The first account we have of a voyage on Lake Michigan was by Nicholas Perrot, who, accompanied by some Pottawattomies, passed from Green Bay to Chicago, in 1670.  Two years afterwards the same voyage was undertaken by Allouez and Dablon.  They stopped at the mouth of the Milwaukie River, then occupied by Kickapoo Indians.  In 1673, Fathers Marquette and Joliet went from Green Bay to the Neenah or Fox River, and, descending the Wisconsin, discovered the Mississippi on the 17th of June.

In 1679, La Salle made his voyage up the Lakes in the Griffin, the first vessel built above the Falls of Niagara.  This vessel, the pioneer of the great fleet which now whitens those waters, was about sixty tons burden, and carried five guns and thirty-four men.  La Salle loaded her at Green Bay with a cargo of furs and skins, and she sailed on the 18th of September for Niagara, where she never arrived, nor was any news of her ever received.  The Griffin, with her cargo, was valued at sixty thousand livres.  Thus the want of harbors on Lake Michigan began to be felt nearly two hundred years ago; and the fate of the Griffin was only a precursor of many similar calamities since.

About 1760 was the end of what may be called the religious epoch in the history of the Northwest, when the dominion passed from French to English hands, and the military period commenced.  This lasted about fifty years, during which time the combatants were French, English, Indians, and Americans.  Much blood was shed in desultory warfare.  Detroit, Mackinac, and other posts were taken and retaken; in fact, there never was peace in that land till after the naval victory of Perry in 1813, when the command of the Lakes passed to the Americans.

Our military and naval expeditions in the Northwest were, however, remarkably unfortunate in that war.  For want of a naval force on the Lakes,—­a necessity which had been pointed out to the Government by William Hull, then Governor of the Northwest Territory, before the declaration of war,—­the posts of Chicago, Mackinac, and Detroit were taken by the British and their Indian allies in 1812, and kept by them till the next year, when the energy and perseverance of Perry and his Rhode-Islanders created a fleet upon Lake Erie, and swept the British vessels from that quarter.

In 1814, an American squadron of six brigs and schooners sailed from Lake Erie to retake the post of Mackinac.  Colonel Croghan commanded the troops, which were landed under cover of the guns of the squadron.  They were attacked in the woods on the back of the island by the British and Indians.  Major Holmes, who led the Americans, was killed, and his men retreated in confusion to the ships, which took them on board and sailed away.  The attack having failed, Captain Sinclair, who commanded the squadron, returned to Lake Erie with the brigs Niagara and Saint Lawrence and the schooners Caledonia and Ariel, leaving the Scorpion and Tigress to operate against the enemy