Original - North Central Michigan College Library

auto&tifccntureOn the morning of the fourteenth we reacheda trading fort, or house, surrounded by a stockade,which had been built by the French, andat which the quantity of peltries received wasonce not inconsiderable. For twenty milesbelow this house the borders of the river arepeculiarly well adapted to cultivation. Fromsome Indians who were encamped near thehouse I purchased fish, dried and fresh.,At the rapids called Des Allumettes aretwo short carrying-places, above which is the19Riviere Creuse, twenty-six miles in length,where the water flows with a gentle currentat the foot of a high, mountainous, barren androcky country on the north, and has a low andsandy soil on the south. On this southern sideis a remarkable point of sand, stretching farinto the stream, and on which it iscustomaryto baptize novices. Above the River Creuseare the two carrying-places of the length ofhalf a mile e'ach, called the Portages des DeuxJoachins; and at fifteen miles farther, at themouth of the River Du Moine is another fort,or trading-house, where I found a smallencampment of Indians called Maskegons, andwith whom I bartered several articles for furs.They anxiously inquired whether or not theEnglish were in possession of the countrybelow, and whether or not, ifthey were, theywould allow traders to come to that tradinghouse;declaring that their families must starve19 Called by the English Deep River. Author.27