History of Lake Champlain, from it first exploration by the French in 1609, to the close of the year 1814

Front matter

Gc

1755270

REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION fhiF^iSW.T.Y PUBLIC LIBRARY

Introduction

General Description of the Lake and of the most important Points aloncr its Bonlors — Ancient and modern Names of Places — Distances — Old Ports — Scenery — Original Indian 2STame.

Lake Champlajn extends from 43° 30' to 45° north latitude, and lies between Vermont and Xew York — the boundary line of those states running through its centre. The lake is ninety miles long, in a right line from north to south, with a length of coast, on either side, of about one hundred and twenty-five miles : its southern extremity, or head, being at Whitehall, and its northern near the boundary line between the United States and Canada. The lake varies in width from one-fourth of a mile to thirteen miles, and covers an area of about five hundred square miles. It receives the waters of Lake George, at Ticonderoga, and discharges itself into the St. Lawrence, through the river Richelieu. There is no perceivable current in the body of the lake, and its waters, at ordinary stages, pass into the Richelieu with a velocity of only one-third of a mile per hour.

The lake has two arms; one on the west side, near its southern extremity, called South Bay, the other on the east Bi ie, near its northern extremity, called Missisco Bay. This last mentioned bay stretches into Canada and covers about thirty-five square miles. The area of country drained into the lake is variously estimated from seven thousand to nine 1

LAKE CHAMPLAIN.

thousand square miles. It probably approaches nearest to the larger estimate. Numerous rivers and creeks discharge themselves into the lake, among the principal of which arc, on the New York side, Wood Creek,1 the outlet of Lake George, the Bouquet, Great and Little Ausable, the Salmon, the Saranac, and the Big and Little Chazy rivers. On the Vermont side are the Poultney Biver, Otter Creek, and the Winooski, Lamoille and Missisco rivers. The lake is subject to a rise and fall of from six to eight feet during the year ; the waters attaining their greatest height about the twentieth of May, after which they fall gradually, until about the twentieth of September, when they usually reach the lower level of the remainder of the season.

Lake Champlain commences at the junction of Wood Creek with East Bay, in the town of Whitehall. The Indian name of this place was Kah-cJio-quah-na, the place where dip fish. Philip Skene, an English major under half pay, located therein 1763, and established a settlement at the mouth of Wood Creek, which was called Skenesborough. This, for many years, was the most important settlement upon Lake Champlain. In 1773 it numbered seventythree families, all of whom, with but two exceptions, were Skene's tenants. The name of the town was^ehanged to Whitehall in 1788.

About two miles north of the village of Whitehall is South Bay, an arm of the lake seven miles long and one mile wide, extending to the south-west and separating the town of Whitehall from the town of Dresden. It was on the shores of this bay that the Baron de Dieskau landed, in 1775, with an army of fifteen hundred French and Indians, when marching against the English encampment at the head of Lake George.

Called by the Dutch LToui Kil, and by the French Riviere Chicot.

Twenty-four miles below Whitehall is old Fort Ticonderoga on the west. Mount Independence on the east side of the lake. Here the waters of Lake George discharge themselves into Lake Champlain through an outlet called, by the Indians, Cheondcroga. The French erected a fortress here in 1 750, which they called Fort Carillon, aud which was a place of great strength. Mount Defiance lies on the south side of the mouth of the outlet of Lake George, opposite Ticonderoga. The summit of this mountain is seven hundred and fifty feet above the lake, and within cannon shot of the old fortress.

Twelve miles north of Ticonderoga is Crown Point, called by the French Point? a la Chevelure. Here the French built a fort in 1731, which they called Fort St. Frederic. The fort was destroyed by them on their retreat to Canada in 1759, and the same year General Amherst commenced a much larger work, the ruins of which are still to be seen.

Opposite Crown Point is a landing place called Chimney Point, which was settled by the French about the time they commenced building Fort St. Frederic, and was destroyed by them in 1759. So complete was the destruction of the settlement that when the English arrived, a few days after the retreat of the French, they saw nothing but t|ie blackened chimneys of the consumed houses, standing as grim sentinels amid the surrounding ruin. These chimneys were permitted to stand for years, and gave to that locality the name of Chimney Point; a name it yet retains.

