Daniel Morison

“ The professional ability of the British army surgeon’s mate was of a notoriously low order, and, if we may believe one of the Royal Americans’ regimental surgeons, Daniel Morison was no exception in this respect. Surgeons were scarce, however, and a small frontier garrison, even when, as at Michilimackinac, it had been plagued by much sickness, had to be satisfied with the services of a mate. Unlike the surgeon, who was commissioned by the king, the surgeon’s mate was only a warrant officer appointed by the colonel of the regiment. ”

“ From Morison’s narrative we see that the officers and the traders permanently in residence at the fort formed an elite group. It is obvious that the French habitants and half-breeds who comprised a third part of the fort’s population, not to mention the Indians of the area, were not admitted to this exclusive social club. That the strain of being cooped up in the small fort, cut off from all contact with the outside world for over half the year, proved too much for some of the members of this clique, especially the bachelors, is also obvious. ”

“ A force under Major Robert Rogers, leader of the almost legendary Rogers’ Rangers, had reached Detroit in 1760 and had taken control of that post, but the coming of winter had compelled the British to wait until the following year to take over the other French outposts in the upper Great Lakes.
Although Major Rogers later was to serve as commanding officer at Michilimackinac, the red-coated troops who marched into the little stockaded fort on the south shore of the straits connecting Lake Huron and Lake Michigan were commanded by Captain Henry Balfour. ”

“ Johnson later asked to be given charge of the detail that took Rogers to Montreal for trial, boasting that he would foil any attempt that might be made to set Rogers free. However, when Rogers was acquitted, those who had hoped to see him convicted charged that the prosecution’s case had been fatally weakened by Johnson’s testimony which had enabled the defense to show that Rogers had been mistreated while he was a prisoner. Such mistreatment would be in keeping with the picture of Johnson’s character which emerges from a reading of Dr. Morison’s journal. ”

“ Among the other hosts was Isaac Todd, who later helped found the great Canadian fur-trading firm, the North West Company, and whose long-time partner, James McGill, endowed McGill University in Montreal. The party began to get out of hand with the arrival of a couple of rowdy traders—John Chinn, who is best remembered as a partner in an unsuccessful copper-mining venture in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and Forrest Oaks, who was a prominent fur trader at Michilimackinac and later at Montreal for a number of years after 1769. ”

“ The inhabitants of Michilimackinac consisted of several groups. There were the soldiers, numbering around a hundred men. A few of them, we learn from Morison, had brought out their wives. The commanding officer’s house was the most impressive of the thirty-odd wooden buildings located within the stockade. The other officers lived in various cabins in the fort, as did the rank and file of the troops until 1769 when a large barracks was constructed in the center of the fort. ”

“ Traders constantly complained at the high-handed actions of the fort’s commanders who, these traders charged, used their position to gain great material benefits for themselves and imposed ruinous regulations on those traders who would not give them a cut of their profits. The royal government sought to correct these abuses, but throughout the period of British rule Michilimackinac is said to have had a reputation as a center of corruption and misrule. ”

“ Morison’s journal provides us with a picture of the English population of the fort, a people beset by violence, lawlessness, tyrannical officers, petty bickering, and assorted 7 other problems. A reading of the journal should dispel any romantic notions of what conditions were like at an eighteenth-century frontier fort. ”

“ A few traders who had acquired sufficient means to enable them to hire others to do the actual trading remained here the year round and occupied cabins in the fort. These Michilimackinac traders, men like Benjamin Frobisher, Isaac Todd, George McBeath, and others not mentioned by Morison, together with their agents or partners in Montreal who obtained the trade goods and sold the furs, dominated the fur trade for decades. ”

“ A little before Roll-Call Ens. Johnstone struck my servant, John Forbes, by giveing him several blows, which hurt him prodigiously, for attempting to ridd some Dogs that were a fighting & make [ing] a terrible Noise at the Door of my house. He struck Sergt. McMurray, acting Sergt. Major in the fort, with a severe blow, at the same time knocked down flat [on] the ground Henry Adams of the Collonel’s Company, so that the dogs of this garrison are so Usefull, Sergents & Soldiers must be knocked down for attempting to hinder them from fighting & makeing a noise. ”

