S4 EJfPEDITION TO THE- 



Indians finding their i^use de guerre to be unsuccessful, 

 raised the siege. 



No garrison is at present kept up at this place, and it 

 is probable that even in the case of a future war, this post 

 like many others, formerly considered of great importance, 

 will be so surrounded with a white population, as to render 

 any military force in its vicinity unnecessary. The works 

 offer now a comfortable and suitable residence to the gen- 

 tlemen attached to the Indian department. The removal of 

 the garrison, and the decrease of the fur trade, will proba- 

 bly affect for a while the growth of the settlement. But it 

 will eventually resume the importance to which it is enti- 

 tled from its advantageous situation ; as a central point at 

 which three respectable streams connect, it must become 

 the seat of an extensive trade. The St. Mary being navi- 

 gable during part of the year for one hundred and thirty 

 niiles, the St. Joseph for fifty miles, and the Maumee 

 offering during the spring, to boats carrying three hundred 

 barrels, a free navigation along the whole of its course to 

 Lake Erie, (one hundred and sixty miles,) a considerable 

 quantity of produce will necessarily pass at Wayne. The 

 prosperity of the town will be increased by the arrange- 

 ments made by the government of the United States for 

 the sale of the public land in the vicinity. At the time we 

 passed through, we were informed that all the land about 

 the village, and even that upon which it stands, was public 

 propert}^, but that orders had been issued to sell the 

 whole, with the exception of about thirty acres near the 

 fort, which were reserved for the use of the Indian agency. 

 This accounted for the mean appearance of the houses, which 

 are of log, rudely put up, the roofs being made of clap l^oards 

 kept down by logs. No person felt inclined to lay out money 

 in building on property which could not be sold. The point 



