Original - North Central Michigan College Library

there was in the French time a fort, or tradinghouse,called Fort de Bourbon and built byM. de Saint Pierre, a French officer, who wasthe first adventurer into these parts of thecountry. 43At and adjacent to this fort are several ofthe mouths of the river Sascatchiwaine. Herewe took several sturgeon, using a seine themeshes of which were large enough to admit thefish's head and which we made fast to two canoes.On the sixth we ascended the Sascatchiwaine,the current of which was here only moderatelystrong; but the banks were marshy and overflowedso that it was with difficulty we founda dry space large enough to encamp upon.Beaver lodges were numerous, and the riverwas everywhere covered with geese, ducks, andother wild fowl. No rising ground was to beseen and the wood, which was chiefly willow,nowhere exceeded a man's wrist in thickness.On the eighth we resumed our voyage beforedaylight, making all speed to reach a fishingplace,since winter was very fast approaching.Meeting two canoes of Indians, we engagedthem to accompany us as hunters. The numberof ducks and geese which they killed wasabsolutely prodigious.43In 1766 Carver calls Lake de Bourbon " the mostnorthward of those yet discovered." Author.Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de la Vrendrye,notable explorer of the Canadian Northwest, establishedFort Bourbon here in 1 749. The Lake is nowknown as Cedar Lake. Editor.248