Chapter 181: of the Laws of 1911. In this as in other matters the (2)

_Resolved (if the Assembly concur)_, That a commission consisting
of the governor, who shall be chairman ex-officio, two citizens to
be designated by him, the lieutenant-governor, the speaker of the
assembly, two senators to be designated by the lieutenant-governor,
and two members of the assembly to be designated by the speaker, be
appointed to represent the State of New York at such conference,
with power to enter into negotiations with the commissioners
representing the State of Vermont and those representing the
Dominion of Canada for the observance of such tercentenary, and
that such commission report the results of their negotiations,
together with the recommendations thereon, to the legislature of
1908.

The New York commission appointed under the foregoing resolution consisted of Governor Charles E. Hughes, Lieutenant-Governor Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler, Senators Henry W. Hill, John C. R. Taylor, and Assemblyman James W. Wadsworth, jr., speaker of the assembly, Alonson T. Dominy, James A. Foley, and Frank S. Witherbee and John H. Booth.

That commission, together with the Vermont commission, during the summer of 1907 made a tour of Lake Champlain, held several joint and separate meetings, and the New York commission formulated its report and transmitted it to the New York legislature of 1908, a copy of which is annexed hereto, in the conclusion of which report they recommend as follows:

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ANNIVERSARY OF 1909.

Your commission respectfully submit the foregoing report to the
consideration of the legislature of New York. The anniversary
which we desire shall be suitably observed has great significance.
Important as it is to the student of history, it makes a wider
and stronger appeal to that large body of our citizens whose
forefathers fought in the wars of the Champlain region or were
among the pioneers who transformed it from the wilderness.

But chief of all the considerations which we urge upon your
attention is the international character of the proposed
celebration. The history of the Champlain Valley belongs to the
history of three great nations, whose cordial relations we believe
will be promoted by the suitable observance of this significant
date.

RECOMMENDATION.

To that end your commission, after careful investigation, reaches
the conclusion that the three hundredth anniversary of the
discovery of Lake Champlain should be suitably celebrated by New
York State; and to that end we respectfully recommend the enactment
of the following bill.

Thereafter a bill was prepared and submitted to the legislature, which was amended in some respects, and subsequently enacted and became chapter 149 of the New York Laws of 1908, providing in substance for a celebration of the tercentenary of the discovery of Lake Champlain by Samuel Champlain in the month of July, 1609, which celebration, by the terms of the bill, is to occur in the month of July, 1909, at various points in the Champlain valley.

The commission appointed thereunder consisted of H. Wallace Knapp, Mooers, N. Y., chairman; Henry W. Hill, of Buffalo, secretary; Walter C. Witherbee, Port Henry, treasurer; James J. Frawley, New York City; James Shea, Lake Placid; James A. Foley, New York City; John H. Booth, Plattsburgh; John B. Riley, Plattsburgh; Louis C. Lafontaine, Champlain; Howland Pell, New York City.

This commission was empowered under the last-mentioned statute to enter into negotiations and co-operate with the State of Vermont, the Government of the United States, the Dominion of Canada, and the Province of Quebec, and either or all of them in such tercentenary celebration, and appropriated by chapter 466 of the New York Laws of 1908 the sum of $50,000 for that purpose.

The Vermont commission made its report to the legislature of Vermont, held in the fall of 1908, also recommending, among other things, that a proper celebration be held in conjunction with the State of New York, the Government of the United States, and the Dominion of Canada, a copy of which report is annexed hereto. Subsequently the State of Vermont made an appropriation of $25,000 to enable that State to participate in the tercentenary celebration.

The commission appointed thereunder consisted of Governor George H. Prouty, chairman; Lynn M. Hays, of Burlington, secretary; Walter H. Crockett, of St. Albans; Rev. John M. Thomas, of Middlebury; Horace W. Bailey, of Rutland; W. J. Van Patten, of Burlington; Frank L. Fish, of Vergennes; Arthur L. Stone, of St. Johnsbury; and F. O. Beaupre, of Burlington.

The facts warranting federal appropriation are briefly set forth in the report of the New York and Vermont commissions, and in amplification thereof the following additional facts are respectfully submitted to the consideration of the President and the Congress of the United States:

Long before its discovery by Samuel Champlain, in July, 1609, Lake Champlain was the resort and battle ground of the savage Algonquin, Huron, and Iroquois nations who peopled its islands and circumjacent beautifully shaded and picturesque shores. It was a paradise for the aborigines, whose native customs and adventurous but precarious life were a startling revelation to such an explorer as Champlain, coming as he did from the refinements of French life of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Still he was hospitably received and escorted to and through the lake, then known as “Caniaderiguarunte,” which signifies the “gate of the country.” The lake was also known as “Mer des Iroquois,” and traversed by the warring Indian tribes, whose canoes formed picturesque flotillas in those early days on the blue waters of the lake.

Had Champlain been gifted with the poetic imagination of a Homer or a Virgil, he might have cast into an epic the story of his explorations and discoveries, which were quite as thrilling as those of the Iliad, the Odyssey, or the Aeneid. Other poets have dwelt upon the beauties of this lake and have sung of the tragic events that have occurred on its waters.

