proach each other until they reach the region of the lakes, and then again begin to diverge, but are not nearly as far apart on the Atlantic coast as on the Pacific. In other words, the cold of the Arctic regions, if we may so speak, presses farther down in the eastern than in the western portions of the continent, and farther in the center than at either edge. In the longitude in which we live, then, a difference of a few degrees of latitude will make a greater climatic difference than anywhere else in North America, a fact that in part accounts for the extreme difference between a "Lake Superior" winter and a winter in one of the southern counties, and with the retarding effect of the Great Lakes upon climate, gives in some ways greater restriction to agricultural operations in the upper peninsula than in, for example, the province of Manitoba.

CHAPTER II

MICHIGAN AND NEW FRANCE

13. REFERENCES

Original: Voyages by Peter Esprit Radisson, publications of the Prince Society, 1885.-Sheldon's Early History of Michigan, chapters I-XVI (New York, 1856).—New Voyages to North America, by Baron La Hontan, London, 1735.-A Voyage to North America, by P. de Charlevoix, Vol. II., Dublin, 1766.—Voyage au Nouvelle Découverte d'un Très Grand Pays dans L'Amérique Entre le Nouveau Mexique et la Mer Glaciale. Par le R. P. Louis Hennepin, Amsterdam, 1704.-The Jesuit Manuscript in possession of Mr. C. M. Burton; translated and published in Detroit papers in 1899.—Cadillac's Village, an exceedingly valuable pamphlet on the early settlement of Detroit, by C. M. Burton.

Secondary: Lanman's History of Michigan. (New York, 1839) Chapters I-V.-Historical and Scientific Sketches. (Published by the Historical Society of Michigan, Detroit, 1833): Paper 1, by Lewis Cass, Early History; Paper 2, by Henry R. Schoolcraft, Indians.—Parkman, The Pioneers of France in the New World (Boston, 1885). Samuel de Champlain and His Associates, chapters I., IX., X., XI., XII., XIII., XIV., XV., XVII; The Jesuits in North America; La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West; The Old Régime in Canada, Section Third; Count Frontenac and New France; A Half Century of Conflict, chapters I., II., XII., XIII., XIV., XV., XVI., XVII., and Appendix A.-T. M. Cooley, Michigan, chapters I. and II. (Boston, 1885).—J. V. Campbell, Political History of Michigan, chapters I.-VI. (Detroit, 1876).-B. A. Hinsdale, The Old Northwest, chapters I.-IV. (New York, 1899).-Chas. Moore, The Northwest under Three Flags, chapters I. and II. (New York, 1900).—Two interesting papers by Hon. C. I. Walker in Vol. VIII. of Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections: Early Detroit, pp. 415 ff.; Father Marquette, pp. 368 ff.-Sketch of Life of Cadillac, by Mr. Alfred Russell. Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, Vol. XXIX, p. 318.-Father Marquette, by Reuben G. Thwaites (New York, 1902).

ΙΟ

14. We who are now living in Michigan and know it as a settled, civilized community, in close touch with civilized conditions on every side, seldom stop to consider what must have been the situation of this region, and its relation to the outer world, before the present conditions were brought into existence. Now our natural communication is with the west and the south and the east, by way of Chicago, Cincinnati and Buffalo. Our present methods of communication, about all of which have been created in the last seventy years, our natural sympathy and intercourse with our own people, as distinguished from those of a different allegiance, and the powerful ties of an extensive domestic trade, much greater and more important to us than any foreign trade, all make us think of ourselves as a part of the great country lying mostly to the south of us, and this now seems to us our natural relation. But its naturalness is a sort of second nature, for a moment's thought will show that our original relations must have been quite different.

15. The ancestors of the present inhabitants of our two peninsulas were, of course, people of the old world. They approached the continent from the east, and the eastern coast was first to be settled. Michigan is remote from the coast, and its original connection would be with those coast regions to which there were the easiest routes of communication. Before the use of steam the rivers were the roads for interior traffic and travel, and if we study the topography of the country, we see that such roads do not lie through those of our sister states with which we are now in closest touch, but that the St. Lawrence River, with its tributary streams and waters, was the great natural high

way to our doors. It was accordingly by this route. that Michigan was first approached.

16. Now, it was this fact that gave character to our earliest history. For the French were the people first to take possession of the St. Lawrence Valley. They explored its vast territories and founded therein settlements; and the province which they first established came to be known as Canada. At a later period this same nation, through a series of as remarkable explorations as were ever made, laid claim to the whole Mississippi Valley, the very heart of this great continent of ours, and this vast region they called New France. Michigan at first, therefore, and this was its natural relation, was a part of Canada, and it was never anything else until almost the close of the eighteenth century. Its early history is accordingly an integral part of the history of Canada and of New France.

17. Of course, it is no part of our present purpose to study the history of Canada. But the French possession of the St. Lawrence Valley is the first great fact in our own history as well as in that of our neighbor to the north, and there are many other such events that we must know about in order to understand the peculiar character of our past.

In 1506 "one Denis of Honfleur explored the gulf of St. Lawrence." In 1534 Jacques Cartier, a bold sailor of St. Malo, explored the St. Lawrence River all the way up to the foot of its first rapids. He discovered the great gorge of the Saguenay; a little farther up on a high bluff, afterwards to become famous, he saw the squalid Indian village of Stadaconé; and on an island below the rapids, at the foot of a mountain he called Mont Real, he found the great Iroquois town of

Hochelaga. From this remarkable voyage of discovery there were two important results. In the first place from the Indians at Hochelaga Cartier heard wonderful stories of a land of gold and rubies, on farther to the west, and of people white like the French. China must be a little beyond, and Cartier and explorers who came after him were anxious to push forward in the direction this wonderful region was supposed to lie.

18. Then, ever since the voyage of Cabot in 1497, and possibly before, Norman, Breton, and Basque fishermen frequented the coast of Newfoundland. These from this same voyage of Cartier's began to learn that to trade with Indians was much more profitable than to fish for cod, and from fishermen gradually became fur traders. The trade thus started was, of course, at first small, but it grew steadily year by year, and by the end of the century had reached great proportions. Then the humble people who had begun and developed it were no longer allowed to enjoy it. For the Marquis de la Roche bargained with the King of France to settle Canada in return for a complete monopoly of its trade. It is of no importance to us that he failed. The important thing is that here we have a great characteristic feature of Canadian history. The schemes of settlement were based on the fur trade; to the end of French dominion in Canada that trade was a monopoly, and long after France had lost all her vast possesions in America, it continued to be the very source of all Canadian life and activity.

19. When Champlain founded Quebec in 1608, on the site of Stadaconé, events again conspired to lead him westward. He knew the stories Cartier had heard, and so was anxious to press in the direction of