USA > New York > Franklin County > A history of St. Lawrence and Franklin counties, New York : from the earliest period to the present time > Part 3
USA > New York > St Lawrence County > A history of St. Lawrence and Franklin counties, New York : from the earliest period to the present time > Part 3
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On St. Regis Island, directly opposite the Indian village of that name, and at a point where the boundary of 1818 crossed the river, there still exists a barrow or sepulchral mound. "It was excavated by Colonel Hawkins of the United States boundary commission, in 1818, and found to contain near the surface human bones in considerable numbers, and in a good state of preservation, but at the base were found traces of fire, charcoal, burned bones, and fragments of pottery, together with stone implements and ornaments."*
Directly opposite to the church, on the east bank of St. Regis river, in the same neighborhood as the preceding, is another barrow or mound of somewhat similar character, which has at some period apparently been explored with the view of ascertaining the nature of its contents. There is no tradition in the village relating to either of them, and no probability that they were made by the existing race of Indians.
They doubtless date back to the era of the other earth-works above described, and belong to a remote period of our history, which has been lost. In making a canal around the rapids on the Canada shore of the St. Lawrence, many years since, a singular mound was dug through, which disclosed relics of copper and various ornaments, and among others a mask of the human face, in terra-cotta or earthen ware, which seemed to have belonged to some image.
Opposite the village of Oak Point, in Elizabeth township, C.W., is a painting on the rock, representing a canoe with thirty-five men and a cross, evidently intended to, commnemo - rate some event, and done since the Catholic missionaries first came to Canada. From the direction of the boat, it ap- pears that the party was pass- ing down the river.
Opposite the village of Mor-
* Aboriginal Monuments of New York, by E. G. Squier. Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge. Vol. 2, Art. 6, page 16.
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HISTORY OF ST. LAWRENCE
ristown, and just below the town of Brockville, are two paintings, of which engravings are here inserted.
There is much pro- bability that these paint- ings are of compara- tively modern origin. Indeed the Indians at St. Regis village pos- sess a vague tradition concerning them, which they related briefly as follows:
" A long time ago the Caughnawaga Indians were going west on a war- like expedition, and made these paintings on their way up. They were all killed. The number of marks denote the number of the party."
The cross, the emblem of the Christian faith, and especially held in reverence by the Catholics, indicates with sufficient clearness, the modern origin of the sketches. Perhaps they may form a connecting link in the chain of events that occurred under the French dynasty, or perhaps they were traced from mere idle curiosity, or to pass away the tedium of a leisure hour. In either event they are interesting as examples of the symbolical records used by savages, to preserve the memory of events or of the pastimes and tastes of a race which is fast passing away. The sketch near Oak point was apparently done in vermillion, while the others appear to have been made with ochre. All of these are less brilliant than when first observed by the whites, and will in a few years be entirely obliterated.
The shores of Black lake, in the town of Morristown, between the village of Hammond, and The Narrows, contain traces of paintings of an obscure character. A deer drawn very rudely, about eight inches high; and seven figures in two groups, was at a short distance from the former.
The deer was the emblem or mark in use among the Iroquois to desig- nate one of their bands. and from the figures we give in our chapter on titles, it will be seen that it was in use among the Oswegatchies. It is therefore quite probable that this may be very modern, and its origin may doubtless be ascribed to some incident connected with that clan.
The block on which the deer was drawn, is preserved in the col- lections of the state, at their historical and antiquarian museum at Albany.
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The following sketch represents the groups of human beings on the rocks at this place, drawn in the conventional form adopted among the savages.
XX XXXX
Near the village of Edwardsville, or The Narrows, in the town of Morristown, on a hill a little east of that place, there was formerly found upon plowing, traces of an Indian village, as evinced by a row of hearths with burned stones, ashes, charcoal, shells, and fragments of bones. These were some Ittle distance below the surface, and extended for a quarter of a mile,
The land here was excellent for the raising of corn, and the lake then, doubtless as now, abounded in fish, which would have made this an eligible residence for the rude Indian. Who? When? and in what numbers? are questions which echo only can answer.
