Original - North Central Michigan College Library

glleranttrrinterpreter's, and the other two, which werethe smallest, had been used for barracks. Theonly family was that of M. Cadotte, the interpreter,42 whose wife was a Chipewa.The fort is seated on a beautiful plain ofabout two miles in circumference, and coveredwith luxuriant grass; and within sight arethe rapids in the strait, distant half a mile.The width of the strait, or river, is abouthalf a mile. The portage, or carrying-place,commences at the fort. The banks are rocky,and allow only a narrow footpath over them.Canoes, half loaded, ascend on the south sideand the other half of the load is carried onmen's shoulders.These rapids are beset with rocks of the mostdangerous description; and yet they are thescene of a fishery in which all their dangers arebraved and mastered with singular expertness.They are full of whitefish much larger and moreexcellent than those of Michilimackinac, and42This was Jean Baptiste Cadotte, Sr., who came intothe Northwest toward the middle of the eighteenthcentury. In accordance with the custom of his time helived with a Chippewa woman, and in 1756 the couplewere legally married by the Jesuit father at Mackinac.Cadotte made Sault Ste. Marie his headquarters, andfrom here pursued the Indian trade in the Lake Superiorregion until in 1796, induced by the advance ofold age, he made over his property to his two sons, JeanBaptiste and Michel. Both of these men married Chippewawomen, and both became prominent in the tradingannals of the Northwest. The elder Cadotte diedin 1803. Editor.60