John Long's Voyages And Travels In The Years 1768-1788 - Paperback

John Longs Voyages and Travels in the Years 1768-1788 EDITED WITH HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION AND NOTES MHO MILTON QUAIFE WITH MAP bt - Safcegifce pte j, Chicago R. R. DONNELLEY SONS COMPANY CHRISTMAS, MCMXXH preface THE selection of material for the Lake side Classics is growing increasingly difficult each year. The book must be sufficiently rare to justify its reprinting, and it must contain a human interest which will make it read and prized for its intrinsic merit. Many a time the publishers have wished that they might have foreseen to what, uncon sciously, they had committed themselves, and how the row of these little books was to grow from year to year on the shelves of their friends. Some consistent program for subject matter would certainly have been adopted, and the interest in the general plan would have excused the dullness of some particular volume. But without any such plan, each volume must stand on its own feet, and a particularly happy selection one year estab lishes the necessity of an equally happy one for its successor and each year we shift the responsibility to Mr. Quaife, to discover from his wide knowledge of early American history, another rare publication that will measure up to the established standard. Again, for this years volume, we turn to the north country, the early fur trade, and Indian adventure. John Longs experiences and narrative are somewhat similar to Henrys narrative of last year. But Henry was always the white man carrying himself through by his white mans intelligence and force of char acter, while Long, living in his youth among the Indians as an Indian, acquired a knowledge of their language, customs, and psychology, which intuitively told him incritical situations just when to cajole and when to be bold. Both narratives are full of the thrills of the dime novels of our boyhood days, but with a directness of statement that carries conviction even to our advancing years. If the story of John Long adds an hour or so of real pleasure during this Christmas season to the friends of The Lakeside Press, its reprinting will accomplish the hopes of THE PUBLISHERS, Christmas, 1922. Contents CHAPTER PAGE HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION xi PREFACE TO ORIGINAL EDITION . ... xxv 1. Removal to America 3 2. The Village of Caughnawaga 9 3. Concerning the Iroquois or Five Nations Indians 12 4. Scalping and Indian Warfare 25 5. The Connecedaga or Rondaxe Indians . . 34 6. From Montreal to Mackinac 45 7. Removal to Lake Superior and Adoption by the Chippewas 57 8. The Winter at Lac la Mort Encounter with the Natives 71 9. Further Proceedings at Lac la Mort . . 98 10. Return to Lake Superior 109 11. Second Winter among the Nipigon Indians . 132 1 2. Famine and Cannibalism Observations upon the Hudsons Bay Company 148 13. Indian Customs and Beliefs Return to Mackinac 168 14. An Escapade at Mackinac, and Expedition to Prairie du Chien 177 15. Expedition to the Saguenay Country . . 193 1 6. Further Vicissitudes of the Author . . . 205 INDEX 229 vii Historical Introduction 3 ttttot uctfon A YEAR ago in the Lakeside Classics series was published the personal narrative of Alexander Henry, who embarked in the Northwest fur-trade immediately following the English Conquest of Canada, and for sixteen years thereafter passed his life in the wilder ness, at first around the shores of Lake Mich igan and Lake Superior, and later in the far Northwest. This year, inpresenting the Voyages and Travels of John Long, we return to much the same scene of activities in a slightly later period. Long was a native of England who came out to Canada in the year 1768, in the capacity of articled clerk to a merchant of Montreal. The all-absorbing business of Mont real in this period was the Indian trade, and Longs career in the New World was thus fixed in advance of his migration to it...