The Champlain valley is one of the historic portions of the American Continent. Its Indian occupation was succeeded by that of the French, and in turn by the English. From its discovery in July, 1609, to the battle of Plattsburgh, in September, 1814, Lake Champlain was the thoroughfare of many expeditions and the scene of many sanguinary engagements. Noted French, British, and American officers visited it and stopped at its forts, from Ste. Anne on the north, founded at Isle La Motte in 1665, to St. Frédéric, founded in honor of the French secretary of foreign affairs, Frédéric Maurepas, by Marquis de Beauharnois, governor-general of Canada, at Crown Point in 1731, and Fort Carillon, founded at Ticonderoga in 1766, on the south.

The grants of some of its islands and adjacent shore lands under French seignories were the subject of a long controversy between the French and British Governments, challenging on the one side the consideration of such officials as Marquis de Beauharnois and others under Louis XV and Louis XVI, and on the other side such statesmen as Lord Dartmouth, Edmund Burke, and Sir Henry Moore under the British Crown. But few, if any, occupations were made under French seignorial grants, and the controversy finally ended after the Seven Years’ French and Indian war, which terminated with the capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point by the British in 1759, and the later sovereign control by the Americans during the Revolution.

The Champlain valley was the scene of important military and one naval engagement during the Revolutionary war, and permission has been obtained from the War Department to raise from the waters of Lake Champlain the _Royal Savage_ at Valcour Island, the flagship of Benedict Arnold during that engagement. The history of Ticonderoga and Macdonough’s victory at the battle of Plattsburgh, in September 1814, are of such national importance as to merit federal consideration during the forthcoming celebration of the discovery of the lake.

For two hundred years or longer the Champlain valley was the highway between Albany on the south and Quebec on the north, through which surged the tides of war and travel, until every prominent point and important island in the lake was marked by some notable event worthy of historic mention. The proposed celebration of the discovery of the lake will commemorate some of these important events. Sewall S. Cutting, D. D., in a poem read at the University of Vermont in 1877 thus describes some of these events. He says:

I shift my theme, nor yet shall wander far;
My song shall linger where my memories are.
Dear Lake Champlain! Thou hast historic fame—
The world accords it in thy very name.
Not English speech these savage wilds first heard,
Not English prows that first these waters stirred;
Primeval forests cast their shadows dark
On dusky forms in craft of fragile bark,
When first the paleface from the distant sea
Brought hither conquering cross and fleur-de-lis.
On frowning headlands rose the forts of France—
Around them villages, and song, and dance.
Four generations came and passed away.
Of treacherous peace and sanguinary fray.
When hostile armies hostile flags unfurled.
To wage the destiny of half the world.

No part of the United States can vie in comparison with Lake Champlain and its environs for historic importance and the ultimate significance of the national and international events occurring in that valley. “Every bay and island of the lake and nearly every foot of its shore have been the scene of some warlike movement—the midnight foray of the predatory savage, the bloody scout of frontier settlers, the rendezvous of armed bands, or the conflict of contending armies.” These stirring events cover a period of centuries—from the traditional history of the Indians to the close of the war of 1812.

From the earliest periods of settlement in Canada, New England, and New York the valley of Lake Champlain, both as watercourse or highway, served as a thoroughfare by which, in hostile times, predatory excursions were directed against both the French and English frontiers, and over which captives were conveyed into unenviable captivity. This was the route traversed by delegations engaged in diplomatic relations between the French and English colonists, and was used by agents employed to arrange an exchange of captives. The valley was a highway of commerce, particularly in the operations of the fur trade. Its Indian name, meaning “door of the country,” was an apt designation, for into it there marched the flower of contending armies of France, England, and the United States, who struggled persistently for its control. The destinies of the United States and Canada and of England’s colonial policy were largely decided by what occurred in the Champlain valley.

An unjust historical perspective is often created by placing too high value upon the significance of figures. Large armies do not always count for as much in their influence upon the course of the world’s history as events more hidden from view and surrounded with less of glamour. The one more easily bewitches the eyes, but the other is more likely to appeal to reason. The history of the Champlain valley exhibits in relief momentous martial and naval engagements and in intaglio the deeds of individuals and collections of men pregnant with far-reaching results in the evolution of the continent of North America.

Samuel Champlain laid the foundations of New France at Quebec in 1608, and in 1609 led an expedition into the Richelieu River, accompanied by a retinue of Algonquian and other Canadian Indians. At the falls of Chambly he abandoned the vessel in which he had sailed, and by portaging and canoeing reached the entrance of a great lake, which he named Lake Champlain. Its confines constituted one of the hunting grounds of the well-organized Iroquoian Confederacy. The Iroquois were then at great enmity with the Algonquians and the Canadian Hurons.

On the night of July 29, 1609, Champlain fell in with one of the hunting parties of the Iroquois. They spent the night in parleying and uttering defiance at one another, and on the morning of July 30 the now well-known battle of Champlain took place at or near the site of Ticonderoga, as is generally believed by the best historians. The significance of this battle is attested by the alienation of the Iroquois from the French and their affiliation with the Dutch and English, and was one of the embryonic factors which, under development, ultimately saved northern New York and a large contiguous territory to English instead of French interests.

