Alexander Henry's Travels and adventures in the years 1760-1776

Front matter

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<\ y o ♦ x ^ A

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Part One: Adventures in Michigan, 1760-64 1

1 . Embarking upon the Fur Trade ... 3

2. The Voyage to Mackinac 15

3. Arrival at Mackinac 29

4. Reception at Mackinac 39

5. The Winter at Mackinac 54

6. A Visit to Sault Ste. Marie 59

7. Destruction of the Fort and Return tp Mackinac . ... 63

8. The Gathering Storm 72

9. A Ball Game and a Massacre ... 78

10. First Days of Captivity ..... 86

1 1 . The Journey to Beaver Island ... 95

12. Rescued by Wawatam 101

13. The Adventure of the Bones . . . .107

14. The Arts of the Medicine Men . . . 113

15. Removal tg the Au Sable 123

16. Lost in the Wilderness 130

17. A Bear Hunt 137

18. Death of a Child 143

ix

Content^

19. Return to Mackinac . .

20. Flight to the Sault .

21. Invoking the Great Turtle

22. Voyage to Fort Niagara

23 . The Return to Mackinac .

Part Two: Lake Superior and the Canadian Northwest, 1765-76

1. Journey to Chequamegon .

2. The Winter at Chequamegon

3. Famine at the Sault

4. Legends of Nanibojou .

5. A Tempestuous Voyage .

6. The Island of Yellow Sands .

7. Operations of the Copper Company

8. Journey to Lake Winnipeg

9. From Lake Winnipeg to Beaver Lake 10. From Beaver Lake to the Prairies n. A Journey on the Plains .

1 2 . Hospitality of the Assiniboin .

13. Customs of the Red Men .

14. The Return to Fort des Prairies

15. Journey to Montreal .

Index

PAGE l8l

183 189 198 203 209

215 219 227 243

257 268

275 284 298

Historical Introduction

IT is the year of our Lord, 1760. Under the masterful leadership of William Pitt, the British Empire is just bringing to a triumphant conclusion the terrible Seven Years' War which for long has deluged a world with blood. From a somewhat narrower point of view this war has been but another round in England's second Hundred- Year Duel with France for the political dominance of the earth. For almost two hundred years the rival mother nations have been fostering in America a New France and a New England. Stretched along the Atlantic coastal plain from Maine to Georgia is the thin line of colonies which go to compose the latter. Encircling these, with one center of settlement on the lower St. Lawrence and the other at the mouth of the Mississippi, two thousand miles away, are the imperial possessions of New France. Although her population is but a handful, and that of the English colonies but a few hundred thousand, around and between which stretches the interminable wilderness sparsely inhabited by scattered tribes of savages, long and repeatedly have the two countries quarreled over the issue as to which shall control and develop that wilderness.

Xlll

^igtorxcal ^ntrotmctitm

The Seven Years' War was the decisive round in this long struggle for the domination of the continent. It began in the backwoods of America with a contest for the possession of the Ohio Valley. It was ended when in the autumn of 1 759 a combined land and sea force of twenty-seven thousand Englishmen conquered the citadel of Quebec. The capture of Quebec is one of the decisive struggles of military history. It won for General Wolfe an early grave and an immortal fame; it ended for all time the dream of a greater France, while it gave the future of North America into the keeping of the Anglo-Saxon; it foreshadowed the development of the British Empire on its modern basis, and the birth of the United States as an independent nation.

In the province of New Jersey in 1739 was born a youth since known to fame by the name of Alexander Henry. Of the first twenty years of his life practically nothing is known. Of the succeeding sixteen years, we have his own record in the narrative which follows. The slogan of recent years "Trade follows the Flag" finds ready exemplification in the career of Henry. When, in the summer of 1760, General Amherst's army invaded Canada for the purpose of reducing Montreal and thus ending the war, Henry attached himself to the expedition in a commercial capacity, and at this point begins his narration of "travels and adventures." Disaster promptly overtook him,

xiv

^i^torical ^ntrotmction

his boats being wrecked and all his merchandise lost in the rapids of the St. Lawrence. Not long after, he encountered by chance a Frenchman who had spent long years in the Indian country as a trader; and the stories he told of the wealth to be won in the fur trade fired Henry with the determination to proceed to Mackinac and from this center begin the prosecution of this hazardous calling.

