Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1860-10-26

live, and with common industry. might
expect to thrive, proceeded in the next
place to the execution of project he had
been meditating through the winter. As
soon as the appearance of the blades of
winter grain which he had been careful to
sow in the preceding autumn, showed they
had survived the FROST and that there was
nothing to fear, he armed small craft for
voyage up the river
The voyage, on the present occasion,
was undertaken for a specific object, and
not for general discovery. Ten months
before, Champlain had been visited by a
young Indian from the powerful tribes
that occupied the higher parts of the river,
men who cultivated maize and tobacco,
and whose condition was considerably, IN
all respects, superior to that of the miser-
able half-starved beings who were found
living around Quebec. They were perhaps
the same people whom Cartier had visited,
more than seventy years before, at Hoche-
laga /; and whose fourishing fields of maize
had attracted the attention of that earliest
voyager. The young chief informed Cham
plain that his people were named Aigon-
hiRS, and formed part of still greater
and wide-extended family that they lived
in peace among themselves, but were kept
in constant disquiet and alarm by the at
tacks Of another warlike but cruel and
peri1ious nation who occupied the country
at the South, and were called Iroquois.-
These people, though their country lay
many days journey to the South, were
easily enabled to invade the territory OF
the Algonkins, by their boats for there
was an open communication between them
and the river of Canada.
Champlain's object in his present ex-
curs;on up the st. Lawrence was to have
an interview with these AIgonkins wheth-
er by invitation, or simply in consequence
of the information he had received from a
stray young Indian, does not appear nor
is it of any nsequence to know. \ hint
to su h man was quite as good as the
most formal message. He was going to
see who and what these Algonkins were
what use he could make Of them; or
which would be likely to turn In the end
to the same thing,-what advantage he
could be Of to them.
This Is the first instance, a. | have nc
doubt, in which the two most important
races or confelerac;es, which originally
occupied the territory OF the United
States, are distinctly mentioned by name
at least at the same time and together It
is remarkable that the founder of French
colonization in America should have beer
first brought in contact with them at the
very point where their fierce and mutua
hostility was now venting itself with impla
cable fury. As some account of these tribe:
IS necessary to a clear understanding Of
what ensual, it will not be deemel need
less DEPRESSION, hope, if | take some
moments, to state a few Of the facts which
have recently come to light, more especi
ally by the investigations of Mr. School
craft, respecting the history of these races
and their relation to each other. These
facts are sufficiently curious of themselves
besides that they have n direct bearing OF
the subject before Us.
The original seats of the Algonkins, ac
Icordnr to their traditions, and their histo
rv. SO far as anything Is known about it
we're on the eastern side of this continent
and their migrations were of course TO-
wards the West. They were come up with
Indeed, by Champlain on the north bank;
Of the st. Lawrence, between Quebec anC
Three Rivers, consequently receding from
the coast. But everywhere else from
Maine to Virginia, they were found by the
first settlers of this country, occupying
under various names the whole country OIL
the sea-coast. Thus the few scattered
tribes of Indians found by the fathers o
New England when they landed at Ply
mouth. were of the Algonkin stock, as APP
pears evident from their language. OF the
same family were those met with by Hudson
at the mouth of the North River, the yea
after Champlain fell across them on tn,
|St. Lawrence. William Penn located
bis patent among an ancient people VIII,
seem to have spoken kindred dialect t
that of the Agonklns. The colony 0
Lord Baltimore in Maryland was planted
f among tribes which differed in no cssentia
, respects from those to the North of them
AMI the first ships of Sir Walter RaleigI
as well as his later colony found Virgin
occupied by a race Of Indians, who wer
E afterwards known and described as Algor
, kins
To return to the French at the North
: the same race of people were found by tn
e Jesuits, at quickly successive periods, oc
, cupying the country along the Ottaw
river, and living around the basins Of Lake
= Superior, Huron, Michigan, and part