With these exceptions we have no knowledge that any part of these counties had been inhabited, or the lands cultivated by any except the nomadic class, which still occasionally visits the hunting ground of his fathers.
There are no Indian fields, no traces of ancient occupancy by a foreign people, or evidence that the soil has ever been trod by the foot of man, except by a rude hunter in pursuit of his game. In some of the central and western parts of the state, in the fields of Iroquois, where that staple article of food had been cultivated from time immemorial, the hillocks on which it had been planted were distinctly to be traced at the time when possession was taken by the whites, but nothing of this has been observed in the northern part of the state.
The traces of ancient defensive works of which we have given an account, extend into Canada, and several of them occur in the townships of Augusta, Williamsburgh, Osnabruck, &c.
One of these is about seven and a half miles northwest of Prescott, C. W., on a farm occupied by Mr. Tarp. It is situated on a peninsula of elevated land, in the midst of a swamp, and accessible only by a nar- row neck which bears the trace. of an ancient defensive work. The land within this, is eighteen or twenty feet above the level of the sur- rounding swamp, and in two or three places are the traces of mounds of slight elevation, but which might have overlooked the surrounding country to a considerable distance. Within the breastwork at the isth- mus, are lines of slight elevation, which mark the places of former dwelling (?); and in the soil has been found great quantities of the re- mains of rude pottery, which indicate the attainments which the tenants of this strong hold had acquired in this indispensible and primitive art.
The greatest quantity was found from fifteen to eighteen inches below
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HISTORY OF ST. LAWRENCE
the surface, and was accompanied by implements of bone, flint, green- stone, the bones of animals, that had doubtless been taken in the chase, and shells of fresh water molusca.
Among other relics was a flattened boulder of hornblende or gneiss, both sides of which had been rendered smooth and concave by the rub- bing of stone implements, and which might have served the purpose of a mortar for grinding corn. Boulders of immense size are often found in Jefferson county, and elsewhere, having shallow depressions upon their surface, apparently having been used as grindstones for sharpening and forming the rude stone implements of the rude people who once occupied the country.
The breastwork at the entrance of the enclosure above described, had at two places, openings about eighteen feet wide, which probably served as a passage way for the inmates, and the bank is evidently the foot of a pa- lisade of timber, set upright in the ground. The whole must have formed in its day a strong hold, easy of defense against any mode of attack then possessed.
Near Spencerville, is another trace of an ancient defensive work, and in the township of Augusta, in the second concession, still another.
At the latter is said to have been found an ornament of gold, but the account of this is so uncertain and obscure, that it is worthy of but little credit.
Several of the above works have been surveyed and examined, by William E. Guest, Esq., of Ogdensburgh, who has transmitted an account of them to the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, for publication.
At one of these works was found the broken portion of an immense tooth, supposed to have been that of a walrus. Both ends were broken, and it had been perforated as if to be worn as an amulet. This, with the copper implements found in this section, indicate that the commerce or travels of this people, whoever they were, must have extended from the seaboard to the copper regions of Lake Superior, which was doubt- less the source from which our aboriginal predecessors derived that metal.
To leave the period of the buried past, through which the stream of time has coursed its way, without leaving more to mark its path than the scattered relics and obscure traces, which tell of nothing, but that something was, and is not, we approach the period of authentic history; and here we find many links wanting in the chain of events, which might have enabled us to trace the progress of the discovery, and the settlement and the changes of dominion, which our country has undergone. Tradition relates, that the Adirondacs, and the Iroquois, or the nations of Canada, and those of New York, in ancient times. waged
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long and bloody wars for the supremacy of the soil, and doubtless many a stealthy march and midnight massacre, had they but had their historian, would have made our district classic to those who dwell with interest upon the recital of scenes of blood. It has been aptly said, that " that country is the happiest which furnishes the fewest materials for history ;" yet, if rightly considered, the duty of the historian will be found not limited to the narration of the dramatic events of war, but equally appli- cable to the arts of peace, and that the true heroes of mankind, are those who have manfully encountered and overcome the difficulties which might have hindered them from arriving at honorable ends by honest means. Viewed in this light, the pioneer who has subdued the wildness of nature, and surrounded his home with the luxuries of a well-directed husbandry, is socially far above the victorious warrior, and his toils, privations and successes are more worthy of record.
