F 1030 
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 Copy 1 
 
 ONG LOST POINT IN HISTORY. 
 
 AN ADDRESS, 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 ONEIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 
 
 UTICA, N. Y„ 
 
 BY L. ■W. LEDYARD, ESQ., 
 
 OF CAZENOVIA, N. Y. 
 
 JANUARY 9, 1883 
 
 UTICA, N. Y. : 
 
 ONEIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
 1883. , 
 
 faf"^ 
 
\ 
 
1030 
 
 ■'' LONG LOST POINT IN HISTORY. 
 
 )py 1 
 
 AN ADDRESS, 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 ONEIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 
 
 UTICA, N. Y., 
 
 BY L. W. LED YARD, ESQ.,, 
 
 OF CAZENOVIA, N. Y. 
 
 JANUAliY 9 1883. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 
 
 UTICA, N.Y.: 
 T H FLOYD, PRINTER, CORNER BROAD AND JOHN STREETS. 
 
 1883. 
 
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 -2,0 
 
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A LONG LOST POINT IN HISTORY. 
 
 How few of the denizens of this busy city, hastening on after 
 the manner of our times, give a passing thought to the past of 
 this land now so fair. Looking over the broad valley that the 
 Mohawk has worn away in geological periods, and later filled and 
 made fertile with the rich soils stolen from the hills and borne 
 silently year after year to the lowland, it is not easy to realize 
 that it was ever other than the fair scene it now offers to charm 
 and interest the thoughtful observer. Charming indeed, with 
 broad play of Hght and shadow falling here upon a bit of wood- 
 land, there upon golden grain ; with deep ravines hiding lovely 
 nooks where alone ferns and mosses with their graceful forest 
 kind live on when driven from the lands they once made beautiful ; 
 with bold high hills making one beyond another, sky lines of 
 wondrous beauty ; and with now and then a glimpse of water 
 that in turn steals for itself the beauties of the overhanging forest, 
 and the tints of the azure, or the golden sunset sky. Interesting 
 indeed, with the whirl and beat of human progress ; as seen in 
 the white plumed train, the towering factory, and the many evi- 
 dences that eager, restless hands are busy, changing, moulding, 
 perchance improving, the valley and surrounding slopes 
 
 All this fills the mind ; through so vivid a present the past is 
 seen but dimly if at all, yet in the developments through which 
 we may trace the story of human changes, few lands present so 
 much to startle the student, could he dream that the past was a 
 lesson to be repeated in the future. 
 
 If we could bring ourselves to imagine that all our surround- 
 ings, our race, our homes, and our inherited customs, were to be 
 swept away like shadows, in hardly more than a lifetime, all to be 
 replaced by men of strange and unknown traits, possessing pow- 
 ers to us undreamed of, we would not more than realize the simple 
 story of the white invasion of America. Yet here this magical 
 result has followed the occupation of our race as it has flowed in 
 like a tide ; full of the vigor, power and intelligence that are our 
 inheritance from generations of bold, adventurous, skillful men^ 
 and this tide has been so widely and overwhelmingly superior in 
 
customs, ideas and aims, to the original occupant of the land, that 
 mingling was impossible. No progress or elevation could so 
 change the American Indian as to enable him to act with the new 
 and impatient race; so despite muscles like steel, the vigor and en- 
 durance of animals, and the undaunted courage of warrior blood, 
 they have gone before the man of broader brain and his works, 
 like autumn leaves before a gale, until almost as a winter's snow 
 gives place to the spring verdure, has all the face of nature about 
 us yielded to the white man's changing hand. 
 
 The story of a century here in Central New York, is the history 
 from the pioneer to the finished city ; back of that where are we, 
 and how in our minds shall we picture the scenes now so familiar 
 and attractive ? Our lakes were then the mirrors of a wild beauty, 
 surrounded by a forest primeval. 
 
 But where are the hearts that beneath it, 
 Leaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland 
 The voice of the huntsman ? 
 
 Where indeed ? Linger here and there by little pits, slightly 
 sunken amid gnarled roots, that long have interlaced since with 
 rude stone tools, groups of dusky figures have given back to earth 
 one by one their numbers, and there marked only by a little 
 brighter green, or a growth slightly varied from the woodland 
 carpet, they rest, pressed by feet of a race by them unknown and 
 unimagined. 
 
 Looking again in retrospect, we find little to claim as known 
 with certainty, and from signs that many pass unjieeded, and from 
 vague traditions alone, are we left to unravel from the past, slight 
 threads of history. Comparative ethnology is collecting a vast 
 array of information bearing upon the earlier races of America, 
 but the chief results are the undermining of old theories, while 
 no structures that bid fair to endure are built as yet from the dis- 
 turbed material. 
 
