Attack at Michilimackinac 1763: Alexander Henry’s Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories between the years 1760 and 1764
Adventures of Alexander Henry, an eyewitness survivor of the attack at Michilimackinac in June 1763. The British fur trader’s journal offers a unique insight into life at the palisaded fort between 1760 and 1770.
from the book: “Henry’s account of his canoe voyage to Michilimackinac and his subsequent journey as a captive paints a rich panorama of life, both Indian and White, on the upper Great Lakes from 1760-1764. All of the three major routes into the interior, the Ottawa River – Lake Nipissing route, the Lake Simcoe – Georgian Bay route and the Lake Erie – Detroit route, were traversed and their dangers and beauties described. Excursions were also made to Sault Sainte Marie and the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, but the spot to which Henry repeatedly returns is Michilimackinac, the major trade entrepot in the upper Great Lakes. The centrality of Michilimackinac to the fur trade of the 1760’s is emphasized again and again.
Henry gives a vivid picture of life at the stockaded fort at Michilimackinac in the crucial period of transition from French to English control and during the uncertain interlude of Indian supremacy in 1763 and 1764. Forced to live as an Indian captive for over a year, Henry also became intimately acquainted with the Indian’s mode of living, praying and dying and affords the reader a unique insight into the Indian culture which supported the post at Michilimackinac with food and furs.”
