which goes there, when it is enveloped by clouds and flaps its wings furiously.

Turning away from the mists of the cataract and its never ceasing roar, we went southwesterly among the pines, over rocks and through swamps, to a time-worn trail leading from the Bad Water village to the Pemenee falls. This had been for many years the land route from Kewenaw bay to the waters of Green bay at the mouth of the Menominee river. When the copper mines on Point Kewenaw were opened, in 1844 and 1845, the winter mail was carried over this route on dog trains, or on the backs of men. Deer were very plenty in the Menominee valley. Bands of Pottawatomies scoured the woods, killing them by hundreds for their skins. We did not kill them until near the close of the day, when about to encamp. Cavalier went forward along the trail to make camp and shoot a deer. I heard the report of his gun, and expected the usual feast of fresh venison. ་ Where is your deer?" "Don't know; some one has put a spell on my gun, and I believe I know who did it."

On an island in Lake Vieux desert, or the Lake of the Old Gardens, there was a band of Chippewas, known as the "Kittakittekons." There is on that island-which is a point in the boundary between Michigan and Wisconsin-ancient earthworks, which probably are of the time of the mound builders and effigy builders of Wisconsin. This lake is at the sources of the Wisconsin river, and near those of the Wolf and Ontonagon rivers.

The Chippewas are spread over the shores and the rivers of Lake Superior, Lake Nipigon, the heads of the Mississippi, the waters of Red lake, Rainy lake and the tributaries of the Lake of the Woods. When Du Lhut and Hennepin first became acquainted with the tribes in that region, the Sioux, Dacotas, or Nadowessioux, and the Chippewas were at war, as they have been ever since. The Sioux of the woods were located on the Rum, or Spirit river, and their warriors had defeated the Chippewas at the west end of Lake Superior. Hennepin was a prisoner with a band of Sioux on Mille Lac, in 1680, at the head of Rum river, called Isatis. When Jonathan Carver was on the upper Mississippi, in 1796, the Chippewas had nearly cleared the country between there and Lake Superior of their enemies. In 1848 their war parties were still making raids on the Sioux and the Sioux upon them.

CHARLES WHITTLESEY.

LOUISIANA-HOW LOST TO THE FRENCH.

The old French and Indian war, begun in 1754, intimately effected the destiny of Louisiana, although her soil was not invaded. As one of its results the valley of the Mississippi was dismembered and the west half thrust upon Spain-an unwillingly accepted gift. Nova Scotia and Canada, the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi, and the lands of far west, even to the shores of the South Sea, as they called the Pacific, belonged to the French or were claimed as theirs. To protect what they actually possessed and support their pretensions, to secure safe intercommunication between the north part of their possessions and the south, and constrain the English to confine themselves to the eastern slope of the Alleghany mountains, a series of defensive works was designed, extending from the Mississippi to the Lakes.

Land hunger on the part of the English, large grants north of the Ohio, restlessness of backwoodsmen, the eagerness of the rivals to monopolize the fur trade, and national antipathies and prejudices, mutually fostered, were among the causes of the war-a war so destructive in the event to the interests of one of the combatants.

Unity of direction, concentration of population at a few points, military spirit and military habits, and the friendship of the Indian tribes who inhabited the western wilderness, were on the side of the French, though inadequately compensating for the disparity of numbers between them and their rivals. All told, their continental possessions contained scarcely sixty thousand souls, whereas the English colonists were estimated at more than a million, besides their alliance with the Iroquois, the most formidable by far of all the northern savages, and especially favorably situated to cooperate in any movement directed against Canadian posts or the regions of the upper Ohio river.

The English who ventured westward were seized and imprisoned; the Virginians resented the act, dispatched forces across the mountains under Washington, who at first was successful and then compelled to capitulate. Fort Duquesne was built where Pittsburgh now stands. Braddock arrived in 1755 with an army, and with auxiliary troops marched westward to

attack the fort. Expeditions against Crown Point and Niagara were planned. Nova Scotia was invaded, the Acadians were overcome and ruthlessly transported to different points in the English colonies. Braddock was defeated with great slaughter. The expedition against Niagara was unsuccessful, that against Crown Point more favorable to British aims. War was formally declared in 1756. Oswego was taken by the French. In 1757 Fort Henry capitulated to Montcalm, and the victory secured him complete possession of Lake George. The general result at the close of the year, although large reinforcements had arrived from England, was disaster and defeat.

In 1758 the influence of William Pitt at the head of the British government was felt in America, and the English commandant, General Abercrombie, was enabled to count upon an aggregate force for the prosecution of the war, of fifty thousand men, two-fifths of whom were colonial troops. Three expeditions were planned—against Louisbourg, Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and Fort Duquesne. The first was taken, the second successfully resisted, and the third, after some temporary advantages over General Forbes, who led the attacking column, was abandoned and burnt. The new post that arose upon its ruins was thereafter known as Fort Pitt. In 1759 Ticonderoga and Crown Point were evacuated by the French, and Sir William Johnson captured Niagara. Wolf attacked Quebec, was killed, as also its defender, Montcalm. The city surrendered.