Before giving an account of the missions established on the St. Law- rence by the French missionaries, it may be interesting to glance at the earlier discoveries of Canada, and note in a rapid manner, sev- eral of the primitive attempts to establish European colonies in this quarter.
Two years after the discoveries of Columbus became known in England, Henry VII engaged John Cabot, a Venetian merchant, to sail in quest of discoveries in the west, and this navigator in 1497 reached the coast of Labrador, which he named Prima-vista. This was doubtless the first visit of Europeans to this coast since the days of the Scandinavians.
This voyage was succeeded by others under Sebastian Cabot, son of the preceding, in 1498; and by Gaspar Cortereal in 1590, to whom the discovery of the Gulf of St. Lawrence is said to be due .* This adven- turer returned to Lisbon in the month of October of that year, laden with timber and slaves, seized from among the natives of the coasts he visited.
On a second voyage Cortereal perished at sea. In 1504, the French first attempted a voyage to the New World; and in that year, some Basque and Breton fishermen began to ply their calling on the bank of Newfoundland and along its adjacent coasts. From these the island of Cape Breton derived its name. The dreary picture of these bleak and foggy coasts, and the mystery which hung upon the fate of the second expedition of Verazzano, who had been sent out by Francis I. from France, deterred for a time all efforts of the French to colonize
*This discovery has been also ascribed to Jacques Cartier, who entered the gulf on the 10th of August, 1535, and gave it the name of the saint whose festival was celebrated on that day .- Charlevoix.
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this region. In 1525, Stefano Gomez sailed from Spain, and is supposed to have entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and to have traded upon its shores. A Castilian tradition relates, that finding neither gold nor silver upon the coasts, nor any thing which conveyed to these sordid adventurers an idea of mines or wealth of any kind, they frequently exclaimed " Aca-nada ; " (signifying "here is nothing ") and that the natives caught up the sound, which was repeated when other Europeans arrived, and thus gave origin to the designation of Canada. This ori- gin of the word is also confirmed by Father Hennepin.
A. Geo. de Lorimier, an intelligent half breed, residing at the Saut St. Louis, and who is well acquainted with the native language, stated to the author that the word Canada was derived from the Indian word Ka-na-ta, which signifies, a village.
In 1534, Francis I, king of France, listening to the urgent advice of Philip Chabot, admiral of France, who portrayed to him in glowing colors the riches and growing power of Spain, derived from her trans- atlantic colonies, despatched Jacques Cartier, an able navigator of St. Malmo, who sailed on the 20th of April, 1534, with two ships of only sixty tons each, and a hundred and twenty men, and reached New- foundland in May. After coasting along for some time, without know- ing that it was an island, he at length passed the straits of Belleisle, and traversed the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Having spent a part of the summer on these coasts, he sailed on the 25th of July, highly pleased with the hospitable reception he had received from the natives, with whom he traded for furs and provisions.
His report induced the French king to attempt a colony in the newly discovered regions; and in May, 1535, Cartier again sailed with three small ships, with a numerous company of adventurers, which arrived on the coast of Newfoundland much scattered and weakened by a disastrous storm on the 26th of July.
Having taken in wood and water, they proceeded to explore the gulf but were overtaken on the 1st of August by a storm, which obliged them to seek a port, difficult of access, but with a safe anchorage, near the mouthi of the Great river. They left this harbor on the 7th, and on the 10thi came to a gulf filled with numerous and beautiful islands Cartier gave this gulf the name of St. Lawrence, having discovered it on that saint's festival day .* From this, the Great river and our county de- rive their name.
* " Cartier donna au golphe le nom de St. Laurent, ou plutot il le donna a une baye qui est entre l'isle d'Anticosti et la cote septentrionale, d'ou ce nom c'est etendu, a tout le golphe dont cette baye fait partie .- Hist. de la Nouvelle France, Tome i, p. 15.
