212 NAREATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 



lie built tlie first vessel on the lakes, and sent it np to traffic in 

 furs, was greatly in advance of his age ; but he could hardly have 

 anticipated that his countrymen should have adhered so long to 

 the tedious and dangerous mode of making these long voyages in 

 the bark canoe. It is memorable in the history of the region, 

 that last year (1819) witnessed the first arrival of a steamer at 

 Michilimackinac. It bore the characteristic name of Walk-in- 

 the-water,* the name of a Wyandot chief of some local celebrity 

 in Detroit, during the last war. 



The astonishment produced upon the Indian mind by the arri- 

 val of this steamer has been described to ns as very great; but, 

 from a fuller acquaintance with the Indian character, we do not 

 think him prone to this emotion. He gazes on new objects with 

 imperturbability, and soon explains what he does not understand 

 by what he does. Perceiving heat to be the primary cause of the 

 motion, without knowing how that motion is generated, he calls 

 the steamboat Ishcoda Nabequon, i.e. fire-vessel, and remains pro- 

 foundly ignorant of the motive power of steam. The story of the 

 vessel's being drawn by great fishes from the sea, is simply one of 

 those fictions which white loungers about the Indian posts fabri- 

 cate to supply the wants of travellers in search of the picturesque. 

 The winds seem to be unloosed from their mythologic bags, 

 on the upper lakes, with the autumnal equinox; and we found 

 them ready for their labors early in September; but it was not 

 till the 13th of that month, after a detention of two days, that we 

 found it practicable for canoes to leave the island. Mustering 

 now a flotilla of three canoes, we embarked at three o'clock P. M., 

 with a wind from the east, being moderately adverse, but soon 

 got under the shelter of the island of Boisblanc; we passed along 

 its inner shore about ten miles, till reaching Point aux Pins — so 

 named from the prevalence here of the pinus resinosa. At this 

 point, the wind, stretching openly through this passage from the 

 east, compelled us to land and encamp. The next day, we were 

 confined to the spot by adverse winds. While thus detained, 

 Captain Douglass, under shelter of the island, returned to 



* So called from the -water insect, called Miera by the Wyandots, one of the in- 

 vertebrata which slips over the surface of water without apparently wetting its 

 feet. — Vide Ethnolor/kal Researches, vol. ii. p. 226. 



