Airview of Fort Ticonderoga Showing Strategic Location of Mount Defiance, Beyond Which Is Lake George
Indian Costumes, From Lafitau. 1, Iroquois; 2, Algonquin
CHAPTER ONE
The Aborigines
When Columbus was landing in the West Indies, and discovering America, the Champlain Valley was thickly populated. There are signs of Indian village sites all along the shores and the thousands of stone implements, arrow and spear points, scrapers, hatchets, pestles and mortars that are turned up each year indicate an occupation of hundreds, probably thousands, of years. But when the first white man arrived all was silence and desolation. The fierce Iroquois from the south had not long before slaughtered the peaceful Algonquin Indians and driven the survivors back into the mountains, where they were living a hand to mouth existence. In fact so degenerate had they become that the Iroquois referred to them as “Adirondacks” or “Bark-eaters,” because of their necessity of depending on the bark of trees during the winter when game was scarce. Remains of these people are so many that for a hundred years arrow heads and other stone implements have been found on the shore of the lake under the walls of the Fort and yet each rain and wind storm discloses new ones. These Indians were a partly agricultural people as shown by the many bits of pottery and hoes that are found, but little is definitely known of them or their habits.
Champlain and the Iroquois Near Ticonderoga, July 30, 1609 From “Champlain’s Life and Travels, 1613”
CHAPTER TWO
Champlain
In May, 1609, the same year that Hendrick Hudson discovered and named Hudson’s River, Samuel de Champlain with a contingent of eleven Frenchmen, a small body of Montagnais Indians and between two and three hundred Hurons left Quebec on an exploring expedition to the south.
At the rapids of the Richelieu, Champlain quarreled with his Indians, who had assured him that there was smooth water from the St. Lawrence to the great lake to the south. Three-quarters of them went home and with them he sent all but two of his white companions. His force now consisted of three Frenchmen and sixty Montagnais and Hurons.