France claimed the region by right of discovery, but England sought to repress her by the limitations of treaty. In 1731 France violated the compact of peace by the erection of Fort St. Frédéric on the peninsula known better as Crown Point. The Iroquois, as claimants of territorial ownership, in June, 1737, protested against the French occupation. In 1739 the French commandant promised the Iroquois that France would not encroach or settle south of Fort St. Frédéric, but he claimed for his King all the watershed of the St. Lawrence, inclusive of Lake Champlain and Lake George. In 1742 the fort, having been enlarged, was the strongest work held by the French in Canada—Quebec and Louisburg only excepted. The five years’ war, familiarly known as King George’s war, involved the subjects of France and England in conflict, both in Europe and in America. A nominal peace was established by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748. But soon the Acadian and other boundary contentions between the two Crowns were in ferment.

France practiced subtlety in her diplomatic negotiations, strengthened her frontier posts, and inoculated her Indian allies with hatred of her English colonial neighbors. In 1755 she built Fort Carillon, afterwards Ticonderoga, and thus advanced her outposts. Henceforth, and in a seven years’ war, Fort Carillon and Ticonderoga bore the brunt of frontier aggrandizement. In August of that year Dieskau occupied Crown Point with 700 regulars, 1,600 Canadians, and 700 Indians. In 1756, 2,000 men of France were engaged on Fort Carillon; in 1757 it was garrisoned with 9,000 men under the Marquis de Montcalm. On July 8, 1758, Abercromby, with regulars and provincials, unsuccessfully stormed its works and lost nearly 2,000 men. In the same year Robert Rogers, the intrepid ranger, lost 125 out of a total of 180 men. Upon the evacuation of the region by the French in 1759 General Amherst took possession of Ticonderoga in July, and of Crown Point in August. In 1760 Amherst assembled an army of 15,000 men at Crown Point, and in August of that year Colonel Haviland, with about 3,300 men, opened fire upon the French post at Isle aux Noix, forced the French commander, Bourlamaque, to withdraw, and captured the garrison that remained behind.

For a time after the treaty of Paris, in 1763, the region rested in comparative quiescence. England’s acquisition by treaty of the vast domain of Canada eradicated the long-standing imbroglios with France in North America; but the intercolonial wars had schooled the English-American colonists in the arts of prowess and of war. The colonists also had greater freedom to consider internal interests, being now relieved from the erstwhile collisions with the French. A narrow colonial policy lent itself toward the growth of a spirit of resentment in the colonies, and England’s determination to enforce obedience to her will by the employment of military authority served only to fan the slumbering embers into a conflagration. It was under these conditions in May, 1775, that the audacious Ethan Allen, accompanied by only about 83 men, surprised the English garrison at Fort Ticonderoga and that Seth Warner took Crown Point, in each case without bloodshed. When De la Place, the English officer at Ticonderoga, asked Allen by what authority he demanded the fort’s surrender, he replied with these now memorable words: “By the authority of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress.” The personality of Allen was and is yet a subject of academic controversy, but his action in this affair is a landmark in the romantic history of America.

Benedict Arnold has been execrated for his treason to his country, yet his name is connected with one of the greatest of patriotic services during the American Revolution. On October 11, 1776, he engaged in an extraordinary naval battle on Lake Champlain against the overwhelming odds of the British fleet under Sir Guy Carleton. This battle is in our naval annals of the Revolution what Bunker Hill is to our military history—“a battle wherein glory and renown were gained in defeat.” Spears, the naval historian, has characterized it thus: “Not only was the moral effect of this battle quite as great in the courage it gave the Americans, and the pause for thought it gave the enemy; it served to head off a victorious invading British army bound for Albany and the subjugation of northern New York. It taught the British that the Americans were not only willing, but they were able fighters. In spite of the tremendous odds against them, at the last they had proved themselves as unyielding as the rocks that echoed back the roar of the conflict.”

Burgoyne made an unsuccessful attack upon the American occupants of Fort Ticonderoga in June, 1777, but with 7,000 men had forced the abandonment of Crown Point in that month; and in July, having erected a battery on Mount Defiance, which commanded Fort Ticonderoga, forced the Americans to evacuate it on the night of the 6th. The termination of the American Revolution, save for internal controversies between New York and Vermont, ended the storm and stress period in the Champlain valley for many years, until our second war with Great Britain.

From September 6 to 11, 1814, various land engagements took place about Plattsburgh. The British forces, numbering about 11,500 troops and including many of Lord Wellington’s veterans, were under Sir George Prevost, governor and commander-in-chief in British North America; the Americans, commanded by Macomb and Bissell, numbered 4,500 men. On September 11, 1814, the American navy on the lake, commanded by Thomas Macdonough, defeated the British squadron under the command of Commodore George Downie. This naval battle was crucial in bringing the war of 1812 to a termination. The success was acclaimed by the American people everywhere by rejoicing, bonfires, and illuminations, and was sung in the folk and war ballads of the day. Congress recognized its national significance by officially thanking the whole force engaged, and by voting gold medals to Macdonough, Henley, and Cassin, and a silver medal to each of the other commissioned officers. In this victory the United States gained prestige for the demands of the treaty of peace, and an estoppel was put upon England’s endeavor to get possession of the northeast corner of the State of Maine.

