Reproduction of two pictures of La Salle. Officers' Stone Quarters, Fort Mackinac. Dr. Facing Page 344 Father Skolla's Sketch of St. Anne's Church, Bowl Presented to Captain Patrick Sinclair by Page 388 Facing Page 398 A View of Early Mackinac. From a Sketch made in 1820. North Sally Port, Fort Mackinac Fort Mackinac Sally Port Rare old Views of Fort Mackinac Early Views of Fort Mackinac . Plan of Fort Mackinac. (Double Page.) 470 Block House, Fort Mackinac, Built in 1780 Rt. Rev. Monsignor Frank A. O'Brien, LL.D.. Facing Page 490 Three-page Folding Map of Mackinac Island. A View of the Butte Des Morts Treaty Ground Map Showing Plan of the Straits of St. Mary and Michilimackinac. (Double page.) Map of Fort Mackinac and Marquette Park. (Double page.) London, 1761. 679 Great Arch Rock, Mackinac Island Page 697 Sketch of Fort Michilimackinac HISTORIC MACKINAC CHAPTER I FRENCH EXPLORATION IN THE MACKINAC COUNTRY NASCINATING and picturesque is the history of the discovery, exploration and settlement of the F Mackinac country. At the outset we meet with one of the most romantic of the European peoples; French explorers, priests, traders and commandants were destined to be for nearly two centuries the dominant figures in the region of the Great Lakes, and in human interest the story of their trials, triumphs, defeats and achievements has no rival in North America. Nearly three hundred years ago Jacques Cartier, "the bold mariner of St. Malo," was commissioned by Francis the First, King of France, to find a passageway through the newly discovered lands to the Golden East. In 1535 he reached the site of Montreal; as he gazed from the elevation which he named Mont Royale, little did he dream of the strange secrets hidden in the wilderness before him. Cartier and his men had not found a route to Cathay, but they had visited the gateway through which later explorers were to find their way to Mackinac. Events in Europe were to fill nearly three quarters of a century before this gateway was to be again approached by white men. In 1608 Samuel de Champlain, "Father of 1 |