 In the so called old world, there were many centuries in each of 
 the retrograde aspects of civilization. Going backward from 
 what we may now term the electric age, electric in mental as well 
 as material character, we find the steel, the iron, and the bronze 
 ages, all more or less fully included in the realms of written his- 
 tory, and surrounded by as much of certainty as may be attested 
 by the pens of periods full of ignorance, superstition and preju- 
 dice; but beyond them, in regarding the ages of bone, flint and 
 stone, we pass to unrecorded times, and are left to the resources 
 
of speculation, aided by such knowledge as may be brought to 
 bear from a study of the races now in their rude periods of flint 
 and stone. 
 
 In America, the European invader of the iron age, came face 
 to face with a people still in the stone age ; a period so far hid- 
 den in the European past as to be considered only in the studies 
 of archaeologists, when aroused by such discoveries as those of 
 the Swiss Lakes, the Bone Caves, and the Rhone Gravel Beds; 
 and not only are we called upon to regard the meeting of varied 
 races, but the simultaneous existence of two conditions of human 
 progress, so different, that when regarded in the light of the 
 changes developed in producing the civilization of Europe, they 
 are seen to represent the forward impulse that has required many 
 centuries, or more probably, some thousands of years, in reaching 
 the era that came with the adventurous Frenchman, the stubborn 
 Puritan, and the treasure-seeking Spaniard. 
 
 Knowing that our race has evolved the steam giant from the 
 spark accidentally produced from two flints, or from the hint of 
 friction in chaffing branches ; the steamship from perchance a 
 floating leaf; the column-surrounded temple from the tree stem, 
 the gothic cathedral from its branches ; a ball dress from the sim- 
 ple decoration of a goat skin ; ceramics, with a K, from a river 
 worn stone ; the telegraph and electric light from early but peril- 
 • ous experiments with a cat's back ; and all our myriad multipli- 
 city of never to be satisfied needs, from a few simple animal re- 
 quirements, we cannot refrain from speculating as to how far the 
 native Indian if he had possessed this wonderful continent undis- 
 turbed, wou^ld have progressed. As ages passed would his eye 
 have become thoughtful, his brow broadened, and his hand train- 
 ed to new and complex acts? 
 
 He knew the use of fire, he cooked his food with hot stones, 
 and burned rude pottery, that is found in such abundant frag- 
 ments as to suggest the existence of a pre historic domestic of the 
 tribe that make, but do not speak, broken China. 
 
 His implements were of flint, stone and bone, possibly but not 
 probably of copper. Bronze and iron, the first sources of new pow- 
 ers he had not achieved, yet he constructed a canoe of such 
 beauty and perfection, that grace and swiftness are associated with 
 the name ; he cut away with fire, and his stone axe the forest, and 
 with shells and sticks hardened in fire, made plantations of corn, 
 and considerable earthworks. 
 
His mind had formed a religion of marked and encouraging 
 promise; in tale, legend, tradition and allegory, facts and fancies 
 were deftly woven. But it will never be known how far the usual 
 onward steps would have been taken by the red man, had the 
 mariner's compass never guided a new civilization to overwhelm 
 him with the forces wrested from nature by brain power. 
 
 We cannot tell whether he would have hunted on under the 
 universal woodland, and camped by rivers free from new imoulses* 
 or whether in time he would have found the metals under the 
 forest mosses ; have set to work the wind sighing in the pine tops,, 
 the stream bubbling in the fern-clad ravine, and the tide in its 
 ebb and flow, — if the mill would have replaced the stone pestle ^ 
 the wheel and axle the weary back, not of his noble self, but of 
 his squaw ; the roadway have followed the forest trail, and broad 
 fields have been opened to the summer sun. 
 
 As far as recent impressions are founded on wide investigation 
 they do not encourage the belief that the Indian found in the 
 eastern part of the North was progressive, but rather lead to the 
 opinion that a more advanced race had preceded him, especially 
 in the section west of us. In the western part of our State the 
 remains of the Mound Building races commence, and are contin- 
 uously followed, with few marked breaks in the chain, to the re- 
 markable mounds and teocalli of Mexico and Central Africa. 
 These were evidently built with more and more skill and labor 
 as they near the South, — sod banks are replaced by rough stone, 
 rough stone by cut stones of massive form, and they assume more 
 and more size and mechanical perfection. It is suggested that 
 they were made by a race moving slowly along their course, either 
 southwest-ward with increasing skill, wealth and power, or the re- 
 verse, with diminished numbers and lessened capacity to concen- 
 trate labor. 
 
 There are other indications that a race more like the Eskimo, 
 with similar use of bones, stone and flint, were earlier occupants of 
 the section between the lower lakes and the coast, and that they 
 retreated northward, perhaps following the changes of climate 
 that are evidenced by unmistakable marks on all the rocky sum- 
 mits about us; but more must be woven from threads traced here 
 and there, some strong, others slender, before we can say any 
 positive words of the men who in human strata underlaid race by 
 race the red man found in undisputed occupation of our hills and 
 valleys. 
 