For more than fifty years, the waters between Crown Point and "Whitehall have been included within the limits of Lake Champlain, but in the older histories and maps of the country the passage between these places is frequently called Wood Creek and South Buy. Kalrn1 speaks of that part

1 Kalrn's Travels, 1740.

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of the lake south of Crown Point as " the river which comes out of the Lake St. Sacrement to Lake Champlain," and again as "Wood Creek which flows to Fort St. Frederic. " Doctor Thacher, who was stationed at Ticonderoga in 1777, refers to South Bay as extending from that place to Skencsborough, " a distance of thirty miles." These changes in the name applied at different periods to the narrow part of the lake should be carefully noted. I have referred to them at this time to guard the reader against the confusion which they have frequently produced, and to explain an occasional apparent discrepancy between this work and the narratives here collected.

Two miles north of Crown Point, and on the same side of the lake, is Port Henry, and about eleven miles further north is Northwest Bay, called Bale du Roche?' Fend us in Sauthier's map of 1770. The village of Westport stands at the foot of this bay. On the opposite side of the lake, about ten miles north of Crown Point, is a small bay in which Arnold grounded and burned his galley and five gondolas, after the engagement with the English of the loth October, 1770. Otter Creek, called by the French La Riciere aux Loutrcs. empties into the lake about seven miles north of this spot. The creek is navigable for lake vessels as far up as the falls at Vergennes, a distance of eight miles. In this creek, Macdonough fitted out the fleet with which he gained the victory of the 11th of September, 1814. In the course of the last war, a small breast-work was thrown up on the northsideof the creek at its mouth, where Lieutenant Cassia of the navy, and Captain Thornton of the artillery, with two hundred men, repulsed a large British force, scut out from Canada to destroy the American fleet fitting out at Vergennes. A few miles north, and on the opposite side of the lake, is Split Buck, called by the French Rocher Fault'. This rock has always been considered a great natural

LAKE CHAMPLAW. £j

curiosity. It projects one hundred and fifty feet into the lake, and is elevated about thirty feet above the level of the water. The part detached contains half an acre, and is separated from the main rock by a channel about fifteen feet wide. The prominences and cavities of the opposing sides are said to correspond ; and hence the popular opinion that this rock was separated from the main laud by an earthquake,1 but Professor Emmons, who examined it particularly, supposes the separation to have been occasioned by the wearing away or decomposition of an intermediate mass of rock containing a large quantity of pyritous iron.

The lake between Split Kock and Thompson's Point, formerly called Pointe Regiochne, is not quite one mile wide. A light-house has been erected upon the main land, a few rods south of the rock. From this point the lake increases in width as it extends towards the north. Between Essex and Charlotte, four miles north, it is three miles wide. Opposite Burlington it is nine and three-quarters miles, and from shore to shore, opposite Plattsburgh, about thirteen miles wide.

Between Essex and Charlotte is Sloop Island, so called because an English vessel of war. during the revolution, fired upon it, mistaking in a fog the stump of a pine tree standing near its centre fur the mast of a sloop. A, short dis-

1In the winter of 1GG3 there was a severe earthquake in Canada. " Lakes appeared where none ever existed before ; mountains were overthrown ; rivers sought other beds or totally disappeared. The earth and the mountains entirely split and rent in innumerable places, creating chasms and precipices, whose depths have never been ascertained.'" — Jesuits7 Relation, 1GG3.

'♦On the fifth of February we had an earthquake which continued during half a quarter of an hour, sufficiently strong to extort from us a good act of contrition. It was repeated from time to time during nine days and was perceptible until the last of the month, but always diminishing." — Huron <T Avaugour to the French Minister, 4th August, 1663.

