USA > New York > Essex County > The military and civil history of the county of Essex, New York : and a general survey of its physical geography, its mines and minerals, and industrial pursuits, embracing an account of the northern wilderness > Part 4
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" Resolving," he says, " to attack the fort at daybreak, went to prayers and marched." The firing of alarm guns at Chambly and La Prairie, announced that the French were aware of his approach and prepared to resist. De Collières, the governor of Montreal, had assembled a force of eight hundred men to oppose the advance of Schuyler. In the presence of an enemy so well prepared and formidable in numbers, he was compelled to retreat. This was achieved with great courage and ability, through a series of severe conflicts, continuing from La Prairie to their canoes, in which the French were repulsed with heavy losses. Enve- loped by the enemy, Schuyler says: " I encouraged my men and told them, there was no other choice, fight or die they must, the enemy being between us and our canoes." Fight they gallantly did, and bursting through the hostile ranks, that in heavy masses enclosed them, regained their
*
' Schuyler's journals.
2 The exceeding clearness of vision and watchful observation of the Indians illustrated by an entry in Schuyler's journal. "Our spies told us they saw somewhat like the striking of fire with a flint and steel in a canoe."
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flotilla, and having inflicted much injury upon the inhabit- ants and crops, retraced their steps.1
Count Frontenac, impatient under the unyielding hostili- ties and perpetual ravages of the Mohawks, that no treaties could permanently suppress and no vigilance guard against, determined by a sudden and more efficient effort to extin- guish their power in the citadels of their strength. He organized in the year 1689, a force of six hundred French. and Indians, and secretly passing Lake Champlain upon the ice, and penetrating the forest burdened with deep snows, assaulted by a complete surprise, a race whose vigilance scarcely ever slumbered. Several of their villages were taken and burnt, and three hundred of the natives captured. But repulsed on a final attack by the unconquerable Mohawks, De Callières commenced a disastrous retreat, followed by the Indians with a merciless vengeance. Peter Schuyler, the ever firm and active friend of the Mohawks, with the militia of Albany, hastily gathered, joined in the pursuit. A violent snow storm and a narrow strip of ice which afforded a precarious passage over the Hudson, and was broken up as their rear crossed, saved the panic- stricken refugees, from the terrible inflictions of savage pas- sions fiercely enkindled. So unexpected was the attack and sudden the pursuit, that the scanty supply of food was soon exhausted, and the savages literally fed upon the dead bodies of their enemies, while the fugitives to sustain life were compelled before they found relief in the borders of Canada, " to eat the leather of their shoes."
To the scope of more extended history' belongs the narrative of efforts for the " conquest of New France," pro- tracted for a period of two years from 1709, and extending in their field of operations along the entire frontier from Detroit to the Bay of Fondy, and embracing armaments, both by land and sea. Policy, as well as the exasperated passions of the colonies, aroused all their enthusiasm, and enlisted in support of the project, every energy and
1 Peter Schuyler's journal. Hist. Col., III, 800.
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resource. This zeal was neutralized, or defeated by the apathy, the imbecility, or the negligence of the government of England. One provincial army, organized by the colo- nies for the attack of Montreal, was wasted by disease, while awaiting assistance and supplies from the mother country, which were never received. Another was dis- banded when the inadequate naval expedition of England against the French possessions had been unsuccessful.
CHAPTER III.
THE FRENCH OCCUPATION.
The valley of Lake Champlain appears not to have been occupied until about 1731, either by France or England, with any permanent or tangible possession. France asserted no other than an ideal and constructive title. The claims of England, had, in the interval, been augmented by the cession of New Netherlands, which conveyed a tenure uniformly assumed by Holland, to reach the St. Lawrence, and by the fealty of the Iroquois, who had submitted to the sovereignty of the British monarch the entire environs of Champlain and the recognition of that title by France in the treaty of Utrecht.
