about our military eftablifhments. The ammunition which they receive
is employedto skill-game, in order to procure rum in return, though their
families may be in a -ftarving condition : hpnce it is,; that, in consequence
o f flothful and diffolute lives, their numbers are in a very perceptible
hate of diminution.
From the Detour to the ifland of Michilimakinac, at the confluence of
the Lakes Huron and Michigan, in latitude 45.54. North is about forty-
miles. T o keep the direél courfe to Lake Superior, thé north, flipre
from the river Teffalon ihould be followed ; crofting to the North-Weft
end o f St. Jofeph, and palling between it and the adjacent iflands, which
makes a diftance o f fifty miles to the fall of St. Mary, at the foot of
which, upon the . South Ihore, there is a village, formerly a placé of great
refort for the inhabitants of Lake Superior, and confequently pf cqpfi-
derable trade : it is now, however, dwindled to nothing, and reduced
to about thirty families, o f the Algonquin nation, who are one half of
the year ftarving, and the other half intoxicated, and ten or twelve Canadians,
who have been in the Indian country from an early period of
life, and intermarried with the natives who have brought them families.
Their inducement to fettle there, was the great quantity of white filh
that are "to be taken in and about the falls, with very little trouble, particularly
in the autumn, when that filh leaves the lakes, and comes to
the running and {hallow waters to fpawn. Thefe, when fait can be pro-;
cured, are pickled juft as the froft lets in, and prove very good food with
potatoes, which they have of late Cultivated with fuccefs. The native^
live chiefly on this filh, which they hang up by the tails, and preferve
throughout the whiter, or at léaft as long as they laft ; for whatever
quantity
quantity,-they tftay'have taken; it is never known that their asconóÈf-
is fuch as to; make them laft through the winter, which renders their
fituatioif vetoy’diftreffing ; for if they had aftivity fuffieient to purfue the
labours-öf the chafe, the woods are become fo-barren o f game as to
afford them no great profpett of relief. In the fpring of the year they,
and the.other inhabitants, make a quantity of fugar from the maple tree,
which they exchange with the traders for rieCeffary articles, or carry it
to Miehiiimakinac, where they exp'eft a-.better pHcd.-’^One o f thefe
traders was agent for the North;Weft Company, receiving, ftoririg, and
forwarding fuch articlès -as come by the-way of the lakes upon their
veffels: for ;it% to'be obferVed, that a quantity- of their goods are Tent
by that route from Montreal in, boats to Kingfton, at the entrance of
Lake Ontario; and from thence in. veffels to Niagara, then over land ten
miles to a water communication, by boats, to Lake Erie, where they
are again received into veffels, and carried over that lake up the river
Detroit, through the lake and river Sinclair to Lake Huron, and from
thence to the Falls of St. Mary’s, when they are again landed and carried
for a mile above the falls, and Ihipped over Lake Superior to the Grande
Portage. This is found to. be a lefs expenfive method than by canoes,
but attended with more rilk, and requiring more time, than one Ihort
feafon of this country will admit; for the goods are always fent from
Montreal the preceding fall; and befides, the company get the whole
•of their prpvifions from Detroit, as flour and Indian corn ; as alfo
confiderable fupplies from Michilimakinac of maple fiigar, tallow,
gum, &c. &c.
For the purpofè o f conveying all thefe things, they have two veffels