Volume I Part 2 (1/2)

_N. Y. Col. Docs._, iv. 650.

[23] _Denonville a Du Lhut, 6 Juin, 1686._ Count Frontenac, 133.

[24] ”Sans se destourner et sans s'arrester au bruit des j.a.ppereaux qui crient apres luy.”--_Memoire de La Mothe-Cadillac adresse au Comte de Maurepas._

[25] _Memoire adresse au Comte de Maurepas_, in Margry, v. 138.

[26] La Mothe-Cadillac, _Rapport au Ministre_, 1700, in Margry, v. 157.

[27] _Rapport au Ministre_, 1700.

[28] Cadillac's report of this interview is given in Sheldon, _Early History of Michigan_, 85-91.

[29] _La Mothe-Cadillac a un premier commis, 18 Octobre, 1700_, in Margry, v. 166.

[30] _Callieres au Ministre, 4 Octobre, 1701. Autre lettre du meme, sans date_, in Margry, v. 187, 190.

[31] _Callieres et Champigny au Ministre, sans date._

[32] _Relation du Destroit_ (by the Jesuit who accompanied the expedition).

[33] _Description de la Riviere du Detroit, jointe a la lettre de MM. de Callieres et de Champigny, 8 Octobre, 1701._

[34] _Callieres au Ministre, 9 Novembre, 1700._

[35] _Traite fait avec la Compagnie de la Colonie de Canada, 31 Octobre, 1701._

[36] _Lamothe-Cadillac a Ponchartrain, 31 Aoust, 1703_ (Margry, v. 301).

On Cadillac's relations with the Jesuits, see _Conseils tenus par Lamothe-Cadillac avec les Sauvages_ (Margry, v. 253-300); also a curious collection of Jesuit letters sent by Cadillac to the minister, with copious annotations of his own. He excepts from his strictures Father Engelran, who, he says, incurred the ill-will of the other Jesuits by favoring the establishment of Detroit, and he also has a word of commendation for Father Germain.

[37] _La Mothe-Cadillac a Ponchartrain, 31 Aout, 1703._ ”Toute impiete a part, il vaudroit mieux pescher contre Dieu que contre eux, parce que d'un coste on en recoit son pardon, et de l'autre, l'offense, mesme pretendue, n'est jamais remise dans ce monde, et ne le seroit peut-estre jamais dans l'autre, si leur credit y estoit aussi grand qu'il est dans ce pays.”

[38] _Ponchartrain a La Mothe-Cadillac, 14 Juin, 1704._

[39] _Deed from the Five Nations to the King of their Beaver Hunting Ground_, in _N. Y. Col. Docs._, iv. 908. It is signed by the totems of sachems of all the Nations.

CHAPTER III.

1703-1713.

QUEEN ANNE'S WAR.

The Forest of Maine.--A Treacherous Peace.--A Frontier Village.--Wells and its People.--Attack upon it.--Border Ravages.--Beauba.s.sin's War-party.--The ”Woful Decade.”--A Wedding Feast.--A Captive Bridegroom.

For untold ages Maine had been one unbroken forest, and it was so still.

Only along the rocky seaboard or on the lower waters of one or two great rivers a few rough settlements had gnawed slight indentations into this wilderness of woods; and a little farther inland some dismal clearing around a blockhouse or stockade let in the sunlight to a soil that had lain in shadow time out of mind. This waste of savage vegetation survives, in some part, to this day, with the same prodigality of vital force, the same struggle for existence and mutual havoc that mark all organized beings, from men to mushrooms. Young seedlings in millions spring every summer from the black mould, rich with the decay of those that had preceded them, crowding, choking, and killing one another, peris.h.i.+ng by their very abundance,--all but a scattered few, stronger than the rest, or more fortunate in position, which survive by blighting those about them. They in turn, as they grow, interlock their boughs, and repeat in a season or two the same process of mutual suffocation.

The forest is full of lean saplings dead or dying with vainly stretching towards the light. Not one infant tree in a thousand lives to maturity; yet these survivors form an innumerable host, pressed together in struggling confusion, squeezed out of symmetry and robbed of normal development, as men are said to be in the level sameness of democratic society. Seen from above, their mingled tops spread in a sea of verdure basking in light; seen from below, all is shadow, through which spots of timid suns.h.i.+ne steal down among legions of lank, mossy trunks, toadstools and rank ferns, protruding roots, matted bushes, and rotting carca.s.ses of fallen trees. A generation ago one might find here and there the rugged trunk of some great pine lifting its verdant spire above the undistinguished myriads of the forest. The woods of Maine had their aristocracy; but the axe of the woodman has laid them low, and these lords of the wilderness are seen no more.