182 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[March 5, 1904. 
Trails of the Pathfinders. 
II. — Alexander Henry, 
The fur trade, which occupied many worthy men dur- 
ing the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth 
century, forms a romantic and interesting part of the 
early history of our country. 
The traders, usually of English and American parent- 
age, associated themselves with the French voyageurs, or 
coureurs_ des bois, whom Masson describes as "those 
heroes of the prairie and forest, regular mixture of good 
and evil, extravagant by nature, at the same time grave 
and gay, cruel and compassionate; as credulous as super- 
stitious, and always irreligious." Traders and voyageurs 
alike were men who braved the xold of winter, the hot 
sun of summer, who suffered every privation, and who 
beat out the unknown path of discovery during all 
seasons, until it became a well-worn trail; all to penetrate 
the great unknown, which might contain everything that 
thie trader desired. The man who lived in those times, 
ahd^ under those conditions, was brave and enduring with- 
out trying to be; he was alert and quick to act, and un- 
wearying in overcoming obstacles. Viewing him from 
the present day, we might call him cruel and without 
feeling ; but in those, times men were taught not to show 
their feelings. Their lives were given in great part to 
surmounting enormous difficulties of travel in unknown 
regions, and to establishing trade relations with unknown 
tribes of Indians, who were oftentimes not disposed to 
be friendly. The fur trader was in constant danger, not 
only from hostile Indians, but often from lack of 
food. 
Alexander Henry was one of these fur traders. He 
came upon the scene just at the close of the French 
regime. At twenty-one he had joined Amherst's army, 
not as a soldier, but in "a premature attempt to share in 
the fur trade of Canada, directly on the conquest of the 
country. Wolfe's victory at Quebec in the previous year 
had aroused the English traders to the opportunity pre- 
. sented of taking over the fur trade which the French 
had opened up, and Amherst's large army was watched 
with great interest as it swept away the last remnant 
of French control. Henry was well fitted for the life that 
he intended to pursue, as he seems to have had knowledge 
of the trading posts of Albany and New York. 
On the 3d day of August, 1761, Henry despatched his 
canoes from Montreal to Lachine on an expedition to the 
regions west of the Great Lakes. Little did he realize 
then that he should be gone from civilization for sixteen 
years ; that he should suffer and want but survive ; should 
see new and strange peoples, discover rivers and lakes, 
build forts, to be used by others who were to follow him, 
trade with the natives, and finally return to hear of the 
capture of Quebec by the Americans, and then go to 
France to tell of his adventures. The route of the expe- 
dition was the usual one. Almost immediately after leav- 
ing Lachine they came to the broad stretch of Lake Saint 
Louis. At St. Anne the men used to go to confession, 
as the voyageurs were almost all Catholics, and at the 
same time offered up their vows; "for the Saint from 
which this parish derives its name, and to whom its 
church is dedicated, is the patroness of the Canadians in , 
all their travels by water." "There is still a further cus- 
■ torn to be observed on arriving at St. Anne's," Henry re- 
Jates, "which is that of distributing eight gallons of rum 
to each canoe for -consumption during the voyage; nor is 
'i't less according to' custom to drink the whole of this 
Jiquor upon the spot. The saint, therefore, and the_ priest 
^■Vv-ere no sooner dismissed than a scene of intoxication 
began in which my men surpassed, if possible, the 
drunken Indian in singing, fighting, and the display of 
savage gesture and conceit." . - 
Continuing up the river,' passing amid beautiful scenes, 
and carrying over. many, portages, they at last reached the 
Ottawa, and soon ascended the Mattawa. Hitherto the 
French were the only: white men that had been known in 
this region. Their relations with the Indians were friendly, 
and the Indians were well aware of the enmity existing 
between the French' and the 'English. In the Lac des 
Chats Henry met several canoes oi Indians returning 
from their winter hunt. They recognized him as an Eng- 
lishman, and 1 cautioned him, declaring tbiat the upper In- 
dians wp-uld kill him when they saw him, and remarked 
the Englishmen were crazy to go 'so'' far after beaver. 
The expeditioii came at kst to Lake Huron, which "lay 
stretched across our horizon like an ocean." It was, per- 
haps, the largest water Henry ha.d; yet seen, and the pros- 
pect was alarming, but the canoes rode \yith the ease of a 
sea bird, and his fears subsided. Coming to the island 
called La Cloche, because "there is here a rock standing 
on a plain, which, being struck, rings like a bell," he 
found)-: Indians, with whom, he traded, and to' whom he 
gave, some rum, .and who, recognizing him a^s an English- 
man, told his rn'en that the Indians at Michili'raackinac 
would certainly kill : him. On the advice of. his friend 
Campion, Henry changed, his garb, . assuming the dress 
usually worn by the Canadians, and, smearing his face 
with dirt and grease, belifeved himself thoroughly 
disguised. 
