Wau-bun | Page 6

I soon learned was a
distinguishing peculiarity of those women in whom are united the
French and native blood.
A lady, then upon a visit to the Mission, was of the company. She
insisted on my lying down upon the sofa, and ministered most kindly to
my suffering head. As she sat by my side, and expatiated upon the new
sphere opening before me, she inquired:
"Do you not realize very strongly the entire deprivation of religious
privileges you will be obliged to suffer in your distant home?"

"The deprivation," said I, "will doubtless be great, but not _entire_; for
I shall have my Prayer-Book, and, though destitute of a church, we
need not be without a mode of worship."
How often afterwards, when cheered by the consolations of that
precious book in the midst of the lonely wilderness, did I remember
this conversation, and bless God that I could never, while retaining it,
be without "religious privileges."
We had not yet left the dinner-table, when the bell of the little steamer
sounded to summon us on board, and we bade a hurried farewell to all
our kind friends, bearing with us their hearty wishes for a safe and
prosperous voyage.
A finer sight can scarcely be imagined than Mackinac, from the water.
As we steamed away from the shore, the view came full upon us--the
sloping beach with the scattered wigwams, and canoes drawn up here
and there--the irregular, quaint-looking houses--the white walls of the
fort, and, beyond, one eminence still more lofty crowned with the
remains of old Fort Holmes. The whole picture completed, showed the
perfect outline that had given the island its original Indian name,
_Mich-i-li-mack-i-nac_, the Big Turtle.
Then those pure, living waters, in whose depths the fish might be seen
gliding and darting to and fro; whose clearness is such that an object
dropped to the bottom may be discerned at the depth of fifty or sixty
feet, a dollar lying far down on its green bed, looking no larger than a
half dime! I could hardly wonder at the enthusiastic lady who
exclaimed: "Oh! I could wish to be drowned in these pure, beautiful
waters!"
As we passed the extreme western point of the island, my husband
pointed out to me, far away to the northwest, a promontory which he
told me was Point St. Ignace. It possessed great historic interest, as one
of the earliest white settlements on this continent. The Jesuit
missionaries had established here a church and school as early as 1607,
the same year in which a white settlement was made at St. Augustine,
in Florida, and one year before the founding of Jamestown, Virginia.

All that remains of the enterprises of these devoted men, is the
remembrance of their labors, perpetuated, in most instances, only by
the names of the spots which witnessed their efforts of love in behalf of
their savage brethren. The little French church at Sandwich, opposite
Detroit, alone is left, a witness of the zeal and self-sacrifice of these
pioneers of Christianity.
Passing "Old Mackinac," on the main land, which forms the southern
border of the straits, we soon came out into the broad waters of Lake
Michigan. Every traveller, and every reader of our history, is familiar
with the incidents connected with the taking of the old fort by the
Indians, in the days of Pontiac. How, by means of a game of ball,
played in an apparently friendly spirit outside the walls, and of which
the officers and soldiers had come forth to be spectators, the ball was
dexterously tossed over the wall, and the savages rushing in, under
pretext of finding it, soon got possession and massacred the garrison.
The little Indian village of L'Arbre Croche gleamed far away south, in
the light of the setting sun. With that exception, there was no sign of
living habitation along that vast and wooded shore. The gigantic
forest-trees, and here and there the little glades of prairie opening to the
water, showed a landscape that would have gladdened the eye of the
agriculturist, with its promise of fertility; but it was evidently
untrodden by the foot of man, and we left it, in its solitude, as we took
our course westward across the waters.
The rainy and gusty weather, so incident to the equinoctial season,
overtook us again before we reached the mouth of Green Bay, and kept
us company until the night of our arrival upon the flats, about three
miles below the settlement. Here the little steamer grounded "fast and
hard." As almost every one preferred braving the elements to remaining
cooped up in the quarters we had occupied for the past week, we
decided to trust ourselves to the little boat, spite of wind, and rain, and
darkness, and in due time