Chapter XVI: ) over which the Lily of the Mohawks probably passed in

escaping from Caughnawaga to Lake George, and thence to Canada. An account of this drive was sent to General Clark, after which the following information was received from him:--

"The account of your journey is very interesting, especially
that part relating to the fords above and below Jessup's
Landing. I had rewritten my note relating to the trails from
head of Lake George, and enclose the same.... On the Upper
Susquehanna and Alleghany the present fords almost invariably
mark the crossing-places of the aboriginal trails; and without
doubt the two fords described above and below Jessup's Landing
were the places of crossing the Upper Hudson in that vicinity.
The same facts will apply also at Glenn's and Baker's Falls as
now known."

A copy of the note on trails above mentioned as enclosed in the letter, is here given:--

"TRAILS FROM LAKE GEORGE--From the head of Lake George two
trails led to the Hudson. The first led southwest through a
valley about eleven miles to the _ford below_ the month of
Sacondaga, at present _Luzerne_, thence along the Sacondaga to
Northampton, striking the Mohawk at the lower castle in the
vicinity of Schoharie River. The dotted line from the head of
Lac du Saint-Sacrement on the map in 'Jesuit Relations,' 1665,
apparently was intended to represent this route. The curves
correspond to those of the Sacondaga in number and location.
From Luzerne a branch continued down the Hudson about five
miles to the vicinity of Jessup's Landing, where a crossing
was made _at the ford_ above the falls. This appears to have
been the route of Jogues at this time, as indicated by the
distance given of six leagues equal to fifteen miles.

"The second led southeasterly about nine miles, nearly on the
line of the present railway to Glenn's Falls, from whence were
several diverging lines. One led south along the west bank of
the Hudson. Another took almost an air-line for Schenectady on
the Mohawk, passing between Owl Pond and Saratoga Lake, and
west of Ballston Lake, at the north end of which a branch
diverged to the westward leading direct to the Mohawk Castles.
The French expedition in the winter of 1665 to 1666, in taking
this route, failed to follow the branch leading to the castles,
and consequently found themselves, much to their surprise, in
the near vicinity of the new Dutch settlement at Schenectady.
Southier's maps show this trail, and several others diverging
at different points. It is believed that from Glenn's Falls a
trail led nearly in a southwest direction, passing along the
base of Mt. McGregor, and somewhere in the Kayaderosseras
Valley united with the branch from Jessup's Landing, and from
thence struck the Mohawk at present Amsterdam."

A year later the correspondence on Indian trails in Saratoga County at the time of Kateri Tekakwitha was resumed as follows:--

"Since my return from Saratoga, I have given all my leisure to
the study of Indian trails in your vicinity.... I have a
manuscript map, copied from the original in the Paris Archives,
relating to the two expeditions of Courselles and Tracy, 1666.
This map shows that the first, or winter expedition, after
leaving Lake George descended the valley of the Hudson to Fish
Creek, thence passed up that stream, over Saratoga Lake, and
over Ballston Lake to the vicinity of Schenectady. This is the
precise route taken (according to Mr. Sylvester) by Lieutenant
Le Moyne in his winter expedition of 1690 (Northern Wilderness,
p. 288), in which I agree with him.

"The second Courselles-Tracy Expedition, according to the map,
crossed the Hudson at Glenn's Falls, thence passing near and
south of a _small lake_ east of Mt. McGregor (now known as
Moreau Pond), through Doe's Corners, near Stiles' Hill, and
near Glen Mitchell to present Saratoga. This is my
understanding of the map; and as you will see they followed
near the base of Mt. McGregor, and hugging the bases of the
Greenfield (or Palmerstown) hills, followed substantially the
present highway all the way from Glenn's Falls. The fragment of
a trail mentioned by you was probably a portion of this
original Indian pathway.

"From Saratoga, if we take the map as our guide, the expedition
passed near Ballston, and thence slightly curving, proceeded on
its way in a very direct course to the Mohawk Castles. They may
have taken this route, but probably crossed the Kayaderosseras
about half-way between Ballston and Lake Saratoga, on a trail
leading direct to Schenectady. When a little north of Ballston
Lake, it crossed a path leading from Schuylerville along Fish
Creek and Saratoga Lake to the Mohawk at Kinaquariones
(Hoffman's Ferry). The map, however, makes the two distinct,
and without any connection.

"Three trails led southward from Jessup's Landing,--one in
almost an air-line to Kinaquariones. I suppose that Tegakwita
followed this.

