PREFACE. In presenting volume 25 of the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections to the public, the Committee of Histories bring to a conclusion the valuable history contained in over six thousand pages of copies of original documents from the Canadian Archives obtained at Ottawa. These papers are partly contained in volumes 9, 10, 11 and 12, and volumes 15, 16, 19, 20, 23, 24 and the present number are entirely devoted to this very interesting line of history. By perusing these volumes the reader will discover how near Michigan came to being lost as a portion of the United States, that it might be added to the present Province of Ontario, and will also learn the very close connections existing during the final years of the last century between the British and the Six Nations of Indians, through whose aid this result was sought. It is proper at this time to state that this valuable matter was obtained mainly through the efforts of Colonel Michael Shoemaker, recently deceased, who devoted a number of years to collecting the same and seeing that they were properly given to the public through this source. While much space has been given in our volumes to this subject, your committee are satisfied that a pioneer history of our State would not be complete without it, and it will be of interest for all time to the student of history, and as more than one hundred years have passed since the original of these papers were written, we trust that their value may increase and be appreciated during the years that are yet to come by being preserved in these printed volumes. HENRY H. HOLT, Muskegon, Lansing, Mich., February 20, 1896. Committee of Historians. |