According to Catholic accounts, Saint Lawrence, or Saint Lorenzo, was a deacon to Pope Xystus, or Sistus II, who suffered martyrdom for the faith of Christ, by being boiled on a
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Proceeding on their voyage, they reached on the 15th, the isle since called Anticosti, and exploring both shores of the St. Lawrence, at length they discovered another island of great extent, fertility and beauty, covered with woods and laden with thick clustering vines, which they named the Isle de Bacchus, now called Orleans. Pleased with the friendly disposition of the natives and the comfortable prospects for a winter sojourn, Cartier moored his vessels where a little river flowed into a "goodly and pleasant sound," which stream he named the St. Croix, near the Indian village of Stadacona, the site of the modern city of Quebec. Cartier subsequently during the autumn ascended the river to the populous village of Hochelaga, and was every where received in the kindest manner by the natives. To a hill, three miles from the village, from whose summit the river and country for thirty leagues around was spread out in great beauty, he gave the nane of Mont Royal, which has since been applied to the populous city on that island,-the modern Montreal, which lies at its foot.
The dreadful severity of the winter, with the scurvy, reduced the number of Cartier's companions considerably. In May, he sailed for France, with the Indian chief as a prisoner, who had treated him with uniform kindness. During each succeeding year, for some time after, expeditions were sent out to the newly discovered river, but misfortune attended them all, and no efficient attempt at colonizing the country was made till 1608, when De Monts, a Calvinist, who had obtained from the king the freedom of religious faith for himself and followers in America, but under the engagement that the Catholic worship should be established among the natives; after several perilous voyages, and much opposition, despatched Champlain and Pontgrave, two experienced adventurers, to establish the fur trade and begin a settlement. Champlain reached Tadousac on the 3d of June, and on the 3d of July he reached Quebec, where, nearly three quarters of a century before, Cartier had spent the winter. This magnificent site was at once chosen as the place for a future city; and centuries of experience have confirmed the wisdom of his choice.
During the first winter, the settlers endured the extremities of famine. Qn the 18th of April, 1609, Samuel Champlain, with two Frenchmen, ascended the Great river; and after a time, turning southward up a tributary, entered the beautiful lake which bears his name, and near its southern extremity, overcoming a rapid, they entered another lake, after- wards named St. Sacrament, now Lake Horicon, or Lake George,
In 1614, Champlain by his entreaties, procured four Recollects to gridiron, A. D. 253. His festival is celebrated on the 10th of August, and his name occurs in the litany of the saints in the Catholic ritual.
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HISTORY OF ST. LAWRENCE
undertake a mission to convert to the Catholic faith the Indians of the country ; these were the first missionaries who visited Acadia. To gain a knowledge of the country and language of the natives, Champlain and a father Joseph Le Cavon, united with them in an expedition against the Iroquois, or confederates of New York, but the enterprise proved unsuccessful, and Champlain was wounded .*
He was obliged to spend the winter with his savage allies, but im- proved the opportunity by informing himself of the resources and geo- graphy of the country, to the greatest advantage.
In 1625, Henri de Levi, duke de Ventadour, who had purchased the vice-royalty of New France, sent over the exemplary Father Lallemant, and four other priests and laymen of the order of the Jesuits, who were received by the Recollects with kindness, and admitted under their roof on their first arrival. The next year, three other Jesuits arrived, with artizans and settlers, when the settlement began to assume the appear- ance of a town. In 1629, the colony was seized by the English, but restored by treaty in 1632; and in the year following, Champlain was again installed as governor of New France. His death occurred in December, 1635. From this time forward the Jesuit missionaries con- tinued to explore the country, and labor with a zeal which has known no parallel, to convert the roving savages to the Catholic faith. To acquire their language and confidence, they adopted their dresses and mode of life, assisted them in fishing and hunting, and joined in distant and arduous marches for warlike purposes.
Every canton or tribe of the Iroquois of New York, and nearly every nation throughout the range of the great lakes and the Mississippi valley had its missionary, and many of them a depot for the purchase of furs and sale of merchandise. To protect this trade, and especially to deprive the English settlements of its benefits, military posts were early estab- lished at important points, and as Quebec was the principal port from which exports were made, the St. Lawrence river became the highway of the French to their distant stations.