If the lake itself was the door of the whole northern country, Larrabee’s Point, on the Vermont side, opposite Fort Ticonderoga, was a side door to New England, and from that side door the New England frontiers suffered repeatedly the havoc of Indian devastations. But there are other places, besides those hitherto mentioned, whose historic associations are inseparable from a narration of the landmarks of the Champlain valley. At Burlington, Vt., the first steamboat on the lake was launched in 1808 and bore the name of that state. This was only a year after Fulton’s steamer, the _Clermont_, first plied the Hudson from New York to Albany. Shortly thereafter, during the period of our second war with Great Britain, Burlington was a garrisoned post and a base of supplies.

On the Isle La Motte (named from Pierre de St. Paul, sieur de la Motte-Lusière, a captain of the famous Carignan regiment), the French built a fort in 1666, which was named Ste. Anne, and in July of that year, while garrisoned by several companies of the regiment above alluded to, was invested by hostile Mohawks, whose depredations included the death of Captains de Traversy and de Chazy. In October, 1666, M. de Tracy, governor-general of New France, guided and assembled an expedition on the Isle La Motte for the purpose of chastising the Iroquois. Twelve hundred combatants, borne by a fleet of 300 bateaux and canoes, and strengthened by two pieces of artillery, were engaged. They penetrated to the remotest hamlets of these Indians and planted the arms of France, in token of taking formal possession of the whole northern part of New York. The French remained undisturbed from the Mohawks for nearly a quarter of a century. Fort Ste. Anne became a Jesuit mission station and was visited by Bishop Laval in 1668. In August, 1690, Capt. John Schuyler camped there during his return from a foray into Canada. Gens. Philip Schuyler and Richard Montgomery met on the island in September, 1775, during their advance against St. John’s and Montreal, and laid there the plans for that invasion of Canada. Now the shrine of Ste. Anne, on the west side of the island, is visited annually by thousands of devout pilgrims.

Maj. Robert Rogers and 142 men came into Missisquoi Bay in the autumn of 1760, secreted their boats and some provisions, and went off on an expedition against the St. Francis Indians, near the village of Three Rivers, which they burned. Earlier in that year this same intrepid ranger had landed at the place called Rouse’s Point, near which he was attacked by a superior body of French from the Isle aux Noix. The French were defeated and their commander was slain.

Swanton, in Vermont, at an early period formed a considerable settlement of the French and Indians, being then “probably the largest in the Champlain valley with the exception of Crown Point.” At the mouth of Otter Creek, the largest river in Vermont, where Fort Cassin was built, the American squadron was fitted out in 1814 for battle against the English navy. This fort was named for Lieutenant Cassin of our navy, who, with Captain Thornton of the United States Artillery, in May, 1814, had defended the American fleet then building there from attempted destruction by the British.

A little to the north of Rouse’s Point are the ruins of Fort Montgomery, built by error in what was then Canadian soil, and often called on that account “Fort Blunder,” but corrected by international boundary concessions. Rouse’s Point is a place of commercial interest and the most important port of entry on this frontier. Near by is Point au Fer, fortified in 1776 by the patriot General Sullivan, but occupied by the British in June of the next year and relinquished by them only as late as 1788. At Valcour Island, off Bluff Point and Hotel Champlain, the scene of Arnold’s naval battle of 1776, the wreck of the _Royal Savage_ lies under water to this day as a reminder of the beginnings of our national naval adventures. At the head of the lake to the south, near the present Whitehall, Maj. Israel Putnam, in August, 1758, was engaged in watching the enemy’s maneuvers, and had a fierce encounter in the forest with French and Indians. He was captured, tied to a tree by the Indians, who made preparations to roast him alive. Only the stern interposition of the French officer, Marin, prevented them from dispatching him thus cruelly and robbing the patriot cause of one of its bravest leaders during the American Revolution.

The New York and Champlain commissions have concluded contracts with Mr. L. O. Armstrong, of Montreal, to present Indian pageants on Lake Champlain during the tercentenary celebration. These will be presented by 150 native Indians, descendants of the original tribes that occupied portions of the Champlain valley at the time of its discovery by Champlain. They will reproduce the battle of Samuel Champlain with the Iroquois and also present a dramatic version of Longfellow’s Hiawatha on floating barges anchored on the waters of the lake at various places where exercises are to be held.

It is desirable that the United States detail national troops and the States of New York and Vermont regiments from the National Guard to present military pageants at Ticonderoga, Plattsburgh, and Burlington. The two commissions have decided to hold formal exercises on July 5, 1909, at Crown Point, on July 6 at Fort Ticonderoga, on July 7 at Plattsburgh, on July 8 at Burlington, and on July 9 at Isle La Motte, at each of which places Indian pageants will be presented.

The proposed celebration of the discovery of Lake Champlain may also include a celebration of such colonial, national, and international events occurring since the discovery of the lake as to make it eminently proper that the Government of the United States officially participate in the exercises commemorating these historical events. Historical addresses and other literary exercises are to be held, and it is important that the United States Government invite and entertain representatives of the Republic of France, the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Dominion of Canada. The celebration is of national and international importance, and the committee recommends that the resolution do pass.

II. ENGLISH FORTS

The Crown Point forts standing within the confines of the State Reservation at Crown Point, were frequently mentioned during the Tercentenary celebration exercises as well as during the dedicatory ceremonies of the Champlain memorials.

They are of historical and public interest, now that they belong to the State, through the generosity of Witherbee, Sherman & Co., and will be preserved from further devastation.

