ries since, endeavored to penetrate the wilderness of America. While the colonies of Plymouth and Jamestown were yet infant settlements, Nicolet, who had probably heard from the Indians rumors of great seas and wide savannas, set out in search of the mysterious rivers of the West, which, like the sources of the Nile to the European, rose in obscure grandeur before his excited imagination. From Quebec he proceeded to visit the Indians of Green Bay, and was the first to notice the Straits of Mackinaw. Thirty years after, in 1670, James Marquette, a devoted missionary of the Jesuit Society, with a company of Huron Indians, known as the Wyandots, entered the old Indian town at the north of the straits. planted a colony, called the missionary station of St. Ignatius, while he resided on the island of Mackinaw. In his narratives to the society he describes this point as the key, or gate, for all the tribes of the South, as the Sault of St. Mary's was for those from the North, there being in this section of country only these two passages by water.

Here he

"Old Mackinaw," says Mr. Strickland, "the Indian name of which is Pequod-e-non-ge, on the south side of the straits, became the place of the first French settlement northwest of Fort Frontenac, or Cadaracqui, on Lake Ontario. It was the metropolis of a portion of the Ojibwa and Ottawa nations. It was there their congresses met to adopt a policy which terminated in the conquest of the country south of it; it was there that the tramping feet of thousands of plumed and painted warriors shook Pequod-e-non-ge; it was there that the startling. sounds of their war yell, wafted to the adjacent coast and islands, made the peaceful woods ring with unearthly shouts of victory or death." In process of time the place became the site of a chapel, a fort, and a college. On an eminence the Ottawas erected a fortification. Within the inclosure of the French fort and chapel the Jesuits erected a college, the first of that kind established in the West; and thus arose the settlement of St. Ignatius, called from the head of the order of Jesuits.

The Mackinaw Missions fell with the fall of the Jesuits, and the peaceful devotion, the quiet loyalty of the Indians were never again renewed. In 1759 Mackinaw fell into the hands of the English; and in 1762, three years after, was enacted the FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XIII.-15

dark tragedy of Pontiac's conspiracy. The bands of the Chippewas, the great warlike tribe of the North, gathered round Mackinaw. Just then an English trader named Henry arrived at the post for the purposes of trade. He was called upon by an Indian wrapped in a mantle, who in eloquent language narrated their attachment to the French, whose spirits he seemed to see coming to excite their hatred of the English, and avenge the wrongs of the Indian. He told Henry that they were the enemies of the English, but that Henry, having come as a trader, might remain in peace. This Indian was supposed to be Pontiac, who was then about to strike the blow so fatal to the English.

In another day Henry beheld from his window the massacre of the entire garrison, and the beginning of that sudden and disastrous war which caused streams of blood to flow through the basin of the Lakes and the valley of the Ohio. Henry barely escaped, by favor of an Indian chief, to narrate the story of desolation by which Mackinaw was overthrown.

In looking to the events of that day, it is not to be disguised that however successful or praiseworthy the Jesuit missions may have been, the prejudices which they instilled among the Indians in favor of the French, and against the English, had no small influence in exciting that hatred against both English and Americans which existed for half a century after Pontiac's conspiracy, and has reacted in the conquest of the Indians, and will terminate only in their final destruction. The Jesuit missions, as we have seen, terminated. Mackinaw passed from the French to the English, and finally to the Americans. The Indians have retreated further to the northwest, and the tribes which still linger round their ancient haunts have dwindled away. Several Protestant missions have been established among them; but as all the circumstances were changed, so the success was different. The first Protestant missionary in that region was sent out by the first American Missionary Society. "The Connecticut Missionary Society," believed to be the oldest missionary association, was formed in June, 1795, with the direct object in view to Christianize the heathen in North America, and to support and promote Christian knowledge in the new settlements within the United States. Before this society Mr. David Bacon presented himself, as a candidate for a field of labor at

once dangerous and unpromising. On the 8th of August, 1800, he left Hartford on foot, with his pack on his back, walking most of the way to Buffalo. In September he accompanied General Tracy, formerly Senator from Connecticut, to an island at the head of Lake St. Clair, and was formally introduced to the Indians at Detroit. After returning to Connecticut he was ordained, and in May, 1802, after the study of the Chippewa language, succeeded in getting an audience of the Indians. It was, however, very different from that which had attended the visit of Marquette one hundred and thirty years before. The Indian race no longer possessed its simplicity of character. The fiery passions excited by the white aggressions were aroused; and, worse than all, the "fire water" of the whites was introduced.

The Indian Council was just recovered from a drunken frolic, when Bacon wearied their patience by reading the long written message of the Connecticut Missionary Society. Little Otter, in reply, said the whites spoke long, the Indians but little; that the religion of his brother was very good, but only good for white people; it will not do for the Indians; they are a different sort of people.