A second branched off from South Corinth, and leading in almost
an air-line to Orange, passed near the western edge of Round
Lake. A third, taking a southeasterly course, curved around Mt.
McGregor, and led very direct to the great fishing-station, at
present Schuylerville, the ancient OSSARAGUE. Your Indian
samp-bowl [hollowed in the rock] was probably not far from the
crossing-place of the two trails."

E. INDIAN DEFENSIVE WORKS.

General Clark, in describing to the writer the defensive works of the Iroquois, mentioned one locality in New York State where he actually found the series of hollows in the ground left by the palisadoes of an Indian fortified village. They showed the exact arrangement of a triple wall. He also gave, in connection with this subject, several references to quaint and interesting works in the State Library at Albany, which were duly examined. Some of these are given below:--

"You will find in RAMUSIO, G. B., Venice, 1606, 'Navigatione et
Viaggi, volume Terzo, etc.,' relating to America, at p. 381, a
fine two-page illustration of Hochelaga and its surrounding
palisade. This, as I understand it, was a Huron village.
ARNOLDUS MONTANUS, America, Amsterdam, 1671, p. 136, gives a
Susquehanna fortified village, with the long houses somewhat
irregularly arranged, and enclosed by a single-line palisade
work. Documentary History of New York, vol. iii. p. 9, will
show you an Iroquois village surrounded by triple or quadruple
lines of palisades, with the elevated scaffolds. You will see
numerous streams of water descending to put out the fire, etc.
It will require a vivid imagination to make out all that was
intended to be shown by Champlain."

F. INDIAN PETITION TO ROME.

Among the most interesting papers forwarded to Rome during the last few years for the purpose of forwarding the cause of canonization of Kateri Tekakwitha, is the following petition. Copies of it were circulated among the Catholic mission Indians of the United States, who affixed to it their own peculiar signatures and marks. It is here given in the Latin, English and Flathead languages:

Noster Pater noster Papa:

Gentis Indicae nostrae, quamvis pauperrima sit et miserabilis,
valde tamen misertus est Conditor noster, nobisque dedit
religionem Catholicam. Nobis quoque iterata misericordia dedit
CATHARINAM TEGAKWITAM. Sancta haec virgo quae ut nos sumus
gentis Indicae fuit, cum multa fuerit gratia a JESU CHRISTO
donata, adolescentula facta est optima, magno erga Conditorem
nostrum amore tenebatur, et mortua est bona et sancta: nunc
autem gloriosa deget in coelis, ut credimus, et pro nobis
omnibus orat. Virgo haec, credimus, data nobis fuit magno Dei
favore; est enim soror nostra parvula. Nunc vero speramus fore
ut et tu quoque, noster Pater, qui Vicarius es JESU CHRISTI,
favorem nobis largiaris: te toto corde imploramus ut loquaris
dicens: "Vos Indi, filii mei, sumite vobis CATHARINAM in
ecclesia venerandam, quia sancta est et in coelis."

Sunt etiam alii duo, qui licet Galli fuerint, nobis tamen sunt
quasi Indi fuissent, eo quod Indos signum crucis edocuere et
viam coeli; ideoque a perversis Indis fuerunt occisi. Eorum
nomina sunt SACERDOS ISAAC JOGUES et FRATER RENATUS GOUPIL. Hos
quoque duos vellemus habere venerandos, ut protectores, ut
advocatos.

Quos tres si nobis indulgeas PATRONOS, futurum est ut corda
nostra sint laeta, conversatio nostra bona, et filii nostri
perfecti evadant; multique Indicae gentis nondum baptizati in
ecclesiam Catholicam ingrediantur, coeli visuri gloriam.

* * * * *

Our Father the Pope:

Though we Indians are very poor and miserable, yet Our Maker
had great pity on us and gave us the Catholic religion.
Moreover He had pity on us again and gave us CATHERINE
TEGAKWITA. This holy virgin, an Indian like ourselves, being
favoured by JESUS CHRIST with a great grace, grew up very good,
had a great love for Our Maker, and died good and holy, and is
now glorious in heaven, as we believe, and prays for us all.
This virgin, we believe, was given to us from God as a great
favour, for she is our little sister. But now we hope that
thou, our Father, who art the Vicar of JESUS CHRIST, wilt grant
us a favour likewise; we beg thee with the whole of our hearts
to speak and say: "You Indians, my children, take CATHERINE as
an object of your veneration in the church, because she is holy
and is in heaven."