Fort Frédéric was built by Marquis de Beauharnois in honor of the French Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Frédéric Maurepas, in 1731. The English forts were constructed under the supervision of General Jeffrey Amherst as will appear from the following excerpts of the official “Correspondence of William Pitt,” edited by Gertrude Selwin Kimball and published by the Macmillan Company.

In his report under date of Crown Point, August 5, 1759, General Amherst says: “I arrived at Crown Point [August 4th] before the evening, landed and posted all corps. * * * I ordered [August 5th] Lt. Colonel Eyre to trace out the ground for a Fort, which I will set about with all possible expedition.” Correspondence of William Pitt, Vol. 2, pp. 147-148, published by the Macmillan Company.

General Amherst in his report under date of Crown Point October 22, 1759, to William Pitt, says “to make the fortress as formidable as I can I ordered with the advise of the Engineer three Forts to be erected, which I named the Grenadier Fort, the light Infantry Fort, & Gages light Infantry Fort, ordering those Corps’s to build each their own as fast as possible.” Correspondence of William Pitt, Vol. 2, p. 191.

In a later report under date of New York December 16, 1759, to William Pitt, General Amherst (on November 10, 1759, that being the birthday of George II), says: “The Troops worked till three o’clock, excepting the Grenadiers, who were under Arms at one o’clock and fired Volleys. * * * The three Forts firing 21 Cannon, and the Battalions volleys. The Fortress 21 Cannon, the Army a running fire, the Park of Artillery 21 Cannon, the Army a general volley * * *.” Correspondence of William Pitt, Vol. 2, p. 222.

Again in a later report under date of New York, January 7, 1761, to William Pitt, General Amherst says: “The works of the Fortress of Crown Point, and of the Forts of Oswego, Pittsburg, and Fort Stanwix, are not finished so much as I could wish, and I judge, it will be proper to compleat them in the Spring, and that the Provincials should furnish men for this Service.” Correspondence of William Pitt, Vol. 2, p. 382.

It thus appears that the fortress at Crown Point was not completed in 1761, and in fact it was never fully completed.

It does not appear from the foregoing correspondence between General Amherst and William Pitt or from any of the official reports of General Amherst that the fortress at Crown Point was officially named “Fort Amherst,” as it was occasionally denominated in common parlance.

* * * * *

Additional light is thrown on the early history of the region in the papers of Victor Hugo Paltsits, State Historian, and W. Max Reid, on the Rock Inscription at Crown Point, found in the New York State Historical Association Publications [Vol. X, pp. 106-113]. In the papers of Mr. Reid, he says that “The Earl of Waldegrave writes to the Board of Trade, June 13th, 1732: ‘the French have caused a fort to be built * * * at a place called _Pointe de la Couronne_, in English, Crown Point.’” [N. Y. Hist. Assoc. Pub. X, p. 113.]

III. REPORT OF CAPTAIN EDWARD MOTT

In the Journal of Captain Edward Mott, of Preston, Connecticut, published in the Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, Vol. I, pages 163-174, may be found the report of Captain Mott on the expedition to Ticonderoga and the part taken by the troops under his command. Therein will be found a discussion of the demand made by Col. Benedict Arnold that he be placed in command of the men who had assembled to attempt the capture of Ticonderoga and the reasons assigned for refusing such demand. An order was finally issued by Captain Mott as follows:

To Col. ETHAN ALLEN,

SIR: Whereas, agreeable to the Power and Authority to us
given by the Colony of Connecticut, we have appointed you to take
the command of a party of men and reduce and take possession of the
garrison of Ticonderoga and its dependencies, and as you are now in
possession of the same,—You are hereby directed to keep the command
of said garrison, for the use of the American Colonies, till you
have further orders from the Colony of Connecticut or from the
Continental Congress.

Signed per order of Committee,
EDWARD MOTT, _Chairman Committee_.

TICONDEROGA, _May 10th, 1775_.

The foregoing order appears to have been issued without direct authorization, but it was acquiesced in by Col. Arnold, who submitted to the command of Col. Allen and accompanied him in the attack. They were guided by young Nathan Beman, who was familiar with every passage of approach to the fort. After the capture of Ticonderoga, Captain Mott returned to Hartford and was sent to Philadelphia to inform Congress of the capture of Ticonderoga. And thereafter he resumed command of his company in the northern army and was present at the taking of Chambly and the surrender of St. John’s. His elder brother, Samuel, was appointed engineer and was stationed at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and in August became Chief Engineer under General Schuyler of the northern army. Captain Edward Mott became major in the regiment under Col. Gay. The devotion and distinguished services of Captain Mott and Samuel Mott, his brother, during the Revolution were recognized in their rapid promotion in the northern army.

IV. NOTES ON THE ARCHÆOLOGY OF THE CHAMPLAIN VALLEY

BY PROFESSOR GEORGE H. PERKINS, Ph.D.

State Geologist of Vermont

It is undoubted that the Champlain valley at the time when the first Europeans entered the region was occupied by two great Indian peoples, the Confederacy of the Six Nations and the Algonkins or Abnaki. To the Six Nations the name Iroquois was generally given by the French explorers. They held full sway over the New York side of the Champlain valley, but the occupancy of the eastern, or Vermont, side is less certain. There can be no question that this side of the valley was possessed by the Algonkins for the greater part of the time, but there are several centuries when it is not easy to determine certainly the precise relations of these two peoples. Most of what became New England and the Atlantic border and a vast territory in Canada was always, so far as can be now discovered, occupied by the Algonkins who also reached far westward and southward through the Mississippi valley. The Iroquois occupied a comparatively small area about lakes Erie and Ontario and eastward along the St. Lawrence, including the whole of what is now New York, as well as parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and a long, narrow strip of Canada north of New York.

