Extending nearly nine miles in circumference, and rising at its highest point over 300 feet above the waves, we beheld the famous _Mackinaw Island_, which has filled an important place in the history of exploration. Here was the meeting place of the daring French _voyageurs_ and _aventuriers_, before the pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock. Many wild and thrilling incidents in the lives of Marquette, Hennepin, and La Salle occurred on this island; and over at Point St. Ignace, in plain view, Marquette was escorted to his burial place by a hundred canoes of plumed and painted Ottawa and Huron warriors in 1677. Just across, on the most northern point of the Lower Peninsula, stood old Fort Mackinaw, the scene of the terrible massacre of the whites by the Indians under Pontiac in 1763. On this island were fought two battles in the war of 1812. It was here that Schoolcraft wrote his celebrated History of the North American Indians, and the Legend of Hiawatha, which Longfellow, visiting him here, afterward expanded into a poem. The island's varied scenery, and its history and traditions, have been portrayed in vivid word pictures by Marion Harland in a book, bearing the title "With the Best Intentions," by which she has recently added to her wide fame. Having crossed the strait at its narrowest part four miles in width, we caught sight of the beautiful waters of _Lake Michigan_, the only one in the group of the North American great lakes which extends entirely within the territory of the United States, having a maximum breadth of eighty four miles, and a depth varying from 700 to 1,000 feet. Its length amounts to 345 miles from the northwestern corner of Indiana and the northern part of Illinois to the Straits of Mackinaw. We followed the same route which more than two centuries ago was taken by Jacques Marquette who, in the spring of 1673, with Joliet for his chieftain, and five other Frenchmen, embarked at Mackinaw in two frail bark canoes. The disposition to pause for an instant, and to reflect upon the character and circumstance of our luxurious voyage as contrasted with that of these few adventurers in their fragile birch canoes--a little over 220 years ago--is almost irresistible. On that occasion it was a journey of extreme peril--with no friendly populous havens at which the necessary commodities could be obtained. Those densely wooded shores afforded no hospitable refuge to these hardy men, and their destination or return was a question of great uncertainty.