Cadillac had done well in choosing Detroit as the situation for the first permanent colony on the lakes. In the century that was past the Great Lakes had been discovered and explored; the eighteenth century was to witness their occupation and the contest for the possession of this rich country. In this long strife, first France and England, and then England and the American colonies, were to come to blows, while always on these shores unceasing warfare would be waged between the advancing white man and the retreating red man. In the opening years of the new century Cadillac was taking the first step in permanent occupation of the country, planting his settlement on a site so important that a wise English leader was at that very time urging upon the New York assembly its colonization by the English. So long as Lake Erie and Lake Ontario had been avoided by the French, the northern Ottawa River-Georgian Bay route had been the highway of travel and trade. The easier southern route was now open to the French, but it was even more convenient and accessible to their English rivals. The French were brought face to face with the problem of how to hold the trade of the upper lakes from the English. In the solution of this problem Detroit would be the key. There rushes through the strait of Detroit more water than through any other river in the world, save only the Niagara and the St. Lawrence. Through this channel, whose average width is a mile and whose length is only twenty-seven miles, pour in a steady, even current, unbroken by rapids or eddies, and with a speed of over two miles an hour, the waters of three lakes, Superior, Michigan, and Huron, and of the hundreds of streams that feed them. This little river is the natural outlet for eighty-two thousand square miles of lake surface and one hundred and twenty-five thousand square miles of land. Down the swift current floated in those early days scores of canoes paddled by silent Indians and swarthy coureurs de bois, bearing to the markets at Montreal, Quebec, and Albany loads of beaver, mink, and otter furs of immense value. They were the forerunners of a tonnage passing through that strait which to-day exceeds that of the Thames and London. Cadillac and his soldiers and settlers, fifty each, had paddled, pushed, and carried their canoes, heavily laden with provisions, tools, ammunition, and supplies, all the way from Montreal. As they gazed on the beautiful site of their future homes, their weariness passed away. With shouts of joy they drew their canoes to the bank and unpacked their heavy loads for the last time. No exploring party had ever passed through the Detroit River without longing to stop. To appreciate the charm and wealth of that spot, one must read the vivid descriptions which were written by men of that time. Such an enthusiast was Cadillac. Two months after his arrival, he wrote home the following, which would do credit to a promoter’s prospectus of the present day.