1891-92. ] EARLY TRADERS. 259 
From Detroit the favorite route to the Illinois and the Mississippi was 
by the Miami of the Lakes and its tributary the Au Glaize, from which 
there was a portage of twelve miles to the Wabash. The distance to 
Fort Miamis on the Au Glaize was 216 miles. A few French and half- 
breed families occupied a deserted fort, and the Miami village opposite 
could turn out 250 fighting men. Thence to Ouias or Ouiatanon, hard 
by a populous Kickapoo village with the principal town of the Ouias 
(Weas) directly opposite, was 183 miles of rather difficult navigation. 
Vincennes, 240 miles further down the Wabash, had long been an 
important station. A trading-house had been established there in the 
same year that Penn had founded Philadelphia. The permanent popula- 
tion of the French village did not exceed four hundred persons, but the 
Indians for a great distance around constantly resorted to this place for 
their supplies and trade was brisk. The distance by land across the 
prairie to the Illinois was estimated at 240 miles. 
Much shorter but less frequented was the land-route from Detroit to 
Fort St. Joseph on the river of the same name, situated close beside a 
village of 200 Ottawa warriors and another of 150 Pottawatomies. From 
this place there was a portage of four miles to the Kankakee, a branch 
of the Illinois. The distance by water to the Mississippi was 541 miles. 
There was a second portage from the St. Joseph to the Wabash. The 
Chicago river was connected in a similar manner with another branch 
of the Illinois. All of these routes were much used by the Mackinac 
traders. 
The French settlements on the Illinois were flourishing and populous. 
As early as 1750, Pére Vivier had estimated their population at 1100 
whites, 300 negro and 60 Indian slaves. At the date of the conquest it 
was believed to have increased to 2050 whites and goo negroes, but 
many soon afterwards elected to follow the French flag across the Miss- 
issippi rather than submit to English rule. In 1765 the geographer 
Hutchins stated that Kaskaskia had a population of 500 whites and 400 
or 500 negroes; Prairie du Rocher, 100 whites and 80 negroes ; Cahokia, 
300 whites and 80 negroes. 
The station of Michilimackinac, situated on the western shore of the 
straits of the same name, was the distributing point for the trade of the 
farther west and northwest. It had been shrewdly built on the very 
boundary line between the territories of the Ottawa and Chippewa 
Indians, so that when these two nations came to trade, each could encamp 
on its own lands within a stone’s throw of the stockade which stood so 
near the water's edge that the waves frequently dashed against the 
palisades. The Jesuit mission of St. Ignace and about thirty houses 
