Fort Howard is seated on a handsome fertile plain, on the north banks of the Fox, near its mouth. It consists of a stockade of timber, thirty feet high, inclosing barracks, which face three sides of a quadrangle. This forms a fine parade. There are blockhouses, mounting guns, at the angles, and quarters for the surgeon and quartermaster, separately constructed. The whole is whitewashed, and presents a neat military appearance. The gardens of the military denote the most fruitful soil and genial climate. Data observed by the surgeon, indicate the site to be unexcelled for its salubrity, such a disease as fever, of any kind, never having visited it, in either an endemic or epidemic form.
The name of Green Bay is associated with our earliest ideas of French history in America. When La Salle visited the country in the 17th century, it had been many years known to the French, and was esteemed one of the prime posts for trading with the Indians. The chief tribes who were located here, and in the vicinity, making this their central point of trade, were the Puants, i. e. Winnebagoes, Malomonies, or Folle Avoins, known to us as Menomonies, Sacs, and Foxes, called also Sakis, Outagami, and Renouards, and it was also the seat of trade for the equivocal tribe of the Mascoutins. The present inhabitants are, with few exceptions, descendants of the original French, who intermarried with Indian women, and who still speak the French and Indian languages. They are indolent, gay, and illiterate. I was told there were five hundred inhabitants, and about sixty principal dwellings, beside temporary structures. There are seventy inhabitants enrolled as militia-men, and the settlement has civil courts, being the seat of justice from Brown County, Michigan, so called in honor of Major-General Jacob Brown, U. S. A. The place is surrounded by the woodlands and forests, and seems destined to be an important lake-port.[ [125] The Algonquin name for this place is Boatchweekwaid, a term which describes an eccentric or abrupt bay, or inlet. Nothing could more truly depict its singular position; it is, in fact, a kind of cul-de-sac—a duplicature of Lake Michigan, with the coast-shore of which it lies parallel for about ninety miles.
The singular configuration of this bay appears to be the chief cause of the appearances of a tide at the point where it is entered by Fox River. This phenomenon was early noticed by the French. La Hontan mentions it in 1689. Charlevoix remarks on it in 1721, and suggests its probable cause, which is, in his opinion, explained by the fact that Lakes Michigan and Huron, alternately empty themselves into each other through the Straits of Michilimackinac. The effects of such a flux and reflux, under the power of the winds, would appear to place Green Bay in the position of a siphon, on the west of Lake Michigan, and go far to account for the singular fluctuations of the current at the mouth of the Fox River. On reaching this spot of the rising and falling of the lake waters, Governor Cass caused observations to be made, which he greatly extended at a subsequent period.[ [126] These give no countenance to the theory of regular tides, but denote the changes in the level of the waters to be eccentrically irregular, and dependent, so far as the observations extend, altogether on the condition of the winds and currents of the lakes.
Something analogous to this is perceived in the Baltic, which has no regular tides, and therefore experiences no difference of height, except when the wind blows violently. "At such times," says Pennant,[ [127] "there is a current in and out of the Baltic, according to the points they blow from, which forces the water through the sound, with the velocity of two or three Danish miles in the hour. When the wind blows violently from the German Sea, the water rises in several Baltic harbors, and gives those in the western tract a temporary saltness; otherwise, the Baltic loses that other property of a sea, by reason of the want of tide, and the quantity of vast rivers it receives, which sweeten it so much as to render it, in many places, fit for domestic use."
CHAPTER XVIII.
The expedition traces the west shores of Lake Michigan southerly to Chicago—Outline of the journey along this coast—Sites of Manitoowoc, Sheboigan, Milwaukie, Racine, and Chicago, being the present chief towns and cities of Wisconsin and Illinois on the west shores of that Lake—Final reorganization of the party and departure from Chicago.
Two days spent in preparations to reorganize the expedition, enabled it to continue its explorations. For the purpose of tracing the western and northern shores of Green Bay, and the northern shores of Lake Michigan, a sub-expedition was fitted out, under Mr. Trowbridge, our sub-topographer, who was accompanied by Mr. J. D. Doty, Mr. Alex. R. Chase, and James Riley, the Chippewa interpreter. The auxiliary Indians, who had, thus far, attended us in a separate canoe, were rewarded for their services, furnished with provisions to reach their homes, and dismissed. The escort of soldiers under Lieut. Mackay, U. S. A., were returned to their respective companies at Fort Howard and Camp Smith. The Chippewa chief, Iaba Wawashkash, or the Buck, who belonged to Michilimackinac, went with Mr. Trowbridge, together with Jo Parks, the intelligent Shawnee captive, and assimilated Shawnee of Waughpekennota,[ [128] Ohio. The Ottowa chief, Kewaygooshkum, of Grand-River, took the rest of the party in a separate canoe to their destination. Our collections in natural history were shipped in the schooner Decatur, Capt. Burnham (Perry's boatswain in the memorable naval battle of Lake Erie, Sept. 11, 1813), to Michilimackinac, together with the extra baggage.
Thus relieved in numbers and canoe-hamper, we were reduced to two canoes; the travelling family of Gov. Cass now consisted of Capt. Douglass, Dr. Wolcott, Maj. Forsyth, Lieut. Mackay, and myself. Leaving Fort Howard at two o'clock P. M., we parted with Mr. Trowbridge and his party at the mouth of Fox River, at half past two, and taking the other, or east side of the bay, proceeded along its shores about twenty-five miles, and encamped on the coast called Red Banks. This is a term translated from the Winnebago name, which is renowned in their traditions as the earliest spot which they can recollect. They dwelt here when the French first reached Green Bay in their discoveries in the seventeenth century. Here, then, is a test of the value and continuity of Indian tradition, so far as this tribe is concerned, for admitting, what is doubtful, that the French reached this point so early as 1650, the period of recognized Winnebago history, as proved by geography, reaches but 170 years prior to the above date.