Page:History of the Ojibway Nation.djvu/220

 

CHAPTER XVII.

 

COMMENCEMENT OF BRITISH SUPREMACY.

 

The Ojibways of Lake Superior do not join the alliance of Pontiac against the British—They are kept in the paths of peace through the influence of a French trader at Sault Ste. Marie—John Baptiste Cadotte—His first introduction into the Ojibway country—He marries a woman of the tribe, and settles at Sault Ste. Marie—His influence—Character of his Indian wife—Testimony of Alex. Henry—Henry proceeds to the Sault in Madame Cadotte's canoe—Kind reception by Mons. Cadotte—A party of Indians seek his life—He is preserved through Cadotte's influence—Sir Wm. Johnson sends a message to the Ste. Marie's Ojibways—They send twenty deputies to the Grand Council at Niagara—Return of peace—Ma-mong-e-se-da is sent from Shaug-a-waum-ik-ong to Sir William Johnson to demand a trader—Brief sketch of this chieftain's life—Henry and Cadotte enter into the fur trade—They work the copper mines—Grant of land at Sault Ste. Marie to Mons. Cadotte.

 

That portion of the Ojibways, forming by far the main body of the tribe, who occupied the area of Lake Superior, and those bands who had already formed distinct villages on the headwaters of the Mississippi and its principal northeastern tributaries, were not engaged in the bloody transaction of the taking of Fort Michilimackinac, or at most, but a few of their old warriors who have all now fallen into their graves, were noted as having been accidentally present on the occasion of this most important event in the history of their tribe.

It is true that the war-club, tobacco, and wampum belt of war had been carried by the messengers of Pontiac and his lieutenant, the Mackinaw chieftain, to La Pointe, and the principal villages of the tribe on Lake Superior, but the Ojibways listened only to the advice and the words of peace of a French trader who resided at Sault Ste. Marie, and from this point (with an influence not even surpassed by that which his contemporary, Sir Wm. Johnson, wielded