Doubly hazardous was it at the time Henry proposed going into the Northwest. Although New France had fallen, the Indian tribes had not been conquered, and they viewed with sullen hostility the approach of the representatives of the nation which had vanquished their French "Father." Under the inspiration and leadership of Pontiac, one of the greatest figures in the history of the Indian race, they rose against the English, and all along the far-flung western frontier the scalping-knife gleamed and the tomahawk descended. Thus Henry, at Mackinac, found himself in the midst of the conflict, and his story of what befell him has been incorporated almost word for word by the master historian, Parkman, in his narrative of the Great Conspiracy.

The war ruined Henry but it did not break his dauntless spirit or satiate his appetite for adventure. Upon its conclusion, therefore, we find him embarking upon the fur trade anew; pioneering for copper in the Lake Superior region, whence in a later century almost untold

XV wealth in mineral was to be drawn; resuming again the fur trade, in pursuit of which he was drawn to the utmost verge of the region known to white men. The recital of these years on Lake Superior and in the far Northwest occupies the second part of our volume; it constitutes a distinct narrative from that contained in Part One, and the two might well have appeared as separate volumes. But as Henry himself put them together in his lifetime, so we reproduce them here, in a single book of travel and adventure.

At the period when his narrative concludes, 1T enry was a man of but thirty-seven. During his years in the wilderness the. quarrel between tne English colonies and the Mother Country had arisen and progressed to its culmination at Philadelphia, on the very day that Henry set out upon his return to civilization, in the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States. From this succession of events Henry had been as far removed as though upon another planet. Reaching Montreal in the summer of 1776, he set out that same year for England; crossing to France, he was presented at court, and to the day of his death almost half a century later he retained a vivid recollection of the attention bestowed upon him by the beautiful and unfortunate queen, Marie Antoinette.

Thenceforth Montreal was Henry's home, although he made two more voyages to Europe

xvi ii^igtorical 3 r ntrotmttton

and paid one or more visits to the Indian country. From Montreal he prosecuted for some years the fur trade, conducting, meanwhile, the business of a local merchant. He remained one of the substantial citizens of the place until his death in April, 1824. His eldest son, William, was long prominent in the Canadian fur trade; his second son, Charles, was slain by natives on the Liard River of northwestern Canada, while thus engaged; and a nephew, likewise named Alexander Henry, perished in the Columbia River, having left behind a set of journals, which, unpublished for almost a century, are among the most valuable records of the time and place to which they belong.

With this brief view of our author's career taken, it remains to appraise his book. For the record of the massacre at Mackinac and its attendant events, Henry's work is our only detailed narration. For the period of northwestern trade and exploration described in Part Two, Henry is an early and valuable, although not unique, authority. Occupying such a position in our historical literature, it is obviously a matter of importance to determine what measure of credence may properly be accorded his narrative.

Henry himself offers perhaps the best method of approach to this problem. In his preface he informs us that " the details [of his fur-trade career] from time to time committed to

xvii paper, form the subject matter of the present volume." It is obvious, therefore, that the author did not keep a day-by-day journal of events; and that his narrative as it comes to us is the fruit of his recollections set down at different times during the period of his life subsequent to the conclusion of the travels and adventures which are so vividly described by him. A record thus produced may possess great value, but to all lawyers and all historians it is a commonplace that this value, however great it may be, will be different in quality from that attaching to a day-by-day record of events. The human memory is at best a fallible instrument. Men in later years frequently recall events which never took place; as frequently they transform, in memory, the true character and circumstances attendant upon the occurrence of events; and it is sometimes even possible for an observer to trace the progressive steps in the transformation.

