[113]. In 1793 Governor Simcoe made a trip to Detroit, and selected the present site of London for the capital of Upper Canada. However, the surrender of Detroit (1796), in accordance with Jay’s Treaty, rendered such a plan impracticable, and York was chosen capital instead. London, situated on the Thames one hundred and ten miles north-east of Detroit, was laid out in 1826 and incorporated in 1840.—Ed.
[114]. For the Delaware and Chippewa Indians, see Post’s Journals, volume i of our series, note 57; Long’s Voyages, volume ii of our series, note 42.—Ed.
[115]. For a brief biography of General Arthur St. Clair, see F. A. Michaux’s Travels, volume iii of our series, note 33. Evans would seem to imply that the lake and river were named for this officer. The name was assigned by La Salle’s expedition in 1679. See Hennepin, A New Discovery (Thwaites’s ed., Chicago, 1903), pp. 59, 108.—Ed.
[116]. The English, upon their surrender of Mackinac in 1796, thinking the Americans might claim St. Joseph Island, hastened to take possession. A stockade was erected and subsequently a blockhouse, but the place was not suited for a military station. In 1815, the buildings were repaired and a garrison established; it was removed, however, to Drummond’s Island the following year. For further information regarding this island, see Michigan Pioneer Collections, xvi, p. 69.—Ed.
[117]. For information concerning these lakes, see Long’s Voyages, volume ii of our series, pp. 145, 191.—Ed.
[118]. For the early history of Mackinac, see Thwaites, “Story of Mackinac,” in How George Rogers Clark won the North-west (Chicago, 1903).—Ed.
[119]. A brief sketch of Fort St. Joseph is given in Croghan’s Journals, volume i of our series, note 85.—Ed.
[120]. Evans probably refers here to the fall five miles from the mouth of Fox River, at De Pere (French, Rapides des pères), so called because it was the site of a Jesuit Indian mission established in 1669–70. See Wisconsin Historical Collections, xvi. Our author in his description omits mention of the Lower Fox, flowing from Lake Winnebago into Green Bay.—Ed.
[121]. Fort Howard, named in honor of General Benjamin Howard, formerly commander in the Western territory, was constructed (1816) a mile above the mouth of Fox River, when the Americans took possession, after the War of 1812–15. A French settlement, chiefly on the opposite side of the river at Green Bay, had existed here since about 1745.—Ed.
[122]. There were two villages of Winnebago (French Puans) on the lake of that name: the principal one was situated on Doty’s Island, at the mouth of the lake; the other at the junction of the Upper Fox and the lake, near the waterworks station of the modern Oshkosh. This latter was familiarly known to the French voyageurs as Saukière. The village on the Menominee (Malhominis) River was, as Evans says, a mixed one, composed principally of the tribe which gave name to the river. For these two tribes, see Long’s Voyages, volume ii of our series, notes 81, 86. For the Potawatomi, see Croghan’s Journals, volume i of our series, note 84.—Ed.