Mississippi to its mouth. Having received from the king
the command of Fort Frontenac, at the northern extremity of Lake
Ontario, and a monopoly of the fur trade in all the countries he should
discover, he sailed from Larochelle in a ship well armed and abundantly
supplied, in June, 1678. Ascending the St. Lawrence to Quebec, he
repaired to Fort Frontenac. With a large number of men he paddled, in
birch canoes, to the southern extremity of Lake Ontario, and, by a
portage around the falls of Niagara, entered Lake Erie. Here he built a
substantial vessel, called the _Griffin_, which was the first vessel
ever launched upon the waters of that lake. Embarking in this vessel
with forty men, in the month of September, a genial and gorgeous month
in those latitudes, he traversed with favoring breezes the whole length
of the lake, a voyage of two hundred and sixty-five miles, ascended the
straits and passed through the Lake of St. Clair, and ran along the
coast of Lake Huron three hundred and sixty miles to Michilimackinac,
where the three majestic lakes, Superior, Michigan and Huron, form a
junction.

Here a trading post was established, which subsequently attained
world-wide renown, and to which the Indians flocked with their furs from
almost boundless realms. Mr. Schoolcraft, who some years after visited
this romantic spot, gives the following interesting account of the
scenery and strange life witnessed there. As these phases of human life
have now passed away, never to be renewed, it seems important that the
memory of them should be perpetuated:

"Nothing can present a more picturesque and refreshing spectacle to the
traveler, wearied with the lifeless monotony of a voyage through Lake
Huron, than the first sight of the island of Michilimackinac, which
rises from the watery horizon in lofty bluffs imprinting a rugged
outline along the sky and capped with a fortress on which the American
flag is seen waving against the blue heavens. The name is a compound of
the word _Misril_, signifying great, and _Mackinac_ the Indian word for
turtle, from a fancied resemblance of the island to a _great turtle_
lying upon the water.

"It is a spot of much interest, aside from its romantic beauty, in
consequence of its historical associations and natural curiosities. It
is nine miles in circumference, and its extreme elevation above the lake
is over three hundred feet. The town is pleasantly situated around a
small bay at the southern ex