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FONE ee OS LER MER ST NGO RMIT LE! Se Py OIE PRES Le eRe EE RENN et RT i Pe SRE SSW ga eae en ae RR ar ME TREE RS OR THOMPSON'S COAST PILOT. ; 161 foe the savage hunter. 'The three guns which were fired when the 'Griffin' was launched, were probably the first sounds of gunpowder that ever broke upon the stillness of this vast region. 'The wonder- ing Senecas heard in them the thunders, and saw the lightnings of heaven. 'The white man was equally an object of admiration and fear. : " The 'arts of navigation, at this period, upon this great inland sea, were confined to the pats canoe and the rude paddle with which it was propelled. Never 'pefore had the canvas here opened itself to the wind. 'The voyage of La Salle was an era in the history of this por- tion of the world. The immense fur trade with the natives at the ex- tremities of these lakes, which was carried on first by the French and afterwards by the English, was then almost entirely unknown. _ It was but the year before the sites of the first trading houses had been selected. La Salle set sail from the foot of Lake Erie, on the 7th day of August, 1679, with a crew of thirty men, and afrived at Mackinac on the 28th day of that month. The first cargo of furs was put on board the Griffin, and she was ordered by La Salle to re- turn with a crew of six men to Niagara. But a storm was encount- ered, and the vessel and cargo, valued at fifty to sixty thousand francs, with all on board, was lost. Thus was made the first great sacrifice of life and property to the commerce of Lake Hrie. 'Since that period the changes that have been wrought in the country bordering upon and lying beyond these lakes, surpass the dreams of enchantment. Enterprise and energy have penetrated those vast solitudes; the beasts of prey have slunk back into the deep fastnesses of the woods, the native tribes have vanished away like their own majestic forests, and the white man following fast upon their rustling footsteps, has subdued the wilderness to the forms of civilization. «The country from which the furs were gathered at the trading posts at Niagara, Detroit and Mackinac, including a large portion of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, now contains a pop- ulation of 6,926,874. Since the day when La Salle first opened, as it were, to future generations the great highway upon the waters of Lakes Erie and Huron, the progenitors of this mighty multitude have been borne upon its waves by favoring winds ; and innumer- 21