296 APPENDIX. 



have been discovered witliout being obliged to dig very deep. 

 During tbe course of my first voyage to this country, I was ac- 

 quainted with one of our order (Jesuits) who had been formerly 

 a goldsmith, and who, while he was at the mission of Sault de 

 Ste. Marie used to search for this metal, and made candlesticks, 

 crosses, and censers of it, for this copper is often to be met with 

 almost entirely pure." — Journal of a Voyage to North America. 



In 1766, Captain Carver procured several pieces of native cop- 

 per on the shores of Lake Superior, or on the Chippewa and St, 

 Croix Elvers, which are noticed in his travels, without much pre- 

 cision, however, as to locality, &c. He did not visit the southern 

 shores of Lake Superior, east of the entrance of the Brule, or 

 Goddard's Eiver, but states that virgin copper is found on the 

 Ontonagon. Of the north and northeastern shores, he remarks : 

 "That he observed that many of the small islands were covered 

 with copper o?-e, which appeared like beds of copperas, of which 

 many tons lay in a small space." — Three Years' Travels, &c. 



In 1771 (four years before the breaking out of the American 

 Eevolution), a considerable body of native copper was dug out 

 of the alluvial earth on the banks of the Ontonagon Eiver by two 

 adventurers, of the names of Henry and Bostwick, and, together 

 with a lump of silver ore of eight pounds' weight, it was trans- 

 ported to Montreal, and from thence shipped to England, where 

 the silver ore was deposited in the British Museum, after an 

 analysis had been made of a portion of it, by which it was deter- 

 mined to contain 60 per cent, of silver. 



These individuals were members of a company which had been 

 formed in England for the purpose of working the copper mines 

 of Lake Superior. The Duke of Gloucester, Sir William John- 

 son, and other gentlemen of rank were members of this com- 

 pany. They built a vessel at Point aux Pins, six miles above 

 the Sault Ste. Marie, to facilitate their operations on the lake. A 

 considerable sum of money was expended in explorations and 

 digging. Isle Maripeau and the Ontonagon were the principal 

 scenes of their search. They found silver, in a detached form, at 

 Point Iroquois, fifteen miles above the present site of Fort Brady. 

 "Hence," observes Henry, "we coasted westward, but found 

 nothing till we reached the Ontonagon, where, besides the detached 



