CHAPTER XXVIII
{347} CHAPTER XXVIII
Departure from Fort William—Navigation on Lake Superior—Michipicoton Bay—Meeting a Canoe—Batchawainon Bay—Arrival at Saut Ste. Marie—Occurrences there—Departure—Lake Huron—French River—Lake Nipissing—Ottawa River—Kettle Falls—Rideau River—Long-Saut—Arrival in Montreal—Conclusion.
On the 20th of July, in the evening, Mr. D. Stuart notified me that he should start the next morning for Montreal, in a light canoe. I immediately wrote to my relatives: but the next morning Mr. Stuart told me that I was to be myself the bearer of my letters, by embarking with him. I got ready my effects, and toward evening we quitted Fort William, with fourteen stout voyageurs to man our large canoe, and were soon floating on the bosom of the largest body of fresh water on the surface of the globe. We counted six passengers, namely, Messrs. D. {348} Stuart, D. M’Kenzie, J. M’Donald, J. Clarke, myself, and a little girl of eight or nine years, who came from Kildonan, on Red river.[211] We passed the first night on one of the islands in Thunder bay, so named on account of the frequent storms, accompanied with lightning and thunder, which burst over it at certain seasons of the year. On the 22d and 23d, we continued to range the southern coast of Lake Superior.[212] The navigation of this superb lake would be extremely agreeable but for the thick fogs which reign during a part of the day, and do not permit a rapid progress. On the 24th, we dined at a small trading establishment called Le Pic, where we had excellent fish.[213]
On the 26th, we crossed Michipicoton bay, which, at its entrance, may be nine miles wide, and twenty fathoms deep.[214] As we were nearing the eastern point, we met a small canoe, having on board Captain M’Cargo, and the crew of one of the schooners owned by the company. Mr. M’Cargo informed us that he had just escaped from Saut Ste. Marie, whither the Americans had {349} sent a detachment of one hundred and fifty men; and that having been obliged to abandon his schooner, he had set fire to her.[215] In consequence of this news it was resolved that the canoe on which we were proceeding, should return to Fort William. I embarked with Mr. Stuart and two men, in Captain M’Cargo’s canoe, while he and his crew took our places. In the haste and confusion of this exchange, which was made on the lake, they gave us a ham, a little tea and sugar, and a bag containing about twenty-five pounds of flour, but forgot entirely a kettle, knives, forks, and so on, all articles which Mr. M’Cargo had not time to take when he left Saut Ste. Marie. We subsisted miserably in consequence for two days and a half that we continued to coast the lake before reaching any post. We moistened in the bag a little flour, and having kneaded it, made cakes, which we baked on flat stones by our camp fire.
On the 29th, we reached Batchawainon, where we found some women, who prepared us food and received us well. It is a poor little post, {350} situated at the bottom of a sandy cove, which offers nothing agreeable to the eye. Mr. Frederic Goedike, who resided here, was gone to see what had taken place at Saut Ste. Marie.[216] He returned the next day, and told us that the Americans had come, with a force of one hundred and fifty men, under the command of Major Holmes;[217] and that after having pillaged all that they considered worth taking, of the property of the N. W. Company and that of a Mr. Johnston,[218] they had set fire to the houses, warehouses, &c., belonging to the company and to that gentleman, and retired, without molesting any other person.[219] Our canoe arrived from Fort William in the evening, with that of Mr. M’Gillivray; and on the morrow we all repaired to Saut Ste. Marie, where we saw the ruins which the enemy had left. The houses, stores, and saw-mills of the company were still smoking. {351} The schooner was at the foot of the rapids; the Americans had run her down, but she grounded on a ledge of rocks, whence they could not dislodge her, and so they had burnt her to the water’s edge.