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tance below Essex, on the N&w York side, is the mouth of the Bouquet liiver. At the falls, two miles up this river, Burgoyne encamped and gave a war feast to a party of about four hundred Indians, previous to his attack on Ticonderoga in 1777. Fourteen miles north-east from Essex and on the opposite side of the lake, is the village of Burlington. About midway between these two places are four small islands called the Four Brothers. They are called Isle de Quatre-vents on Charlevoix's map of 174 i, and the Four "Winds Islands on Sauthier's map. Two and one half miles south of Burlington is Potter's Point, called Erkly 's by Sauthier. It forms the west side of the mouth of Shclburne Bay. Three miles south-west of Burlington is Juniper Island, on which stands a light-house erected in 1826.

Xorth-west from Juniper Island, and near the west shore of the lake is Schuyler Island, called by the French Isle mix Chapons. Under this island Arnold collected his fleet on the morning of the 12th of October, after his retreat from Valcour Island. A little to the south of this island is Douglass Bay, called Corlear by the French and Indians. It is supposed that the humane and noble Corlear was drowned in this bay in 1G66.

A mile to the north of Schuyler Island is a bokLpromontory called Pointe Trembleau. At the foot of a small bay formed by this point, stands the village of Port Kent, and about two miles to the north are the mouths of the Great and Little au Sable rivers, which empty into the lake near a sandy point, called Pointe au Sable. Six miles further north, and half a mile from the main shore lies the island of Valcour, or Valeur as it is sometimes called. This island is celebrated on account of a severe naval engagement fought near it between the Americans and English on the 11th day of October, 1776. One mile north of Valcour is St. Michel's, or Crab Island, and about three miles further north

LAKE CH- i 31 PL A IX.

is the mouth of the Saranac river, called Salasanac on Sauthier's map. The village of Plattsburgh lies 011 both sides of this river at its mouth. Three miles east from Plattsburgh is Cumberland Head, on vrhich a light-house has been erected. Cumberland Head was called by the French Cap Scoimonton or Sco?wnton. It extends about three miles into the lake in a southerly direction, and forms Cumberland Pay. This bay was the scene of Macdonough's naval victory of the 11th of September, 1814. To the east of Cumberland Head is a large island called Grand Isle. The Lamoille River empties into the lake on the Vermont side near the south end of this island. Eight miles south of the Lamoille is the mouth of the "Winooski. North of Grand Isle, and separated from it by a narrow channel, is another large island called North Hero. This is the Isle Lonrjue of the French.

Twelve miles north of Cumberland Head, and lying between North Hero and the western side of the lake is Isle la 3Iottc. This island was named from Sieur la Mothe, a French officer who built a fort on the north end of the island in 1665, which he called Fort St. Anne. It was afterwards called Fort la Clothe. Kalm says this was a wooden fort or redoubt, standing on the west side of the island near the water's edge. It had disappeared when he passed through the lake in 1749, but he was shown the spot where it stood, which he describes as :' quite overgrown with trees." Opposite the north end of this island, on the New York side, is the mouth of the Little Chazy Iliver, and a short distance further north is the mouth of the Big Chazy. These rivers are called Oha$y on a map of a survey of the lake made in 1 T • j ~ , and were originally named from Lieut, de Chasy, a French officer of distinction who, in 1665, was killed by a party of Mohawk Indians, while hunting in their vicinity. King's Pay lies north of the mouth of the Pig Chazy. The s

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north side of this bay is formed by Point An Tor, which separates it from House's Point Bay.

Point Au Fer was formerly separated from the main shore hy a channel or deep morass connecting Rouse's Point Bay with King's Bay. Kalm says the first houses he saw, after leaving Fort St. Frederic, were on the western side of the lake about ten French miles above St. Johns, in which the French had lived before the last war, but which were then (1748) abandoned. These houses probably stood either on Point Au Fer or near the mouth of the BigChazy River. Prior to the revolution a brick house was built ou this point, which . was known as the White House. It was fortified with an intrenchment and cannon by General Sullivan, at the time of the invasion of Canada, and was then considered a ver}- advantngeous position to command the navigation of the north end of the lake. Burgoyne. when he entered the United States, threw a body of troops into this place, and it was retained by the British as a military post until after the peace.1

Opposite the northern part of Isle La Motto, on the Vermont side of the lake, is Alhurgh Tongue, called by the French Pointe A lgonquin. The entrance to 3Iiss;sco Bay is on the east side of this point. About eight miles north of Isle La Motte, also on the Vermont side, is Windmill Point. The French built a windmill there about the time of the erection of Fort St. Frederic at Crown Point, and had collected a small settlement near the mill; but the English having burnt the houses several times, on their incursions into Canada, the settlement was at length abandoned. In 1749 nothing but the mill, which wa< built of stone, remained.1

Opposite Windmill Point is the tillage of Rouse's Point, and one- mile north is the terminus of the Ogdensburgh

1Ka!m's Travels.

