History of Saratoga County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers., Part 5

Author: Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett, 1825-1894
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Ensign
Number of Pages: 780

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He was accompanied by two companions only, besides his savage allies, who numbered sixty warriors, with twenty- four canoes. They were Hurons, Algonquins, and Mon- tagnais. The Montagnais were a roving tribe of the Al- gonquin family who inhabited the country of the Saguenay, ealled by the French the paupers of the wilderness.

After a toilsome passage up the rapids of the Richelieu, Champlain entered the lake,-the far-famed "wilderness of the Iroquois." It was studded with islands that were elothed in the rich verdure of the early summer, its tran- quil waters spreading southward beyond the horizon. From the thickly-wooded shores on either side rose ranges of mountains, the highest peaks still white with patehes of snow. Over all was flung the soft blue haze, sometimes called mountain-smoke, that seemed to temper the sunlight and shade off the landscape into spectral-like forms of shadowy-like beauty. Who does not envy the stern old forest ranger his first view of the lake that was destined to bear his name to the latest posterity ?

Champlain and his allies proceeded cautiously up the lake, traveling only by night and resting on the shore by day, for they were in the land of the much-dreaded Iroquois, the hereditary enemies of the Algonquin uations.

Ou the morning of the 29th of July, after paddling, as usual, all night, they retired to the western shore of the lake to take their daily rest. The savages were soon stretched along the ground in their slumbers, and Champlain, after a short walk in the woods, laid himself down to sleep upon his bed of fragrant hemlock boughs. He dreamed that he saw a band of Iroquois warriors drowning in the lake. Upon attempting to save them, his Algonquin friends told him that " they were good for nothing, and had better be left to die like dogs." Upon awakening, the Indians, as usual, beset him for his dreams. This was the first dream he had remembered sinee setting out upon the voyage, and it was considered by his superstitious allies as an auspicious vision. Its relation filled them with joy, and at early night- fall they re-embarked flushed with the hope of an easy vie- tory. Their anticipations were soon to be realized. About teu o'clock in the evening, near what is now Crown Point, they saw dark moving objects upon the lake before them. It was a flotilla of Iroquois canoes. In a moment more each party of savages saw the other, and their hideous war- cries, mingling, pealed along the lonely shores.

The Iroquois landed at once and barricaded themselves upon the shore with fallen trees and brushwood. The Al- gonquins lashed their canoes together with long poles within a bow-shot of the Iroquois barricade, and danced in them all night their hideous war-dances. It was mutually agreed between the hostile bands that the battle should not come off till morning. At dawn of day the Algonquins landed, and the Iroquois marched in single file from their barricade to meet them, full two hundred strong. They were the boldest, fiercest warriors of the New World, and their tall, lithe forms and noble bearing elicited the warmest approba- tion of Champlain and his white companions. The chiefs were made conspicuous by their tall plumes. Champlain, who in the mean time had been concealed, uow advanced to the front, with arquebuse in hand, clad in the metallic armor of the times. The Iroquois warriors, seeing for the first time such a warlike apparition in their path, halted and stood gazing upon Champlain in mute astonishment.

" The moment we landed," says Champlain, in his nar- rative, " they (the Algonquins and Hurons) began to run about two hundred paces towards their enemies, who stood firm, and had not yet perceived my companions, who went into the bush with some savages. Our Indians commenced calling me in a loud voice, and, opening their ranks, placed me about twenty paees in advance, in which order we marched until I was about in thirty paces of the enemy. The moment they saw me they halted, gazing at me and I at them. When I saw them preparing to shoot at us, I raised my arquebuse, and, aiming direetly at one of the three chiefs, two of them fell to the ground by this shot, and one of their companions received a wound of which he afterwards died. I had put four balls in my arquebuse. Our party, ou witnessing a shot so favorable for them, set up such tremendous shouts that thunder could not have been heard; and yet there was no lack of arrows on one side or the other. The Iroquois were greatly astonished at seeing two men killed so instantaneously, notwithstanding they were provided with arrow-proof armor woven of cotton- thread and wool. This frightened them very much. Whilst

HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

I was reloading, one of my companions in the bush fired a shot, which so astonished them anew, seeing their chiefs slain, that they lost courage, took to flight, and abandoned the field and their fort, hiding themselves in the depths of the forests, whither pursuing them I killed some others. Our savages also killed several of them and took ten or twelve prisoners. The rest carried off the wounded. Fifteen or sixteen of our party were wounded by arrows. They were promptly eured."

