True, there had not been a cordial sympathy between the Jesuits and the
Recollets, but the latter had proved the greater favorites in Detroit.
There was now the Recollet house near the church, where they were
training young girls and teaching the catechism and the rules of the
Church, as often orally as by book, as few could read. Here were some
Indian girls from tribes that had been almost decimated in the savage
wars, some of whom were bound out afterward as servants. There were
slaves, mostly of the old Pawnee tribe, some very old, indeed; others
had married, but their children were under the ban of their parents.
With the coming of the English there was a wider liberty, a new
atmosphere, and though the French protested bitterly and could not but
believe the mother country would make some strenuous effort to recover
the territory as they temporized with the Indians and held out vague
hopes, yet, as the years passed on, they found themselves insensibly
yielding to the sway, and compelled now and then to fight for their
homes against a treacherous enemy. Mayor Gladwyn had been a hero to them
in his bravery and perseverance.
There came in a wealthier class of citizens to settle, and officials
were not wanting in showy attire. Black silk breeches and hose, enormous
shoe buckles, stiff stocks, velvet and satin coats and beaver hats were
often seen. Ladies rejoiced in new importations, and in winter went
decked in costly furs. Even the French damsels relaxed their plain
attire and made pictures with their bright kerchiefs tied coquettishly
over curling hair, and they often smiled back at the garrison soldiers
or the troops on parade. The military gardens were improved and became
places of resort on pleasant afternoons, and the two hundred houses
inside the pickets increased a little, encroaching more and more on the
narrow streets. The officers' houses were a little grander; some of the
traders indulged in more show and their wives put on greater airs and
finer gowns and gave parties. The Campeau house was venerable even then,
built as it was on the site of Cadillac's headquarters and abounding in
many strange legends, and there were rude pictures of the Canoe with
Madame Cadillac, who had made the rough voyage with her ladies and come
to a savage wilderness out of love for her husband; and the old, long,
low Cass house that had sheltered so many in the Pontiac war, and the
Governor's house on St. Anne's street, quite grand with its two stories
and peaked roof, with the English colors always flying.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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