The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-07-18
A LEGEND OF cHAUTAUaUA.
How the Beautiful Lake Got Its
Queer Name.

From the Chicago Inter Ocean.
II was a beautiful night in June, 1919 A
youth of about 16 was lying on the ground,
his head supported on a pile of blankets,
dreamiy watching the sparks that flew
upward from the driftwood fire which
cracked merrily at his feet, and listen
ing to the tapping of the waves on the
beach just below him, where was moored
the little fleet of bateaux and canoes which
had transported Bfenville de Celerons ex-
petition from the westward settlements of
| New France to the camp they now occu-
pied on the southern shore of Lake Erie.
The lads medltations were interrupted by
footsteps, and two men came within the
circle of the freight, one of whom ex-
claimed joyously:
I'VE break camp tomorrow, JEAN"
The boy sprang up. and the speaker,
who was a tall, broad-shouldered young
man, dressed in the uniform of a French
sou-lieutenant, continued:
The captain has determined to move,
at last"
Eth bien, am glad of that" respond
ed the boy ITS dull enough staying here
| SO long. Where are we going mon frere?"
To a little lake up there on the hills"
SAID the young man, Jerking his thumb
| over MS shoulder toward the east. 1.-THE
Indians say 1t connects with the Ohio and
| the region which Count de Boeuf ordered
us to seize and hold for the king"
What Is It's Nance asked the boy. 81
! don. remember seeing it on the chart"
| That l cannot tell" answered the
! young officer, who was one of those sent
! out by Mazarin for the young Louis XIV
| of France to protect the kings posses
hA
l doubt if any white man, except La
Sale, ever saw it, and perhaps he was
| dreaming. But ii is on a chart De Bien-
Vile has, though l do not know if Il has
name Perhaps you can enlighten us.
Moachim;" he added, turning toward the
slender young Indian, who was with him.
1t is called Tcha-da-coi" was the re-
ply.
! And like all your indian names, most
unpronounceable,' laughed the boy. Il
wonder what 1t means-ce nom, Tcha-da-
coi?"
would the little brother like to know"
| asked the Indian, with a smile. Il can
tell the legend which has come down to
us from our forefathers"
"Oh, let me hear it," exclaimed the boy
They sat down on the pile of blankets,
and the Indian, leaning against a tree
with the fire flashing its changing light
over his face, in a low monotone not
Long ago. when the world was young
my fathers the Iroquos, did not possess
| this land. Another race differing much
| from us in language and customs, had
their stronghold upon the hills whittier
we march on the morrow. These people
! were not a race of warriors and hunters
| such as We. They were tillers of the soil
skillful workers in copper and stone, and
weavers of fine cloth. They worshiped
| strange gods, and built great mounds of
| earth as affairs and places of sacrifice.
| The land was very different in those elder
| times from what We now behold. Those
| highlands to the east were not hills then
| but only islands, rising out of a shallow
| blue sea that stretched away on all sides
! What is now lake in the midst of the
| Mills was then a yalley-rich and fertile
| with broad, green meadows, forests of
| noble trees, and wide stretches of cult
! waited lands waving with corn. This val
| ley had one popularity. There were many
| springs IN it, which, uniting, formed
! stream that ran the length of the valley
| and Joined the great waters far to the
| eastward. There was one spring. colder,
| clearer deeper than the rest, which these
| people held sacred. 1t was not very large
"a stalwart man might almost leap across
| it's placid face; with its white bubbles. the
! green waters welled up from infinite
depths, through a passage it had cut for
| itself in the soft layers of the rock, alike
in summer and winter, in rain or in
| drought. for the spring had no bottom
| These people, whose very name is now
| forgotten, deemed this bottomless spring
the entrance to the abode of the Great
! Spirit of the Waters, and there they sac.
| rihced to Him.
I'm the course Of time a great danger
| came to threaten them, and the chiefs
! were summoned to consider how best the
| peril might be averted The danger that
4 - -. Ia.
gradually encroaching upon the land, get
| ting higher and higher every month"; al.
! most every day the increase was noted
| This had been going on for many ages
but of late so swiftly did It seem to rise
! that the people were greatly alarmed
! Men of no great age now fished where
| they had once delved, and the old, old
men of the tribe would tell of fertile fields
orchards and princely burial mounds that
| were now covered with many fathoms Of
water The council OF the chiefs deliber-
! ated long and earnestly. If the waters
/ should continue TO rise all would surely
| perish, and, If they did not advance far
! Their, there would still be danger of fam
! inc. for many people and many herds liv-
| ed on the island.
AT last one night there came a terrible
storm The waves beat upon the shore
with a fury such as il now never seen on
/ blue Erie Great was the lamentation
/
/ land had been DEVASTATED or swallowed
up. Houses and trees had been blown
away as II they had been straws, or were
| carried off by the encroaching waves
! That day the council decided that the
| Spirit of the Waters was angry with the
| people of the valley. and must be propiti-
| ated by sacrifice. Swift runners were
sent, summoning every one 10 bring that
which he had most dear, be Il the pol
| ished hatchet and spear Of the warrior
/ the inlaid bow and CULVER OF the hunter,
! the robe OF costly fur OF the chief, or the
precious strings OF shells and beads and
| the long black hair OF the woman--all
| must come before the next moon and sac
rlnce these things az the sacred spring
10 satiate the fury OF the remorseless
| Wafer Spirit
Then artlfcers skilled In working the
| bark or the birch tree were gathered to-
/ gether and a canoe was built. whose equal
| had never been seen before nor since. The
pieces OF bark were chosen with the ut
/ most care all having flaw or knot being re-
! tected The ribs were OF the toughest and
| lithest hickory. polished as smooth as the
/ glare ice that now covers the iake In win