Mr. Bacon labored in studying the language, in teaching, and in preaching, but soon found an Indian mission required greater expenditures than the society could afford. The mission was abandoned, and in 1804 Mr. Bacon removed to the Western Reserve, and became the first founder of the town of Tallmadge, Ohio. A mission at Mackinaw was maintained by the Presbyterian Church till 1837, when the Indians having almost entirely ceased their visits, the mission was abandoned.

At various points in the far Northwest, Methodists, Baptists, Catholics, and others still have mission settlements, and in some there has been considerable success; but on all the Indian frontier the frauds of white men and the "fire water" they diffuse are alike destructive of Christian influence and of Indian life. The race disappears almost swifter than the pen can record its ruin. The thousands who once gathered in their strength round "Old Mackinaw," are replaced by the few and scattered parties who now revisit the homes of their fathers, and subsist on the charity of the whites. We trace the steps of the missionaries for a hundred and fifty years round the Straits of Mackinaw,

and find the race to which they were sent are almost gone. The Wyandots, whose sepulchral remains are found throughout the valley of the Ohio, are but a feeble band beyond the Mississippi; the Ottawas have retreated to the northern forests of Canada; and the warlike race of the Chippewas have followed the buffalo to the northern prairies.

"Old Mackinaw" has ceased to be the home of the Indian, the colony of the French, or the resort of the Jesuits. Made almost classical in American history by the memorable events which here occurred, it has returned to the wilderness of nature just at the time when its destinies are transferred to a new and an extraordinary race. In the hands of the Anglo-American, its story is again to be renewed, its interest to be revived, its coasts to be filled with a stronger people; its broad expanse of surrounding waters, no more stirred by the light oar of the frail canoe, will be furrowed by the keels of a thousand ships, and resound with the heavy plash of a thousand wheels. It is to this new appearance of the "Old Mackinaw " we would now direct the attention of the reader.

After the acquisition of the French territories in Canada by the English, "Old Mackinaw" was gradually abandoned. The bloody siege by Pontiac had left gloomy memories around it. Desolation reigned around; and Indians, French, and English gradually moved away. Many of the frame buildings, including Marquette's chapel, were moved to the Island of Mackinaw, which became the "New Mackinaw," made important by the establishment of a military post. By the Treaty of Peace in 1783 the island became part of the United States, but was not surrendered by the British till 1793. In the war of 1812 it was retaken by the British, and by the Treaty of Ghent again restored. The United States established a military post there, and thus attracted the few inhabitants which remained in that till recently wild and remote region.

The island is annually resorted to by thousands of travelers, who seek health or pleasure in a voyage through the Northern Lakes. It is situated right in the midst of that vast flow of waters which unite the three great inland seas of the North.

But there are obvious and irresistible reasons why the island cannot be the great commercial point of this region. As an island, it cannot be the terminus of the great railroad lines

which must soon terminate at the straits. As an island, also, it embraces too small a space and too much isolation for a great commercial entrepot. For that we must look to "Old Mackinaw," on the extremity of the Michigan Peninsula, on the American shore, for such a city must be in the United States.

In looking for a moment to what has been done in the surrounding country, and to the ultimate concentration of great social and commercial results at this point, we must notice two remarkable facts in the history of Mackinaw. The first is that the very advantages of its inland water position was the reason why, although one of the earliest settled and known points in this country, it has not yet attracted a great population. The growth of the United States has been from the exterior inward; from the ocean border up navigable rivers to the interior. Thus the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, the mouth of the Hudson, the mouth of the Mississippi, and, finally, even the Bay of San Francisco and the outlet of the Columbia are all settled, great cities founded, and dense populations moving to the interior, while the largest part of North America, in the central portions, remains yet almost a wilderness.

In the very midst of this central portion, and at the confluence of great inland seas whose shores are not yet settled, is Mackinaw, the very heart of the whole; but, for this very reason, almost isolated from social growth, because the waves of population from the exterior have not yet flowed so far into the interior. An acute observer, however, may reasonably infer that whatever points in this great interior have decisive advantages of position, will spring up the faster and stronger when the waves of growing commerce and population concentrate upon them from every side. Such is unquestionably the position of Mackinaw.

We will now note the flowing inward of commerce, people, and states, which has already taken place. If we take a radius from Mackinaw sufficient in length to include Canada West, (which is about the distance from Mackinaw to Cincinnati,) we shall include within the circumference Canada West, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and parts of New York and Pennsylvania. This is an interior. region which has grown and is growing under the second wave from the Atlantic inward. Take the growth of this