La Salle, Tonty,
and Hennepin passed over it in 1679 on a less spiritual errand to the same
land whose inhabitants Marquette had tried to instruct in the mystery of
the faith. And it was well worn by adventurous and pious feet in the
century that followed.
What traffic in temporal and spiritual things was here carried over, is
intimated by relics of that century found in the fields not far away,
where for many years a French mission house stood with enough of a
military garrison to invite for it the name "Fort St. Joseph." In the room
of the Northern Indiana Historical Society at this portage there are to be
seen some of these relics, sifted from the dirt and sand: crucifixes,
knives, awls, beads--which I am told are clearly the loot of ancient Roman
cities, traded to the Indians for hides--iron rings, nails, and hinges-
these with flint arrow-heads and axes, relics of the first munitions of
the stone and iron ages out on the edges of civilization.
This portage path between the rivers is now obliterated by railroads,
paved streets, furrows, graves, factories, and dwellings; but down by the
St.
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