Face to face the giants stood, a death struggle at hand, an empire to be lost or saved. Note the contrast.

England was governed by the greatest and most masterful of all the distinguished ministers she had ever had, who wielded the resources and the power of a mighty empire with firmness, and vigilance, and vigor, and undaunted perseverance, to the crushing of a rival nation-to this end sacrificing all else and constraining all interests to contribute.

On the other hand, France was under the rule of the miserable Louis XV, as degraded a prince as ever sat upon a throne, whose ambition a new mistress, whose aim in life the gratification of lust, whose companions gilded harlots, whose estimate of money its power to minister to groveling pleasures. Little cared he for success or failure, victory or defeat, honor or dishonor, so long as his ignominious enjoyments were not interfered with; and the revenue of his kingdom, which should have been husbanded to sustain the mighty contest in which the nation was involved, was wasted upon minions that pandered to his vanity, battened on his

vices, took part in his orgies, or gave up their bodies to gratify animal passions so vile and so fierce as to increase with indulgence and know no satiety. Such a thing deserved not success.

In 1760 the combined English force laid siege to Montreal; and in September the stronghold capitulated. The fall of Montreal practically ended the war, as its surrender carried with it that of all Canada, including the posts and forts within her jurisdiction, and left Louisiana at the mercy of the conqueror.

The peace of 1763 terminated ingloriously the continental domination of France in North America. Her feeble grasp was relaxed of a domain the most remarkable, the most valuable, and the most extensive any nation ever possessed since the universal empire of all conquering Rome. The Canada that was known, the northern streams and lakes, and the land they watered, whose extent had not been measured by discovery, the vast territory beyond the Mississippi, the Louisiana that Marquette had given to France and LaSalle explored, of itself a noble heritage for generations unborn, were lost forever.

The causes of this overwhelming disaster that lie on the surface were: First, the relative position of the contestants; a huge semicircle would roughly represent the line circumscribing their respective countries-the English inside, the French on the circumference. Next, disparity of numbers, nearly twenty to one in favor of the British. Third, the energy and activity of the English government, which sent large reinforcements to the colony and urged on the war with a determination to overthrow their opponents forever, whereas but feeble aid was sent by France. Fourth, the wretched system of government imposed upon Louisiana, and the policy of the mother country in her regard, from the very start, under which it would have been a marvel had she prospered and grown strong, and been in a condition to organize formidable flank movements in time of need, against the western borders of the adjacent colonies.

Looking at results in the light of more than a century's experience, the thought is suggested that possibly it would have been better had France either been completely triumphant and possessed the land exclusively with an abundant population, or never attempted to colonize the wilds of the west and south; for somehow the Franco-Canadian population, found in the valley when the French rule ceased, and later when the transMississippi regions were purchased by the United States, has seemed rather overwhelmed by numbers than absorbed or assimilated by the

dominant race. It has maintained its individuality in manners, and customs, and spirit, and to some extent its native tongue; and its ideas and its life seem to lie outside the Hiberno-Teutonic-Anglo-Saxon population which in this century has spread over the land.

For the monuments of the ancient population we look in vain. Where, undispersed, it still vegetates in a few villages, chiefly along the watercourses, founded long ago, it is as its ancestors were when the Bourbon flag was lowered at the citadel of Fort Chartres-unchanged, impassive, a complete stranger to our nineteenth century ideas. A hundred and twenty years have passed, but it has stood still. It has enriched geography with names, and history with events, but suffered its missionaries and its martyrs, a noble band and its noblest representatives, to lie unhonored in forgotten graves, and the memory of its heroes to slumber uncared for in the chronicles of the past; and even to these, if Marquette, and Joliet, and La Salle, and Bienville, and St. Ange, and others are not as dim and shadowy forms, it is not the primitive population of the valley that has revealed them to us as realities. If we look abroad over the face of our earth where men congregating have formed towns and cities, what is there that witnesses to the presence of the race, either collectively or individually, that once possessed the land and still lives in its descendants. Their memorials may be counted upon less than the fingers of one hand. With not one single important work of education, art, science, culture, benevolence or religion are they associated. Rich or poor they acknowledge no claim upon them as citizens in regard to such works, and pass them by with indifference as matters in which they have no concern.

Franco-Canadians discovered the valley of the Mississippi, missionaries of their race led the vanguard of civilization into its savage wilds to dispense the blessings of religion to the red man and the white, and nature offered the advantages of a fertile soil, genial and diversified climate, and suitable waterways for commerce with a lavish hand. An energetic population and good government were all that were needed that a grand empire should arise in the midst of the wilderness. But the rule of the Bourbon weighed heavy upon the land, and those who came to make it their home seem not to have brought with them the native qualities which characterize their race on the other side of the sea.

ST. LOUIS, Mo.

OSCAR W. COLLET.