Though somewhat damaged, the Governor Clark, with Agent Boilvin on bɔard, made her way to Rock Island pursued "till within a league of the rapids" by a force of British. These turned back on meeting another American gunboat which, it is probable, was part of an expedition. dispatched under command of Lieutenant John Campbell from St. Louis for the reinforcement of Fort Shelby. Here Campbell at the hands of Indians under command of the famous Black Hawk1 suffered a defeat deserved apparently by his own carelessness and disobedience (22 July, 1814). Twelve of his men were killed; between twenty and thirty wounded. Soon a British force went down the Mississippi as far as Rock Island and there on the Illinois side erected a battery. Major Zachary Taylor, afterwards President of the United States, started from St. Louis, August 12th, with four hundred fifty men to take this, but, for want of artillery, was repulsed, 1814, September 6th. Again Black Hawk commanded the Indians, thus defeating the future President.

Though the Americans were unsuccessful in their attempt, already mentioned, to recover Mackinaw they put the British in the Upper Lake region to serious inconvenience, and delayed the furnishing of supplies to Fort McKay. Nor was there an abundance when they came. "Here we are," wrote one of the garrison, 14th March, 1815, "posted since last fall without news from any quarter, and destitute of provisions, sociability, harmony or good understanding. Not even a glass of grog nor a pipe of tobacco, to pass away the time, and if a brief period don't bring a change for the better, I much dread the United Irishmen's wish will befall the place,—a bad Winter, a worse Spring, a bloody Summer and no king. Owing to a scarcity of Provisions here a gloom appears on every countenance; and if ever I take an idea to resign, I mean to recommend Mr. Hurtibis to supply my place as I think him the properest person in the time of famine as he has no teeth.

"I must conclude this long and useless letter after having endeavored in vain to give you an idea of the wretchedness of this country - a task for which nature has not qualified me. To give it in its true light would require the pen of an able historian."

The war was then over. Though the British commissioners at Ghent sought to acquire the region on the American side of the upper Great Lakes, or more strictly speaking to have made it into a neutral Indian country under the protection of their government, the treaty of Ghent to the rage and almost the despair of nearly all the whites living there, confirmed it to the United States.

The official announcement of peace did not reach Captain Andrew A. Bulger, then in command at Prairie du Chien until the 22nd of May, 1815. The next day he wrote to Governor Clark of St. Louis, "I propose evacuating this post to-morrow.” He did not wish to have British and American troops at Prairie du Chien at the same time. It may be that his departure was earlier by one day than he had proposed to make it. For Lieutenant-Colonel McDou

1 McDouall states that Black Hawk was in command of the Indians. See "Michigan Historical Collections," volume XIV. page 285.

all states that Bulger evacuated Prairie du Chien May 23rd and arrived at Mackinaw on the 17th of June. Doubtless he went by way of Green Bay. The unknown date of his departure thence marks the end of British dominion in what is now Wisconsin. 1

His Indian al

It cost McDouall a bitter struggle to give up Mackinaw. lies shared his feeling. "We hate those Big Knives!" said a Winnebago chief at a council held at Mackinaw 1815, June 3rd. "Our Great Father beyond the Great Lake is a tender parent; but when he agreed to give up this place to the Big Knives, he did not reflect that he was putting us in the power of our great enemy." McDouall had reflected upon it. His reiterated argument is that the region between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi had never really been in the possession of the Americans, but belonged to Indian tribes that were allies of the British.

His protests were in vain. Not only had the British flag for the last time floated in mastery on the banks of the upper Mississippi and at Green Bay; it was now to be taken from the heights of Mackinaw. Accordingly at noon, 1815, July 19th, the British evacuated the Malta of our fresh-water MediterMcDouall withdrew to Drummond's Island. As he went royal authority on the southern and western shores of the upper Great Lakes passed away.

ranean.

1 Thus British influence was in ascendency at Green Bay during almost all the reign of George III. and he was the only English king who held sway on what is now the American side of the upper Great Lakes. It is a curious fact that (the future) Wisconsin was under royal government during three of the longest reigns known to history, those of Louis XIV. and Louis XV. of France, and that of George III. of Great Britain.

