Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 21.djvu/371



JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON 359

and also in the book itself indicate that he had access at Mackinac to the writings of Hennepin and others, from which he plagiarized. Major Rogers, the commandant, had books relating to that region, and Carver mentions having carried books with which he mystified the Sioux Indians. But The History of the American Indians, by James Adair, from which he plagiarized, was not published until 1775 in London, and therefore the text of his Travels must have been added to and revised at later dates.

The Mackinac we are speaking of was located on the sandy shore of the south side of the strait, between Lakes Huron and Michigan, near what is now Mackinaw City, in the state of Michigan. There had been an original Mackinac on the north side of the strait, and later there was another and more permanent Mackinac on the island four or five miles away. Mackinac was the final starting point in the traffic from Canada and New York for peltries from the Northwest, years before and after the time of Jonathan Carver. Here all licensed traders registered and hired many of their voyageurs. Here were the homes of both active and retired French-Cana- dians and half-breeds, who were employed by the traders, some of whom quite possibly had been with La Verendrye during his years of exploration and trade to the westward. In the office of the commandant, records must have been kept and maps showing the trade routes and Indian tribes. Macki- nac just then afforded abundant opportunities to anyone seek- ing information about the regions toward the Rocky Mountains or preparing to write a book such as Carver's Travels.

Mackinac was also the place where adventurers gathered; men with or without resources seeking exploits or riches in the field of exploration or the fur trade. There was a mythical Northwest Passage to be located and Mackinac was on the way toward it. There were visions of the extension of British trade on the Pacific Ocean, and of an overland route to con- nect with it. Not as a real explorer but rather as one among such adventurers seeking to live at government expense we