There are also two others who, though Frenchmen, yet are as if
they were Indians, because they taught the Indians the sign of
the Cross and the way to heaven; and for this they were killed
by bad Indians. Their names are BLACKGOWN ISAAC JOGUES and
BROTHER RENE GOUPIL. We wish to have these two also as objects
of our veneration, as our protectors and our advocates.

If thou givest us these three as our PATRONS, our hearts will
be glad, our behaviour will be good, and our children will
become perfect, also a great many unbaptized Indians will enter
into the Catholic Church and will see the glory of heaven.

Lingua _Kalispel_ (Anglice, _Flathead_.)

_L_u ku Pogot _l_u ku Lepape.

Ue mi_l_ kaekonkoint kaeskeligu, u kaeteie, u pen kutunt
kaenkonnemi_l_ils lu KaeKohnzuten _l_u kaeguize_l_ils _l_u
Sinchaumen Catholique. Negu kae_l_nkonnemi_l_ils _l_u
kaeguize_l_ils CATHERINE TEGAKWITA. Ye stuchemish pagpagt
chikuilze ezageil t kaempile _l_u kueis _l_u kutunt sinkonns
tel JESUS CHRIST, mi_l_ gest u pogtilsh, mi_l_ gamenchis
Kolinzuten, u _l_u Sinchaumis, gest u pagpagt u t_l_elil, u
yet_l_goa csimpiels 'ls chichemaskat, u kaesia kaes
chaushi_l_ils. Shei Stuchemish kaentels kutunt kaesinkonm tel
Kolmzuten ne_l_i kaempile _l_u kaep sinkusigu.

U pen yet_l_goa kaenmuselsi t-anui, _l_u ku Pogot,
kaeksnkonnemi_l_ils, _l_u ku Ni_l_kalshelpenzutis JESUS CHRIST,
t-esemilko t-kaepuus kaesgalitem kuks kolkoelt, u kuks zuti
"Igu kuisigusigult kuskeligu, akaespoteem _l_u CATHERINE
'lsinchaumen, ne_l_i pagpagt, u 'ls'chichemaskat u e_l_zi."

Negu telzi chesel ue Seme, u pen ezageil t-skeligu, ne_l_i
meyie_l_tem _l_u skeligu _l_u staktakenzut l'eseimeus, u _l_u
shushuel ch's'chichemaskat, gol shei u polstem t-kuaukot
skeligu shei _l_u eszustem KUAILKS ISAAC JOGUES, u SINSE RENE
GOUPIL. Komi ye chesel negu kaek_l_s'chitenzuten,
kaek_l_chaushizuten. _L_u ne kaeguize_l_ilt ye cheche_l_es
kaek_l_s'chitenzuten, nem lemt _l_u kaespuus, nem gestilsh _l_u
kaezuut, nem yopietilsh _l_u kaesigusigult, u nem chgoegoeit
skeligu lu estemskoli m kueis _l_u Sinchaumen Catholique, u nem
uichis _l_u'ls'chichemaskat _l_u simpielsten.

FOOTNOTES:

[82] See map in chap. iv. p. 38, showing the position of Andagoron, the Castle of the Bears, in 1642.

[83] This was at Kinaquariones, or Hoffman's Ferry. See Pierron's account of that battle, translated into English by Dr. Hawley, of the Cayuga County Historical Society, in his "Early Chapters of Mohawk History." See also a topographical note to the same by Gen. J. S. Clark, referring to Dutch deeds which give the distance of that battle-ground from Schenectady.

[84] KKWITHA,--eloigner, ou avancer qq. ch.; changer qq. ch. de place.

THE END

* * * * *

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES

Page reference for the illustration "Tekakwitha's Spring" has been corrected from xvi to xiv.

Numerous missing periods have been silently restored.

Inconsistent hyphenation and use of quotation marks at beginning of paragraphs have been retained as in the original.

Six examples of [oe] ligature have been changed to "oe".

The following typos have been corrected:

p. vi -- "Hotel" twice amended to "Hotel"

p. viii -- "cotemporary" amended to "contemporary".

p. 59 -- "Renssalaer" amended to "Rensselaer".

p. 191 -- "Saut" amended to "Sault".

p. 264 -- "Cholence" amended to "Cholenec".

p. 294 footnote -- "une vision a" amended to "une vision a".

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