Le Saut de Ste. Marie,[220] or as it is shortly called, Saut Ste. Marie, is a rapid at the outlet of Lake Superior, and may be five hundred or six hundred yards wide; its length may be estimated at three quarters of a mile, and the descent of the water at about twenty feet. At the lower extremity the river widens to about a mile, and here there are a certain number of houses. The north bank belongs to Great Britain; the southern to the United States. It was on the American side that Mr. Johnston lived. Before the war he was collector of the port for the American government. On the same side resided a Mr. Nolin, with his family, consisting of three half-breed boys and as many girls, one of whom was passably pretty. He was an old Indian trader, and his house and furniture showed signs of his former prosperity. On the British side we found {352} Mr. Charles Ermatinger, who had a pretty establishment: he dwelt temporarily in a house that belonged to Nolin, but he was building another of stone, very elegant, and had just finished a grist mill.[221] He thought that the last would lead the inhabitants to sow more grain than they did. These inhabitants are principally old Canadian boatmen, married to half-breed or Indian women. The fish afford them subsistence during the greater part of the year, and provided they secure potatoes enough to carry them through the remainder, they are content. It is to be regretted that these people are not more industrious, for the land is very fertile.
On the 1st of August, an express was sent to Michilimackinac (Mackinaw) to inform the commandant thereof what had happened at Saut Ste. Marie.[222] While expecting the return of the messenger, we put ourselves in a state of defence, in case that by chance the Americans should make another irruption. The thing was not improbable, for according to some expressions which fell from one of their number who spoke French, {353} their object was to capture the furs of the Northwest Company, which were expected to arrive shortly from the interior. We invited some Indians, who were camped on Pine Point,[223] at some distance from the Saut, to help us in case of need; which they promised to do. Meanwhile we had no provisions, as everything had been carried off by the American forces, and were obliged to subsist on such brook trout as we could take with hook and line, and on wild raspberries.
On the 4th, the express returned, without having been able to accomplish his mission: he had found the island of Mackinaw so completely blockaded by the enemy, that it was impossible to reach it, without running the greatest risk of being made prisoner.
On the 12th, we heard distinctly the discharges of artillery which our people were firing off at Michilimackinac, although the distance was nearly sixty miles. We thought it was an attempt of the enemy to retake that post, but we afterward learned that it was only a royal salute {354} in honor of the birthday of the prince regent. We learned, however, during our stay at Saut Ste. Marie, that the Americans had really made a descent upon the island, but were compelled to retire with a considerable loss.[224]
On the 19th, some of the partners arrived from Fort William, preceding the flotilla which was coming down richly laden with furs. They sent on Mr. Decoigne in a light canoe, with letters to Montreal, to order provisions to meet this brigade.
On the 21st, the canoe on which I was a passenger, was sent to the mouth of French river, to observe the motions of the enemy. The route lay between a range of low islands, and a shelvy beach, very monotonous and dreary. We remained at the entrance of the aforesaid river till the 25th, when the fleet of loaded canoes, forty-seven in number, arrived there. The value of the furs which they carried could not be estimated at less than a million of dollars: an important prize for the Americans, if they could have laid their hands upon it. We were three {355} hundred and thirty-five men, all well armed; a large camp was formed, with a breast-work of fur-packs, and we kept watch all night. The next morning we began to ascend the French river, and were soon out of reach of the dreaded foe.[225] French river flows from the N. E. and empties into Lake Huron, about one hundred and twenty miles from Saut Ste. Marie. We reached Lake Nipissing, of which it is the outlet, the same evening, and encamped. We crossed that lake on the 27th, made a number of portages, and encamped again, not far from Mattawan.[226]
On the 28th we entered, at an early hour, the river Ottawa, and encamped, in the evening, at the Portage des deux Joachims.[227] This is a grand river, but obstructed by many falls and rapids on its way to join the St. Lawrence; which caused us to make many portages, and so we arrived on the 31st at Kettle falls.
The rock which here arrests the course of the Ottawa, extends from shore to shore, and so completely cuts off the waters, that at the time we passed none was seen falling over, but sinking by {356} subterranean channels, or fissures in the rock, it boiled up below, from seven or eight different openings, not unlike water in a huge caldron, whence the first explorers of the country gave it the name of Chaudière or Caldron falls. Mr. P. Wright resided in this place, where he had a fine establishment and a great number of men employed in cultivating the land, and getting out lumber.[228]
We left the Chaudières a little before sunset, and passed very soon the confluence of the Rideau or Curtain river. This river, which casts itself into the Ottawa over a rock twenty-five by thirty feet high, is divided in the middle of the fall by a little island, which parts the waters into two white sheets, resembling a double curtain open in the middle and spreading out below. The coup d’œil is really picturesque; the rays of the setting sun, which struck the waters obliquely as we passed, heightened exceedingly their beauty, and rendered it worthy of a pencil more skilful than mine.[229]
We voyaged till midnight, when we stopped to {357} let our men take a little repose. This rest was only for two hours. At sunrise on the 1st September, we reached Long-Saut, where, having procured guides, we passed that dangerous rapid, and set foot on shore near the dwelling-house of a Mr. M’Donell, who sent us milk and fruits for our breakfast. Toward noon we passed the lake of the Two Mountains, where I began to see the mountain of my native isle.[230] About two o’clock, we passed the rapids of St. Ann.[231] Soon after we came opposite Saut St. Louis and the village of Caughnawago[232] passed that last rapid of so many, and landed at Montreal, a little before sunset.
