rried on the
war on behalf of King Louis XV. This enterprise was successful, and
British control was extended to many places in central Canada. Henry
returned to Fort Michili-Makinak and regained much of the property
which he had lost in the Indian attacks. As some compensation for his
former sufferings he received from the British commandant of
Michili-Makinak the exclusive fur trade of Lake Superior.

The currency at that period, and long before, in Canadian history, was
in beaver skins, which were approximately valued at the price of two
shillings and sixpence a pound. Otter skins were valued at six
shillings each, and marten skins at one shilling and sixpence, and
others in proportion; but all these things were classed at being worth
so many beaver skins or proportion of beaver skins. Thus, for example,
the native canoemen and porters engaged by Henry for his winter hunts
were paid each at the rate of a hundred pounds weight of beaver
skins.[9]

[Footnote 9: The smallest change, so to speak, was the skin of a
marten, worth one shilling and sixpence. If you went to a canteen for
a drink you paid your score with a marten skin, unless the value of
your refreshment exceeded the sum of eighteen pence.]

At various places on the River Ontonagan, which flows into Lake
Superior, Henry was shown the extraordinary deposits of copper, which
presented itself to the eye in masses of various weight. The natives
smelted the copper and beat it into spoons and bracelets. It was so
absolutely pure of any alloy that it required nothing but to be beaten
into shape. In one place Henry saw a mass of copper weighing not less
than five tons, pure and malleable, so that with an axe he was able to
cut off a portion weighing a hundred pounds. He conjectured that this
huge mass of copper had at some time been dislodged from the side of a
lofty hill and thence rolled into the position where he found it.
Farther to the north of Lake Superior he found pieces of virgin copper
remarkable for their form, some resembling leaves of vegetables, and
others the shapes of animals.

In these journeys he collected some of the native traditions, amongst
others that of the Great Hare, Naniboju, who was represented to him as
the founder or creator of the Amerindian peoples. An island in Lake
Superior was called Naniboju's burial place. Henry landed there, and
"found on the projecting rocks a quantity of tobacco, rotting in the
rain; together with kettles,