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MICHIGAN AS A PROVINCE 1 - 5
Have they then no passions to excite them to deeds of violence or have they discovered and reduced to practice some unknown principle of action in human nature equally efficacious as the two great principles of hope and fear, upon which all other governments have heretofore rested? Why does an Indian who has been guilty of murder tranquilly fold his blanket about his head, and seating himself upon the ground await the retributive stroke from the relation of the deceased. A white man under similar circumstances would flee or resist; and we can conceive of no motive which would induce him to such sacrifice.
"But of the moral character and feelings of the Indians, of their mental discipline, of their peculiar opinions, mythological and religious, and of all that is most valuable to man in the history of man we are about as ignorant as when Jacques Cartier first ascended the St. Lawrence. "
IT did not take the men who came over to New France long to discover the commercial possibilities of the fur business. The Spaniard and the Portugese were infatuated by the prospect of unearthing gold and precious gems. The Frenchman and the Englishman found vastly greater wealth in the humble wild animals which roamed the primitive forests. These had for the most part been left free to multiply in a state of nature. The modest wants of the red man in the way of food and clothing were easily met. Beyond these he did not care to go and never killed for the sake of killing, except when it came to his own species.
The animals of North America produced the finest furs in the world. The climate of the northernmost sections was adapted to the growth and development of these animals under the most perfect conditions. The beaver, silver fox, red fox, wolverine, fisher, mink, otter, lynx, black bear, wolf and others were found in vast numbers. Their skins had ready sale in all the centers of wealth and fashion, the world over. They were used for muffs, boas, capes, robes, trimmings, etc., and many a noble princess was proud to adorn her person with the furs brought over seas from the far interior of America.
MICHIGAN
Page 40
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