I hastened to the paternal roof, where the family were not less surprised than overjoyed at beholding me. Not having heard of me, since I had sailed from New York, they had believed, in {358} accordance with the common report, that I had been murdered by the savages, with Mr. M’Kay and the crew of the Tonquin: and certainly, it was by the goodness of Providence that I found myself thus safe and sound, in the midst of my relations and friends, at the end of a voyage accompanied by so many perils, and in which so many of my companions had met with an untimely death.
[211] Kildonan is a parish north of Winnipeg, sometimes called Frog Pond Parish. It was named by Lord Selkirk in remembrance of the Scottish parish from which his settlers had migrated, and was the centre of the Red River establishment.—Ed.
[212] Thunder Bay, at the western end of Lake Superior, lies between the high promontory of Pie Island and the cliffs of Thunder Cape, the latter over one thousand three hundred feet high. The region is noted for its picturesqueness and the Indian traditions which cluster around it. See Henry’s Travels, p. 205. Franchère’s statement is an obvious mistake, as the usual route from Thunder Bay was along the northern coast; and the places mentioned indicate that this was followed by the present expedition.—Ed.
[213] This post was situated at the mouth of Pic River, two hundred miles from the entrance of St. Mary’s. The name is an Indian word meaning “mud,” and was applied because of the reddish yellow color of the stream, due to the beds of clay through which it flows. When the stream is swollen, it colors the lake for a mile or more from its mouth. The North West Company had an important post on this river, which was the centre of a department; it produced more valuable furs in the early years of the century than when Franchère passed. Later, it was maintained by the Hudson’s Bay Company. The Canadian Pacific Railway crosses the river near its mouth.—Ed.
[214] Michipicoton Bay is one hundred and twenty-five miles from St. Mary’s River, by canoe travel. The shore at the entrance is high and rocky; but at the bottom of the bay, where the Michipicoton River empties, it is low and sandy. The French had a fur-trading post near the mouth of the stream, which was abandoned in 1763. The post of the North West Company at this place was tributary to that at Pic River.—Ed.
[215] When Colonel George Croghan sailed from St. Joseph, July 20, 1814, on his way to attack Mackinac, he detached Major Holmes with two small vessels, to destroy the British post at Sault Ste. Marie. Holmes met with no resistance, as the men had gone to the defense of Fort Mackinac. He burned the warehouses of the North West Company, and carried away considerable plunder. See M’Afee, History of the Late War in the Western Country (Lexington, Kentucky, 1816).—Ed.
[216] Frederic Goedike was an old employé of the North West Company, having been on the Assiniboin (1801-05) and on the Peace (1808-09). He seems to have retired to this small post upon Batchewana Bay, forty-five miles from Sault Ste. Marie.—Ed.
[217] Major Arthur Hunter Holmes was a Virginian and a friend of Jefferson. He was stationed at Detroit, as captain, when (February, 1814) he was placed in charge of a detachment ordered to attack the enemy at Delaware on the Thames. He succeeded, although with a force much inferior to the British. Immediately after this expedition he was promoted to be major. After plundering Sault Ste. Marie he rejoined the main army two days after it reached Mackinac, and was killed in the attack on that place, August 4, 1814. When the Americans again obtained possession of the fort at Mackinac, the name of Fort George was, in his honor, changed to Fort Holmes.—Ed.