The Iroquois afterwards became the friends and allies of the English, and this first forest encounter was the forerun- ner of a long and bloody warfare between the French and the English and their respective Indian allies, of which the soil of Saratoga County often formed the battle-ground.

Four years afterwards Champlain made a long journey up the Ottawa river to the country of the Hurons. On his return he discovered Lake Ontario, the name meaning, in the Indian tongue, the " beautiful lake." He fought an- other battle with the Iroquois, to the south of the lake in western New York. He explored its shores along the western border of northern New York, in the vicinity of what was afterward known to the French as La Famine. On his return he passed near the head of the St. Lawrence, thus becoming the first explorer of the lake of the Thousand Isles.

In 1620, Champlain was made governor-general of Can- ada, and died at Quebec, in 1635. In 1620 his wife ac- companied him to Quebec. Madame Champlain was Helen Boute, daughter of Nicholas Boute, secretary of the royal household at Paris. She remained four years in America, returned to France, founded a convent of Ursulines at Meaux, entered it as Sister Helen, of St. Augustine, and died there in 1654. Madame Champlain, as she was married to him when she was only twelve years of age, was still very young. The Indians, struck with her frail and gentle beauty, paid homage to her as a goddess. " Champlain," says Park- man, " was enamored of the New World, whose rugged charms had seized his fancy and his heart, and as explorers of the Arctic seas have pined in their repose for polar ice and snow, so did he, with restless longing, revert to the fog- wrapped coast, the piny odors of forests, the noise of waters, the sharp, piercing sunlight, so dear to his remembrance. Fain would he unveil the mystery of that boundless wilder- ness, and plant the Catholic faith and the power of France amid its ancient barbarism."*

III .- HENRY HUDSON.

At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the little republic of Holland had already become one of the first commercial and maritime powers of the world. In those days hardy navigators and bold explorers were flocking from every nation in Europe to sail under the Dutch standard in search of fame and fortune.

Among the most noted of these was Henry Hudson, a mariner of England, who was the discoverer and first ex- plorer of the river that now bears his name. Henry Hud- son was born about the middle of the sixteenth century,

but of his early life little is known. His first voyage was in 1607, in the employ of a company of London merchants, to the east coast of Greenland, in the search of a northwest passage to India.

On April 6, 1609, he began a voyage, in the service of the Dutch East India Company, to the northern coast of Asia. For some reason or other he turned his ships toward North America, and on the 12th day of September, in that year, discovered and entered the mouth of the beautiful river, now called by his name, that serves to drain the waters of the mountain belt of the great wilderness of northern New York.

It is believed that Hudson explored the stream as far up as the old Indian hunting-ground, called Nach-te-nak, which lies around and upon the islands that cluster among the " sprouts" or mouths of the Mohawk.

In his voyage up the stream he had numerous adven- tures, and had two or three battles with the Indians, who were jealous of the strange intruders. The stanch little ship in which he sailed up the river was named the Half- Moon. The following is taken from his own narrative of the voyage, in the quaint language of the time :

" The thirteenth, faire weather, the wind northerly. At seuen of the clocke in the morning, as the floud eame, we weighed, and turned foure miles into the river. The tide being done wee anchored. Then there came foure canoes aboard : but we suffered none of them to come into our ship. They brought great store of very good oysters aboord, which wee bought for trifles. In the night I set the varia- tion of the compasse, and found it to be thirteen degrees. In the afternoone we weighed and turned in with the flood two leagues and a halfe further, and anchore all night, and had fiue fathoms of soft ozie ground, and had a high point of land, which showed out to us bearing north by east fiue leagues of us.

" The fourteenth, in the morning being very faire weather, the wind southeast, we sayled vp the river twclue leagues, and had fiue fathoms and fine fathoms and a quarter lesse; and came to a streight between two points, and had eight, nine, and ten fathoms; and it trended northeast by north one league, and we had twelne, thirteene, and fourteene fathoms. The riuer is a mile broad; there is very high land on both sides. Then wee went vp northwest a league and a halfe deepe water; then northeast by north fiue miles, then northwest by north two leagues, and anchored. The land grew very high and mountainous. The riuer is full of fish.

