For some time I have endeavoured to make an annual visit to Fort
Ticonderoga and its neighborhood. September, October and November,
before the ground freezes, when the lake is usually the lowest, are the
best portions of the year for searching there. On the shores between
high and low water marks around the Ticonderoga promontory; at Wright’s
Point and on the Orwell shore opposite, the earth is black with flints.
These are arrow and spear heads, knives, hammer stones and immense
quantities of flakes. But few of the implements are perfect. I account
for this condition because of the great numbers of soldiers there in the
old wars. As you know, it was their practice to select the best arrow
and spear heads and break them into pieces suitable for their
flintlocks. But the native flint exists in great abundance in the
limestone rocks of the locality; and so it was that, for centuries, the
Indians resorted to this region, lived there and made weapons and
implements for their own use, and for traffic with other savages passing
by. I have obtained 2500 chipped stone implements from these shores
alone. One November day, 1896, two of us left Plattsburgh by train at
8.30 a. m., reached Fort Ticonderoga at 10.30, picked up 575 wrought
flints, and returning, got home at 6.15 the same evening. So, while I
have considered that the great dwelling site in Plattsburgh was the most
important for the manufacturing of pottery, and probably had the largest
population of any village in the valley, yet certainly the Ticonderoga
region surpassed it in the making of chipped implements. On this day of
which I speak, my companion stopped on Mount Independence, while I
pushed over to the Orwell shore, perhaps a hundred rods away. And, by
the way, let me say that the historic ruins on Mount Independence are
nearly as interesting as those on the Ticonderoga promontory. I could
not see the gentleman on the mountain because of the trees, but when I
called out to him, not only his reply came to me, but my voice echoed
back first, so quickly, so distinctly and with such force as to startle
me. It was uncanny.
Turning again to the Jesuit Relations, this time to Volume 51, pages
179–183; in the Relation of 1667–68, written by Francis Mercier, we find
an account of the experiences of Fathers Fremin, Pierron and Bruyas,
three Jesuits, on the way to the Iroquois country. It was one of these
fathers who wrote from Ste. Anne, Isle La Motte, August 12, 1667, the
interesting letter, a translation of which was printed in the Burlington
Free Press of August 22, 1902.
Father Mercier says: “The Fathers Fremin, Pierron and Bruyas having set
out to go to the lower Iroquois—and having been detained for a long time
in Fort Sainte Anne at the entrance to Lake Champlain * * * left the
fort at last.” Then he quotes from their journal: “About four o’clock in
the afternoon we embarked to go and take shelter at a league distance
from the last fort of the French—which is that of Sainte Anne * * We
gaily crossed this entire great lake, which is already too renowned by
reason of the shipwreck of several of our Frenchmen, and, quite
recently, by that of Sieur Corlart, commandant of a hamlet of the Dutch
near Agnie, who, on his way to Quebec for the purpose of negotiating
some important affairs, was drowned while crossing a large bay, where he
was surprised by a storm. Arriving within three-quarters of a league of
the Falls by which Lake St. Sacrament empties, we all halted without
knowing why, until we saw our savages at the water side gathering up
flints, which were almost all cut into shape. We did not at that time
reflect upon this, but have since learned the meaning of the mystery,
for our Iroquois told us that they never fail to halt at this place to
pay homage to a race of invisible men who dwell there at the bottom of
the lake. These beings occupy themselves in preparing flints, nearly all
cut, for the passers by, provided the latter pay their respects to them
by giving them tobacco. If they give these beings much of it, the latter
give them a liberal supply of these stones. These water men travel in
canoes, as do the Iroquois; and when their great captain proceeds to
throw himself into the water to enter his palace, he makes so loud a
noise that he fills with fear the minds of these who have no knowledge
of this great spirit and of these little men. * * * The occasion of this
ridiculous story is the fact that the lake in reality is often agitated
by very frightful tempests, which cause fearful waves, and when the wind
comes from the direction of the lake, it drives on the beach quantities
of stones which are hard, and capable of striking fire.”
Now, this place where the fathers “sheltered themselves at a league’s
distance” from Fort Sainte Anne, may have been Cumberland Head. The bay
in which “Sieur Corlart” was drowned has been considered to be
Willsborough Bay. Allow me to state that Arendt Van Corlaer (“Sieur
Corlart”) came to his death in this very year, 1667, in which these
Jesuits saw the savages at the water side gathering up flints. So the
Indians 235 years ago had an established custom of picking up flint
implements around Ticonderoga; the same practice that I have indulged
in, perhaps quite as successfully without having to offer tobacco to a
race of invisible men; and the “loud noises” which their “great captain”
made when he proceeded to throw himself into the water to enter his
palace and “which filled with fear the minds of those who have no
knowledge of this Great Spirit and of these little men,” may have been
an echo, like that marvelous one which came back to me from Mount
Independence, on that November day, so loud and distinct as to seem
uncanny.
* * * * *
I have thus grouped these three different parts although they may not be
homogeneous. In some degree they unite the present with the early
historic and prehistoric past of the Champlain Valley. I understand that
the United States Government is soon to issue a large volume of
Place-Names, and such work is highly to be commended. What an immense
number our own localities could furnish to be thus preserved!
In the early Voyages, Journals, Relations and Letters are references to
many known locations. But, for instance, should Radisson, or the Jesuit
Relations or even Hadden, go to new editions during the next half
century, the present notes, though copious, would seem meagre and
inadequate, compared with what should then appear.
Concerning matters prehistoric, I hope I have said enough to reveal what
a vast field for research lies almost untouched at our very doors.