Early Mackinac A sketch, historical and descriptive . d in an extendedcommerce than in the possession of a vast tract ofwilderness. The fur trade of that time was themain thing and Mackinac was the gateway to all thefur traffic of the west and southwest fields. Andagain, it appears in negotiating the treaty of 1815that the commissioners of the crown, even when feel-ing obliged to forego a large part of their demands,still held out for the island of ^lackinac (and FortXiagara) as long as possible.^ Thirty-two years hadnow passed since the American right to the islandhad been acknowledged by the
Early Mackinac A sketch, historical and descriptive . d in an extendedcommerce than in the possession of a vast tract ofwilderness. The fur trade of that time was themain thing and Mackinac was the gateway to all thefur traffic of the west and southwest fields. Andagain, it appears in negotiating the treaty of 1815that the commissioners of the crown, even when feel-ing obliged to forego a large part of their demands,still held out for the island of ^lackinac (and FortXiagara) as long as possible.^ Thirty-two years hadnow passed since the American right to the islandhad been acknowledged by the treaty of 1783. Ofthese years only three had been years of war. But1 Henry Adams History of the United l^tatcs, vol. f), p. 34. 84 EARLY MACKINAC for one-half of that whole period the British flag hadbeen flying over Fort Mackinac. In the completesense, therefore, the destiny of the northwest wasnot assured until the treaty of Ghent. ^ With thattreaty the question was finally and conclusivelysettled. The posts of the English which had been captured. AMERICAN FUR CO. OLD SCALES. by us, and ours here and there, which they had taken,were to be restored by each government to the connection with this mutual delivery is an inter-esting fact mentioned in a private letter which Col-onel McDouall wrote to his friend and fellow officerof the English army. Captain Bulger. He says thatin the equipment of Eort Mackinac, at the time he1 Hinsdales Old yorthuest; p. 185. HISTORIC CANNON 85 was making the transfer, were cannon bearing theinscriptions: Taken at Saratoga; Taken fromLord Cornwallis, and other such, and he speaks ofhis chagrin in being obliged to include, in his restora-tion of the fort, guns which told of English defeatand hmniliation in the Eevolutionary w^ar; and thatas an Englishman he felt a strong temptation to abreach of that good faith which in all public treatiesit is infamy to violate. Surely it adds to our antiquarian and patrioticinterest in the old fort to kn
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