Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1909-06-25
FRIDAY. JUNE %, 1903.
Champiain Tereentenary Ceie-
bration.


part of the country. The Indian pa
geants will reproduce as nearly as pos
sihle the coming of the intrepid explorer
into the unknown waters that still bear
his name. They will make it easy To
imagine that pleasant July morning.
three centuries sgo, on which Champ |
lain with his feet of canoes padded hy
Indians, came up the Richelleu aud out
over the surface of the lake as it glis-
tened in its primeval glory and beauty,
and to follow him in thought through
the month during which he skirted the
shores aud made his camp in the bays,
on the points aud among the islands,
ill he had carefully surveyed the whole
lake and was near that other now called
Lake George, but which he christened
st. Sacrament, and the Indians knew as
the Horizon.
Doubtless the pitiful slaughter of the
Iroquois which followed will not be
made so conspicuous as some acts less
to be wished other than the facts por-
tray. But all historical records have
their elements of seeming human error.
Who shall say which of the fearful com-
bats and massacres of two hundred years
along that waterway was the greater
mistake? How can one of this genera
ton contrast or distinguish them?
There was Schenectady eighty years
later when fifty savages and four times
as many hardly less savage Christian
lied humans fell at dead of night upon
that defenceless settlement, snow bound
aud asleep, and laid it waste with in
describable heartlessness. Then came
with the next summer, the expedition OF
the English from Albany to the Richie
lieu in which they wreaked their ven
geance on the French settlements.
But perhaps those should be only
passing reflections.
1t will he an inspiration to all wEo, by
this occasion, shall be led to notice tn,
unsurpassed natural grandeur of the 10
calities where the scenes of history tina
"glamour GER the places, were enacted
One can travel over the world il
search of place more fascinating thar
some eminence on the Vermont shore o
Lake Champlain from which the point
of historic interest and scenic SPLENDID
are visible.
From such station one looks a
Chimney Point where the first settle
ment was made in the wilderness be
tween the Green Mountains aud the lake
where the French put up the stone wind
mill and fort, then across to the western
opposite shore to Crown Point on which
they builded Fort Frederic, thus preempt
ing both sides the great natural gateway
To the South rises Mt. Hope and Mt
Defiance, and between them is Ticon
deroga.
From this altitude, looking over thes,
places, the events of centuries roll GU
to the fancy through the minutes. ON
sees the aborigines swarming in canoes
about Ticonderoga, which they called
by name much like that it still bears
and meaning the pleasant sound of thu
waters falling down from the Horizon
he behoIds the French come up the lax
and drive away the Indians and rear tn,
fort that held them, and the English, 81
many years, at bay he witnesses tn,
awful repulse OF Abercrombie thel
watches the skillful attack of Amhers
from which the flag of France retreats
never again to float in that vicinity, ane
soon to go back forever across the sea
Then he sees the fort rebuilded by tn,
British, and in the deep of night hear
Ethan Allen saying to his comrades
1--WE must possess it or quit our preten
slons to valor, We who will undertake il
with me, poise your tirelocks." Anc
then he beholds every piece go up. Sool
he sees the British flag go up once more
then drop again forever there. Then he
watches the white sails and hears thu
dip of the happy oars of hundred year.
OF peace about the ruins.
Where will you find a place compar
able to this? You look down upor
waters over which boated and fought
the largest and most hostile Indian
tribes known to man, upon forts built
defended, stormed and taken by the
armies of the greatest nations of the
world, upon the region of such valol
and strength as were displayed by the
men and women who made our state out
OF the forests that covered it in the veal
the tercentenary of which we celebrate
Ii Is not strange that we come up to
this event with enthusiasm, that every
effort is being made to make it mem.
orable, aud that all are anxious that
it shall be supremely successful.
After the class of unaunhtvn;,a,