They also occupied territory in the south, west of the Carolinas. How long or how completely the Iroquois possessed the Vermont side of the Champlain valley we may never know, but it appears to be pretty certain that they did for a time, and probably several times, dispossess the usual owners and hold as their own the entire shore of Champlain. It appears from various records that sometime about 1540 the Iroquois were in control of both sides of the lake and of the Vermont as well as the New York shores. It also appears that these people held the region for a century when they withdrew. Why they retired to the western side is not plain. Considering their warlike disposition and reputation and the very great fear in which they were held by the Algonkins it is impossible to believe that these latter drove them back across the lake, and yet why they should have voluntarily left their eastern possessions one cannot readily explain.

In 1640 Father Ducreux made a map of the region and on this map Lake Champlain is made the western boundary of the Algonkin territory, so that by this time the ownership had again changed.

In 1690, as is well known, the Algonkins and French destroyed Schenectady and, though their force was very small, they appear to have passed without any difficulty through the Champlain valley, and had it been occupied by Mohawks or any Iroquois tribe this could not have been possible.

At different times for many years various Vermont legislatures were beset by claims which the Caughnawaga Indians persistently entered. These claims were for remuneration for land taken by the white men from their ancestors and which they declared were formerly the property of their tribe.

The territory which the Caughnawagas claimed was finally defined by them as bounded by Lake Champlain on the west and on the east by the mountain ranges which divide the waters running into Lake Champlain from the Missisquoi, Lamoille and Winooski rivers from those which run into the Connecticut, together with so much of the land drained by Otter creek as would be embraced by a line drawn from Ticonderoga to the sources of the Winooski.

So far as can be ascertained by examination of documents, the validity or invalidity of this claim was neither denied nor allowed, but the claim was never in any way granted. As intimated, it was repeatedly advanced at different sessions of the General Assembly until finally abandoned in 1874. From the persistency with which the Indians brought forward their claim it seems probable that whether it had any substantial basis or not, they really believed that it had.

In a very full and interesting discussion of this question, Mr. D. P. Thompson in an Appendix to the History of Montpelier, Vt., writes as follows: “In the published journal of the expedition of Champlain when in the summer of 1609 he discovered the lake that bears his name we have full and direct evidence that the Iroquois were in possession of just about the same tract of territory in Vermont as that to which their descendants have latterly been laying claim as a part of their original domain.”

Champlain also found that the Algonkins were at war with the Iroquois and, as this author suggests, this war may very likely have grown out of the encroachment of the Iroquois upon this territory which formerly had belonged to the Algonkins. Moreover, Champlain states in his narrative that when he asked his companions who lived on the east shores of the lake through which they were passing they told him that they were Iroquois. It also appears to be true that the early French explorers called Lake Champlain the Lake or Sea of the Iroquois. However, while the Algonkins admitted at the time of Champlain’s visit that the Iroquois held the Champlain valley on both sides, they asserted that it originally belonged to them, as it was occupied by their forefathers. The truth, so far as it can be ascertained, appears to be that the first inhabitants of the western side of the Champlain valley were Iroquois, and those of the eastern side were Algonkins; that at some time before 1540 the Iroquois crossed the lake and drove out the people then living on the eastern side, and for many, perhaps a hundred, years, themselves occupied that territory. In or about 1640, for reasons not discoverable, they left the eastern shores and all the territory now included in Vermont and no further trace of them appears in that region. How long the Champlain valley was occupied by these two peoples can never be known, or whether at any early time some other and different people roamed over the region. All that we do know or can know is that at the coming of the white men, and for at least several centuries before, these and only these tribes were here.

Turning now to a consideration of some of the evidence of former occupation which these peoples have left we find a great variety of implements and weapons of stone and a smaller number of copper and iron. Household utensils, simple and few as were the needs of people, who were in the stone age of civilization, are also found made of stone, earthenware and bone. A detailed enumeration of these, though of great interest to the archæologist would be tedious to the general reader. For this reason only a general account of these objects will be given.

From what has been written above it will be obvious that practically all of the objects found on the New York side of the valley are of Iroquois origin, but of those found in Vermont we may be sure that many are Algonkin. It is also sure that mingled with these there must be many of Iroquoian origin. When, however, we attempt to decide which of the implements or other objects are Algonkian and which Iroquoian we undertake a very difficult task. Some of the pottery and some of the stone objects are plainly of Iroquois manufacture and others are Algonkian, but most of our specimens are not to be classified. The Iroquois were superior in culture to other tribes and their handiwork is finer as a whole, but after all the quality of the work does not, as a rule, at all suffice to distinguish between their implements and others. Quite extensive collections have been made on both sides of the lake, and when these are compared very great similarity is at once observed. And yet there are some differences though, as has been indicated, not enough to differentiate one group from the other. It is noticeable that in any considerable collection of objects of Indian manufacture from the Champlain valley, there are many of exceedingly fine workmanship. No better specimens of their kind are to be found anywhere than the best of our Champlain valley specimens. Probably because of the rocky and, at times inaccessible, character of the western shore, and the more level and inhabitable nature of the Vermont shores, Indian relics of all sorts have been found in much greater abundance on the eastern than on the western side of the lake.

