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French in Michigan French Settlements
The principal adventurers were Normans, of the same stock with their English rivals and closely resembling them. While it is not easy in mixed blood to say which line predominates, we can readily perceive in the dashing spirit of the great sea-captains the same characteristics which a few centuries earlier sent the Norman ships and spread the Norman conquests over every part of the known western world. The Normans of France and England kept up their intercourse
and retained similar ways long after the conquest; and even as late as the earlier years of Queen Elizabeth it was not thought unlikely that their governments might be made similar. The old custom of Normandy was so nearly that of England that the same commentators expounded both ; and their maritime usages were practically identical.
The French as colonists, in the proper sense of the term, were many years in advance of the English, and began with more sober aims. The English were very bold explorers, but most of them had far more of the spirit of buccaneering and freebooting, and far less humanity in dealing with the natives.
Early Michigan
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