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

| " NH INC udtlOnS lnau WOrkeu the
ancient copper mines on Lake SUPERIOR
The French missionaries traced the same
people ''down the Illinois and the Wabash,
and by the ancient sites of Vincennes and
Cahokia, quite to the mouth of the Ohio"
Here they joined upon the Algonkins of
Virginia, who have already been men
toned. "Half the area of the present
Union was thus covered by this people,"
'lnto this great circle of the Algonquirs
i now quote directly from Schoolcralt-
group of tribes speaking diverse Ian
guage, called the FIRE Nations, and then
the Six Nations, and by the French the
Iroquois, had intruded themselves, before
the landing of the Dutch under Hudson,
or OF the English at Plymouth. They APP
pear from Golden to have been originally
inferior to the Algonquins in forest arts,
and wars but possessing the fertile area of
Western New York, and being to a large
extent, cultivators of the lea maize, they
appear at the date of the colonies, to have
been in the course of increase. This was
greatly facilitated and determined by
dropping their internal feuds, and forming
general contederacy."
The original seats of these associated
tribes seem to have been to the west of the
Mississippi and if so, it is easy to con-
lecture how severe must have been the
contests by which they had succeeded to
establish themselves in a district of coun-
try surrounded on all sides by their enc
mn Inlaol H.,
ended even now tor according to Sir
John Richardson the same tribes are still
defying and fighting each other in the coun-
try between the Saskatchewan and the
Missouri, notwithstanding the persevcrng
efforts Of the Hudson's Bay Company
and the officers of the American outposts
to suppress their quarrels Deadly feuds,
he says, exist between the BIachfeot Al
gonkins, and the Dakotah tribes of the
North, and fatal conflicts very recently
took place between the Chippeways, who
are Algonkins, and the Sioux who are Da-
kotahs, an Iroquois nation So inextin-
guishable is the hostility between those
two races, once the sole possessors of the
whole North.
The meeting of Champlain with the Al
gonkins took place not far from Three
Rivers, where he found them already on
their way to visit him at Quebec, for the
purpose, he says, Of Altering him their rs
sistance IN dlscorering the country Of the
IroPlois.
They said they had left their
women and children behind, that
/ every man of them was a warrior,
, well acquainted with every stream
and defle in the land of their enemies !;
but they would never 20 there with him
; if he was going for trade or for
any other purpose than 1cqr. Such
being the temper Of his guides Champlain
= seemed to have no other alternative left
! him, but to accept of the conditions they
: proposed, or abandon an important discJy-
cry, of the whole honor Of which he might
soon be deprived by some less scrupuIous
, individual In an evil hour for him and
for the French, he consented to arm
chaloupe and proceed on his voyage of dis
covery at the hcld of hostile band of
: Indians.
1t has taken me some time TO arrive at
this spot, but l hope that no more has
been taken than was necessary to prepare
the way for satisfactory explanation Of
the problem before US.
Let us now proceed to see the Sieur
Champlain safely embarked on board his
chaloupe with a crew Of well-armed
Frenchmen, and escorted by a sufficient
number of Indians, in their birch canoes,
to a point of the great river of Canada
but too well known to Them and which
they called the outlet to the river Of the
Iroquois. They arrived at this spot near
the end of June, and Champlain, after
spending few days in hunting and fish
inc, during which many Of the Indians
} deserted hun and returned to their homes,
+ proceeded alone up the river as far as the
beautiful basin of Chambly. Here for
the first time he expresses the elated feel
ings ola new discoverer. No Christians,
D he excaims, but ourselves, had ever yet
! reached this spot" His discriminating eye
1 noticed all the attractive peculIarltIes OF
j this pleasant region-the fine cxpanse of
; the river, not less than three leagues in
h circuit, the picturesque islands. Of which
a he counted ten in his sail up from the ST.
e Lawrence-the open prairie on one side,
l. and stately forests Of oak and hickory on
the other-the foaming rapids, dashing
amid rocks naked, or tufted with ever
e greens. But these latter seemed to pre-
: sent an insurmountable barrier to all fur
a Their progress. How were they to get over
Is it with the chaloupe ? Champlain had
If been informed that the passage to the lake