describing the territory stretching around the great lakes in glowing colors, and the savage hordes which were then scattered through the forests, they sought to effect a wider extension of French commerce into that region. Their request was granted; and in 1656, Gabrielle Dreuillette and Leonard Gareau, former missionaries among the Hurons, were selected for the mission; but just below Montreal a band of Mohawks attacked their fleet, Gareau was mortally wounded, and the dition prevented. The traders of the lakes, seeking the furs which abounded in those forests, and backed by the Western Indians, who desired a league by which they might resist the Iroquois, soon advanced to Green Bay, and in 1659 two of them passed the winter on the shores of Lake Superior. During the following year they returned to Quebec, escorted by sixty canoes, laden with peltry, and paddled by three hundred Algonquins.

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The zeal of Francis de Laval, the bishop of Quebec, appears to have been kindled, by their accounts of the country, with a desire to enter upon the mission, but to Rene Mesnard was allotted this task, so full of hazard. Charged with the duty of exploring the territory around Green Bay and Lake Superior, and of establishing at some convenient point a place for the general assembly of the neighboring tribes, this aged man, in August, 1660, with but few preparations, departed on his mission, trusting, to use his own words, "in the Providence which feeds the little birds of the desert, and clothes the wild flowers of the forest." During the month of October he reached a bay on the south shore of Lake Superior, which he named St. Theresa; writing to a friend, "in three or four months you may add me to the memento of deaths." After a residence there of eight months, in the year 1661, he complied with the invitation of the Hurons, who had taken refuge in the isle of St. Michael, and, leaving his converts, advanced with one attendant to the Bay of Che-goi-me-gon. Lost in the forest, he was never afterward seen; and among the amulets of the Sioux were discovered his breviary and cassock.

But the rude missionary posts around the lakes struggled on, and were in danger of falling, when the Canadian colonies were re-enforced in 1665 by a royal regiment, with Tracy as viceroy, Courcelles, a veteran officer, as governor, and Talon, a man of business and perseverance, as intendant, and the representative of the King in civil matters. French enterprise now pressed forward to the West with increased vigor, and in August, 1665, Father Claude Allouez, following the old course of the Ottawa, on the 1st day of October reached the principal village of the Chippewas in the Bay of Che-goi-me-gon. A chapel dedicated to the Holy Spirit soon arose amid the green luxuriance of the forest, and the passions of the rough tribes were subdued by paintings which the missionary displayed of the horrors of hell and the terrors of the final judgment. The dwellers around St. Mary flocked to his station; the Hurons and Ottawas, upon the deserts north of Lake Superior, secured his presence at their wigwams; and the Pottowatomies, from the borders of Lake Michigan, invited him to their homes, while the Sacs and Foxes travelled from their villages, and the Illinois came to gather counsel and to describe the beauties of their quiet

river. The Sioux, also, from the west of Lake Superior, in a land of prairies, living on wild rice and skin-covered cabins, welcomed the stranger. After residing for nearly two years upon the southern margin of Lake Superior, in August of 1667 he returned to Quebec, and urged the establishment of permanent missions, to be accompanied by colonies of French emigrants upon the lakes; but in two days after reaching that post, with another priest, Louis Nicholas, he returned to the mission of Che-goi

me-gon.

The condition of Canada at that time was favorable to the progress of the missions of this portion of the West. The monopoly of the West India Company, organized for the purpose of prosecuting the fur-trade, had been yielded up. Peace was enjoyed, and a new recruit of missionaries had arrived from France. Aided by such advantages, Allouez, Claude Dablon, and James Marquette in 1668 repaired to the Chippewas and established the mission of St. Mary, the first settlement commenced by Europeans within the boundaries of Michigan. During the following years these missionaries were employed in strengthening the power of France over the possessions which she claimed, from Green Bay to the head of Lake Superior, and in collecting information respecting the region extending toward the Mississippi. They resolved in the year 1669 to attempt its exploration, and selected as a companion a young Illinois, for the purpose of becoming acquainted with the dialect of that tribe.

The commerce of the fur-trade between the Algonquins and the French secured the protection of their tribes and their deep attachment, while a desire of strengthening the power of France over the Western territory pervaded the mind of Louis of France and Colbert, his minister. Talon, the intendant-general, moreover, desired to advance the same object, and for this purpose despatched his agent, Nicholas Perrott, in order to call a general congress of the lake tribes at the Falls of St. Mary. Procuring at Green Bay a guard of Pottowatomies, he reached the settlement of the Miamis at Chicago, the first of civilized men who had ever visited that point.