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(Xorthern) Rail Road. A connection is there formed between the Ogdensburgh and the Vermont and Canada Kail Roads by a bridge andfloating draw. The boundary line between the United States and Canada, as fixed by the Ashburton Treaty of IS 42, is about one mile below this bridge. This line is located 4,200 feet north of the true parallel of the 45° of latitude, and was so established in order to secure to the United States the site of an old fort commenced by that gov. eminent soon after the close of the war of 1812.

The parallel of 45° was originally located correctly by the French, but in 176G Governor Moore and Brigadier General Carletou visited Lake Champlain and fixed the boundary between Canada and the province of New York about two and a half miles below Windmill Point, which Governor Moore says was further to the northward than they expected to find it from the observations said to have been made by the French some years before.1 Moore's line was recognized as the true one until about the year 1818 when, on taking new observations, it was found to be too far to the north. As soon as the error was discovered, the United States suspended work on the fort, and the unfinished walls were long known as Fort Blunder. Since the treaty of 1842 n new and larger fort has been commenced on the site of the old one. called Fort Montgomery. It is not yet completed.

Fort Montgomery stands at the foot of the lake. There the river Richelieu commences and conveys the waters of the lake to the St. Lawrence. This river, for several years after the first settlement of Canada, was called the River of the Iroquois. Charlevoix says it was afterwards called the Richelieu on account of a fort of that name which had been built at its mouth in 10 11. This outlet of Lake Champlain h also called the Sorel or Chambly River.

Got* Moore to the Board of Plantations, 17GG.

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Three and a half miles below the boundary line is Bloody Island, said to be so called from the murder of two lumbermen who were killed there by a party of soldiers sent to protect them from the Indians. Three-fourths of a mile below is Ash Island or Isle aux Tetcs. One mile below Ash Island is Ilospital Island, and six miles still lower down the liver is Me aux Noix^ where the French established a military post on their retreat from Crown Point in 1G59. Thirteen miles below Isle aux Noix is the village of St. Johns. That place was selected for a military post by Montcalm in 1758. It was occupied by the French prior to 1749.

About thirteen miles below St. Johns is the village and fort of Chambly. A fort was built there by the Freuch in 1G64, which they called Fort St. Louis. It was at first built of wood, but had, prior to 1721, been replaced by a strong work of stone, flanked with four bastions, and capable of containing a large garrison. Fort Richelieu, at the mouth of the river, was afterwards demolished, and a new fort built there by Mons. de Sorel. to which his name was given.

Lake Champlain lies on the western side of a valley formed by the Adirondacks of New York and the Green 3Iountains of Vermont. This valley is from one to thirty miles in width, and about one hundred and eighty miles in length north and south. Its greatest depression has been found to be between "VYestport, Burlington and Port Kent. Between Burlington and Port Kent the water of the lake is two hundred and eighty-two feet in depth. Professor Emmons found the depth, four miles north of VTestport, to be three hundred feet, and he was told that soundings of six hundred feet had been made in other places in that part of the lake. The surface of the lake is ninety-three feet above tide, and if Professor Emmons was not misinformed, its bottom at this last point is at least five hundred feet below the level of the ocean. It is the popular opinion that the waters of the lake

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are gradual!}* subsiding, but I judge tills to be a mistake for the reason that the soundings made seventy-five years ago do not differ materially from those of the present day. The water in the bays and along the shores is not so deep as it was formerly, on account of the washing of the banks and the deposit of earth, saw-dust and rubbish brought down by the creeks and rivers,, but the surface is probably as high ab ive tide as it was when the lake was first visited by Champlain in 1609. It is evident, however, from an examination of the adjacent shores and rocks, that the lake at one time filled a much larger portion of the valley than it does at present. Geologists suppose this entire valley to have been twice >cc ipied by the ocean — but these speculations are of little interest to the general reader, who, usually, is satisfied to take things as they have existed for the last five thousand y^ars.

