bjects by persons not having the information to render them
valuable--Reappearance of cholera--Mission of Mackinack; its history and
condition--Visit of a Russian officer of the Imperial Guards--Chicago;
its prime position for a great _entrepot_--Area and destiny of the
Mississippi Valley.

1834. About the first of July, I embarked for Detroit, for the purpose
chiefly of meeting the Secretary of War, during his summer refuge from
the busy scenes at Washington. There were some questions to be decided
important to my duties at Mackinack and St. Mary's, arising from recent
changes in the laws or regulations. He wrote to me on the 21st of July,
from the White Sulphur Springs, in Virginia, that he should probably
reach Detroit before the 10th or 12th of August; but his delay had been
protracted so much, that after reaching the city I felt compelled to
return to my agency without seeing him.

One reason for this step, which operated upon my mind, was the change in
the partnership and management of the affairs of the American Fur
Company, consequent on Mr. John Jacob Astor's withdrawal from it. This
company was founded by this noted and successful merchant's having
purchased, at the close of the war, about 1815, the trading posts,
consisting of buildings, property, &c., of the British North-West
Company, who had been so long the commercial, and to all practical
intents, the political lords of the regions of the north-west. He
organized the concern in shares, under an act of incorporation of the
Legislature of New York, and began operations by establishing his
central point of interior action at Michilimackinack. This was in 1816.
From data submitted at a treaty at Prairie du Chien by Mr. R. Stuart,
the whole capital invested in the business, was not less than 300,000
dollars. The interior sub-posts were spread over the entire area of the
frontiers up to the parallel of 59 deg. north latitude, extending to the
Missouri. Together with the posts, indeed, the North-West Company turned
over, in effect, some of its agents and the principal part of its
clerks, interpreters, and boatmen for this area, who were, I believe,
without a single exception, foreigners, chiefly Canadian French,
Scotchmen, Irishmen, and perhaps a few Englishmen.

Congress passed an act the same year (1816) providing that this trade
should be carried on under licenses, by American citizens, who were
permitted, however, to employ this class of foreigners, by en