ence, roaming in the wildest parts of the island and on the main land. They can be seen, or unseen, just as they, as spirits, please. Sometimes they will throw a stone or a war club at a person walking in a lonely place, at other times they will throw at your dog and set him to barking with fright. Again they will, in the day or night, throw clubs at a lodge in a lonely place, and have been heard walking around the wigwam. They have been tracked over the snow by hunters, but never overtaken. An Indian, walking or hunting alone, will apprehend some great evil, and be seized with an unearthly fright that makes him shiver from head to feet, and the hairs on his head stand up like porcupine quills. You are benumbed with terror by these spirits, the sensation is so awful. But they never harm any one. When an Indian recovers from the spell he generally exclaims, "Pshaw! there is nothing to fear, it is Paw-gawtchaw-nish-naw boy approaching me, he wants something.' They then leave tobacco, powder or something else in their tracks that the spirits fancy when in the flesh. If they appear and talk to you they always begin with the sad tale of the great catastrophy on the Island of Mackinac, and, whoever is so fortunate as to see and talk with them, always becomes a prophet to his people. Reader, if you are imaginative, and seek these lonely woods and caves alone, and the proper spell comes over you, perhaps you may see those spirit fairies, face to face, and learn of them their tragic fate. Therefore, according to understood traditions, the tribal name of those people was "Mishine-macki-naw-go," which is to this day a monument to their existence. The Ottawas and Chippewas named the little island "Mi-shi-ne-macki-nong," in memorial of their former confederates. It is the locative case of the Indian noun, "Michinemackinewgo," and is where the name Michili mackinac originated. It is said some of the paleface chiefs, tourists of the present day, vie with the Indians of the Fairy Isle, and induct the spirits from their secluded abodes into their corporeal forms. They tell us that the island is truly a resort that revels with spirits of the departed. We have dished up a salad, as a relish and variety, some of the renderings of the name: "Missilimakina." "Missilimakenak." "Missilimaquina." "Missilimakinak." "Missilimaquine." "Missilimackinae.” "Michilimaquina." "Missilimackinac." "Michilimachina." "Michilimackinac." "Mackina." "Machinac." "Macina." "Mackinaw." "Maquina." "Mackinac." If you only get the "Nac" right, you will know how to "Na c" ("naw") the name. 1653. We drop back a few years, to 1653, when the Iriquois invaders, eight hundred strong, pass the Straits of Michilimackinac to attack the Hurons at Green Bay. They laid siege to the place for a protracted time, but failed to capture the fort. The Iroquois then broke up into two divisions, one marched south and the other sailed northward through Lake Michigan. The first division met the Illinois and were cut down and captured by them. The Lake Michigan division met the same fate from the Chippewa, Missisaki and other ("Nigik") tribes on Lake Huron. 1660. Looking forward from our last date we find Father Reni Menard, S. J., October 15, 1660, at Keewenaw Bay, Lake Superior. He perished or was killed at the head waters of Black River, Ouisconsin, about August 10, 1661. Early records confirm the statement that Frenchmen were at Green Bay, Lake Superior, Sault Ste. Marie ("Soo") and Michilimackinac before the visits of the "Black-gowns" mentioned by Bancroft. They came one year and returned the next (on their tours of trade and barter) with flotillas of canoes richly laden with furs, often convoyed by Hurons and other Algonquins, in bands, from three hundred to five hundred strong. The Indians would make their long voyages in large numbers, united to defend themselves from their enemies, the Iroquois* We find Father Allouez at the Mission of the Algonquin Outaouacs (Ottawas) "La Pointe du Saint Esprit," on Lake Superior in the Province of Michilimackinac, in 1669. That year he went down to Quebec and turned over to Monsieur de Courcelles some Iroquois captives whom he had redeemed of the Outaouacs. Father Claude Dablon was sent to the Superior Missions and Allouez went to Sault Ste. Marie, and remained until November 3, 1669. He then departed for. Bay of the Puants (Green Bay), by way of the island of Michilimackinac, arriving December 2, 1669. 1669. Michilimackinac Island was occupied and abandoned (for reasons of safety) by different bands of Indians from time to time, long before this period. It had been often passed and visited by French traders and was well known. It was there the mission of St. Ignatius founded before it was established at Point St. Ignace. "The Hurons settled on the famous Island of Missilimackinac, where we commenced last winter the mission of St. Ignace.† was * Drawn from "Hist. and Biog. Notes" and "Relations," 16601663, and other sources. + Missionary Labors of Marquette, Menard and Allouez, Chap. xxix, p. 114, Rev. Chrysostom Verwyst, O. S. F. FATHER MARQUETTE AT ST. IGNACE. "The Hurons of the Tobacco tribe, called Tionnontate, having been formerly driven from their country by the Iroquois, fled to this Island, named Missilimackinac, so famous for its fishery. They could only stay a few years, however, the very same enemies obliging them to leave this very advantageous post. They withdrew, therefore, still further to the islands which still bear their name, and are located at the entrance of the Bay of the Puants. Not finding themselves sufficiently safe, however, even there, they went far back into the woods, and from there finally chose as their last dwelling-place the extremity of Lake Superior, in a place called La Pointe du Saint Esprit. There they were far enough away from the Iroquois not to fear them, but they were too near the Nadouessi, who are, as it were, the Iroquois of these quarters of the North, being the most powerful and war-like people of this country. "Still all proceeded peaceably enough for several years until the last (1671), when the Nadouessi having been irritated by the Hurons and Outaouacs, war broke out between them, and it began so furiously that several prisoners taken on both sides were consigned to the flames. "The Nadouessi, however, did not wish to begin any act of hostility until after they had returned to Father Marquette some pictures of which he had made them a present, so as to give them some idea of our religion and thus to instruct them. by the eye, as he was unable to do otherwise on account of their language, which is altogether different from the Algonquin and Huron. Relation of 1672, pp. 35 and 36. |