“In 1770 (says Henry,) Mr. Baxter, who had sailed for England, returned, bringing with him papers by which, with Mr. Bostwick and himself, I was constituted a joint agent and partner, in, and for, a company of adventurers for working the mines of Lake Superior. We passed the winter together at the Sault de Sainte Marie, and built a barge, fit for the navigation of the lake; at the same time laying the keel of a sloop of forty tons. Early in May, 1771, the lake becoming navigable, we departed from Point aux Pius, our ship yard, at which there is a safe harbour, and of which the distance from the Sault is three leagues. We sailed for the Island of Yellow Sands, promising ourselves to make our fortunes, in defiance of its serpents.” After coasting about for five days, they returned to Point aux Pius, where they erected an air-furnace. The assayer made a report on the ores which had been collected, stating that the lead ore contained silver in the proportion of forty ounces to a ton, “but the copper ore, only in very small proportions indeed.” Facts developed by recent explorations go far to show, that the day is not far distant when the silver mines of Lake Superior will rank among the most prolific in the world. Soon after testing the ores at Point aux Pius, the expedition coasted westward for the mouth of the Ontouagon river. Henry says: “Proposing to ourselves to make a trial on the hill, till we were better able to go to work upon the solid rock, we built a house, and sent to the Sault de Sainte Marie for provisions. At the spot pitched upon for the commencement of our preparations, a green-colored water which tinged iron of a copper color, issued from the hill, and this the miners called a leader. Having arranged everything for the miners during the winter, we returned to the Sault. Early in the spring of 1772, we sent a boat load of provisions; but it came back on the 20th day of June, bringing with it, to our surprise, the whole establishment of miners. They reported, that in the course of the winter, they had penetrated forty feet into the hill; but, that on the arrival of the thaw, the clay on which, on account of its stiffness, they relied, and neglected to secure it by supporters, had fallen in;—that to recommence their search would be attended with much labor and cost;—that from the detached masses of metal which, to the last, had daily presented themselves, they supposed there might be, ultimately, reached some body of the same, but could form no conjecture of its distance.” They concluded that the work would require more men than could be fed, and their operations in that quarter ended.