During the following winter, 1814-15, peace was concluded between the belligerent nations, and in the spring the post was evacuated by the English, and a company of American troops under Colonel Chambers, took peaceable possession.

CHAPTER VIII.

MACKINAC ISLAND.

THIS island, as far back as we have any account of it, has been a place of great interest. It received its original name from the Indians. An old legend relates that a large number of these people were once assembled at Point St. Ignace and, while intently gazing at the rising of the sun, during the Great Manitou, or February Moon, they beheld the island suddenly rise up from the water, assuming its present form. From the point of observation, it bore a fancied resemblance to the back of a huge turtle, hence they gave it the name Moe'che'ne'mock'e'nung, which means a great turtle. This name, when put into a French dress, became Michilimackinac. From the island it passed to the adjacent points. In some connections in the early history, the name is applied to the section as a whole; in others, to the point north of the Straits; but more frequently, to that south of the Straits now known as Old Mackinac. The term is now obsolete, except as applied to the county which lies immediately north of the Straits in which the island is included. The island has now taken upon itself the name of Mackinac.

Indian mythology makes this island the home of the Giant Fairies, hence the Indians have always regarded it with a species of veneration. The day is still within the memory of many individuals now living on the island when the heathen Indians, in passing to and fro by its shores, made offerings of tobacco and other articles to the these Great Spirits to propitiate their good will. These fairies, we are told, had a subterranean abode under the island, the entrance to which was near

the base of the hill, just below the present southern gate of the fort. An old Indian, Chees'a'kee or Spiritualist, who once encamped within the limits of the present garrison, is related to have visited this abode of the fairies under the following circumstances: During the night, while wrapped in the unconsciousness of a sound slumber, one of these spirits approached the place where he was, laid his shadowy hand upon him and beckoned him to follow. In obedience to the mysterious request, his spirit left the body and went with the fairy. Together they entered into the mystic dwelling-place of the spirits. Here the Cheesakee was introduced to the Great Spirits assembled in solemn conclave. He was lost in wonder and admiration at what he saw around him. The place where they were assembled seemed to be a very large and beautiful wigwam. After spending some time in the fairy abode, the master spirit of the assembly directed one of the lesser spirits to show the Indian out and conduct him back to his body. What were the proceedings of that assembly, the Indian could not be induced to tell, nor were the particulars of what he saw during that mysterious visit ever made known to his fellow red men. From their fairy abodes, these spirits issued forth at the twilight hour to engage "with rapid step and giddy whirl in their mystic dance."

Something of the feeling of veneration which the red men had for this, to them, enchanted island may be learned from the following soliloquy of an old Indian chief. He was just leaving the island to visit his friends in the Lake Superior country. The shades of night were falling around him and the deep blue outlines of the island were dimly shadowed forth. As he sat upon the deck of the steamer and watched the "lovely isle" fast receding from his view, memory was busy in recalling the scenes of by-gone days and the emotions of his heart found expression in these words:

"Moc'che'ne'mock'e'nung, thou isle of the clear, deep-water lake, how soothing it is, from amidst the curling smoke of my opawgun (pipe), to trace thy deep blue outlines in the dis

tance; to call from memory's tablets the traditions and stories connected with thy sacred and mystic character. How sacred the regard with which thou hast been once clothed by our Indian seers of by-gone days. How pleasant in imagination for the mind to picture and view, as if now present, the time when the Great Spirit allowed a peaceful stillness to dwell around thee, when only light and balmy winds were permitted to pass over thee, hardly ruffling the mirror surface of the waters that surrounded thee; or to hear, by evening twilight, the sound of the Giant Fairies as they, with rapid step and giddy whirl, dance their mystic dance on thy limestone battlements. Nothing then disturbed thy quiet and deep solitude, but the chippering of birds and the rustling of the leaves of the silverbarked birch." But these fairy spirits have long since deserted their island home and gone we know not where, and the race of beings in whose imagination they lived has also well nigh passed away.

From Father Marquette's description of the island given in a previous chapter, we learn that it was often the chosen home of the savage tribes. Marquette was doubtless the first. white man to visit it, or at least to dwell upon it. The first

permanent white settlement on this island was made in 1780, 1680?

when the fort and town were removed to this point, not because of its superiority in a commercial or military point of view, but for the security which it afforded against the surrounding Indian tribes. Had that one event of June 4th, 1763, never occurred, this island would no doubt have still been in the hands of nature, and the fort and town at " Old Mackinac,” where they properly belong.

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Contrary to the treaty of 1783, the English held possession of the island until 1795, when they were compelled to give it up. The size and population of the town has varied at different stages of its history. In 1820 it consisted" of about one hundred and fifty houses and some four hundred and fifty permanent inhabitants." At that time there was no school, no religious service, no attorney, and no physician (other than at the

garrison) in the place. There were, however, courts of law, a post office, a jail, and one or more justices of the peace. At present, there are about eight hundred inhabitants, many of whom are engaged in fishing, and absent during a greater part of the summer.

The most interesting feature of the island since the war of 1812 has been its connection with the fur trade carried on by John Jacob Astor, Esq., of New York. Previous to 1809 an association of traders existed, called the Mackinac Company, but at that date Mr. Astor organized the American Fur Company. Two years after this he bought out the Mackinac Company and established a new company known as the SouthWest. During the winter of 1815 and 1816 Congress enacted a law that no foreigner should engage in trade with the Indians who did not become a citizen, and after this Mr. Astor again established the American Company. This company was organized with a capital of two million dollars. It had no chartered right to a monopoly of the Indian trade, yet by its wealth and influence it virtually controlled that trade through a long series of years. The outposts of the company were scattered throughout the whole West and North-west. This island was the great central mart. The goods were brought to the company's storehouses at this point from New York by way of the lakes, and from Quebec and Montreal by way of the Ottawa, Lake Nipissing and French River, and from this point they were distributed to all the outposts, while from all the Indian countries the furs were annually brought down to the island by the company's agents, whence they were sent to New York, Quebec, or the various markets of the Old World. The traders and their clerks who went into "the countries" were employed by the company at a salary of from four to six hundred dollars per year, but the engagés or boatmen who were engaged in Canada, generally for five years, received, besides a yearly supply of a few coarse articles of clothing, less than one hundred dollars per annum. Generally, at the end of five years, the poor voyageurs were in debt from fifty to