Faswng.,th§..si95Mth of the-mer ,M}§si5aki| he. found tlje - 
'mm 
Indians inhabiting the north side of Lake Superior culti- 
vating corn in small quantities. 
As be went on, the lake before him to the westward 
seemed to become less and less broad, and at last he 
could see the high back of the island of Michilimackinac, 
commonly interpreted to mean the great turtle. He 
found here a large village of Chippewas, and leaving 
as soon as possible, pushed on about two leagues further 
to the fort, where there was a stockade of thirty houses 
and a church. 
For years now Fort Michilimackinac had been a scene 
of great activity. Established by Father Marquette, and 
kept up by succeeding missionaries, the first to brave the 
unknown terrors of the interior, it was from here in 1731 
that the brave and adventurous Verendryes set out on 
their long journey to the Forks of the Saskatchewan, and 
to the Missouri River. 
It was the half-way house for all the westward pushing 
and eastward coming traders, and a meeting place for all 
the tribes living on the Great Lakes. Here were fur 
traders, trappers, voyageurs, and Indians, hurrying to 
and fro, dressed in motley and picturesque attire. Some 
were bringing in furs from long and perilous journeys 
from the west, while others were on the eve of departure 
westward, and others still were leaving for Montreal. 
The scene must have been gay and active almost beyond 
our powers to imagine. Henry was in the midst of rJl 
this when the word came to hint that a band of Chip- 
pewas wished to speak with him ; and, however un- 
willingl}'', he was obliged to meet them, sixty in number, 
beaded by Minavavana, their chief. "They walked in 
single file, each with a tomahawk in one hand and scalp- 
ing knife in the other. Their bodies were naked from the 
v.'yist upward, except in a few examples, where blankets 
were thrown loosely over the shoulders." Their faces 
were painted with charcoal, their bodies with white clay, 
and feathers were tied in the heads of some, and thrust 
tlirough the noses of others. Before the opening of the 
council, the chief held a conference with Campion, asking 
how long it was since Henry had left Montreal, and ob- 
serving that the English must be brave men, and not 
afraid of death, since they thus ventured to come fear- 
lessly among their enemies. After the pipe had been 
smoked, while Henry "inwardly endured the tortures of 
suspense," the chief addressed him, saying : 
"Englishman, our father, the King pf France, employed 
our young men to make war upon your nation. In this 
warfare many of them have been killed ; and it is our 
custom to retaliate, until such time as the spirits of the 
slain are satisfied. But the spirits of the slain are to be 
satisfied in either of two ways : the first is by the spilling 
of the blood of the nation by which they fell ; the other, 
by covering the bodies of the dead, and thus allaying the 
resentment of their relations. This is done by making 
presents. 
"Englishman, your King has never sent us any 
presents, nor entered into any treaty with us, wherefore 
he and we are still at war; and, until he does these 
things, we must consider that we have no other father, 
nor friend, among the white men than the King of 
France; but, for you, we have taken into consideration 
that you have ventured your life among us, in the ex- 
pectation that we should not molest you. You do not 
come armed, with an intention to make war; you come in 
peace, to trade with us, and supply us with necessaries, 
of which we are in much want. We shall regard you, 
therefore, as a brother, and you may sleep tranquilly, 
without fear of the Chippewas. As a token of our friend- 
ship, we present you with this pipe to smoke." 
In reply, Henry told them that their late father, the 
King of France, had surrendered Canada to the King 
of England, whom they should now regard as their father, 
and that he, Henry, had come to furnish them with what 
they needed. Things were thus very satisfactory, and 
when the Chippewas went away they were given a small 
quantity of rum. 
Henry was now busily at work assorting his goods, 
preparatory to starting on his expedition, when two 
hundred Ottawas entered the fort and demanded speech 
with him. They insisted that he should give credit to 
every one of their young men. to the amount of fifty 
beaver skins, but as this demand would have stripped him 
of all his merchandise, he refused to comply with the 
request. What the Ottawas might have done is uncertain. 
They did nothing, because that very day word was 
brought that a detachment of English soldiers, sent to 
garrison the fort, was distant only five miles, and would 
be there the next day. At daybreak the Ottawas were 
seen preparing to depart, and by sunrise not one of them 
was left in the fort. 
Although it was now the middle of September, the 
traders sent off their canoes on the different trading ex- 
peditions. These canoes were victualed largely with In- 
dian corn at the neighboring village of L'Arbre Croche, 
occupied by the Ottawas. This corn was prepared for 
use by boiling it in a strong lye, which removed the husk, 
after'which it was pounded and dried, making a meal. 
"The allowance for each man on the voyage is a quart a 
day, and a bushel, with two pounds of prepared fat, is 
reckoned to be a month's subsistence. No other allowance 
is made of ahy kiad; not even- of salt; and bread is never 
thought of. The men, nevertheless, are healtb/j and 
capable of performing their heavy labor. This mode of 
victualing is essential to the trade, which, being pursued 
at great distances, and in vessels so small as canoes, will 
not admit of the use of other food. If the men were to 
be supplied with bread and pork, the canoes could not 
carry a sufficiency for six months ; and the ordinary 
duration of the voyage is not less than fourteen." 