The claims of the Iroquois, resting upon the rights of conquest, were necessarily vague and fluctuating, and after the ascendancy of the French interposed an arm of power between the Mohawks and Algonquins, the scope of these claims was repressed and in the early part of the eighteenth century scarcely embraced their original boundaries. Such boundaries, not only as they affected the foreign relations of the confederacy but as between the individual tribes, seem to have been accurately defined. Sir William John- son, in a letter to the lords of trade, Nov. 13th, 1797, clearly and specifically describes the limits claimed by the
1 Col. Hist., VII, 572.
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Iroquois as " original proprietors." Their limits on Lake Champlain were established by a remarkable landmark. " The hereditary domains of the Mohawks, he says, " ex- tends from near Albany to the Little Falls (Oneija bound- ary), and all the country from thence eastward, &c., north to Rejiohne in Lake Champlain." In another letter Johnson refers to "Regiohne, a rock on the east side of said lake," as bounding the northward claim of the Iroquois.1
Few tourists traverse Lake Champlain, whose attention is not attracted and inquiries elicited, by the appearance of a dark and naked rock, ascending from the bosom of the waters, almost in the track of the steamer, as she approaches Burlington from the south. In almost the form of a perfect cone, the rock stands thirty feet above the surface, in solitary insulation. Its symmetry of contour is so perfectly maintained below the water line, that vessels may moor almost at its side. No vegetation softens or adorns its aspect, but it stands, gloomy, solitary and impressive. An aspect so remarkable was calculated to evoke the Indian love of the imposing and picturesque, and would have been a marked object in their hunting voyages and hostile expe- ditions. This is known as Rock Dunder, and I identify it with entire reliance as the Rock Rejiohne or Reggio of Indian annals. I arrive at this conclusion from various proofs, in addition to the views above presented. John Schuyler, in the journal of his expedition in 1691, writes, " advanced from the Crown point towards Reggio, thirty miles distant." Johnson twice refers to it. David Schuyler in a letter to the Earl of Bellomont, August 17, 1700, states " the French guards (sent out from Canada, &c.), met him in a canoe, within the bounds of this government, at the Otter creek eighteen miles, on this side of Reggio, the great rock, that is in Corlear lake." These distances were probably mere estimates, but singularly approximate to accuracy. I have consulted with intelligent mariners of the lake, who concur in the statement that no other rock exists in that
1 Col. Hist., III, 802.
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section of the lake of a marked or peculiar character. The most conclusive evidence, however, is furnished by a French map of Lake Champlain "prepared about the year 1731, from divers memoirs," and copied into the Documents relating to the Colonial History, vol. IX, 1023. Between " the river Ouinouski " (Onion) and " river Aux Loutree " (Otter Creek), directly opposite the position of Rock Dun- der there is inscribed on the map, and upon the eastern shore of the lake, the word " Reggio."
I am aware that one fact apparently militates against my theory. The Rock Reggio is described as the northern boundary of the monstrous Dellius grant, and that Rock Dunder does not conform to the seventy miles in length of that patent. Everything connected with that stupendous fraud it is conceded was undefined, inchoate and ambi- guous, and I am not aware that the Dellius patent was ever practicably located by its pretended bounds. Modern writ- ers and maps assume Split rock to be the Reggio referred to in that grant. In my judgment there exists insuperable objections to that assumption. Split rock is not strictly an isolated rock, but is a point of a promontory separated by attrition from the main land ; is not on "the east side " of the lake, and does not conform in its position to the distances mentioned. John H. Lydius, the successor to Dellius, avers in an affidavit made 5th April, 1750, "that the land, as far as the Rock Rogeo belonged to the Mo- hawks, and is situated about ten leagues north of Crown point." This is very nearly the distance to Rock Dunder, while Split rock is scarcely eighteen miles from Crown point. Lydius continues, " neither hath he ever heard of any other rock called by the Indians Rogeo; Rogeo being a Mohawk word and the name of a Mohawk Indian who was drowned, as they say, in the lake near that rock long before the Christians came among them, from whence the Mohawks call both the rock and the lake, Rogeo." This catastrophe, probably of a distinguished brave, shrouded
1 Col. Hist., XI, 569.
A
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the rock to the aboriginal superstition with an unusual awe and veneration. The rock was a conspicuous object visible in every direction far away upon the waters, and when it was recognized as a prominent landmark in the bounda- ries of powerful confederacies, it became a point of great. interest and importance. The passage of a hostile canoe beyond its shadow might have constituted war. Fancy readily depicts fleets of canoes gathering around its base upon the placid bosom of the lake for conciliation and peace, and the council or sacrificial fire shedding its radiance widely over the waters.
