Volume 2 — LETTER XXXIII.

Description of the District of Malden.—Establishment of a new British Post there.—Island of Bois Blanc.—Difference between the British and Americans respecting the Right of Possession.—Block Houses, how constructed.—Captain E—’s Farm.—Indians.—Description of Detroit River, and the Country bordering upon it.—Town of Detroit.—Head Quarters of the American Army.—Officers of the Western Army.—Unsuccessful Attempt of the Americans to impress upon the Minds of the Indians an Idea of their Consequence.—Of the Country round Detroit.—Doubts concerning our Route back to Philadelphia.—Determine to go by Presqu’ Isle.—Departure from Detroit.

Malden, October.

MALDEN is a district of considerable extent, situated on the eastern side of Detroit River, about eighteen miles below the town of Detroit. At the lower end of the district there are but few houses, and these stand very widely asunder; but at the upper end, bordering upon the river, and adjoining to the new British post that has been established since the evacuation of Detroit, a little 171town has been laid out, which already contains more than twenty houses, and is rapidly increasing. Hither several of the traders have removed who formerly resided at Detroit. This little town has as yet received no particular name, neither has the new post, but they merely go under the name of the new British post and town near the island of Bois Blanc, an island in the river near two miles in length, and half a mile in breadth, that lies opposite to Malden.

DETROIT.

When the evacuation of Detroit was first talked of, the island was looked to as an eligible situation for the new post, and orders were sent to purchase it from the Indians, and to take possession of it in the name of his Britannic Majesty. Accordingly a party of troops went down for that purpose from Detroit; they erected a small block house on the northern extremity of it, and left a serjeant’s guard there for its defence. Preparations were afterwards making for building a fort on it; but in the mean time a warm remonstrance against such proceedings came from the government of the United States^[14], who 172insisted upon it that the island was not within the limits of the British dominions. The 173point, it was found, would admit of some dispute, and as it could not be determined immediately, 174the plan of building the fort was relinquished for the time. The block house on 175the island, however, still remains guarded, and possession will be kept of it until the matter in 176dispute be adjudged by the commissioners appointed, pursuant to the late treaty, for the purpose of determining the exact boundaries of the British dominions in this part of the continent, which were by no means clearly ascertained by the definitive treaty of peace between the States and Great Britain.

In this particular instance the dispute arises respecting the true meaning of certain words of the treaty. “The boundary line,” it says, “is to run through the middle of Lake Erie until it arrive at the water communication between that lake and Lake Huron; thence along the middle of the said water communication.” The people of the States construe the middle of the water communication to be the middle of the most approved and most frequented channel of the river; we, on the contrary, construe it to be the middle of the river, provided there is a tolerable channel on each side. Now the island of Bois Blanc clearly lies between the middle of the river and the British main; but then the deepest and most approved channel for ships of burthen is between the island and the British shore. In 177our acceptation of the word, therefore, the island unquestionably belongs to us; in that of the people of the States, to them. It appears to me, that our claim in this instance is certainly the most just; for although the best and most commodious channel be on our side, yet the channel on the opposite side of the island is sufficiently deep to admit through it, with perfect safety, the largest of the vessels at present on the lakes, and indeed as large vessels as are deemed suitable for this navigation.

Plans for a fort on the main land, and for one on the island of Bois Blanc, have been drawn; but as only the one fort will be erected, the building of it is postponed until it is determined to whom the island belongs: if within the British dominions, the fort will be erected on the island, as there is a still more advantageous position for one there than on the main land; in the mean time a large block house, capable of accommodating, in every respect comfortably, one hundred men and officers, has been erected on the main land, around which about four acres or more of ground have been reserved for his Majesty’s use, in case the fort should not be built on the island.

BLOCK HOUSE.