CHAPTER VI.

the sea.

THE IONA OF OUR INLAND SEAS.

The eastern part of the Upper Peninsula of what is now Michigan was known to early French explorers at Michilimackinac. It gave name (now usually shortened to Mackinac or, spelled phonetically, Mackinaw) to the neighboring strait through which the waters of Lake Michigan pass on their way to On the north side of this strait, Marquette and the fugitive Hurons found refuge in 1671, when they fled from Chequamegon bay to escape the fury of the Dakotas. The mission of St. Ignatius, thus established, was strengthened by a French military post. But after Cardillac founded Detroit in 1701, he withdrew the garrison from the older settlement, despite the entreaties of the Jesuits, and prevailed upon many of the Indians to leave.1 Το prevent the desecration of their church by pagan Indians, the priests set fire to it with their own hands and abandoned the mission. When, in 1712, De Louvigny came by command of Governor-General De Vaudreuil to re-establish a fort in the Michilimackinac region, he placed it on the south side of the strait. This is what is often called "Old Fort Mackinaw." During the French and Indian war the English flag was raised over Detroit 1760, November 29th, by Major Robert Rogers, a native of New Hampshire. Fort Mackinaw was occupied 1761, September 28th, by British troops under command of Captain HenBalfour? who, with the greater part of his force, sailed on the 1st of the following October to take possession of Green Bay. A part of the war that followed Pontiac's conspiracy was the massacre of the the British garrison at Old Fort Mackinaw. 3 This event the story of which does not need to be told here,

ry

1 There was no love lost between Cardillac and the Jesuits. He thus wrote of them to the home government:

"You wish me to be a friend of the Jesuits and to have no trouble with them. After much reflection I have found only three ways in which this can be accomplished; the first is, to let them do as they please; the second, to do whatever they desire; and the third, to say nothing of what they do." The letter was dated at "Fort Ponchartrain, August 31, 1703." Said fort occupied a site in what is now the business portion of Detroit.

According to E. M. Sheldon's "Early History of Michigan," Cardillac was a "zealous [Roman] Catholic." He favored the Franciscans. These, in a sense, are the Methodists of Roman Catholicism, as the Jesuits are its "high church" Episcopalians.

2 Following the Wisconsin "Blue Book" and Historical Collections" this name is spelled "Belfour" on page 26. But the British "Army List" gives it as "Balfour."

Pontiac's conspiracy was so far successful that by August 13th of that year (1763), with

took place on the 4th of June, 1763. Remembering, it may be, this occurence, Major De Peyster, who commanded there during the Revolutionary war, made preparations, as a measure of safety from the Americans, to remove the British garrison to Michilimackinac island. On the 4th of November, 1780, his successor, Captain (and Lieutenant-Governor) Sinclair made the formal removal. Thus the beautiful island, now the delight of summer tourists, the supposed birthplace of the legendary Hiawatha, became the center of trade and political influence for all the region of the upper Great Lakes.

It was destined also to be the center of religious, educational and missionary influence. Thither the Roman Catholic congregation hauled over the ice from Old Mackinaw, in 1780, the timbers of their house of worship and there re-erected it. But for half a century they enjoyed the services of only nonresident priests.

In 1800 a young man, David Bacon, was sent West by the Missionary society of Connecticut. “Afoot and alone he was to make his way towards the wilderness, with no baggage more than he could carry on his person, thankfully accepting any offer of a seat for a few miles in some passing vehicle. Such was the equipment with which the good people of Connecticut, seventyfour years ago, sent forth their first missionary to the heathen.”1

His first tour was one of exploration. He arrived at Detroit on the 11th of September, 1800. Thence he went northward as far as Harson's Island, River St. Clair. Having returned to New England he was married and ordained. Again he came to Michigan and settled at Detroit. Here was born 19th February, 1802, his son Leonard, afterwards the famous New Haven pastor and member of the Yale corporation. In June, 1802, Mr. Bacon removed to Mackinaw and thus became the first Protestant missionary in the region of the upper Great Lakes. Great were the obstacles to his work, among the whites as well as the Indians, both there and Detroit. Those whom he speaks of as "bigoted, persecuting papists" of course opposed his work. British influence, still strong in these regions, was against him because he was a Yankee, by which was meant an American. The fur traders did not wish to have the Indians become civilized. It would seem that Mr. Bacon's best and almost only friends were the officers of the United States army.

