LACROSSE.


In 1667, Nicolas Perrot, then acting as agent of the French government,
was received near Saut Sainte Marie with stately courtesy and formal
ceremony by the Miamis, to whom he was deputed. A few days after his
arrival, the chief of that nation gave him, as an entertainment, a game
of lacrosse. [Footnote: Histoire de l'Amerique Septentrionale par M. de
Bacqueville de la Potherie, Paris, 1722, Vol. II, 124, _et seq._]
"More than two thousand persons assembled in a great plain each with
his cross. A wooden ball about the size of a tennis ball was tossed in
the air. From that moment there was a constant movement of all these
crosses which made a noise like that of arms which one hears during a
battle. Half the savages tried to send the ball to the northwest the
length of the field, the others wished to make it go to the southeast.
The contest which lasted for a half hour was doubtful."

In 1763, an army of confederate nations, inspired by the subtle
influence of Pontiac's master mind, formed the purpose of seizing
the scattered forts held by the English along the northwestern
frontier. On the fourth day of June of that year, the garrison at Fort
Michilimackinac, unconscious of their impending fate, thoughtlessly
lolled at the foot of the palisade and whiled away the day in watching
the swaying fortunes of a game of ball which was being played by some
Indians in front of the stockade. Alexander Henry, who was on the spot
at the time, says that the game played by these Indians was "Baggatiway,