270 Journal of Col. Croghan. 



canoes, and drag them eighteen miles, on account of the rifts 

 which interrupt the navigation. At the end of these rifts, we 

 came to a village of the Wyondotts, who received us very kindly ; 

 and from thence we proceeded to the mouth of this river, where 

 it falls into Lake Erie. From the Miames to the lake is com- 

 puted one hundred and eighty miles, and from the entrance of 

 the river into the lake to Detroit, is sixty miles ; that is, forty- 

 two miles upon the lake, and eighteen miles up the Detroit ri- 

 ver to the garrison of that name. The land on the lake side 

 is low and flat. We passed several large rivers and bays, and 

 on the 16th of August, in the afternoon, we arrived at Detroit 

 river. The country here is much higher than on the lake side ; 

 the river is about nine hundred yards wide, and the current runs 

 very strong. There are several fine and large islands in this river, 

 one of which is nine miles long ; its banks high, and the soil very 

 good. ' 



17th. In the morning we arrived at the fort, which is a large 

 stockade, inclosing about eighty houses, it stands close on the 

 north side of the river, on a high bank, commands a very plea- 

 sant prospect for nine miles above ; and nine miles below the 

 fort ; the country is thick settled with French, their plantations 

 are generally laid out about three or four acres in breadth on 

 the river, and eighty acres in depth ; the soil is good, producing 

 plenty of grain. All the people here are generally poor wretches, 

 and consist of three or four hundred French families, a lazy, idle 

 people, depending chiefly on the savages for their subsistence ; 

 though the land, with little labour, produces plenty of grain, 

 they scarcely raise as much as will supply their wants, in imi- 

 tation of the Indians, whose manners and customs they have en- 

 tirely adopted, and cannot subsist without them. The men, wo- 

 men, and children speak the Indian tongue perfectly well. In 

 the last Indian war the most part of the French were concerned 

 in it, (although the whole settlement had taken the oath of al- 

 legiance to his Britannic Majesty) they have, therefore, great 

 reason to be thankful to the English clemency in not bringing 

 them to deserved punishment. Before the late Indian war there 

 resided three nations of Indians at this place : the Putawatimes, 

 whose village was on the west side of the river, about one mile 

 below the fort ; the Ottawas, on the east side, about three miles 

 above the fort; and the Wyondotts, whose village lays on the 



