the discoverer, yet he was certainly the first settler of the Mississippi valley, and the father of colonization in the "far West." As such his memory is imperishable, and will ever be honored. The Illinois settlements of Peoria, Kaskaskias, and Cahokia, are the fruit of La Salle's labors. It is true he did not found these places, yet he gave them their inhabitants, for it was by those whom he led into the West that they were peopled. Perseverance and courage, combined with a noble ambition to promote the interests of his country, led him into a gallant but unsuccessful career of enterprise. He did what he could to benefit his country; and if he had lived he might have achieved much more splendid results.

CHAPTER VII.

THE SAULT STE. MARIE FORT ST JOSEPII - DETROIT FOUNDED-ITS EARLY CONDITION ATTACKED BY THE OTTAWAS- BY THE FOXESEARLY FRENCH TRAVELERS THROUGH THE LAKE REGION.

NO SETTLEMENT had at this time been made at Detroit, because the traders and Jesuit missionaries had a more direct and safer route to the upper lakes, from Montreal to Michilimackinac, by the way of the Ottawa River. But this point had long been regarded an eligible position for a settlement, as it commanded a broad tract of country, and stood, as it were, at the gate of the upper lakes, in a direct route from these lakes to the English colonies of New York, by the way of Lake Erie.

The French and English both desired to obtain possession of this post. But while the English were looking to its acquisition, they were anticipated by their rivals. Taking counsel from the movements of their opponents, the French called a grand meeting of the Iroquois, or Five Nations, at Montreal. The chiefs of the different tribes from the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi, attended this meeting; also the principal men and the Governor-General of Canada. Here the establishment of a post at that place was discussed, and the grounds on which the two nations based their claims to it weighed. The Iroquois, however, said that, understanding the French were about to make a settlement at that point, they were opposed to the measure, as they had already prohibited the English from doing the same. The Governor-General of Canada replied that the land belonged neither to the Iroquois nor to to the English, but to the King of France, and that there was already an expedition on the march for the purpose of erecting a colonial establishment at that place. In accordance with this plan, Antoine de la Motte Cadillac, lord of Bouaget, Mont Desert, having been granted a tract of fifteen acres square, by

Louis XIV, left Montreal, accompanied by a Jesuit missionary and one hundred men, and arrived at the point of the wilderness which is now the site of Detroit, in the month of July, 1701, where they commenced the foundation of the first permanent settlement

GEN. JOSEPH O. HUDNUT.

JOSEPH OPDYKE HUDNUT, son of Edward and Susan (Opdyke) Hudnut, was born at West Sparta, Livingston county, New York, June 30, 1824. He prepared for college at Genesee Academy, New York, under Prof. Robinson, author of Robinson's series of mathematics. Since graduation he has been engaged mostly in civil engineering, with the exception of two years and a half in the army during the war of secession. In the fall of 1849 he entered on his engineering profession, being engaged on the State canals of New York. He remained on the canals during 1849,

in Michigan. Before, it had only been known by the French missionaries as a trading post, and in 1610 it was occupied by an Indian village, which was called Teuchsa Grondie. The Sault Ste. Marie, as we have seen, had at that time been founded, and a rude post was also erected at Fort Gratiot, which was a restingpoint for the fur trade.

This chain of fortifications was all the defense which was constructed upon the lake shores for nearly a century and a half, and it comprised a part of that line of forts that was projected by La Salle, extending from the St. Lawrence down the Mississippi to New Orleans. Their object was to furnish outposts by which the territory of Canada on the borders of the lakes could be held, the English settlements hemmed in, the Jesuit missionaries and settlers protected against the numerous and capricious tribes of savages in this quarter, and by which the fur trade might circulate, with full success, along the lakes and streams of the Northwest. The forts of Detroit, Michilimackinac, St. Joseph and Green Bay, were of rude construction, and the chapels erected by their sides were used for the religious assemblies of the French settlers, who were from that time collected around the posts, and also for the Indians who were under the special guardianship of the Jesuit missionaries. These structures, minute points on the borders of the forest, were either roofed with bark or thatched with straw, and on their top was generally erected the cross. Tribes of friendly Indians that could be induced to settle near them, had

1850 and 1851. In the spring of 1852 he went to Memphis, Tenn., and run the first survey of the railroad from Memphis to Clarksville Tenn. In 1853, 1854 and 1855, he was on the Louisville & Nashville and Louisville & Covington Railroads, in Kentucky. In 1855 he removed to Waverly, Iowa, and in that year and in 1856 he was on the Iowa Central R. R. In 1858 he taught mathematics in the Genesee Academy, and in 1859 he taught in the Chicago High School. In the spring of 1860 he returned to Iowa, and was engaged as civil engineer on the Hannibal & St. Joseph R. R. In the winter of 1861-2 he was a member of the Iowa Legislature, and in May, 1862, he entered the army as Major of the 38th Regiment of Iowa Volunteers. He was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel, Colonel and Brigadier-General. While in the army he was much on detached service as military engineer, most of the time on the fortifica

their villages or wigwams around these posts, and also their planting grounds, in which they cultivated Indian corn, not only for the French settlers, but also for the persons connected with the fur trade. They derive their principal importance from the fact that they were the only outposts of the French government in this country before the English conquest, and, consequently, the theatres of the most interesting frontier operations.

About three years after Detroit was founded, the Ottawa Indians in that vicinity were invited to Albany, in New York, upon what was supposed to be a friendly visit. As St. Joseph was surrounded by villages of the Hurons, Pottawatomies, and Miamis, so also was Detroit, at that time, guarded by parts of the friendly tribes of the Hurons and Pottawatomies near the settlements, and an Ottawa village had been erected on the opposite bank of the river. It would appear that while the Ottawas were in Albany, they had been persuaded by the English, who even then wished to obtain possession of the post of their rivals, that it was the design of the French to wrest the dominion of the country from their hands; and they accordingly set fire to the town, but without success, as the fire was soon extinguished. At this time, also, groups of savages of the same tribe, having made a successful expedition against their enemies the Iroquois, and warm with victory, were seen parading in hostile array in front of the fort; but M. Tonti, who was the commandant of the post, despatching the Sieur de Vin

tions at Vicksburg, Miss., and afterwards in building a military railroad from Brazos Harbor to Brownsville, Texas, with a shell bridge across the Boca Chica. At the close of the war he was elected Professor of Civil Engineering in the University of Chicago, which position he still retains, with occasional leave of absence for engineering purposes. In 1866 he made a survey and the estimates for a ship canal from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi river. In 1867 he was on the location of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific R. R., and the location of the bridge at Omaha, Nebraska. In February, 1868, he went on the Union Pacific R. R., and located nearly all that part of it from the North Platte river to the Humboldt Wells, and in the winter and spring of 1868 and 1869 he ran the preliminary surveys for a railroad from the north end of Salt Lake, through Idaho and Oregon, to Portland, Oregon, and Puget Sound. Afterwards he was engaged as civil engineer on the St. Paul & Chicago