With these considerations in mind, we will not expect to find in Henry's story that accuracy of detail which characterizes the journal of contemporary events. It will not be strange to find that distances are sometimes misstated, 1 that dates given are frequently incorrect, and that the story is subject to

1 An additional reason for this is, of course, the fact that Henry is commonly giving estimates made by eye,

xviii iiHgtorical ^ntrotmctitm

correction in various other respects. But the more important consideration, in appraising the narrative, pertains to quite another question; did Henry desire to set down a truthful record; and was he capable, in general, of doing so ?

On this point two opinions have been advanced. In general, Henry's bona fides has been accepted by scholars without qualification, following the lead of Parkman. More recently, however, Henry Bedford- Jones, in a booklet published at Santa Barbara, has delivered a sweeping attack upon Henry. 2 The spirit of the accusation is perhaps sufficiently indicated in the following lines of verse which preface the booklet:

Garrulous old trader, sitting with a jorum Close beside your elbow, and tobacco blowing free, Easy 'tis to picture you, spinning to a quorum Of pop-eyed New York burghers your tales of

deviltry!

How you must have made them palpitate and

shiver As you warmed up to your narrative of blood

and massacree!

How you must have chortled as you saw 'em shake

and quiver

rather than the precise determinations which result from scientific surveys.

2 The myth Wawatam or Alexander Henry Refuted, Being an Exposure of certain Fictions Hitherto Unsuspected of the Public; with which are also found some remarks upon the famous old Fort Michilimackinac * * * (Santa Barbara, 191 7.)

xix i^igtorical Storoiiuctton

To your tales of shocking escapades by trail and

lake and river — I'm afraid you were a liar, but you knew how to

deliver Your auditors of Gotham from the shackles of

ennui!

In support of this charge of willful mendacity against Henry, the writer calls attention to certain erroneous statements of detail, a form of criticism to which Henry's narrative is clearly vulnerable; but so carelessly have the accusations been drawn that it would be easy to retort upon the critic the very charge he brings against Henry. 3 Not to go farther afield, the sole factual basis for the verse picturing the "garrulous old trader" engaged in spinning his yarns for the entertainment of an audience of "pop-eyed New York burghers" is the single circumstance that his book was published by a New York printer. There is no hint in it — or elsewhere to the present writer's knowledge — that Henry ever lived in New York, or indeed that he ever saw that city.

3 Thus, Henry's account (in Part One, chap. VII) of his trip from Mackinac to the Soo is described as "ludicrously inaccurate; and from Point Detour, finding the lake open, our hero pushes on and sends back aid — but fails to say how he crossed the open straits." But on turning to Henry's account we find that after the party reached Point Detour a delay of more than a week ensued, as to part of which it is expressly stated that the weather was "exceedingly cold." Only a hypercritic could require further explanation than this as to how Henry crossed the "open straits."

Details aside, the most important accusation made by Mr. Jones is that the entire story of Henry's relations with Wawatam and Chief Minavavana is a myth, and that these characters never in fact existed. If this charge be true, then indeed all confidence in Henry's narrative becomes impossible. Looking to the evidence in support of these assertions, however, we find that it practically reduces to this, that Minavavana is unknown outside the pages of Henry. "A son of Matchekewis, captor of Mackinac," says the critic, "told Schoolcraft that the name was entirely strange to him." But when we turn to Schoolcraft for confirmation, we find that his witness was suspicious and unwilling to talk, and that Schoolcraft expressly cites the incident as an illustration of the difficulty of a white man's getting the truth from an Indian!

