Native American and French Settlement Patterns - Northern ...

When Michalou, add the Indians,
formed Lake Superior he dwelt
at Michilimackinac the place
of his birth; this name
properly belongs to an island
almost round and very high,
situated at the extremity of
Lake Huron, though custom has
extended it to all the country
round about.
. . . both of them [Bois Blanc
and Round Islands] are well
wooded and the soil excellent,
whereas that of
Michilimackinac is only a
barren rock, being scarce so
much as covered with moss or
herbage; it is notwithstanding
one of the most celebrated
places in all Canada, and has
been a long time according to
some ancient traditions among
the Indians, the chief
residence of a nation of the
same name, and whereof they
reckoned as they say to the
number of thirty towns, which
were dispersed up and down in
the neighborhood of the
island. It is pretended they
were destroyed by the
Iroquois, but it is not said
at what time nor on what
occasion; what is certain is,