Part 20 (1/2)
A keg of tobacco and a barrel of flour were given to them, and they dispersed as they came, drumming, and yelling and leaping, and flouris.h.i.+ng their clubs and war hatchets.
In the evening we paddled in a canoe over to the opposite island, with the intention of landing and looking at the site of an intended missionary settlement for the Indians. But no sooner did the keel of our canoe touch the woody sh.o.r.e than we were enveloped in a cloud of mosquitoes. It was in vain to think of dislodging the enemy, and after one or two attempts we were fairly beaten back. Mackinaw, as seen from hence, has exactly the form its name implies, that of a large turtle sleeping on the water. I believe Mackinaw is merely the abbreviation of Michilimackinac, _the great turtle_. It was a ma.s.s of purple shadow; and just at one extremity the sun plunged into the lake, leaving its reflection on the water, like the skirts of a robe of fire, floating.
This too vanished, and we returned in the soft calm twilight, singing as we went.
July 29.
Where was I? Where did I leave off four days ago? O--at Mackinaw! that fairy island, which I shall never see again, and which I should have dearly liked to filch from the Americans, and carry home to you in my dressing-box, or, perdie, in my toothpick case; but, good lack, to see the ups and downs of this (new) world. I take up my tale a hundred miles from it; but before I tell you where I am now, I must take you over the ground, or rather over the water, in a proper and journal-like style.
PROCEED TO SAULT-SAINTE-MARIE.
I was sitting last Friday, at sultry noon-tide, under the shadow of a schooner which had just anch.o.r.ed alongside the little pier--sketching and dreaming--when up came a messenger, breathless, to say that a boat was going off for the Sault-Sainte-Marie, in which I could be accommodated with a pa.s.sage. Now this was precisely what I had been wis.h.i.+ng and waiting for, and yet I heard the information with an emotion of regret. I had become every day more attached to the society of Mrs.
Schoolcraft, more interested about her; and the idea of parting, and parting suddenly, took me by surprise, and was anything but agreeable.
On reaching the house, I found all in movement, and learned, to my inexpressible delight, that my friend would take the opportunity of paying a visit to her mother and family, and, with her children, was to accompany me on my voyage.
We had but one hour to prepare packages, provisions, everything--and in one hour all was ready.
This voyage of two days was to be made in a little Canadian bateau, rowed by five _voyageurs_ from the Sault. The boat might have carried fifteen persons, hardly more, and was rather clumsy in form. The two ends were appropriated to the rowers, baggage, and provisions; in the centre there was a clear s.p.a.ce, with a locker on each side, on which we sat or reclined, having stowed away in them our smaller and more valuable packages. This was the internal arrangement.
The distance to the Sault, or, as the Americans call it, the _Sou_, is not more than thirty miles over land, as the bird flies; but the whole region being one ma.s.s of tangled forest and swamp, infested with bears and mosquitoes, it is seldom crossed but in winter, and in snow-shoes.
The usual route by water is ninety-four miles.
At three o'clock in the afternoon, with a favourable breeze, we launched forth on the lake, and having rowed about a mile from the sh.o.r.e, the little square sail was hoisted, and away we went merrily over the blue waves.
THE VOYAGEURS.
For a detailed account of the _voyageurs_, or Canadian boatmen, their peculiar condition and mode of life, I refer you to Was.h.i.+ngton Irving's ”Astoria.” What he describes them to _have been_, and what Henry represents them in his time, they are even now, in these regions of the upper lakes.[35] But the voyageurs in our boat were not favourable specimens of their very amusing and peculiar cla.s.s. They were fatigued with rowing for three days previous, and had only two helpless women to deal with. As soon, therefore, as the sail was hoisted, two began to play cards on the top of a keg, the other two went to sleep. The youngest and most intelligent of the set, a lively half-breed boy of eighteen, took the helm. He told us with great self-complacency that he was _captain_, and that it was already the third time that he had been elected by his comrades to this dignity; but I cannot say he had a very obedient crew.
[Footnote 35: As I shall have much to say hereafter of this peculiar cla.s.s of people, to save both reader and author time and trouble, the pa.s.sage is here given:--
”The voyageurs form a kind of confraternity in the Canadas, like the arrieros or carriers of Spain. The dress of these people is generally half civilised, half savage. They wear a capote or surcoat, made of a blanket, a striped cotton s.h.i.+rt, cloth trowsers or leathern leggings, moccasins of deer-skin, and a belt of variegated worsted, from which are suspended the knife, tobacco-pouch, and other articles. Their language is of the same piebald character, being a French patois embroidered with English and Italian words and phrases. They are generally of French descent, and inherit much of the gaiety and lightness of heart of their ancestors; they inherit, too, a fund of civility and complaisance, and instead of that hardness and grossness, which men in laborious life are apt to indulge towards each other, they are mutually obliging and accommodating, interchanging kind offices, yielding each other a.s.sistance and comfort in every emergency, and using the familiar appellations of _cousin_ and _brother_, when there is in fact no relations.h.i.+p. No men are more submissive to their leaders and employers, more capable of enduring hards.h.i.+ps, or more good-humoured under privations. Never are they so happy as when on long and rough expeditions, towing up rivers or coasting lakes. They are dexterous boatmen, vigorous and adroit with the oar or paddle, and will row from morning till night without a murmur. The steersman often sings an old French song with some regular burthen in which they all join, keeping time with their oars. If at any time they flag in spirits or relax in exertion, it is but necessary to strike up a song of this kind to put them all in fresh spirits and activity.”--Astoria, vol. i. chap. 4.]
LAND ON GOOSE ISLAND.
About seven o'clock we landed to cook our supper on an island which is commemorated by Henry as the Isle des Outardes, and is now Goose Island. Mrs. Schoolcraft undertook the general management with all the alertness of one accustomed to these impromptu arrangements, and I did my best in my new vocation--dragged one or two blasted boughs to the fire, the least of them twice as big as myself, and laid the cloth upon the pebbly beach. The enormous fire was to keep off the mosquitoes, in which we succeeded pretty well, swallowing, however, as much smoke as would have dried us externally into hams or red herrings. We then returned to the boat, spread a bed for the children (who were my delight) in the bottom of it with mats and blankets, and disposed our own, on the lockers on each side, with buffalo skins, blankets, shawls, cloaks, and whatever was available, with my writing-case for a pillow.
After sunset, the breeze fell: the men were urged to row, but pleaded fatigue, and that they were hired for the day, and not for the night (which is the custom). One by one they sulkily abandoned their oars, and sunk to sleep under their blankets, all but our young captain: like Ulysses when steering away from Calypso--
”Placed at the helm he sat, and watched the skies, Nor closed in sleep his ever-watchful eyes.”
He kept himself awake by singing hymns, in which Mrs. Schoolcraft joined him. I lay still, looking up at the stars and listening: when there was a pause in the singing, we kept up the conversation, fearing lest sleep should overcome our only pilot and guardian. Thus we floated on beneath that divine canopy--”which love had spread to curtain the sleeping world:” it was a most lovely and blessed night, bright and calm and warm, and we made some little way, for both wind and current were in our favour.