The pretensions of France to the sovereignty of Lake Champlain and its shores, were not alone founded upon the discoveries of Cartier and Champlain, and the extent and distinctness of assumption from title based on such discoveries in subsequent grants, or concessions. France asserted other foundations of claim which were not with- out plausible pretenses of justice and right. The French diplomatists assumed, that Holland had never, in the exer- cise of its jurisdiction over the Iroquois, established claims to their territory paramount to the nominal possession of France; and justly asserted that England, in the conquest and cession of the New Netherlands acquired no other or higher title than had been enjoyed by Holland. The com- missioners of France at London, in 1687, in a formal memo- rial, affirmed that all the Iroquois nations concluded, in 1665 and 1666, a solemn treaty with M. de Tracy, whereby they placed themselves under his majesty's (Louis XIV), protection, and declared themselves his subjects.1 Formal treaties warranting this construction were executed by the western tribes of the confederacy, ratified and emblazoned by their distinctive symbols, but no symbol of the inflexi- · ble Mohawk is attached to the compact, although the Oneida embassadors appeared to have assumed to act for them.2 The language of these treaties was in the illusory and ambiguous terms incident to all similar instruments, and
1 Hist. Doc., III, 507. 2 Idem, 122, 125.
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subject to constant denial and evasion. These transactions were followed by immediate and perpetual hostilities. An insuperable obstacle to the language of such treaties being available in diplomacy, is established by the clear and obvious fact, that France exercised no powers or pro- tectorate under their sanctions. Whatever may have been the inherent force of these instruments in effecting the right of the other tribes, no basis existed for the pretense, that they authorized any intrusion by France into the hereditary dominions of the Mohawks south of a boundary so distinct and apparently so well authenticated as the land-mark I have described.
The treaty of Ryswick, in 1698, declared that the belli- gerents should return their possessions as each occupied them at the commencement of hostilities. England forcibly alleged, that at the period contemplated by the treaty, the Iroquois, their allies, were in the occupation by conquest of Montreal and the shores of the St. Lawrence, and there- fore entitled to retain possession of that territory. The French government seems to have recognized the theory, that the Iroquois were embraced in the provisions of that treaty.1 Such were the jarring and complicated assumptions of European powers to the homes and dominion of the ab- origines, where they had so recently exerted all the prero- gatives of empire and of freedom. When France denied the claims of England and appealed to " the council fire at Onondaga," the stern savage orator replied : " We have ceded our lands to no one, we hold them of Heaven alone." 2 The verdict of common history has established the conclu- sion, that in the intrusion of France upon the domains of the Mohawks on Lake Champlain, at the sacrifice of so inuch blood and treasure, justice and the restraints and faith of treaties were subordinated to the lust of power and expediency.
Whilst neither power yielded its dominion to the other, each felt the extreme importance of securing the ascend-
1 Louis XIV to Callières, 27th April, 1699, Hist. Doc., IX, 598. 2 Bancroft.
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ancy upon Lake Champlain. The command of that avenue shed over the colonies of the government which held it, a broad and ample protection. As clearly as facts can be adduced from the faint glimmerings of history or tradition, it appears probable that, in the early period of the eighteenth century, English occupation and improve- ment were gradually advancing toward the valley of Cham- plain ; Crown point, then distinguished by its present name, was recognized in 1690, as a commanding and important position. The common council of Albany, instructing their scouting party in that year, directs them to proceed " to Crown point, where you shall remain and keep good watch by night and day." The fact appears also from the language of the purchase, by Dellius, that this purchase was ratified by a grant from Governor Fletcher in 1696. of a tract from the Mohawks, extending "more than twenty miles northward of Crown point."1 His patent was so exorbitant in its claims, and comprehended so vast an extent of territory, that the colonial legislature, without hesitation, abrogated the grant, and thus exhibited an exer- cise over the region of one of the highest prerogatives of sovereignty.