" The fifteenth. in the morning, was misty vntil the sunne arose; then it cleered. So wee weighed with the wind at South, and ran vp the riuer twentie leagnes, passing by high mountains. Wee had a very good depth, as six, seuen, eight, nine, twelue, and thirteen fathoms, and great store of salmons in the river. This morning our two sauages got out of a port and swam away. After we were under sayle they called to us in scorne. At niglit we came to other mountains, which lie from the riuer's side. There wee found very louing people and very old men; where we were well vsed. Our boat went to fish, and caught great store of very good fish.

" The sixteenth, faire and very hot weather. In the

* See Parkman's Pioneers of France, Palmer's Itistory of Lake Champlain, Champlain's Voyages de la Nouvelle France, and Docu- mentary llistory of New York.

HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

morning ovr boat went againe to fishing, but could catch but few, by reason their canoes had beene there all night. This morning the people came aboord and brought vs eares of Indian corne and pompions and tobacco, which wee bought for trifles. Wee rode still all day, and filled fresh water ; at night wee weighed and went two leagues higher, and had shoaled water ; so we anchored till day.

" The seventeenth, faire, sun-shining weather, and very hot. In the morning as soon as the sun was vp, we set sayle, and run vp six leagues higher and found shoales in the middle of the channel, and small ilands but seuen fathoms water on both sides. Toward night we borrowed so neere the shoare that we grounded ; so we layed ont our small anchor, and heaued off againe. Then we borrowed on the banke in the channell and came agrounde againe. While the floud ran, we houed off againe, and anchored all night.

" The eighteenth, in the morning, was faire weather, and we rode still. In the afternoone our master's mate went on land with an old sauage, a gouernoer of the countrey, who carried him to his house and made him goode cheere.

" The nineteenth was faire and hot weather. At the floode, being neere eleuen of the clocke, wee weighed and ran higher vp two leagues aboue the shoalds, and had no lesse water than fine fathoms. We anchored, and rode in eight fathoms. The people of the countrie came flocking aboord, and brought vs grapes and pompions, which wee bought for trifles. And many brought vs beuers' skinnes and otters' skinnes, which wee bought for beades, kniues, and hatehets So we rode there all night.

" The twentieth, in the morning, was faire weather. Our master's mate, with four men more, went vp with our boat to sound the river, and found, two leagues abone vs, but two fathoms water and the channell very narrow, and aboue that place between seuen or eight fathoms. Toward night they returned, and we rode still all night.

" The one and twentieth was faire weather, and the wind all southerly. We determined yet once more to goe far- ther vp into the riuer, to trie what depth and breadth it did beare ; but much people resorted aboord, so we went not this day. Our carpenter went on land and made a fore- yard, and our master and his mate determined to trie some of the chiefe men of the countrie, whether they had any treacherie in them. So they took them down into the eab- bin and gave them as much wine and aqua vitæ that they were all merrie ; and one of them had his wife with him, who sat as modestly as any of our countrie-women would do in a strange place. In the end one of them was drunke which had been aboord of our ship all the time we had been there; and that was strange to them, for they could not tell how to take it. The canoes and folke weut all on shore, but some of them caime againe and brought stropes of beades-some had six, seven, eight, nine, ten-and gane him. So he slept all night quietly.

" The two and twentieth was faire weather. In the morning our master's mate and foure more of the companie went vp with our boat to sound the river higher vp. The people of the country came not aboord till noone ; but when they came, and saw the sauages well, they were glad. So at three of the clocke in the afternoone they came aboord aud brought tobacco and more beades, and gaue them to

our master, and made an oration, and shewed him the coun- trey all around about. Then they sent one of their companie on land, who presently returned and brought a great platter full of venison, dressed by themselves, and they caused him to eat with them. Then they made him reverence and de- parted, -- all saue the old man that lay aboord. This night, at ten of the clocke, our boate returned in a shower of raine from sounding of the river, and found it to be at an end for shipping to goe in. For they had beene vp eight or nine leagues, and found but seuen foot water and unconstant soundings.

" The three and twentieth, faire weather. At twelue of the elocke wee weighed and went downe two leagues to a shoald that had two channells, one on the one side, and an- other on the other, and had little wind, whereby the tide layed vs upon it. So there wee sate on the ground the space of an houre till the floud came. Then we had a little gale of wind at the west. So wee got our ship into deepe water and rode all night very well."