The desired Congress of the Indian tribes convened at the falls of St. Mary in May of 1671, was composed of prominent delegates from the head waters of the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi, the lakes, and even the Red river; and of veteran officers from the armies of France, intermingled here and there with a Jesuit missionary. A cross having been raised, and also a cedar post marked with the French lilies, the representatives of the savage hordes were informed that they were under the protection of the French King. During that year Marquette gathered a branch of the Hurons at Point St. Ignace, upon the continent north of the peninsula of Michigan, an establishment that was long a convenient resting-place for the savages and the fur-trade.

In 1672, Allouez and Dablon, who were the active agents of the French Government in carrying the cross through the eastern part of Wisconsin and the north of Illinois, seeking by mild means to secure the good offices of the Kickapoos upon the Milwaukie and of the Miamis of Lake Michigan, explored the countries to the south of the village that had been thus founded by Marquette, and had even extended their explorations to the tribes of the Foxes, then scattered along the banks of the Fox river. But the power of the French in this quarter was mainly confined to the immediate shores of the lakes and their connecting waters. Beyond these was a river flowing thousands of miles into the sea, which had never been traced to its outlet, of which Allouez had reported the name to be Messipi, or the

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Great river. This stream, long the object of curious inquiry, was now to be sought, in order that the French power might be spread along its banks. Thus labored Marquette, a solitary missionary upon the lakes, until 1673, when M. Talon, the intendant-general of the colony, ambitious to close his career in that region with something of honor, despatched M. Joliet, a citizen of Quebec, to this man, and unfolded, at the same time, a project for the exploration of the country along the line of the Michisepee, or the Great river, to its mouth, which current reports declared flowed into a large sea. Nor was Marquette unwilling to aid the enterprise. Upon the thirteenth of May, everything being ready, this adventurer, together with Joliet and five other Frenchmen, left Michilimackinac in two bark canoes, supplied with Indian corn and jerked meat, and commenced their voyage to the unknown country. They soon arrived at an Indian village which was familiar to Marquette, and made known to the savages their plan. These savages, however, seemed to be horror-struck at the boldness of the project to explore the great river. There were Indians in that quarter, they told the whites, who would destroy them; monsters who would swallow up them and their canoes; a demon who would ingulf all who ventured near his watery and boiling domain, and heats that would parch them. "I thanked them for their good advice," says Marquette, "but informed them I could not follow it, since the salvation of souls was at stake, for which I should be overjoyed to give my life."

The navigators now passed through Green Bay, from the mud of which there arose, says the voyager, "mischievous vapors, which cause the most grand and perpetual thunders I ever heard." They entered the Fox river, and, dragging their canoes through the rapids, and cutting their feet with the stones, they soon arrived at a village where there lived together a band of the Miamis, Mascoutens, and Kickapoos. Here they found a cross hung with skins, because the Great Spirit had given to the Indians a successful chase. Father Allouez had been here, and had taught them that the cross was the only visible emblem of the true religion. This village was at that time the remote boundary of western exploration, and beyond it no Frenchman had before gone. They were now journeying through a country before unknown to white men. On the 10th of July the adventurers left these savages amazed at the hardihood of the whites, and, aided by two guides, started for the stream, which was believed to run but three leagues distant from the Mississippi, and to flow into that river. The Indian guides, having conducted them to the portage without any mishap, left them "alone amid that unknown country, in the hand of God." Advancing with prayers, they soon arrived at the Wisconsin, a stream abounding with sandbars, but studded with islands and bordered by banks green with vegetation, and variegated by groves and pleasant slopes. Floating down the stream in their canoes, they arrived, on the 17th of June, at the Mississippi, "with joy," says Marquette, "that I cannot express."

The adventurers had now reached the main channel, which they were to explore to its mouth; and, after having admired the herds of buffalo and deer which roamed along its borders, and the swans which floated upon its surface, as well as some great fish which nearly dashed their canoes to atoms, they at length came to the footprints of human beings on the sand, and a trail leading to a meadow. Leaving their canoes in charge of the crew, Joliet and Marquette now advanced towards what seemed to them an Indian village, sufficiently near to hear the voice of the savages. With prayers they made known their presence by a loud cry, and were soon received by an embassy of four old men, who presented them the pipe of