A block house, which I have so frequently mentioned, is a building, whose walls are 178formed of thick square pieces of timber. It is usually built two stories high, in which case the upper story is made to project about two or three feet beyond the walls of the lower one, and loop holes are left in the floor round the edge of it, so that if an attempt were made to storm the house, the garrison could fire directly down upon the heads of the assailants. Loop holes are left also in various parts of the walls, some of which are formed, as is the case at this new block house at Malden, of a size sufficient to admit a small cannon to be fired through them. The loop holes are furnished with large wooden stoppers or wedges, which in the winter season, when there is no danger of an attack, are put in, and the interstices closely caulked, to guard against the cold; and indeed, to render the house warm, they are obliged to take no small pains in caulking the seams between the timber in every part. A block house, built on the most approved plan, is so constructed, that if one half of it were shot away, the other half would stand firm. Each piece of timber in the roof and walls is jointed in such a manner as to be rendered independent of the next piece to it; one wall is independent of the next wall, and the roof is in a great measure independent of all of them, so that if a piece of artillery were played upon the house, 179that bit of timber alone against which the ball struck would be displaced, and every other one would remain uninjured. A block house is proof against the heaviest fire of musquetry. As these houses may be erected in a very short time, and as there is such an abundance of timber in every part of the country, wherewith to build them, they are met with in North America at almost every military out-post, and indeed in almost every fortress throughout the country. There are several in the upper town of Quebec.

FARMS.

Amongst the scattered houses at the lower end of the district of Malden, there are several of a respectable appearance, and the farms adjoining to them are very considerable. The farm belonging to our friend, Captain E——, under whose roof we tarry, contains no less than two thousand acres. A very large part of it is cleared, and it is cultivated in a style which would not be thought meanly of even in England. His house, which is the best in the whole district, is agreeably situated, at the distance of about two hundred yards from the river; there is a full view of the river, and of the island of Bois Blanc, from the parlour windows, and the scene is continually enlivened by the number of Indian canoes that pass and repass before it. In front of the house there is a neat little lawn, paled in, 180and ornamented with clumps of trees, at the bottom of which, not far from the water, stands a large Indian wigwam, called the council house, in which the Indians are assembled whenever there are any affairs of importance to be transacted between them and the officers in the Indian department. Great numbers of these people come from the island of Bois Blanc, where no less than five hundred families of them are encamped, to visit us daily; and we in our turn go frequently to the island, to have an opportunity of observing their native manners and customs.

Our friend has told them, that we have crossed the big lake, the Atlantic, on purpose to come and see them. This circumstance has given them a very favourable opinion of us; they approve highly of the undertaking, and say that we have employed our time to a good purpose. No people on earth have a higher opinion of their own consequence; indeed, they esteem themselves superior to every other race of men.

We remained for a short time in Malden, and then set off for Detroit in a neat little pleasure boat, which one of the traders obligingly lent to us. The river between the two places varies in breadth from two miles to half a mile. The banks are mostly very low, and in some places large marshes extend along the 181shores, and far up into the country. The shores are adorned with rich timber of various kinds, and bordering upon the marshes, where the trees have full scope to extend their branches, the woodland scenery is very fine. Amidst the marshes, the river takes some very considerable bends, and it is diversified at the same time with several large islands, which occasion a great diversity of prospect.

FRUITS.

Beyond Malden no houses are to be seen on either side of the river, except indeed the few miserable little huts in the Indian villages, until you come within four miles or thereabouts of Detroit. Here the settlements are very numerous on both sides, but particularly on that belonging to the British. The country abounds with peach, apple, and cherry orchards, the richest I ever beheld; in many of them the trees, loaded with large apples of various dyes, appeared bent down into the very water. They have many different sorts of excellent apples in this part of the country, but there is one far superior to all the rest, and which is held in great estimation, called the pomme caille. I do not recollect to have seen it in any other part of the world, though doubtless it is not peculiar to this neighbourhood. It is of an extraordinary large size, and deep red colour; not confined merely to the skin, but extending to the very core of the apple: if the 182skin be taken off delicately, the fruit appears nearly as red as when entire. We could not resist the temptation of stopping at the first of these orchards we came to, and for a few pence we were allowed to lade our boat with as much fruit as we could well carry away. The peaches were nearly out of season now, but from the few I tasted, I should suppose that they were of a good kind, far superior in flavour, size, and juiciness to those commonly met with in the orchards of the middle states.

The houses in this part of the country are all built in a similar style to those in Lower Canada; the lands are laid out and cultivated also similarly to those in the lower province; the manners and persons of the inhabitants are the same; French is the predominant language, and the traveller may fancy for a moment, if he pleases, that he has been wafted by enchantment back again into the neighbourhood of Montreal or Three Rivers. All the principal posts throughout the western country, along the lakes, the Ohio, the Illinois, &c. were established by the French; but, except at Detroit and in the neighbourhood, and in the Illinois country, the French settlers have become so blended with the greater number who spoke English, that their language has every where died away.

DETROIT.