Criticism of such character as this reveals itself to be is of the stuff of which dreams are made, and unworthy of serious consideration; 4 and a more candid and capable critic must enter the lists before the historical repute of Henry's narrative can be seriously shaken. For myself, I see no sufficient reason for doubting Henry's honesty, and his narrative itself

4 1 have noticed it thus far only because, as far as my knowledge goes, it is the latest publication on the subject of Henry's book, and as yet has evoked no notice or answer. In editing a new edition of Henry, therefore, it seems proper to place his critic's attack in its proper setting.

xxi i^i^torical ^ntraimttion

discloses internal evidence of shrewdness and insight on the part of its author. Necessarily, since it is a personal narration, his own doings and point of view receive constant emphasis. For this the intelligent reader will make due allowance, as he will for such errors of precise detail as may disclose themselves. That these should occur in the recital of sixteen years of travel and adventure is inevitable. Equally inevitable is it that the author could not have abandoned himself to willful mendacity without leaving evidences of the habit which would be patent to the scholar who follows on his trail; and when such a scholar as Francis Parkman accords to Henry a certificate of good faith we may be sure that his book is something other than a collection of yarns spun for the delectation of a group of "pop-eyed New York burghers."

From quite another point of view Henry's narrative deserves attention. It is evident that Henry must have received some education, but in his twenty-first year he plunged into the wilderness, not to emerge therefrom for sixteen long years. Such a career is not in close accord with the curriculum laid down in the schools for the training of him who aspires to become a writer. Yet in some mysterious manner Henry had become a master of English and this, his sole production, is literature in the best sense of the term. The shelves of our libraries are loaded down with books, dry

xxii iijigtorical Stotrotmction

as the desert of Sahara, whose authors have devoted their lives to the professed pursuit of learning. But here is a man whose formal education could scarcely have gone beyond the stage of the modern common school, and who for a decade and a half lived in an environment of savagery wherein his life was at no time worth an hour's purchase; yet he has written a book instinct with literary charm and artistry. How was the miracle wrought? I do not profess to know, but I rejoice in the opportunity which is afforded me of helping to give Henry's narrative a wider circulation than it has hitherto had, and of bringing it to a fresh circle of readers.

Henry's book was first published at New York in 1809 with the title "Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories Between the years 1760 and 1776. How large the edition was we have no information. Copies of it have now become so rare as to be practically inaccessible to most readers. In 1901 a reprint edition of 700 copies was brought out at Boston and Toronto under the scholarly editing of James Bain. In this reprint the typographical and other peculiarities of the original edition were carefully preserved, so that the text is "almost a facsimile" of the earlier volume. In editing the narrative for the Lakeside Classics I have thought proper to adopt a different procedure. While faithfully preserving the author's text and footnotes, no

xxiii iiHgtorical ^ntrotmction

effort has been made to repeat the typographical peculiarities of the original edition, for which, presumably, the printer, rather than the author, was responsible. On the contrary, the punctuation, chapter heads, and other typographical details of this edition are the work of the present editor; and in a few instances, where propriety clearly dictated this course, obvious errors in the text have been corrected. This procedure will not, of course, commend the book to professional scholars, but these have, or can readily gain, access to the original edition; the Lakeside Classics are issued for the delectation of a different class of readers. The footnotes of the original edition are distinguished from those supplied by the editor by the signature "author" or "editor" (as the case may be) appended to each note.

Milo M. Quaife.

Madison, Wisconsin.

xxiv

TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES

IN

CANADA

AND

THE INDIAN TERRITORIES

BETWEEN THE YEARS 1760 AND 1776

In Two Parts By ALEXANDER HENRY, ESQ.

New York Printed and Published by I. Riley

DISTRICT OF NEW YORK, ss.

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the twelfth day of October, in the thirtyfourth year of the Independence of the United States of America, ISAAC RILEY, of the said district, hath deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words following, to wit:

"Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories, between the years 1760 and 1776. In two parts. By ALEXANDER HENRY, Esq."

IN CONFORMITY to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned"; and to an act, entitled, "An act, supplementary to an act, entitled, an act for the encouragement of . learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving and etching historical and other prints."