The food of the garrison consisted largely of small 
game, partridges and hares, and of fish, especially trout, 
whitefish and sturgeon. Troi|t were caught with set 
Imes and bait, and whitefish with nets under the ice. 
Should this fishery fail, it was necessary to- purchase 
grain, which, however, was very expensive, costing forty 
livres, or forty shillings, Canadian currency ; though there 
v.'as no money in Michilimackinac, and the circulating 
medium consisted solely of furs. A pound of beaver 
was worth about sixty cents, an otter skin six shillings 
Canadian, and marten skins about thirty cents each. 
Having wintered at Michilimackinac, Henry set out in 
May for the Sault de Sainte-Marie. Here there was a 
stockaded fort, with four houses, one of which was occu- 
pied by Monsieur Cadotte, the interpreter, and his Chip- 
pewa wife. The Indians had an important whitefish 
fisher}/ at the rapids, taking the fish in dip nets. In the 
autumn Henry and the other whites did much fishing ; 
and in the winter they hunted, and through the ice took 
large trout with the spear, as he describes it : "In order 
to spear trout under the ice, holes being first cut of two 
3'ards in circumference, cabins of about two feet in height 
are built over them of small branches of trees ; and these 
are further covered with skins so as to wholly exclude 
the light. The design and result of this contrivance is 
to render it practicable to discern objects in the water at 
a very considerable depth; for the reflection of light from 
the water gives that element an opaque appearance, and 
hides all objects from the eye at a small distance beneath 
its surface. A spear head of iron is fastened on a pole 
of about ten feet in length. This instrument is lowered 
into the water, and the fisherman, lying upon his belly,, 
with his head under the cabin or cover, and therefore 
over the hole, lets down the figure of a fish in wood and 
filled with lead. Round the middle of the fish is tied a 
small pack thread, and, when at the depth of ten 
fathoms, where it is intended to be employed, it is made, 
by drawing the string and by the simultaneous pressure 
of the water, to move forward, after the manner of a real 
fish. Trout and other large fish, deceived by its re- 
semblance, spring toward it to seize it, but, by a dexterous 
jerk of the string, it is instantly taken out of their reach. 
The decoy is now drawn nearer to the surface, and the 
fish takes some time to renew the attack, during which 
the spear is raised and held conveniently for striking. 
On the return of the fish, the spear is plunged into its 
back, and, the spear being barbed, it is easily drawn out 
of the water. So completely do the rays of the light per- 
vade the element that in three-fathom water I have often 
seen the shadows of the fish on the bottom, following 
them as they moved ; and this when the ice itself was two 
feet in thickness." 
The burning of the post at the Sault forced all hands to 
return next winter to Michilimackinac, where the earl}- 
spring was devoted to the manufacture of maple sugar, an 
important article of diet in this northern country. 
This spring Indians gathered about the fort in such 
large numbers as to make Henry fearful that something 
unusual lay behind the concourse. He spoke about it 
to the commanding officer, who laughed at him for his 
timidity. The Indians seemed to be passing to and fro 
in the most friendly manner, selling their fur, and attend- 
ing to their business altogether in a natural way. 
About a year before an Indian named Wawatam had 
come into Henry's house, had expressed a strong liking 
for him, and, having explained that years before, after a 
fast, he had dreamed of adopting an Englishman as his 
son, brother, and friend, told Henry that in him he recog- 
nized the person whom the Great Spirit had pointed out 
to him for a brother and that he hoped Henry would 
become one of his faiuily, at the same time making him a 
large present. Henry accepted these friendly overtures, 
and made a handsome present in return, and the two 
parted for the tim^e. 
Henry had almost forgotten his brother, when, on the 
second day of June, twelve months later, Wawatam again 
came to his house and expressed great regret that Henry 
had returned from the Sault. Wawatam stated that he 
intended to go there at once, and begged Henry to accom- 
pany him. He asked, also, whether the commandant had 
heard bad news, saying that during the winter he him- 
self had been much disturbed by the noises of evil birds, 
and that there were many Indians around the fort who 
had never shown themselves within it. Both the chief 
and his wife strove earnestly to persuade Henry to ac- 
company them at once, but he paid little attention to 
their requests, and they finally took their departure, very 
much depressed ; in fact, even weeping. The next day 
Flenry received from a Chippewa an invitation to come 
cut and see the great game of baggatiway, or lacrosse, 
v.-hich his people were going to play that day with the 
Sacs. But as a canoe was about to start for Montreal, 
Henry was busy writing letters, and although urged by a 
friend to go .put and meet another canoe just arrived 
from Petroit; he nevertheless remained in his room, writ" 
