Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 8).djvu/228

 it transacts considerable business with the upper parts of the state of New-York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio; and also with the inhabitants of Upper Canada. Its shipping is employed on Lake Erie, Huron, and Michigan, either in the fisheries, in freighting, or in trading along the coast. In the summer season there is in Detroit a considerable concourse of strangers, from the states by the way of Buffalo, who furnish considerable sums as passage money to the ship owners on Lake Erie; and in the spring of the year the neighbouring Indians resort thither to dispose of their furs, and to purchase guns, ammunition, blankets, and other articles.

Detroit is a central situation for the fur trade in the North-West;[69] and there is a considerable commercial connexion between this place and Chicago and Green Bay.

The establishment of a weighty fur company at Detroit, would result in much individual and public advantage. The English, by their extensive fur trade in the north and west, acquire an influence among the Indians, which similar establishments on our part would completely counteract. This influence renders the Indians hostile towards us, and in the event of a war between this country and Great Britain, would blend the prejudices of the Englishman with the ferocity of the savage.

The English derive immense profits from the North American fur trade. The North West company employ in this business, exclusive of savages, upwards of fifteen hundred men. The articles for the Indian market are cheap, and of course the requisite capital for this business is small.

It was my intention, after spending a few days at De-*