Charles Clinton, Clerk of the District of New York. xxvii

To

The Right Honourable

SIR JOSEPH BANKS, BARONET;

Knight - Companion

of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath;

one of His Majesty's

Most Honourable Privy Council;

President of the Royal Society, F. S. A.

THIS VOLUME

with great deference,

is most respectfully dedicated,

By

his very devoted,

and very humble servant,

ALEXANDER HENRY

Montreal, October 20th, 1809.

preface

A PREMATURE attempt to share in the fur trade of Canada, directly on the conquest of the country, led the author of the following pages into situations of some danger and singularity; and the pursuit, under better auspices, of the same branch of commerce, occasioned him to visit various parts of the Indian Territories.

These transactions occupied a period of sixteen years, commencing nearly with the author's setting out in life. The details, from time to time committed to paper, form the subject matter of the present volume.

The heads, under which, for the most part, they will be found to range themselves, are three: first, the incidents or adventures in which the author was engaged; secondly, the observations, on the geography and natural history of the countries visited, which he was able to make, and to preserve; and, thirdly, the views of society and manners, among a part of the Indians of North America, which it has belonged to the course of his narrative to develop.

Upon the last, the author may be permitted to remark, that he has by no means undertaken to write the general history of the American

xxxi preface

Indians, nor any theory of their morals, or their merits. With but few exceptions, it has been the entire scope of his design, simply to relate those particular facts, which are either identified with his own fortunes, or with the truth of which he is otherwise personally conversant. All comment, therefore, in almost all instances, is studiously avoided.

Montreal, October 20th, i8og.

XXXll

Chapter i EMBARKING UPON THE FUR TRADE

IN the year 1760, when the British arms under General Amherst were employed in the reduction of Canada, I accompanied the expedition which subsequently to the surrender of Quebec l descended from Oswego on Lake Ontario against Fort de Levi, one of the upper posts situate on an island which lies on the south side of the great river St. Lawrence, at a short distance below the mouth of the Oswegatchie. 2 Fort de Levi surrendered on the twenty-first day of August, seven days after the commencement of the siege; and General Amherst continued his voyage

1 Quebec surrendered on the eighteenth of September, 1759. — Author.

2 Following the capture of Quebec by General Wolfe, the French forces still remaining in the field retired upon Montreal. Tq complete the conquest of Canada, the British directed, in the summer of 1760, three simultaneous converging expeditions against Montreal. The most formidable of these, led by Amherst, the commander-in-chief, proceeded from Lake Ontario down the St. Lawrence River — an army of about 1 1 ,000 men embarked in 800 bateaux and whale-boats. Fort Levis, near modern Ogdensburgh, N.Y., built by the French in 1759 to guard the western entrance to the St. Lawrence, and garrisoned by 300 men, was taken on August 25 after a brief siege'. — Editor.

&lej;an&er i^enrp down the stream, carrying his forces against Montreal.

It happened that in this voyage one of the few fatal accidents which are remembered to have occurred in that dangerous part of the river below Lake St. Francais, called the Rapides des Cadres, befell the British army. Several boats loaded with provisions and military stores were lost, together with upward of a hundred men. I had three boats loaded with merchandise, all of which were lost; and I saved my life only by gaining the bottom of one of my boats, which lay among the rocky shelves, and on which I continued for some hours, and until I was kindly taken off by one of the General's aides-de-camp.

The surrender of Montreal, 3 and with it the • surrender of all Canada, followed that of Fort de Levi at only the short interval of three days, and proposing to avail myself of the new market which was thus thrown open to British adventure I hastened to Albany, where my commercial connections were, and where I procured a quantity of goods with which I set out, intending to carry them to Montreal. For this, however, the winter was too near approached; I was able only to return to Fort deLevi (to which the conquerors had now given the name of Fort William Augustus) and where I remained until the month of January in the following year.