This lake has ever been celebrated for the beauty of its scenery and the bold and imposing configuration of the surrounding country. Upon the eastern side the valley is wide and tortile until we pass Mount Independence going south, when the hills approach the lake, and in some places rise abruptly from its shores. On the New York side the mountains in many places extend to the water's edge, as in the case of the Black Mountains south of Ticonderoga ; the Kayaderosseras range which terminates with Bulwagga Mountain near Crown Point ; the northern end of the West Moriah range at Split Rock, and of the Adirondack Mountains at Trembleau Point, near Tort Kent, These several ranges run from the lake in a south-westerly direction, increasing in altitude as they recede, and presenting a scene at once l.M and beautiful,— hill after hill rising gradually above each other, until the highest peaks attain an elevation of over five thousand feet. From the west the snow-crowned r ;ks of Mount Marcy, old White Face, and half a dozen

LAKE CHAMPLAW.

other giants among the hills look down in solemn grandeur on the lake; while, on the east, the eye passes over green fields to trace along the horizon the clear blue outline of Jay's Peak, Old Mansfield's Chin and Nose, and Camel's Hump, the poetic Lion Couehant of the French.1

The original Indian name of Lake Champlain has been a subject of much speculation and research. By some it is supposed to have been called Peta-u-a-boitqiie, meaning alternate land and water, in allusion to its numerous islands and projecting points of land. Among the other names ascribed to the lake are Caniaderi-tjuarunte, the door or month of the country; Petoic-par-goic, the great water, and Ska-ne-togh-ro-ivah-na, the largest lake. The early French writers do not refer to its Indian name, but speak of the lake as the passage that leads to the country of the Iroquois. Among the papers published in O'Callaghan's Documentary History of New York in relation to the old French grants on Lake Champlain, is a letter from Governor Tryon to Lord Dartmouth, in which he states that this lake is called on Blain & Ogilby's and other ancient maps the Mer ties Iroquois, the Puehelieu River, Riviere des Iroquois, and the tract on the east side of the lake Iroscosia. From this it has been conjectured that the lake was called Yroquois by the Indians. But this is explained by Charlevoix, who says that the name was given to the river and lake by the French, because the Mohawk Iroquois were in the habit of passing through those waters in their incursions into the

1 The following are the elevations, above tide, of some cf the peaks seen from Lake Champlain.

Cm the New York side, Mt. Marcy 5,407 feet ; Dix's Teak, 5,200 ; Nipple Top, 4,000; Wkiteface, 4,900; Raven Hill, 2,100; Bald Peak, 2,005.

On the Vermont side, The Chin, 4,348: The Nose, 4,041; Camel's Hump, 4,0*3: Jay's Peak, 4,018; Killington Peak, 3,924.

LAKE CHAXPLAIX.

French settlements on the St. Lawrence. Champlain affixed his own name to the lake during his exploration of its shores in July, 1609. At a later day it was sometimes called Lake Coriear, in honor of a Dutchman who in 1666 saved a party of French and Canada Indians from being destroyed by a war party of the Mohawks, and who, in the year after, was accidentally drowned in it while on his way to Canada.

In the following chapters I propose to collect many facts connected with the history of Lake Champlain. No part of the United States is more interesting from its historic incidents. Every ba}- and island of the lake and nearly every foot of its shore has been the scene of some warlike movement— the midnight foray of the predatory savage, the bloody scout of frontier settlers, the rendezvous of armed bauds, or the conflict of contending armies. These stirring incidents extend in tradition far beyond the first discovery of the lake, and are brought down by scattered and unconnected history, in an almost uninterrupted series of strifes and contentions, to the close of the war of 1812.