This first Protestant mission at Mackinaw ended with the removal of the

missionary about the 1st of August, 1804. A canoe voyage from Detroit to

Cleveland took him with wife and two infants to what was then known as "New Connecticut" (Western Reserve). Mr. Bacon was one of those who impressed Puritanism upon Northern Ohio, the land of Giddings and Garfield, of Oberlin college and Western Reserve university.

Before the clash of arms in 1812, there was in the fur trade a commercial war of which Mackinaw was in a sense the center and in which John Jacob

the exception of the garrison at Detroit, there was not a British soldier in the region of the upper Great Lakes.

1 Congregational Quarterly, January, 1876.

Astor, his partner, Wilson Price Hunt, and others, represented the American cause. A sturdy Scotchman, Ramsey Crooks, was among Astor's trusted lieutenants. Starting from Mackinaw about the 12th of August, 1809, Hunt and Crooks made their way by the Fox-Wisconsin route,1 the Mississippi and the Missouri to the Rocky mountains and thence to the Pacific. They are sure of abiding renown for Irving has written of them in his "Astoria."

The importance of Mackinaw both in the Revolution and in the second war with Britain has been shown. With the return of peace came better subjects for the historian than strife and bloodshed. Again Mackinaw became the center of an extensive fur trade. By favoring legislation the American Fur company, in which Astor had a controlling interest, was able to command a great part of the commerce of the Northwest. At no time, perhaps, was it more prosperous than in 1820..

In this year, June 16th, Jedidiah Morse, D. D., father of S. F. B. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph, landed at Mackinaw. 2 He was accompanied by his son Richard Cary Morse, long one of the proprietors of the "New York Observer," who wrote thus of their stay:

"There had not been a Protestant sermon preached in the place for ten years or more. Daring our fortnight's stay the gospel was preached by us in the court house to full and attentive audiences. At his [Dr. Morse's] suggestion and by his personal aid a Sabbath school and a day school were formed for the children; a Bible and Tract society." From Mackinaw, as already stated, our travelers went to Green Bay.

A letter written by Dr. Morse soon after his return to New Haven shows his interest in supplying the people at Mackinaw with a pastor. He had come west not only under commission from the United States government, of which service we shall soon hear, but also as agent of the Northern Missionary society of New York. 3 This organization was soon absorbed by another,

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*

They had much difficulty in securing a crew. Irving thus describes the only kind of men to be had: "Like sailors, the Canadian voyagers generally proface a long cruise with a carouse. They have their cronies, their brothers, their cousins, their wives, their sweethearts, all to be entertained at their expense. They feast, they fiddle, they drink, they sing, they dance, they frolic and fight, until they are mad so many drunken Indians. It was with the utmost difficulty they could be extricated from the clutches of the publicans [liquor sellers], and the embraces of their pot companions, who followed them to the water's edge with many a hug, a kiss on each cheek and a maudlin benediction in Canadian French." 2 Dr. Morse, born 1761, August 23rd, died 1826, June 9th, was one of the corporate members of the American Board, and was once a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard college. When, 1805, February 5th, the corporation elected Henry Ware, Jr., a Unitarian, to the Hollis professorship of divinity, Dr. Morse, as one of the overseers, strongly opposed the confirmation of their action which he regarded as a breach of trust. For one of the conditions of the gift establishing the professorship was that the incumbent should be, in religion, of orthodox belief. Following the election of Ware, Dr. Morse resigned his office as overseer. 3 "Organized in 1797. Albany, New York, seems to have been its headquarters. It was 'absorbed,' in your fitting term, about 1821. Its missions, if I am not mistaken, were chiefly among Indians in the state of New York. Dr. Chester, a noble man of great influence, was the pastor of one of the principal churches in that city, and was connected with the Northern Missionary society perhaps as chairman or president. His grandson is in Milwaukee,Rev. William Chester, pastor of Immanuel Presbyterian church.". REV. JOHN C. LOWRIE, of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, 1893, March 31st.