It is quite apparent from the above narrative that Hud- son ascended the river to the shallow water near where the village of Waterford now is, and thus, in his explorations, probably reached the southern border of Saratoga County.

Hudson then named the stream the River of the Moun- tains, which is a literal translation of the Algonquin name of it,-('-ho-tu-te-a. It was reserved for his countrymen, who took the province from the Dutch in 1664, first to call it in honor of its immortal discoverer.

Hudson, a year or two afterwards, discovered the great northern bay, which was also named in his honor. His ship's erew then mutinied. He was sent adrift with eight inen in a boat upon the wild northern ocean, and was never heard of more.

From these explorations and discoveries by navigators sailing in the interests of rival powers there sprang up con- flicting claims to the territory of northern New York. Out of these claims arose a long series of bloody conflicts be- tween the French and the English and their respective In- dian allies, of which the soil of Saratoga County so often formed the battle-ground, until the brave Montcalm yielded to the chivalrous Wolfe, one hundred and fifty years after- wards, on the plains of Abraham.

Since these discoveries and explorations two centuries and a half have passed away, and how manifold and vast are now the human interests that lie stretched along the lakes and rivers which are still linked with the names of those kindred spirits of the olden time,-" romanee-loving explorers,"-each immortalized by his discoveries, -Jacques Cartier, Heury Hudson, and Samuel de Champlain.

CHAPTER VII.

FOUNDING OF ALBANY, SCHENECTADY, AND MONTREAL, 1614-62.

I .- ALBANY.

IT has been seen that the county of Albany, of which the county of Saratoga formed a part for more than a hun- dred years, was erected by order of the Duke of York,

HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

the proprietor of the province, as early as the year 1683; but the city of Albany was founded by the Dutch much earlier. Of a truth it may be said that Albany is one of the oldest cities of the New World. In the year 1614, five years after the discovery of the Hudson river, and six years before the pilgrim fathers landed at Plymouth Rock, the city of Albany was founded.

After Henry Hudson had discovered and explored the river that still bears his name, as far up as what is now Waterford, in the month of September, 1609, and taken possession of the country in the name of Holland, in whose interest he had sailed, a number of Dutch adventurers soon followed in his track. These navigators, however, at first made no attempt at settlement, but occupied themselves with making further discoveries along the coast and up the river, and pursuing a small trade with the Indians. The most noted of these early Dutch navigators were Adrian Block, Hendrick Corstiarnsen, and Cornelius Jacobsen Mey.

Early in the autumn of 1614 news of their discoveries was received in Holland, and the United Company, by which they were employed, lost no time in taking the necessary steps to secure to themselves the exclusive trade and settle- ment of the country thus explored. They sent deputies to the Hlagne, who laid before the States General a map of the new country, which was then for the first time ealled NEW NETHERLAND, with a report of their discoveries. In this report, notwithstanding their knowledge of the prior discovery of Henry Hudson, in 1609, only five years before, they claimed to be the first explorers of the country.

On the 11th day of October, 1614, their High Mighti- ness the States General of Holland made a special grant in their favor. This grant conferred upon Girrit Jacob Witsen, former burgomaster of the city of Amsterdam, and his twelve associates, ship-owners and merchants of Am- sterdam, the exclusive right to " visit and navigate all the lands situate in America, between New France and Vir- ginia, the sea-coasts of which lie between the fortieth and forty-fifth degrees of latitude, which are now named New Netherland ; and to navigate, or cause to be navigated, the same for four voyages within the period of three years, to commence from the first day of January, 1615, or sooner." Having thus obtained the exclusive right to trade in the new country, they assumed the name and title of "The United New Netherland Company." Thus having the exclusive right to the country, this company took possession of the Hudson river, then called by them " De Riviere van den Vorst Mauritius," and built two forts thereon. One was built on a little island immediately below the present city of Albany, called Castle island, which island has long since become a part of the main land. The other was erected at the mouth of the stream, on what is now the Battery, in the city of New York.

