From Pointe au Barques to the outlet
of the lake was less than a hundred miles more. This outlet was a
river, as it is called--a strait, in fact--which communicates with
the small shallow lake of St. Clair, by a passage of some thirty
miles in length. Then the lake St. Clair was to be crossed about an
equal distance, when the canoes would come out in what is called the
Detroit River, a strait again, as its name indicates. Some six or
eight miles down this passage, and on its western side, stands the
city of Detroit, then a village of no great extent, with a fort
better situated to repel an attack of the savages, than to withstand
a siege of white men. This place was now in the possession of the
British, and, according to le Bourdon's notion, it was scarcely less
dangerous to him than the hostility of Bear's Meat and his
companions.
Delay, however, was quite as dangerous as anything else. After
cooking and eating, therefore, the canoes continued their course,
Peter and Pigeonswing accompanying them, though they abandoned their
own craft. Peter went with the bee-hunter and Margery, while the
Chippewa took a seat and a paddle in the canoe of Gershom.
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