Much of the New York shore is rugged and affords no good camping ground or village sites, while the Vermont shores are mostly level, or nearly so, and offer abundant invitation to wandering tribes to remain. And yet, as Champlain informs the reader, there were in his day no permanent villages because of hostilities. The whole Champlain valley, or at any rate that part of it which adjoins the lake, was unsafe territory to the long-staying camper, and still more to those who would establish a village. War or hunting parties might traverse its forests, but none might safely tarry long.

As every collector of Indian relics well knows, it is about the camp, or better still, village sites that most abundant specimens occur, and as these are very few in the immediate vicinity of the lake so the number of objects found is comparatively small as compared to such localities as the Ohio or Mississippi region. Still some thousands of specimens have been collected along the shores of Lake Champlain and in their immediate neighborhood. As everywhere, the spear and arrow points, and similarly shaped knives, are by far the most abundant of all objects that have been found. These chipped points are almost always made from hard, often quartzose rock, and are of many forms and various degrees of excellence. By far the greater number are of a gray quartzite which is abundant in ledges in the region. The most common form on both sides of the lake is the simple triangle. This shape occurs of many sizes from little points a half inch long to those that are four or five inches long. They may be narrow or broad, usually without haft or barb, though these may be present in some of the less common specimens. While none are as large as the larger flaked implements of the west, some are several inches long, a few of the very largest being seven or eight. Some few of the points are as finely proportioned and elegantly made as can be found anywhere, though as a rule the flaked objects are less attractive than those from the west. This is partly due to the color and texture of the material, for the quartzites, etc., of the east are much less prettily colored than those which are found in the west or middle west. Finely barbed and stemmed points and knives are less abundant than the simpler forms, but many specimens occur and some are very finely made.

Besides these points other chipped or flaked objects are found, such as scrapers and drills. A form of point or, more probably, knife is found more commonly, I think, in the Champlain valley than elsewhere, though not peculiar to this region. These are of similar form to the better hafted and stemmed, chipped points, but they are of red or purple slate and were ground at least as they were completed, though they may have been first shaped by chipping, as some of them undoubtedly were. Some of these are strikingly like the modern Eskimo knife. Dr. Beauchamp has figured some of these slate knives in Bulletin 18, New York State Museum, and says as to their distribution: “In some parts of Canada they are about as common as in New York, being most abundant on both sides of Lake Ontario. They have not been reported east of Lake Champlain, except in its immediate vicinity, with the exception of one in Maine, nor do they reach more than half way southward to the Pennsylvania line.”

Perhaps that class of implements known as gouges is more common in the Champlain valley than elsewhere. These objects are of various proportions, some being long and slender, others short and wide, but whatever the shape, there is always the U-shaped groove which gives the name. This groove may extend only a short distance from the cutting edge as in the ordinary carpenter’s gouge, or it may go from end to end. The gouges are usually fashioned from moderately soft stone though some are of that which is very hard. They are generally well finished and some are so regular in form and so beautifully smoothed and polished that they are not surpassed by any specimens that we have. As a rule they are of medium size, six or eight inches long, but most elegantly finished specimens are in our museums that are fourteen to twenty inches long.

What are called celts or hand axes are more numerous and, as a class, somewhat ruder than the gouges, though some of them are as finely made as possible.

Like the gouges the celts were rubbed and ground into shape, except in very rare cases, when a very hard stone was shaped by flaking. They are generally not more than four or five inches long, though some have been found that are twice this size. The material is usually some sort of very hard stone.

Of ruder sort than other implements are the numerous hammers. Often these are merely water smoothed river or beach pebbles upon which no work at all has been expended, and the only proof of human usage is seen in the battered ends. More rarely the hammer has been worked over its whole surface. Of course hammers or other implements used for pounding would not ordinarily be carried on long journeys and consequently would not be likely to be found far from a somewhat permanent camp. Hence, although very abundant in a few localities, these objects are not widely distributed. And the same is true of the boiling stones, which are of the same sort as the hammer stones, the difference being that the latter bear the bruises caused by their use, while the pebbles which were heated and thrown into the earthenware pots to heat the water show evidence of being heated, but no abrasion.

The hammer stone when long and more or less slender becomes a pestle. Pestles are not common though in all a considerable number have been found in the Champlain valley. Some of these are only five or six inches long, and from this size they may be found of various lengths and weights to those over two feet long and weighing nearly thirty pounds. Some of these large pestles are finely shaped and of hard stone, so that great labor must have been expended in their making.

Several so-called pestles have been found in the region we are considering which are especially interesting because they are not only well shaped, but at one end they are carved to resemble the head of some animal. These are long and slender and should probably be regarded as clubs rather than pestles.

Without some sort of mortar the pestle would be of little use, and where one is found the other may be expected. Yet it is noticeable that mortars are very uncommon in this region. Some very excellent examples have been found, but more often little labor was expended upon the mortars beyond that necessary to hollow out the cavity. This cavity was in some cases hollowed on one side only, but often there was made a hollow on each side. These were usually circular and several inches deep, but in some of the largest mortars the hollowed portion is oval and more or less irregular. Naturally the mortars would be of considerable weight, from ten to fifty pounds.