183Detroit contains about three hundred houses, and is the largest town in the western country. It stands contiguous to the river, on the top of the banks, which are here about twenty feet high. At the bottom of them there are very extensive wharfs for the accommodation of the shipping, built of wood, similar to those in the Atlantic sea-ports. The town consists of several streets that run parallel to the river, which are intersected by others at right angles. They are all very narrow, and not being paved, dirty in the extreme whenever it happens to rain: for the accommodation of passengers, however, there are footways in most of them, formed of square logs, laid transversely close to each other. The town is surrounded by a strong stockade, through which there are four gates; two of them open to the wharfs, and the two others to the north and south side of the town respectively. The gates are defended by strong block houses, and on the west side of the town is a small fort in form of a square, with bastions at the angles. At each of the corners of this fort is planted a small field-piece; and these constitute the whole of the ordnance at present in the place. The British kept a considerable train of artillery here, but the place was never capable of holding out for any length of time against a regular force: the fortifications, indeed, were constructed 184chiefly as a defence against the Indians.

Detroit is at present the head-quarters of the western army of the States; the garrison consists of three hundred men, who are quartered in barracks. Very little attention is paid by the officers to the minutiæ of discipline, so that however well the men may have acquitted themselves in the field, they make but a poor appearance on parade. The belles of the town are quite au desespoir at the late departure of the British troops; though the American officers tell them they have no reason to be so, as they will find them much more sensible agreeable men than the British officers when they know them; a style of conversation, which, strange as it may appear to us, is yet not at all uncommon amongst them. Three months, however, have not altered the first opinion of the ladies. I cannot better give you an idea of the unpolished, coarse, discordant manners of the generality of the officers of the western army of the States, than by telling you, that they cannot agree sufficiently amongst themselves to form a regimental mess; repeated attempts have been made since their arrival at Detroit to establish one, but their frequent quarrels would never suffer it to remain permanent. A duellist and an officer of the western army were nearly synonimous 185terms, at one period, in the United States, owing to the very great number of duels that took place amongst them when cantoned at Grenville.

DETROIT.

About two thirds of the inhabitants of Detroit are of French extraction, and the greater part of the inhabitants of the settlements on the river, both above and below the town, are of the same description. The former are mostly engaged in trade, and they all appear to be much on an equality. Detroit is a place of very considerable trade; there are no less than twelve trading vessels belonging to it, brigs, sloops, and schooners, of from fifty to one hundred tons burthen each. The inland navigation in this quarter is indeed very extensive, Lake Erie, three hundred miles in length, being open to vessels belonging to the port, on the one side; and lakes Michigan and Huron, the first upwards of two hundred miles in length, and sixty in breadth, and the second, no less than one thousand miles in circumference, on the opposite side; not to speak of Lake St. Clair and Detroit River, which connect these former lakes together, or of the many large rivers which fall into them. The stores and shops in the town are well furnished, and you may buy fine cloth, linen, &c. and every article of wearing apparel, as good in their kind, and nearly on as reasonable terms, 186as you can purchase them at New York or Philadelphia.

The inhabitants are well supplied with provisions of every description; the fish in particular, caught in the river and neighbouring lakes, are of a very superior quality. The fish held in most estimation is a sort of large trout, called the Michillimakinac white fish, from its being caught mostly in the straits of that name. The inhabitants of Detroit and the neighbouring country, however, though they have provisions in plenty, are frequently much distressed for one very necessary concomitant, namely, salt. Until within a short time past they had no salt but what was brought from Europe; but salt springs have been discovered in various parts of the country, from which they are now beginning to manufacture that article for themselves. The best and most profitable of the springs are retained in the hands of government, and the profits arising from the sale of the salt are to be paid into the treasury of the province. Throughout the western country they procure their salt from springs, some of which throw up sufficient water to yield several hundred bushels in the course of one week.

DETROIT.

There is a large Roman catholic church in the town of Detroit, and another on the opposite side, called the Huron church, from its 187having been devoted to the use of the Huron Indians. The streets of Detroit are generally crowded with Indians of one tribe or other, and amongst them you see numberless old squaws leading about their daughters, ever ready to dispose of them, pro tempore, to the highest bidder. At night all the Indians, except such as get admittance into private houses, and remain there quietly, are turned out of the town, and the gates shut upon them.

The American officers here have endeavoured to their utmost to impress upon the minds of the Indians an idea of their own superiority over the British; but as they are very tardy in giving these people any presents, they do not pay much attention to their words. General Wayne, from continually promising them presents, but at the same time always postponing the delivery when they come to ask for them, has significantly been nicknamed by them, General Wabang, that is General To-morrow.

