e southern end of Lake
Champlain, "the tail of the lake." Another authority, in describing Lake
George, says: "The Indians named the lake, on account of the purity of
its waters, _Horican_, or 'silvery water;' they also called it
_Canderi-oit_, or 'the tail of the lake,' on account of its connecting
with Lake Champlain." Cooper, in his "Last of the Mohicans," says: "It
occurred to me that the French name of the lake was too complicated, the
American too commonplace, and the Indian too unpronounceable for either
to be used familiarly in a work of fiction." So _he_ called it
Horican.

[Illustration: From Plattsburgh to Albany.

Route of CANOE MAYETA From Plattsburgh to Albany Via
Lake Champlain and Champlain Canal Followed by N. H. Bishop in 1874
_Copyright, 1878 by Lee & Shepard_]

History furnishes us with the following facts in regard to the discovery
of the lake. While journeying up the St. Lawrence in a fleet of twelve
canoes, on a mission to the friendly Huron aborigines, Father Isaac
Jogues and his two friends, _donnes_ of the mission, Rene Goupil and
Guillaume Couture, with another Frenchman, were captured at the western
end of Lake of St. Peter by a band of Iroquois, which was on a marauding
expedition from the Mohawk River country, near what is now the city of
Troy. In the panic caused by the sudden onslaught of the Iroquois, the
unconverted portion of the thirty-six Huron allies of the Frenchmen fled
into the woods, while the christianized portion defended the white men
for a while. A reinforcement of the enemy soon scattered these also, but
not until the Frenchmen and a few of the Hurons were made captive. This
was on the 2d of August, 1642.

According to Francis Parkman, the author of "The Jesuits in North
America," the savages tortured Jogues and his white companions,
stripping off their clothing, tearing out their finger-nails with their
teeth, and gnawing their fingers with the fury of beasts. The seventy
Iroquois returned southward, following the River Richelieu, Lake
Champlain, and Lake George, _en route_ for the Mohawk towns. Meeting a
war party of two hundred of their own nation on one of the islands of
Champlain, the Indians formed two parallel lines between which the
captives were forced to run for their lives, while the savages struck at
them with thorny sticks and clubs. Father Jogues fell exhausted to the
ground, bathed in his own blood, when fire was applied to his body. At
night the young w