The most common axe or hatchet was undoubtedly the celt or hand axe, already mentioned, but for heavier work larger axes were needed, and these are found, though not in large numbers. These larger axes may be six, eight or ten inches long and weigh several pounds, though we have none as large as many which have been found in the west and south. Some are very rude, others very carefully shaped and well finished. All have a groove around them by which a handle could be more firmly attached. These large grooved axes seem to us very clumsy and inefficient tools, but Champlain in his account of making a camp for the night on one of the large islands in the lake, says that his Indian companions cut down large trees with these “meschantes haches,” so that they were certainly much more useful than they appear to us to be.

There is a class of objects which seem to be more or less problematical. They are of very different shape, but always quite unlike objects designed for use as implements; always well and often very finely made and finished and of handsome material. These occur on both sides of the lake and form the chief treasures of collections. They are some of them suitable for ornament or for ceremonial purposes, but some do not appear designed for any known use. Nevertheless they are fashioned with such care and are so attractive in themselves that it is not possible to regard them as unimportant to those who made them. By different writers they have been called as they are of one form or another—ceremonial stones, banner stones, gorgets, etc. And it is more than probable that some were used as indicated by these names, but some of them are quite puzzling. The flat pieces of slate or other stone which are included among the specimens mentioned are usually drilled once or twice and were apparently attached to the clothing or hung about the neck as ornaments. Others, the so-called banner stones, are thicker, of harder material, semi-lunar or more or less crescent shape and have a large hole bored through the middle. It is possible, but not certain, that these were in some way badges of office. A very few of the so-called birdshead stones have also been found.

The discoidal stones, found especially in the south, are very rare in the Champlain valley. A few rather rough specimens have been found, but I have seen only one really fine specimen and this is small, about two and a half inches in diameter, of white quartz and very finely made.

Stone and earthenware pipes, some of them of very interesting form and finely polished are not numerous, but a goodly number have been found. The earthenware pipes are of various shape, a few tubular, more with bowl and stem, much like the modern pipe. The stone pipes are very variable in form, no two being alike, but as elsewhere, finely finished. Yet the pipes of the Champlain valley are much less elaborate than those from the mounds or other localities, and none of the earthenware specimens are effigies, or with head-shaped bowls, such as are found in New York west of the Adirondacks.

A very interesting form of pipe has been found in Swanton, on the Vermont side of the lake. A dozen or more of these have been obtained. They are simply straight tubes of stone from seven to twelve inches long and about an inch in diameter. They very closely resemble the tubular pipes of the Pacific coast and South America.

It is noticeable that the pipes of the Champlain valley rarely imitate any human or animal form. I know of only one which resembles an animal and two or three which bear on the bowl the human face.

Of earthenware or pottery a very great variety has been found. In this more than in any of the stone objects we are able at least partially to separate the Algonkian from the Iroquoian. The earthenware of the Champlain valley is sometimes almost without decoration, but by far the greater portion was ornamented at least about the rim and usually over much of the upper portion and sometimes even inside the upper part for one or two inches below the rim. No animal or human form is found in any specimen. The form is always globular below, the rim being contracted and variously shaped. In some cases the rim is quadrangular or five or six sided, although as stated, the lower part is always globular. Whole jars are, as is to be expected, very rare, but three fine specimens from Vermont are in the University Museum and one was in the fine collection of Dr. D. S. Kellogg of Plattsburgh, which was found near that place.[3] Large fragments, in some instances almost enough to reconstruct a whole jar, have been found on both sides of the valley. For the most part the pottery of the region is in fragments from the size of one’s hand to mere bits not larger than a pea. These fragments have been found in very great quantity. A short distance north of Plattsburgh near what is locally called “The Creek,” there were evidently many jars made, for some years ago the sand blown off revealed the old fireplaces where the pots were burned and an immense number of fragments were picked up. The decoration is in all cases indented, none in relief. It consists of all sorts of figures, crescents, key-shaped figures, circles, dots, triangles, squares, zigzags, etc., and groups of lines, arranged in every conceivable fashion, all stamped or drawn on the clay when it was soft. Some of the patterns are really very attractive and done with no little skill. Only by the aid of plates can any adequate idea of the variety and elegance of these designs or of the earthenware as a whole be given.

In quality the Champlain valley pottery varies as in every other respect. Some of it is of the finest paste and carefully burned; some is of very coarse material and more carelessly burned. Over the surface of most specimens after the piece was shaped and perhaps partly dried, a thin, smooth paste was added which covered the ruder mass of which the jar was mainly composed. As to the size of most of the jars it is only possible to give an approximate measure because of their fragmentary condition, but, with those that are entire and the larger fragments as guides, it may be said that they varied from those holding a pint to those holding ten quarts. As to what may be called the nationality of the pottery, it may be noticed that while there is much resemblance there are important differences. The entire jars and the finest of the fragments are to be regarded as made by Iroquois, while the simpler forms, especially those found on the eastern side of the valley are Algonkian. While the work of the Iroquois is superior to that of the Algonkins, yet when it is remembered that all of the pottery was made entirely by hand, the regularity of form and general excellence are remarkable.