3 Montreal surrendered September 8, 1760. — Editor.

Cratoefe anfc &&toentureg

At this time, having disposed of my goods to the garrison and the season for traveling on the snow and ice being set in, I prepared to go down to Montreal. The journey was to be performed through a country inhabited only by Indians and by beasts of the forest, and which presented to the eye no other change than from thick woods to the broad surface of a frozen river. It was necessary that I should be accompanied as well by an interpreter as by a guide, to both of which ends I engaged the services of a Canadian, named Jean Baptiste Bodoine.

The snow which lay upon the ground was by this time three feet in depth. The hour of departure arriving, I left the fort on snowshoes, an article of equipment which I had never used before, and which I found it not a little difficult to manage. I did not avoid frequent falls; and when down I was scarcely able to rise.

At sunset on the first day we reached an Indian encampment of six lodges and about twenty men. As these people had been very recently employed offensively against the English, in the French service, I agreed but reluctantly to the proposal of my guide and interpreter, which was nothing less than that we should pass the night with them. My fears were somewhat lulled by his information that he was personally acquainted with those who composed the camp, and by his assurances aieranfcer J^enrp that no danger was to be apprehended; and being greatly fatigued, I entered one of the lodges, where I presently fell asleep.

Unfortunately Bodoine had brought upon his back a small keg of rum, which, while I slept, he opened, not only for himself but for the general gratification of his friends; a circumstance of which I was first made aware in being awakened by a kick on the breast from the foot of one of my hosts, and by a yell, or Indian cry which immediately succeeded. At the instant of opening my eyes I saw that my assailant was struggling with one of his companions, who, in conjunction with several women, was endeavoring to restrain his ferocity. Perceiving, however, in the countenance of my enemy the most determined mischief, I sprung upon my feet, receiving in so doing a wound in my hand from a knife which had been raised to give a more serious wound. While the rest of my guardians continued their charitable efforts for my protection, an old woman took hold of my arm, and making signs that I should accompany her, led me out of the lodge, and then gave me to understand that unless I fled or could conceal myself I should certainly be killed.

My guide was absent, and without his direction I was at a loss where to go. In all the surrounding lodges there was the same howling and violence as in that from which I had escaped. I was without my snowshoes, and had

€ratoel£ anfc &&toentureg

only so much clothing as I had fortunately left upon me when I lay down to sleep. It was now one o'clock in the morning in the month of January, and in a climate of extreme rigor.

I was unable to address a single word in her own language to the old woman who had thus befriended me; but on repeating the name of Bodoine, I soon found that she comprehended my meaning; and having first pointed to a large tree, behind which she made signs that until she could find my guide I should hide myself, she left me on this important errand. Meanwhile, I made my way to the tree and seated myself in the snow. From my retreat I beheld several Indians running from one lodge to another, as if to quell the disturbance which prevailed.

The coldness of the atmosphere congealed the blood about my wound and prevented further bleeding; and the anxious state of my mind rendered me almost insensible to bodily suffering. At the end of half an hour I heard myself called by Bodoine, whom, on going to him, I found as much intoxicated and as much a savage as the Indians themselves; but he was, nevertheless, able to fetch my snowshoes from the lodge in which I had left them, and to point out to me a beaten path, which presently entered a deep wood, and which he told me I must follow.

After walking about three miles I heard, at length, the footsteps of my guide, who had now

&Iexan&er J^enrp overtaken me. I thought it most prudent to abstain from all reproof; and we proceeded on our march till sunrise, when we arrived at a solitary Indian hunting-lodge, built with branches of trees, and of which the only inhabitants were an Indian and his wife. Here the warmth of a large fire reconciled me to a second experiment on Indian hospitality. The result was very different from that of the one which had preceded it; for after relieving my thirst with melted snow and my hunger with a plentiful meal of venison, of which there was a great quantity in the lodge, and which was liberally set before me, I resumed my journey, full of sentiments of gratitude, such as almost obliterated the recollection of what had befallen me among the friends of my benefactors.

From the hunting lodge I followed my guide till evening, when we encamped on the banks of the St. Lawrence, making a fire and supping on the meat with which our wallets had been filled in the morning.