“ The fort also had a new surgeon’s mate—another Scotsman, David Mitchell. Unlike his compatriot Morison, Mitchell adjusted very well to the rough conditions of life on the fur-trading frontier. He married a Chippewa woman, and when his regiment was transferred elsewhere he received special permission to stay on as surgeon’s mate so that his wife would not be separated from her people. ”

“ He found that the French garrison had departed for the west months before, leaving the fort in charge of Charles Langlade, a native of the area who had fought brilliantly on the French side during the French and Indian War. Balfour was greeted by several enterprising Englishmen who had gotten a head start in the race to gain 6 control of the lucrative fur trade which for so long had been monopolized by French traders at Michilimackinac. ”

“ As that officer was not a little surprized at such uncommon proceedings, he immediately confined him in the guard-house, who in his own defence told his officer he received positive orders from the acting Sergt. Major so to do, who had told him it was the orders of the day by the commanding officer, Capt. Turnbull. Upon which the officer commanding the Coll’s Company sent for the acting Sergt. Major who acknowledged to him he had received orders from the Commanding officer of the Fort to have the tryall of Sergt. Carlile torn out of the Book of both Companies doing duty in Garrison. ”

“ Mr. Harise, the interpreter, was committed to the common guard-house by Capt. Turnbull where he remained from eight o’Clock in the afternoon till ten next morning, for beating of a trader’s Engagee [an engagé, one of the French boatmen who were hired to paddle the traders’ canoes] , tho’ many Circumstances of the most Extravagant enormitys have been overlooked in this odious garrison during Capt. Turnbull’s Incumbency. ”

“ Turnbull of my intention of providing said Lodgeing for hire, he sent a Sergeant for me to [attend] the Publick parade, where to my surprise in presence of the officers of the Garrison & others he gave me very abusive & Scandalous Language, unbecomeing the Expressions of a gentleman, & when offering to speak in my own Defence, I was ordered Silence! & that he desired for the future I should give him no more trouble about Lodgeings. [He] ordered me about my business, that he would not put me under arrested as he knew that was what I wanted, but would not do me that Honnour. ”

“ The officer of the day was ordered to place Centrys at different corners of the Garrison upon four or five houses, upon suspicion they smuggled some common rum to entertain them [selves] at such a particular Season, as one of the Sub-Suttlers did not Chuse to sell or had orders [not] to sell under a Dollar each quart.
A soldier and his wife with his Children [were] ordered to their barracks, tho’ there was not a drop [of] liquor found in his house. ”

“ Turnbull, Commandant.
President—Lieut. Christie
Prisoner, Sergt. Carlile
Ens. Johnstone, member
Confined by order of Ens. Strickland for being insolent & behaveing with Disrespect to him. Ens. Strickland informs the Court that he went a Carrioling [riding in a cariole, a kind of sleigh] with a Woman under his Protection (namely Sergt. Carlile’s wife and Ens. Johnstone’s whore) [and] that the prisoner came up and wished that the Carriole, horse and all, might break in & go under the ice, with other insolent Language. ”

“ Upon this I called to my servant John Forbes to light a candle, which was no sooner done, & set upon the table at my bed side after my servant retired to the kitchen, then the said Ens. Johnstone kicked down & 15 overturned the table, candle, candlestick, &c., topsy turvy in great wrath.
“Is this You, Ens. Johnstone,” says I, “who behaves so rudely.”
“You ly,” he says, “I am a gentleman.” ”

“ That the evening before being the sixth of November, Isaac Todd, merchant, William Maxwell, commissary of provisions & I proposed to give an Entertainment at Sergt. [Thomas] MacMurrays to which we Severally invited such people as we thought (in such a remote corner) qualified to make the evening pass agreeably. Accordingly we met, and everything was carryed on with the greatest Decency & innocent Mirth till John Chinn & Forrest Oaks, traders, joined us. ”