The Crown point of history is a beautiful peninsula, forming a section of the present township of that name, which is distinguished for its agricultural fertility, and the rare and exceeding loveliness of the landscapes its varied scenery affords. The peninsula is formed by Bulwagga bay, a broad estuary on the west, and the lake upon the east, which at that point, abruptly changes its course nearly at right angles, and is compressed from a wide expanse into a narrow channel. A vast wilderness in 1731 extended on both sides of Lake Champlain, from the settlements on the Hudson to the Canadian hamlets, broken by rugged and impracticable mountains and ravines, and traversed by deep or rapid streams. No track penetrated it, except the path of the Indian. The lake, in its navigation, or by its ice,
1 Point Le Caronne of the French.
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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY.
afforded the only avenue of mutual invasion. The most unpracticed eye at once perceives that Canada could be the most efficiently shielded by the occupation of Crown point, that position forming the portals of the lake. Im- pressed, no doubt, by these considerations, the French vice-regal government, violating the sanctions of treaties, and theimmunities of a profound peace, suddenly advanced through the lake, and seized by a military force, a promon- tory directly opposite Crown point, and immediately after, that position itself.
The site first occupied by the French is now called Chimney point, but they gave to it the more euphonious name of Point a la Chevelure. The poetical allusion it must have conveyed is lost to us.1
This action of France was the movement of no incon- siderate impulse, but the suggestion of a deliberate and ma- tured policy. The scheme was distinctly urged in 1688 and never relinquished. Frontenac in 1693, was instructed to " build light vessels for the defense of the narrow defiles of the rivers and lakes on the route from Orange." 2 And in 1737, Beauharnois was directed to effect a survey of Lake Champlain with the purpose of introducing an armed sloop upon its waters.3 The views of France, in reference to the importance of securing the control of Lake Cham- plain, were neither peculiar or unfounded. The secret councils of the colonial governments of England were constantly directed to the attainment of the same great object.4 Lake Champlain was the most direct avenue of communication between the Hudson and Quebec. A military post, which commanded the lake, must necessarily control the large and lucrative fur trade that sought through its waters a transit between Chambly and Albany. It was the purpose of France to anticipate and defeat the
1 It is frequently, but I think incorrectly stated, that this name was originally given to Crown point. All the old French maps corroborate my opinion.
2 Louis XIV to Frontenac, Hist., Doc., IX, 449. $ Idem., IX, 1059.
4 Gov. Dongan, Doc., III, 477 ; Bellomont, id., 504; Lords of Trade, id., 704.
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designs of England for the occupation of Crown point.1 The wise policy of the French government contemplated the formation of agricultural colonies beneath the shields of its military posts, and to thus secure the permanent de- fense and possession of the country.2
The instructions to Beauharnois directed that a simple stockaded fort should first be erected, " until a stronger one can be constructed." 3 Thirty men only formed the garrison of the incipient fortification. Beauharnois announces three years later to the government, that he is "preparing to complete " this feeble work. A position full of alarm and terror, and a constant " sharp thorn in the sides of Massa- chusetts and New York " 4 lingered thus for years in its slow and hesitating progress, continually exposed to be crushed with the sanction of England, by the military grasp of any single colony. In 1747, it appears to have attained only a slight advance in strength or proportions ;5 but in 1750, an emissary of Clinton thus describes its growth and com- manding position and armament. "The fort is built of stone, the walls of considerable height and thickness, and has twenty pieces of cannon and swivels mounted on the ramparts and bastions. I observed the walls cracked from top to bottom in several places. At the entrance of the fort is a dry ditch eighteen feet square, and a draw-bridge. There is a subterranean passage to the lake. The citadel is a stout building eight feet square, four stories high, each turned with arches, mounts twenty pieces of cannon and swivels, the largest six-pounders. The walls of the citadel are about ten feet thick. At the entrance is a draw-bridge and ditch."6 The writer of this report remarks a fact obvious to the most unmilitary eye, that the formation of the adjacent country rendered St. Frederick extremely vulnerable to assault by batteries.
Gov. Dongan, Hist. Doc., III, 1023. 2 Idem.
3 Louis XIV to Beauharnois and Hocquart, May 1731, idem, 1025.
4 Delancy to Lords of Trade, Doc., VI, 816.
" Johnson to Clinton, Doc., VI, 389.
6 Stoddart to Clinton, Doc., VI, 582, abridged.
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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY.