The fort at Alban was begun early in the year 1615. It consisted of a trading house thirty-six feet long aud twenty-six feet wide. Around this was raised a strong stockade, fifty feet square, which was encircled by a moat eighteen feet wide. It was defended by two pieces of cannon and eleven stone guns mounted on swivels. This post was garrisoned by ten or twelve men, under the com- mand of Jacob Jacoby Elkens, who continued here four

years in the employ of the company, being well liked by the Indians, whose language he soon learned.

But the right of this company expired by limitation in the year 1618. In the spring of that year the fort on Castle island was so injured by a freshet on the river that the company abandoned it and built another on the main- land farther down on a hill at the month of the Norman's kill. The Indian name for the Norman's kill was Tu-wa- sent-ha, " the place of the many dead." It was here on this hill, called by the Indians Troas-gan-shee, that the Dutch, in the year 1618, concluded their first formal treaty of peace and alliance with the Five Nations, by which they obtained such lasting ascendency over the fierce Indian tribes.

In 1623 the rights of this company were transferred to the West India Company, and New Netherlands was erected into a province. In that year Fort Orange was built by Adriaen Ivers, near what is now the steamboat dock of the People's line, and eighteen Dutch families built their log huts under its protecting guns and spent there the ensuing winter. From these few log huts built in the old forest of 1623 has grown the modern city of Albany.

On the 1st day of October, 1630, Kiliaen van Rensselaer, a rich diamond merchant of Amsterdam, formed the com- pany which resulted in the settlement of the " Colonie of Rensselaerwych," of which he became the first patroon.

II .- SCHENECTADY.

The great flut upon the Mohawk river, lying seventeen miles west of "Fort Orange," as Albany was then called, was bought of the Indians by Arendt van Curler in the month of July, 1661. The deed was signed in behalf of the Mohancks by three chiefs, named Kan-tu-quo, Son-a- rut-sic, and A-ia-da-ne. In 1662 this grant was confirmed, and Van Curler and his associates " went west" from Fort Orange and settled the rich Mohawk flats, near which is now the modern city of Schenectady. Arendt van Curler was a cousin of the Van Rensselaers, and played a promi- nent part in the settlement of their manor. He owned a farm on the flats just above Fort Orange, and was a brewer in Beverwyck, as Albany was then called, in 1661. His influenee among the Indians was unbounded. In honor of his mem- ory the Iroquois addressed all succeeding governors of New York by his name, which they translated Corlear. He was also a great favorite of the French. On the 30th of April, 1667, the Marquis de Tracy, viceroy of New France, ad- dressed Van Curler a letter, of which we give an extraet :

" If you find it agreeable to ceme hither this summer, as you have eaused me to hope, you will be must welcome, and entertained to the utmost of my ability, as [ have a great esteem for you, though I have never seen von. Believe this truth, and that I am, sir, your affee- tionate and assured servant,

TRACY."

Van Curler accepted this invitation and prepared for his journey. Governor Nicoll gave him a letter to the viceroy bearing date May 20, 1667, and saying,-

" Mons'r Curler hath been importuned by divers of his friends at Quebec to give them a visit, and being ambitious to kiss your hands, he hath entreated my pass and liberty to conduct a young gentleman, M. Foutaine, who unfortunately fell into the barbarons hands of his enemies, and by means of Mons'r Curler obtained bis liberty."

HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

On the 4th of July of the same year, Jeremias Van Rensselaer wrote to Holland : "Our cousin, Areudt Van Curler, proceeds overland to Canada, having obtained leave from our general, and been invited thither by the viceroy, M. de Tracy."

Thus provided, he set out. In an evil hour, while on this journey, Van Curler attempted to cross Lake Cham- plain in a light bark canoe. A storm coming up, he was drowned, it is believed, near Split rock. Thus died the founder of Schenectady. Lake Champlain was often called afterwards by the French, Lake Corlear, in his honor.

It has been said that Ska-nek-ta-da was the Indian name for Albany. When the Dutch authorities formed the settlers at Fort Orange into a separate jurisdiction, it ran back from Albany seventeen miles, and included what is now the city of Schenectady, on the Mohawk. To this jurisdiction, thus reaching from the Hudson to the Mohawk, the Dutch gave the old Indian name for Albany, and called it Ska-nek-ta-da.

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History of Saratoga County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers., Part 5

Author: Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett, 1825-1894 Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Ensign Number of Pages: 780

Author: Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett, 1825-1894
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Ensign
Number of Pages: 780