Alexander Henry's Travels and Adventures in the Years 1760-1776
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oTtialUdkeside OR "' ^ ''^7110 971 Henry, Alexander Henry Alexander Henry's tra^'-els and adventures, in the years 1760-1776. UNlVERSriY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGM ILL HIST. SURVEY 1. Books may be kept two weeks and may be renewed once for the same period, except seven day books, magazines and two-week books which are in demand. 2. A fine of two cents a day will be charged on each book which is not returned according to the above rule. No book will be issued to any person incurring such a fine until it has been paid. 3. All injuries to books beyond reasonable wear and all losses shall be made good to the satisfaction of the Librarian. 4. Each borrower is held responsible for all books drawn on his card and for all fines accru- ing on the same. 3 1750 00167 6728 "^'6'7^lP n9923 Jun9'36? Alexander Henry's Travels and Adventures tE^lje ilabesiDe Cla00ic0 Alexander Henry's Travels and Adventures in the Years 1760- 1776 EDITED WITH HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION AND NOTES MILO MILTON QUAIFE WITH FRONTISPIECE AND MAP //en r|^, 4iaxa?iie.r IThe Lakeside [Press Chicago ^Ije Hahcjjibe J^vt0, Cbicajjo R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY CHRISTMAS, MCMXXI .0 ,0 Crf.5 fSubUisi^erji' J&rcface FROM time to time the preface to these volumes has taken on the form of an intimate talk between the publishers and the reader about the ideals and the or- ganization of The Lakeside Press. Apropos of the extended strike for shortening an already short work week which has recently disrupted the printing industry throughout the country, a statement of its labor policy may not be amiss at this time. It is the ambition of the publishers that The Lakeside Press shall become a peculiar institution in the printing industry; one in which its work shall be carried on in the spirit of the highest traditions of the art and, by a contented and permanent organization of executives and workmen. The Lakeside Press is neither a union nor an open shop; it is honestly non-union. The management of a great industry occupies the position of a trustee both to the public and to its employees. The public should receive its commodities uninterruptedly and at a price as low as is consistent with fair wages, good working conditions, and reasonable profit. The employees should be guaranteed as con- tinuous employment as possible, an opportu- ^uhli^iyn^' preface nity to earn high wages in return for increased production, and protection in their rights as American citizens. The ofi&cers of The Lake- side Press believe that this trusteeship can only be fulfilled when the relations between the management and the employees are unhampered by the arbitrary dictation of union officials who have no direct interest in the welfare either of the estabUshment or its employees. Whatever may have been the necessities in the past for labor unions as a protection against abuse, today the demand of modern industry for contented, smooth-working organizations, and the revelation through factory accounting that high skill at high wages means lower unit costs, are labor's greatest protection. Labor unions, to a great extent have become the tools of ambitious leaders in labor union politics and are kept in existence only for their personal aggrandizement and profit, and by the apatliy and weakness of the em- ployers. Most unions lay an unfair burden on the public, stifle advancement in the art of increasing production and lowering costs, and are a millstone around the necks of the workmen themselves. Of the two thousand odd employees of The Lakeside Press, not one is a member of any labor organization, and in spite of the repeated attempts of the labor unions to en- tice away its employees, the organization has ^iMi^iyn^' ^tdatt been successfully maintained on this basis for sixteen years, through the application of the principle of fair play, and the fact that, un- trammeled with union restrictions, the men have been able to earn more money than elsewhere. During the war, when labor was scarce, the employees did not leave for other jobs; of the 205 men and boys who went to war, four were killed and 196 came back to the plant as "home," and during the many strikes that have disturbed the printing in- dustry in Chicago during the last sixteen years, not one man has gone out on strike. These facts seem satisfactory evidence that The Lakeside Press is "a good place to work." The Apprenticeship School, the Taylor system of scientific management and weekly bonuses for increased efficiency, and the quick settlement of all differences and grievances by frank discussion between the officers and the employees are all contrary to union rules, but are the very foundations upon which the organization has been built up. Should the national unions in the printing industry accept the principle of the open shop and recognize the right of every man to work regardless of his union affiliations, comfort- ably and without molestation, an open shop would be practical and the only one that would be fair. But the national unions do not recognize the open shop except under com- pulsion and accept it only as a temporary ^uhli^lyn^' ^ccface truce in a perpetual warfare. The experience of the last year has proven that the open shops of the country had been secretly organized and their production interrupted by the general strike, while the shops that had been main- tained on the non-union basis were undis- turbed. Only fair dealing can successfully maintain a non-union shop, and the manage- ment of The Lakeside Press, realizing their trusteeship to the public and to their em- ployees, have deliberately assumed the burden of so treating their employees that they neither need nor desire the interference of labor unions. This year we have taken for the subject matter of the volume an early narrative of travel centering around Mackinaw. Henry was the first Englishman to venture out into the wilderness after the French had been deposed from its sovereignty. Outside of its interest as a narrative of pure exploration, its chief interest lies in the fact that the early history' of Chicago is so intimately connected with that of Mackinaw. Mackinaw for a century was the center of the fur trade of the Great Northwest, and until the beginning of the nineteenth century, all approach to Chicago was through that trading center. Mr. Quaife has again consented to act as editor and to prepare the historical intro- duction. THE PUBLISHERS. Christmas, 192 1. viii .. Contents PAGE Historical Introduction xiii Part One: Adventures in Michigan, 1760-64 i 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 to 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 loi 13. The Adventure of the Bones .... 107 14. The Arts of the Medicine Men . 113 15. Removal to the Au Sable 123 16. Lost in the Wilderness 130 17. A Bear Hunt 137 18. Death of a Child 143 ix . ContmtjBf PAGE 19. Return to Mackinac 147 20. Flight to the Sault 153 21. Invoking the Great Turtle .... 161 22. Voyage to Fort Niagara 167 23 The Return to Mackinac 1 74 Part Two: Lake Superior and the Canadian Northwest, 1765-76 .... 181 1. Journey to Chequamegon 183 2. The Winter at Chequamegon . .189 3. Famine at the Sault 198 4. Legends of Nanibojou . 203 5. A Tempestuous Voyage 209 6. The Island of Yellow Sands .... 215 of 7. Operations the Copper Company . 219 8. Journey to Lake Winnipeg , . 227 9. From Lake Winnipeg to Beaver Lake . 243 10. Beaver From Lake to the Prairies . 257 11. A Journey on the Plains 268 12. Hospitality of the Assiniboin .... 275 13. Customs of the Red Men 284 14. The Return to Fort des Prairies . 298 15. Journey to Montreal 305 Index 321 Historical Introduction ^^tjstotical 3!ntroDuction is the year of our Lord, 1760. Under the ITmasterful leadership of William Pitt, the British Empire is just bringing to a trium- phant 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 poUtical 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 in- terminable wilderness sparsely inhabited by scattered tribes of savages, long and repeat- edly have the two countries quarreled over the issue as to which shall control and develop that wilderness. i^ijBftorical S^ntrotiuction The Seven Years' War was the decisive round in this long struggle for the domination of the continent.