[218] John Johnston, born at Craignear, Giant’s Causeway, Ireland, in 1763, came to Canada in 1792. Lord Dorchester introduced him to the partners of the North West Company, and he quickly decided to cast in his lot with the Western fur-traders. First settled at La Pointe, he married the daughter of an Indian chief. In 1794 he removed to Sault Ste. Marie, and lived there until his death in 1828. Although living on the American shore, he sided with the British in the War of 1812-15. Hearing of Colonel Croghan’s expedition, he armed all his men, about a hundred in number, and embarked with them for Mackinac, thus leaving his property at the mercy of Major Holmes. Johnston’s son served as lieutenant on the “Queen Charlotte,” and was captured by the Americans in the naval battle on Lake Erie. Bigsby, on his journey through the lakes in 1824, visited Johnston, and commented upon the value and extent of his library—“a thousand well-bound and well-selected volumes, French and English, evidently much in use, in winter especially.” For further details of his career, see Masson, Bourgeois, ii, pp. 137-142.—Ed.
[219] The N. W. Company having raised a regiment composed of their own servants, and known as the voyageur corps, and having also instigated to war, and armed, the Indian tribes, over which they had influence, had brought on themselves this act of retaliation. Mr. Johnston also had engaged actively in the war against the United States.—Franchère.
[220] For a brief history of Sault Ste. Marie, see J. Long’s Voyages, vol. ii of our series, note 38.—Ed.
[221] Nolin lived at Sault Ste. Marie until 1819, when he sold his property to Ermatinger and removed to Pembina, in the Red River Valley.
Charles Ermatinger was the son of a Swiss merchant who removed from the English colonies to Quebec after Wolfe’s capture. He became, next to Johnston, the wealthiest trader at the Sault. Bigsby describes him as “every inch a trader, public-spirited, skilful, sanguine and indefatigable.”—Ed.
[222] For a short account of Mackinac, see Thwaites, “Story of Mackinac,” in How George Rogers Clark won the Northwest (Chicago, 1903).—Ed.
[223] This is about six and a half miles from Sault Ste. Marie. It is a broad, low point thickly covered with pines, sheltering a good harbor at the expansion of St. Mary’s River.—Ed.
[224] The American troops under Colonel Croghan were not strong enough to attack the fort, but landed on the west side of Mackinac Island with the hope that the British would advance to meet them in the open plain. Not far from the place of landing they found the enemy waiting for them at the edge of a wood, and succeeded in driving them back. Thinking pursuit among the trees would be dangerous, they returned to their boats and abandoned the expedition. It was in this onslaught that Major Holmes was killed.—Ed.
[225] French River has so many islands and deep and narrow bays, that it often appears more like a number of parallel streams than a single river. It is about seventy-five miles long, and sometimes broadens into a lake. About twenty miles from Lake Nipissing are the Récollets Falls. This river owes its name to serving as the early waterway from Lower Canada to the Upper Country. See J. Long’s Voyages, vol. ii of our series, note 36.—Ed.
[226] This was at the junction of the Mattawa River with the Ottawa—the limit of Champlain’s exploration in 1613. This was a well-known post on the Ottawa River route to the Upper Lakes, and now a station of the Canadian Pacific Railway.—Ed.
[227] These rapids are three-quarters of a mile long; being, in fact, low cascades. They are about twenty-five miles below the forks of the Ottawa.—Ed.
[228] The Kettle (Chaudière) Falls are opposite the city of Hull, Quebec. In 1800, Philemon Wright, “the father of the town of Hull,” came from Woburn, Massachusetts, and settled at the foot of the falls. He brought twenty-five men with him, bought the land from the Indians for twenty dollars, immediately began to clear the forest, and in a short time had become a well-to-do proprietor. He died in 1839, at the age of seventy-nine.—Ed.
[229] This is the site of Ottawa, founded in 1825, and in 1865 made the seat of government for Canada. The curtains are of unequal width; the longer being about three hundred, the shorter about a hundred feet.—Ed.
[230] The Long Sault Rapids, about sixty miles below Ottawa, are nine miles long and full of islets, rocky bars, and narrow passes. For the heroic defense of this place, see Parkman, Old Régime in Canada (Boston, 1875), chap. iii. At the base of the rapids the Ottawa widens into the Lake of Two Mountains, twenty miles long and from two to three miles broad.—Ed.
[231] “Far-famed and so well described,” adds Mr. Franchère, in his own translation, but I prefer to leave the expression in its original striking simplicity, as he wrote it before he had heard of Moore. Every reader remembers:—
[232] For a sketch of the Indian mission at Caughnawaga, see J. Long’s Voyages, vol. ii of our series, note 9.—Ed.