chap. VII.} 1763. May. |
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were rated even so high as twenty-five hundred
souls, of whom five hundred were men able to bear arms,1 or as three or four hundred French families;2 yet an enumeration, in 1764, proved them not numerous,3 with only men enough to form three companies of lnilitia;4 and in 1768 the official census reported but five hundred and seventy-two souls,5—an account which is in harmony with the best traditions.6 The French dwelt on farms, which were about three or four acres wide upon the river, and eighty acres deep; indolent in the midst of plenty, graziers as well as tillers of the soil, and enriched by Indian traffic.
The English fort, of which Gladwin was the commander, was a large stockade, about twenty-feet high and twelve hundred yards in circumference,7 inclosing, perhaps, eighty houses.8 It stood within the limits of the present city, on the river bank, commanding a wide prospect for nine miles above and below.9> The garrison was composed of the shattered remains of the eightieth regiment,10 reduced to about one hundred and twenty men and eight officers.
Cass: Discourse before the Michigan Historical Society, from an ancient Diary.
Carver, 155, says, 300. Two
1 Rogers: Account of North America, 168. ‘When I took possession of the country, soon after the surrender of Canada, they were about 2500 in number, there being near 500 that bore arms, and near 300 dwelling houses.’
2 Journal of George Croghan, 17 August, 1765: ‘The people here consist of three or four hundred French families.’ Craig's Olden Times, 414.
3 Mante's History of the War in North America, 525.
4 Ibid, 515.
5 State of the Settlement of Detroit, in Gage to Hillsborough, No. 2, of 15 May, 1768: ‘Number of souls, 572; cultivated acres, 514 1/2; corn produced yearly, 9789 French bushels; horned cattle, 600; hogs, 567.’
6 Mss. in my possession, containing the Recollections of Madame Catharine Thibeau; ‘About sixty French families in all, when the English took possession of the country; not more than eighty men at the time; very few farms, not more than seven or eight farms settled.’ Memory is here below the truth. It usually exceeds.
7 Rogers: Concise Account, 168.
8 Croghan's Jour. in Craig, i. 414.
9 Croghan's Jour. in Craig, i. 414.
10 Mante's History, 485.
Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1860.
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