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Early History

American Antiquarian Society. The Griffin was of about sixty tons burden, and carried five small guns. She sailed on the 7th of August 1679 with 34 men, and on the 2d of September they left Mackina for the Bay of Puans. "Mr. [De] La Salle" says Hennepin "without taking any body's advice resolved to send back the ship to Niagara laiden with furs and skins, to discharge his debts. Our pilot and five men with him were therefore sent back; they sailed on the 18th with a westerly wind. It was never known what course they steered, nor how they perished but it is supposed that the ship struck upon the sand, and was there buried: this was a great loss to Mr. LaSalle and other adventurers, for that ship with its cargo cost about sixty thousand lives". Thus the want of harbors on Lake Michigan began to be felt more than a century and a half ago, and the fate of the Griffin was only a precursor of a thousand similar disasters.

The adventurors continued their voyage in from canoes along the coast of the lake by Milwaukee