“ Oppression, Detraction, Melediction, Violence, fornication, adultery, breach of Sabbath, tradeing, selling of common rum, Molasses, Wine, Spirits &c., Supporting a Suttlery in which he himself is principally [interested] , which is Diametrically opposed to a Military Character, [be considered] , he himself is justly entitled to these Epithets & imputations which cannot be attended with much difficulty to prove. ”

“ Ensign Strickland [was] put under arrest by Capt. Turnbull’s order for useing Sergt. Lewis ill upon his Guard, & the 45 said Ensign continued under his arrest untill he made proper Condescensions to the Sergt. & Yet Ensign Johnstone would not be put under arrest by Captain Turnbull (tho’ properly applyed to) for shedding the blood of a gentleman more usefull to the King’s service in garrison, more than both, which can be proven to a Demonstration, time & place Convenient. ”

“ That evening after Roll Call, a Delinquent, James Coleman, soldier of the Lieut Colonel’s Company, sentenced to Receive 1000 Lashes for Desertion, received near five hundred & would have received more had not I intervened to hinder any more proceedings as he was not able to endure any more. ”

“ Like the lumberjacks of a later era, these men were bent on enjoying to the 8 fullest degree their brief contact with the comforts of civilization before they returned to the west to barter for more furs. ”

“ Michilimackinac 31. May 1771. For the future the officer of the Day will visit the men’s barracks every forenoon at 12 o’clock to see that the Barracks are kept clean & that the sick or lame are regularly visited by the Surgeon; when prisoners are in that situation the Sergt. of the Guard will report to the officer of the day if it should happen that they are not Regularly attended.
The 10th of June 1771. Ens. Johnstone quarrelled with Phinehas Pond, a trader from New England. The dispute became very warm with high & insulting Expressions. At length in the height of their dispute Ens. ”

“ About the hour of eleven o’clock, Ens. Robert Johnstone (who for ought I know invited himself) came in, accompanied by Ens. John Strickland & Mr. [George] Main. We continued thus till about one O’clock in the morning, when Numbers of our Company thought proper to retire. I proposed retiring also, but Isaac Todd insisted upon my spending one hour or two more with them. Rather than disoblige I consented.
About half one hour after, Ens. Johnstone asked the Company how their punch pleased them. They answered, well enough. Then he, the said Ens. ”

“ Such are the Diabolical dispositions of many in this remote garrison who make a perpetual habit of murdering time in excesses of Debauchery & most Licentious practices. These false aspersions I had communicated to me by George Main and Charles Morison, trader, the 10th December, 1769.
4thly. Upon the 11th do. Ens. Johnstone assumed to encroach upon my Province by visiting Sergt. ”

“ Isaac Todd, 8, 11, 12, 13-18, 22; John Chinn, 11, 13-18, 21, 22, 23; Forest Oaks, 11, 12-18, 21, 22; Henry Williams, 21; Phineas Pond, 33, 38-39; Ezekiel Solomon, 39; John Askin, 47 TURNBULL, Captain George, 8; witnesses assault, 22-23; Carlile appeals to, 24, 26; dines with Johnson and Mrs. Carlile, 26; witnesses Johnson attack William Morison, 26-27; approves judgment against Carlile, 30; erases judgment against Carlile, 31; observes flogging and beatings, 36-37; arrests Johnson, 37; allows James Coleman to recuperate before receiving rest of punishment, 37-38; benefits from trade, 39 ”

“ John, 25 SAVAGE, Private John, Johnson puts in guard house, 25 Scotland, 48 Servants, John Forbes, servant to Daniel Morison, 14-18, 21-23, 24, 42; Arthur Ross servant to Robert Johnson, 26, 35 Seventy-Eighth Regiment of Foot, 48 Sixtieth Regiment of Foot, 6, 12, 48 SOLOMON, Ezekiel, 39 51 SPIECMACHER, Captain Frederick, 36 Spruce beer, 23 STRICKLAND, Ensign John, 13, 16, 17; orders Carlile confined, 30; races horse, 35, 43; arrested, 44-45 Surgeon’s mate, 6, 9, 48 Sutlers house, 35-36, 42 T TAILOR at Michilimackinac, 25 Thirty-Fifth Regiment of Foot, 48 TODD, Isaac, 8, 11, 12 ”