The country around Detroit is very much cleared, and so likewise is that on the British side of the river for a considerable way above the town. The settlements extend nearly as far as Lake Huron; but beyond the River La Trenche, which falls into Lake St. Clair, they are scattered very thinly along the shores. The banks of the River La Trenche, or Thames, 188as it is now called, are increasing very fast in population, as I before mentioned, owing to the great emigration thither of people from the neighbourhood of Niagara, and of Detroit also since it has been evacuated by the British. We made an excursion, one morning, in our little boat as far as Lake St. Clair, but met with nothing, either amongst the inhabitants, or in the face of the country, particularly deserving of mention. The country round Detroit is uncommonly flat, and in none of the rivers is there a fall sufficient to turn even a grist mill. The current of Detroit River itself is stronger than that of any others, and a floating mill was once invented by a Frenchman, which was chained in the middle of that river, where it was thought the stream would be sufficiently swift to turn the water wheel: the building of it was attended with considerable expence to the inhabitants, but after it was finished it by no means answered their expectations. They grind their corn at present by wind mills, which I do not remember to have seen in any other part of North America.

The soil of the country bordering upon Detroit River is rich though light, and it produces good crops both of Indian corn and wheat. The climate is much more healthy than that of the country in the neighbourhood 189of Niagara River; intermittent fevers however are by no means uncommon disorders. The summers are intensely hot, Fahrenheit’s thermometer often rising above 100; yet a winter seldom passes over but what snow remains on the ground for two or three months.

REMARKS.

Whilst we remained at Detroit, we had to determine upon a point of some moment to us travellers, namely, upon the route by which to return back towards the Atlantic. None of us felt much inclined to cross the lake again to Fort Erie, we at once therefore laid aside all thoughts of returning that way. Two other routes then presented themselves for our consideration; the one was to proceed by land from Detroit, through the north-western territory of the United States, as far as the head waters of some one of the rivers which fall into the Ohio, having reached which, we might afterwards have proceeded upwards or downwards, as we found most expedient: the other was to cross by water to Presqu’ Isle, on the south side of Lake Erie, and thence go down French Creek and the Alleghany River, as far as Pittsburgh on the Ohio, where being arrived we should likewise have had the choice of descending the Ohio and Mississippi, or of going on to Philadelphia, through Pennsylvania, according as we should find circumstances most convenient. The first of these 190routes was most suited to our inclination, but we soon found that we must give over all thoughts of proceeding by it. The way to have proceeded would have been to set out on horseback, taking with us sufficient provisions to last for a journey through a forest of upwards of two hundred miles in length, and trusting our horses to the food which they could pick up for themselves amongst the bushes. There was no possibility of procuring horses, however, for hire at Detroit or in the neighbourhood, and had we purchased them, which could not have been done but at a most exorbitant price, we should have found it a difficult matter perhaps to have got rid of them when we had ended our land journey, unless indeed we chose to turn them adrift in the woods, which would not have been perfectly suitable to our finances. But independent of this consideration there was another obstacle in our way, and that was the difficulty of procuring guides. The Indians were all preparing to set out on their hunting excursions, and had we even been able to have procured a party of them for an escort, there would have been some risk, we were told, of their deserting us before we reached our journey’s end. If they fell in on their journey with a hunting party that had been very successful; if they came to a place where there was great abundance 191of game; or, in short, if we did not proceed just according to their fancy, impatient of every restraint, and without caring in the least for the hire we had promised them, they would, perhaps, leave us in the whim of moment to shift for ourselves in the woods, a situation we had no desire to see ourselves reduced to: we determined therefore to proceed by Presqu’ Isle. But now another difficulty arose, namely, how we were to get there: a small vessel, a very unusual circumstance indeed, was just about to sail, but it was so crowded with passengers, that there was not a single birth vacant, and moreover, if there had been, we did not wish to depart so abruptly from this part of the country. One of the principal traders, however, at Detroit, to whom we had carried letters, soon accommodated matters to our satisfaction, by promising to give orders to the master of one of the lake vessels, of which he was in part owner, to land us at that place. The vessel was to sail in a fortnight; we immediately therefore secured a passage in her, and having settled with the master that he should call for us at Malden, we set off once more for that place in our little boat, and in a few hours, from the time we quitted Detroit, arrived there.

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