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Manuscripts
Two autograph letters from Joseph Cross to his parents. The first letter, dated Dec. 7, 1806 (HM 62947), was written from Fort Michilimackinac. Cross describes an expedition in which he and a group of soldiers searched for and rescued nine soldiers who went missing while taking supplies to Fort Saint Joseph. Cross found the men on a "desart island," starving to death and contemplating "the horrid plan of killing and eating one of their number." He then proceeds to list the adventures that he had since his last letter home, including traveling "396 miles up Lake Michigan among the Indians," descending "the celebrated Falls of St. Mary in an Indian canoe," being shot at by two Indian "centinels" and "blown up in a gun room" after the stored ammunition caught on fire. He was injured in the last incident, but "owing to the skill and great attention of our Surgeon and good health and constitution" made full recovery, "without a scar."
mssHM 62947-62948