The protection of Canada from the inroads of the Iro- quois was the ostensible reason and excuse for the erec- tion of St. Frederic, assigned by France. Its real purpose, besides embracing the control of the lake, contemplated a still deeper policy. Occupying a position at the threshold of the English possessions, they could menace and im- pede their progress, and at any moment direct against their expanded and defenseless settlements, sudden and destructive assaults. Crown point was within the recog- nized possessions of the Iroquois, and by the treaty of Utrecht, their territory was guarantied to remain " invio- late by any occupation or encroachment of France." The governor of New York was at length aroused from his lethargy, by the indignant voice of Shirley of Massa- chusetts, to contemplate the arms of France and a com- manding fortress far within the limits of his asserted jurisdiction. Massachusetts, always prompt and energetic in sustaining the national glory, and in redressing the wrongs of the colonies, offered to New York to unite at once with her, in an expostulation on the subject, with the French functionaries, and in the ultimate necessity, to unite their arms to repel the aggression.1 The occupa- tion of Crown point was only a link in the system, by which France was encircling the colonies of England by a cordon of fortresses. The colonies invoked in vain the attention of the home government, to these encroach- ments. In vain were protestations and memorials laid at the foot of the throne, urging that the safety and the colonial existence of New England and New York were endangered by the occupation of Crown point.
The earnest and imploring voice of the colonies fell on cold and deafened ears. To the vision of the British minis- try, America was a wilderness, destitute of present frui- tion and promises of the future. Walpole, whose sagacity seemed to endow him almost with prophetic prescience in the affairs of Europe, could detect no germ of future empire
1 Correspondence between Shirley and Clinton, Hist. Doc.,, VI, 419, 421, 423.
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in the wilds of America. So even and indifferent had been the regard of the same government, to a subject of such momentous interest, to the colonies, and which had so deeply aroused their anxieties as the erection of the French fortresses on Lake Champlain, that the lords of trade, in December, 1738, confessed to Governor Clark ignorance of their location, and he in the succeeding year " pointed them out on a small map."1 Not until 1789 did Waldegrave, the embassador to France, claim the attention of that government to the violation of the treaty of Utrecht, by the occupation of Crown point. The only response conceded to this expostulation was the denial of "all knowledge of the projected establishment," and the for- mal diplomatic assurance of instructions inquiring on the subject. Thus England slumbered, and the colonies toiled and murmured, while the formidable fortress of St. Frederick arose and secured to France the dominion of the lake.
Leading minds in the colonies were at that day suspi- cious that sinister and corrupt motives were influencing the British ministry, " who having reasons for keeping well with the court of France, the project " (of occupying the. Ohio) " was not only dropped, but the French were encou- raged to build the fort of Crown point upon the territory of New York." 2 Such was the denunciation of Spotswood of Virginia. England, by the ignoble treaty of Aix La Chapelle relinquished to France the fortress of Louis- burg, subjugated by the treasures and blood of New England; but left to that power without a protest, the possession of Crown point. It was not until 1755, that the British government, with emphasis and decision, de- manded from France the demolition of the fortress of St. Frederic. Diplomacy could not thus retrieve, after the hostile occupation of a quarter of a century, territory lost by imbecility or corruption.
1 Doc., VI, 139, 142. 2 Gov. Spotswood .- Bancroft.
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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY.
Accumulated acts of neglect and injustice of the mother country, such as these, prepared and matured the colonies for independence. Had they been cherished by the guar- dian care of England, they might have rested upon her arm in effeminacy and dependence. Abandoned to the sugges- tions of their own policy, they were taught by these exi- gencies high and practical lessons of self-government. Compelled by a common danger, to mutual consultation and concerted action, they were admonished of the neces- sity and strength of a confederated union. Compelled to rely alone for protection and safety upon their own arms and energies, they were taught to resist aggression and to avenge injury. The deep fountains of their capacities were revealed to themselves, by the parsimonious policy of England, that constrained the colonies to resort to their domestic re- sources in their own protection and defense. Had Canada been a British province, New England and New York might have been exempt from the appalling scenes of car- nage and suffering which are now impressed on their his- tory; but the very exposures and dangers of their position, and the assaults and cruelties of a powerful and daring enemy, endowed them with lofty moral and physical cou- rage; with endurance in suffering; with boldness and wis- dom in council, and promptitude and decision in action. These are the elements of freedom.
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