the delighted explorer
found that the river had ended and that the canoes were
moving over the broad bosom of that great lake of which the
Indians had told him, and which has ever since borne his
name. It was a charming scene which thus first met the eyes
of civilized man. Far in front spread the inland sea. On
either side distant forests, clad in the fresh leafage of
June, marked the borders of the lake. Far away, over their
leafy tops, appeared lofty heights; on the left the Green
Mountains lifted their forest-clad ridges, with patches of
snow still whitening their tops; on the right rose the
clustering hills of the Adirondacks, then the
hunting-grounds of the Iroquois, and destined to remain the
game-preserves of the whites long after the axe and plough
had subdued all the remainder of that forest-clad domain.

[Illustration: LAKE CHAMPLAIN AND ITS SURROUNDINGS.]

They had reached a region destined to play a prominent part
in the coming history of America. The savages told their
interested auditors of another lake, thickly studded with
islands, beyond that on which they now were; and still
beyond a rocky portage over which they hoped to carry their
canoes, and a great river which flowed far down to the
mighty waters of the sea. If they met not the foe sooner
they would press onward to this stream, and there perhaps
surprise some town of the Mohawks, whose settlements
approached its banks. This same liquid route in later days
was to be traversed by warlike hosts both in the French and
Indian and the Revolutionary Wars, and to be signalized by
the capture of Burgoyne and his invading host, one of the
most vital events in the American struggle for liberty.

The present expedition was not to go so far. Hostile bands
were to be met before they left the sheet of water over
which their canoes now glided. Onward they went, the route
becoming hourly more dangerous. At length they changed their
mode of progress, resting in the depths of the forest all
day long, taking to the waters at twilight, and paddling
cautiously onward till the crimsoning of the eastern sky
told them that day was near at hand. Then the canoes were
drawn up in sheltered coves, and the warriors, chatting,
smoking, and sleeping, spent on the leafy lake borders the
slow-moving hours of the day.

The journey was a long one. It was the 29th of July when
they reached a point far down the lake, near the present
site of Crown Point. They had paddled al