the victim a coup
de grace--which may be taken as a measure of Champlain's prestige. The
atrocious savagery practised before and after death is described in full
detail. Champlain concludes the lurid picture as follows: 'This is the
manner in which these people behave towards those whom they capture in
war, for whom it would be better to die fighting or to kill themselves
on the spur of the moment, as many do rather than fall into the hands of
their enemies.'

Beyond the point at which this battle was fought Champlain did not go.
At Ticonderoga he was within eighty miles of the site of Albany. Had he
continued, he would have reached the Hudson from the north in the same
summer the Half Moon [Footnote: Henry Hudson, an English mariner with
a Dutch crew, entered the mouth of the Hudson in a boat called the Half
Moon on September 4, 1609. As named by him, the river was called the
'Great North River of New Netherland.'] entered it from the mouth. But
the Algonquins were content with their victory, though they candidly
stated that there was an easy route from the south end of Lake George
to 'a river flowing into the sea on the Norumbega coast near that of
Florida.' The return to Quebec and Tadoussac was attended by no incident
of moment. The Montagnais, on parting with Champlain at Tadoussac,
generously gave him the head of an Iroquois and a pair of arms, with the
request that they be carried to the king of France. The Algonquins had
already taken their departure at Chambly, where, says Champlain, 'we
separated with loud protestations of mutual friendship. They asked me
whether I would not like to go into their country to assist them with
continued fraternal relations; and I promised that I would do so.'

As a contribution to geographical knowledge the expedition of 1609
disclosed the existence of a noble lake, to which Champlain fitly gave
his own name. Its dimensions he considerably over-estimated, but in
all essential respects its situation was correctly described, while his
comments on the flora and fauna are very interesting. The garpike as he
saw it, with amplifications from the Indians as they had seen it, gave
him the subject for a good fish story. He was deeply impressed, too, by
the richness of the vegetation. His attack on the Iroquois was not soon
forgotten by that relentless foe, and prepared a store of trouble for
the colony he founded. But the future was closed to his view, and for
the moment his was the glor