Page:History of the Ojibway Nation.djvu/441

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HERTEL BEAUBASSIN'S CAREER.
431

tion of the Governor of Canada, relative to the exchange of prisoners. After this he was the commandant at La Pointe,[1] and left in 1756, with Ojibways, as allies for the French, in the war against the English of New York and New England.[2]

TRAGIC OCCURRENCE AT LA POINTE ISLAND.

The editor of the Detroit Gazette, on the 30th of August, 1822, published[3] an account of a tragedy which is said to have occurred on Cadotte's, Middle, or Montreal Island of the old voyageurs, now called La Pointe or Madaline Island. The trader William Morrison had related the following story to a friend.

In the autumn of 1760, there was only one trader on the Island, with his wife from Montreal, a young son, and a servant. During the next winter the servant killed the trader and his wife and son. When traders, in the spring, returned to the post they inquired for the missing trader and family. The servant said that in March they went to a sugar camp, and had never come back. After the snow melted they found the bodies buried near the post. The servant was then seized, and in a canoe sent to Montreal for trial. When the Indians, in charge of the canoe, reached the Longe Saut, of the St. Lawrence River, they learned of the advance of the English forces in Canada, and with the prisoner became a war party against the English and allied Indians. Not being successful, they commenced the return voyage, bringing the murderer with them. When they approached the Sault Ste. Marie,

  1. N. Y. Col. Docs. x. 424.
  2. De Ramelia was in 1744 commandant at Nepigon. In 1747, Du Plessis de Morampont was in command at Kamanetiguia, afterwards Fort William. In 1752 Beaujeu de Ville Monde was there. The next year he was sent to Mackinaw. He did not die until June 5, 1802, in Canada.
  3. The entire article has been reprinted in the 8th volume of the Wisconsin Historical Society Collections.