The first military post of any note above Montreal was erected at Cataraqui, now Kingston, of the founding of which a minute account is preserved in the form of a journal of Count de Frontenac, a portion of . which describes the wild scenery of the St. Lawrence nearly two centu- ries ago, before the woodman's axe had echoed in the primeval forests, which then shaded its waters. From it an idea may be formed of the
* The foregoing facts are mostly derived from the first volume of Warburton's Conquest of Canada; where original authorities are cited. The expedition of Champlain is given in full in the Documentary History of New York, Vol. III.
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perils which these men encountered in the prosecution of their designs. The following extract from the journal of Count de Frontenac's voy- age to Lake Ontario in 1673, was translated from the second volume of the collection of the Paris Documents in the office of the Secretary of State, by Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan, editor of the Documentary History of New York, who has kindly permitted this manuscript to be used for this work. It gives an interesting picture of the scenery and physical features of the St. Lawrence at that early period.
The object of this journey was to prevent the ratification of a treaty between Indian tribes, which he conceived would operate injuriously to the interests of the French. He proposed to effect this by the establish- ment of a military post on Lake Ontario, and this was the first beginning made at what is now the city of Kingston, C. W. He could thus prevent intercourse between the south and the north, and monopolize the fur trade of the Indians. He was still further induced to this, from the represent- ations of the Jesuit missionaries, who had for some time labored among the Iroquois, and were over anxious that a station should be made in the country of the Indians, as well to promote their religion, as their commercial enterprises.
To impress the natives with a belief that cascades and rapids were no barrier against the French, Count de Frontenac resolved to take with him two flat bateaux, similar to that M. de Courcelles had two years pre- vious carried to the head of the rapids, and even to mount them with small cannon, to inspire savages with awe. With these two boats, built after a particular model, holding sixteen men, and painted unlike any thing seen before, and with about one hundred and twenty bark canoes, he at length left Montreal on the 28th of June, having made all neces- sary arrangements for the government of the colony in his absence. On the 3d of July they had reached the islands at the head of Lake St. Francis, where they repaired their bateaux, which had been injured in the passing of rapids. We will quote the words of the journal:
" On the 4th, the route passed through the most delightful country in the world. The entire river was spangled with islands, on which were only oaks and hard wood; the soil is admirable, and the banks of the mainland on the north and south shores are equally handsome, the timber being very clean and lofty, forming a forest equal to the most beautiful in France. Both banks of the river are lined with prairies, full of excellent grass, interspersed with an infinity of beautiful flowers; so that it may be asserted, there would not be a more lovely country in the world than that from Lake St. Francis to the head of the rapids, were it cleared.
" Made three leagues up to noon, and halted at a spot more delightful than any we had yet seen. It was close to the little channel which stretches along the sault on the north side, and opposite the mouth of a
-
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HISTORY OF ST. LAWRENCE
river by which people go to the Mohawk .* Sieur Le Moine was sent to examine that which goes to the Mohawks, and reported that it formed a large, circular, deep, and pleasant basin, behind the point where we had halted, and that the Iroquois whom he had found there, had informed him that there was five days' easy navigation in that river, and three when the waters were lower. After having dined and rested awhile, the march was resumed and it was resolved to take the south channel, with the design to camp above the long saut, and cross over to that side at three quarters of a league above it, but the rain which supervened obliged Count de Frontenac to cause the entire fleet to come to anchor on the north side, at the place where we intended to traverse, and he had time only to get the bateaux to do this, and to encamp himself with the Three Rivers' brigade, and his staff on the south shore opposite the place where the other sections had anchored. We found in the western forest, in the camp, a white flower, as beautiful as can be seen, with an odor similar to that of the lily of the valley, but much finer. It was sketched through curiosity.
" The 5th, the rain threatening, we contented ourselves in despatching the bateaux at the break of day to get them past the rapids of the Long Saut, and the order was sent to the fleet at the north side not to traverse, until the weather was settled.
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