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INTRODUCTION In the first half of the seventeenth century, as the English colonized most of the Adantic coast of North America, the French moved into the interior of the continent via the St. Lawrence River. By the 1670s, French fur traders and missionaries were operating in the western Great Lakes region, winning the Lakes Indians as their allies and trading partners. In 1671 Father Jacques Marquette founded a Jesuit mission at Saint-Ignace de Michilimackinac, on the straits which join Lakes Michigan and Huron. Within a decade, Michilimackinac had become the western hub of the French fur trade with the Indians in the Great Lakes. By 1683 the setdement had a major trading post and supply base; a fort garrisoned by French troops, strategically placed on the straits near the southern tip of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan;1 the most important Jesuit mission in the west; and a large number of allied Indians living in nearby villages. Until the founding and growth of Detroit in the early eighteenth century , Michilimackinac was the commercial, military, and religious center of the French presence in the western Great Lakes. It served to govern or anchor French activities in a vast region around Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Superior. Michilimackinac was relocated to the northern tip of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan about 1714, and after Detroit's growth, continued as the entrep6t of all the posts of the northern region while Detroit fulfilled that function for the southern posts. Michilimackinac played a vital role transshipping goods, supplies, and food in support of the French exploration, trade, and hegemony in the region of the mythical Mer de l'Ouest or Western Sea. It also served as a warehouse for the large numbers of furs on their way to Montreal and Quebec, and as a meeting place for the French and Indians that came from all directions around the post. 1 2 Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre To the east of Michilimackinac, in 1686 and 1687 the New York English had sent trading expeditions to the Indians of this vital French center, seriously threatening to break the French hold on the western Indians and their trade. Fortunately for the French, in 1687 the commander of Michilimackinac, Olivier Morel de La Durantaye, at the head of a powerful force of French and allied Indians, intercepted and captured two English trading parties on their way to Michilimackinac, effectively discouraging any further incursions from the east.2 The struggle between the French and the English for the high-quality furs of the north extended by sea to the mouths of the rivers flowing into Hudson Bay, which England claimed in 1670. The Hudson's Bay Company was chartered in 1670 and, over the subsequent four decades, was successful in providing the Indians of the northwest with opportunities for trading their rich furs for English trade goods. This trade enabled the English to influence the Indian nations whom the French were trying to enlist in their own trading alliance. Despite the warfare over the Hudson Bay posts which saw a number of them fall into French hands, the French finally recognized Hudson Bay as English and gave up their claims to the region in the Treaty ofUtrecht in 1713. The French, however, countered the English presence to the north by expanding from Michilimackinac through the Saint Mary's River and Lake Superior to Lake Winnipeg and beyond. This effort was spearheaded in the 1730s and 1740s by the exploration and trading expeditions of Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Verendrye and his sons. All officers of the French colonial troops, the La Verendryes established some ten fortified trading posts stretching from Rainy Lake northwest to the Saskatchewan River. This trade network effectively competed with the English for the Indians' allegiance and their excellent beaver and other pelts.3 The dual role of the La Verendryes as colonial officers and businessmen was typical of the French officers assigned to posts in the west. As Louise Dechene has described this duality: Military officers had always been more or less involved in business, but their role was more pronounced after 1700. Through the issuing and sale of permits for supplying the posts that they commanded, they shared in the traders' profits. Finally, the practice of leasing out the produce of the fur trade to the commanders in the territory under their jurisdiction sanctioned their direct participation. . . . The commercial advancement of the corps of officers settled in the colony, a [18.118...

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