Chapter I

Progress of Discoveries by the French in Canada— Character of the Indian Tribes — Champlain's Visit to Lake Champlain iu 1009 — Battle between the Canada Iudians and the Iroquois — Fort erected on Isle La Mottc — De Courcelles1 Expedition to the Mohawk River.

But little progress was made by the French, in their American discoveries until the spring of 1534, when Jacques Cartier sailed from France with two small vessels, and in the month of May reached Bonavista in Newfoundland. Cartier coasted around the north shore of the inland, and along the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, returning to France in September. The following year he left France with three ships, and entering the mouth of the St. Lawrence, ascended that river as far as the St. Croix (St. Charles), near the Indian village Stadacona (Quebec), where he passed the winter. While his party were preparing their winter quarters, Cartier, with thirty-five armed men, proceeded up the river as far as Hochelaga (Montreal), where he arrived on the second day of October.

" Hochelaga," says Warburton,1 " stood in the midst of great fields of Indian corn; it was of a circular form, containing about fifty large huts, each fifty paces long and from fourteen to fifteen wide, all built in the shape of tunnels, formed of wood, and covered with birch bark ; the dwellings were divided into several rooms, surrounding an open court in the centre, where the fires burned. Three rows of palisades encircled the town, with only one entrance; above the gate, and over the whole length of the outer ring of defence, there was a gallery, approached by flights of steps,

1 Conquest of Canada, vol. I.

L A KB C IIAJIPLAJy.

rod plentifully provided with stones and other missiles to resist attack. This was a place of considerable importance, even in those remote days, as the capital of a great extent of country, and as having eight or ten villages subject to its sway. The inhabitants spoke the language of the great Huron nation, and were more advanced in civilization than any of their neighbors; unlike other tribes, they cod-- tivated the ground and remained stationary." This was Uochelaga in 1534. Seventy years later it had sunk into a decayed and unimportant place.

On the 11th of October, Cartier rejoined his party at St. Croix, and the following spring returned to France. Early in the spring of 1541 he again sailed for America, and entering the St. Lawrence, passed up that stream as high as the rapids of Lachine. The next spring he returned to Europe and soon afterwards died. No effort was made by the French to colonize Canada, after the return of Cartier and his associates, until the year 1603, when an armament was fitted out, under the command of Pontgrave, to make further discoveries in the St. Lawrence. Among the officers who accompanied this expedition was Samuel be Champlain, a captain in the French Navy and a native of Saintonge. Pontgrave and Champlain explored the St. Lawrence as far as the Lachine rapids, which was the highest point reached by Cartier sixty-eight years before. In 1G04 Champlain accompanied De Monts to Canada, and again returned to Trance in the fall of that year.

In 1608, De Monts, who was at the head of a trading company, equipped two ships at Honfleur, and sent them out under the command of Champlain and Pontgrave, for the purpose of establishing the fur trade at Tadoussac. Champlain reached Tadoussac on the 3d day of June. After a brief stay there he ascended the St. Lawrence and i a the 3d of July, arrived at the ancient village of Stadacona,

LAKE CHAUPLAiy.

which he selected as the site of the future capital of Canada.1

When the French first visited Canada the Indians residing north of the river St. Lawrence were engaged in war with the Five Nations of Indians, who occupied the territory south of the St. Lawrence. The Five Nations were a powerful confederacy, Consisting of the Mohawks, the Oneidas. the Onondagas. the Cayugas and the Senecas. They called themselves Aganu.srJtioni. or United People.- By the Delawares they were called Mingoes; by the French. Iroquois, and by the Dutch the Maquas. Lafitau gives them the name of the AyonnonsionnL as does Charlevoix, who says, c;Leur nom propre est Agonnonsionni. qui veut dire, faiseurs de cabannes ; parcequ'ils les batissent beaucoup plus solides, que la plupart des autres sauvages.', j In 1712, the Tuscaroras, who had been driven from the south by the English, were admitted into the confederacy, which was afterwards known as the Six Nations.

Prior to the settlement of Canada by the French, the Iroquois occupied all the country south of the river St. Lawrence, and resided in numbers around Montreal and in the valley of Lake Champlain, but they had been