d directed to be cut through the
wilderness from Saginaw--Traditions of Ossaganac and of Little Bear Skin
respecting the Lake Tribes.

_1834. May 1st_. At last "the winter is gone and past," and the voice of
the robin, if not of the "turtle," begins to be heard in the land. The
whole day is mild, clear, and pleasant, notwithstanding a moderate wind
from the east. The schooner "Huron" comes in without a _mail_--a sad
disappointment, as we have been a long time without one.

I strolled up over the cliffs with my children, after their return from
school at noon, to gather wild flowers, it being May-day. We came in
with the spring beauty, called _miscodeed_ by the Indians, the adder's
tongue, and some wild violets.

The day being fine and the lake calm, I visited the Isle Rond--the
locality of an old and long abandoned village. On landing on the south
side, discovered the site of an ancient Indian town--an open area of
several acres, with graves and boulder grave stones. Deep paths had been
worn to the water. The graves had inclosures, more or less decayed, of
cedar and birch bark, and the whole had the appearance of having been
last occupied about seventy years ago. Yet the graves were, as usual,
east and west. I discovered near this site remains of more ancient
occupancy, in a deposit of human bones laid in a trench _north_ and
_south_. This had all the appearance of one of the antique ossuaries,
constructed by an elder race, who collected the bones of their dead
periodically. The Indians call this island _Min-nis-ais_, Little
Island. Speaking _of_ it, the local termination _ing_ is added.

During the day the old Indian prophet Chusco came in, having passed the
winter at Chingossamo's village on the Cheboigan River, accompanied by
an Indian of that village, who calls himself Yon, which is probably a
corruption of John, for he says that his father was an Englishman, and
his mother a Chippewa of St. Mary's.

Chusco and Yon concur in stating that the old town on Round Island was
Chi Naigow's, where he and Aishquonaibee's [68] father ruled. It was a
large village, occupied still while the British held old Mackinack, and
not finally abandoned until after the occupancy of the island-post. It
consisted of Chippewas. Chi Naigow afterwards went to a bay of
Boisblanc, where the public wharf now is, where he cultivated land
and died.[69]

[Footnote 68: A Chief of Grand Traverse.]

[Footnote 69: His daughter, who was most lik