But we are wandering away from the "lost point in history," 
 that it has been the main purpose of this paper to consider. It 
 is the long in-doubt location of the Indian encampment and fort 
 that was the objective point in the expedition of the French in- 
 vader Champlain, in 1615, two hundred and sixty-seven years ago, 
 the earliest recorded event of Central New York, being six years 
 after the attempt of the same explorer to follow the water ways 
 of Lake Champlain, and five years before the landing on Ply- 
 mouth Rock. 
 
 From a careful translation of Champlain's Journal, published in 
 volume three of the Documentary History of New York, we will 
 read the parts describing in his own words his disastrous and adven- 
 turous expedition into a vast and unknown woodland, filled with 
 savages of courageous character. The time at which his narra- 
 tive is here taken up, was in September, 161 5. His army consist- 
 ed of Northern Indians and a few French Arquebuseiers, with their 
 clumsy weapons, (which were, however, very alarming, and some- 
 times effective in the contests in which arrows and stones were the 
 other means of attack and defence ;) and they were among the 
 islands at the east end of Lake Ontario. His story of their pro- 
 gress, is as follows : 
 
 "We continued along the border of the Lake of the Entouhon- 
 orons, always hunting ; being there, we crossed over at one of the 
 extremities, tending eastward, which is the beginning of the River 
 St. Lawrence, in the parallel of forty-three degrees of latitude. 
 There are some beautiful and very large islands in this passage. 
 We made about fourteen leagues, (fifty-six miles,) to cross to the 
 other side of the Lake, proceeding southward, toward the enemy's 
 country. The Indians concealed all their canoes in the woods 
 near the bank. We travelled by land about four leagues over a 
 grassy plain, where I observed a very pleasing and fine country, 
 watered by numerous small streams, and two little rivers which 
 empty into said Lake, and a number of ponds and prairies, where 
 there was an infinite quantity of game, a great many vines and 
 fine trees, vast numbers of chestnuts, the fruit of which was yet in 
 the shell. It is quite small but well flavored. 
 
 "All the canoes being thus concealed, we left the bank of the 
 Lake, which is eighty leagues long and twenty-five wide. It is in- 
 habited for the greater part by savages, along the sides of the 
 streams, and we continued our journey overland some twenty-five 
 or thirty leagues. In the course of four days we traversed a num- 
 ber of streams and one river issuing from a lake which empties 
 
8 
 
 into that of the Entouhonorons. This Lake is twenty-five to 
 thirty leagues in circumference, with many beautiful islands, and 
 is the Iroquois fishing ground, fish being in abundance there. 
 
 "The 9th of October, our Indians going out scouting, encounter- 
 ed eleven savages, whom they took prisoners ; to wit, four women, 
 three boys, one girl, and three men, who were going fishing, four 
 leagues distant from the enemy's fort. Now it is to be noted that 
 one of the Chiefs seeing these prisoners, cut the finger off one of 
 those poor women, as the commencement of their usual tortures. 
 Whereupon I interfered, and censured the Iroquois captain, repre- 
 senting to him that a warrior, as he called himself, was not in the 
 habit of acting cruelly towards women, who have no defence but 
 their tears, and who, by reason of their helplessness and feeble- 
 ness, ought to be treated with humanity. That on the contrary, 
 this act would be supposed to proceed from a vile and brutal 
 courage, and that if he committed any more of those cruelties, he 
 would not encourage me to assist them, nor to favor their war. 
 Whereupon he replied that their enemies treated them in the 
 same manner. But since such customs displeased me, he would 
 not act so any more to women, but exclusively to men, 
 
 "Next day, at three o'clock in the afternoon, we arrived before 
 the enemy's fort, where the savages had some skirmishes, the one 
 against the other, though it was not our design to discover our- 
 selves until the morrow ; but the impatience of our savages would 
 not brook this, as well through the desire they felt to see us fire 
 on their enemies, as to liberate some of their men who had ven- 
 tured too far. Then I advanced and presented myself, but with 
 the few men I had ; nevertheless, I showed them what they had 
 never saw nor heard before, for as soon as they saw us, and heard 
 the reports of the arquebuses, and the balls whistling about their 
 ears, they retired promptly within their fort, carrying off their 
 wounded and dead ; and we retreated in like manner to our main 
 body, with five or six of our wounded, one of whom died. 
 
 "This being done, we retired within gun-shot, beyond the view 
 of the enemy, contrary, however, to my advice, and to what they 
 had promised me, which moved me to make use of and express to 
 them pretty rude and angry words, in order to incite them to 
 their duty foreseeing, that if everything went according to their 
 tantasy, and counsel, nothing but misfortune would result, to their 
 ruin and destruction. Nevertheless, I failed not to send to them 
 and to propose means necessary to be used to overcome their 
 
enemies ; which was, to construct a movable tower of timber to 
 overlook their pickets, whereupon I should perch four or five of 
 our arquebussiers, who would fire over the palisades and gallerieS; 
 which were well supplied with stones, and by this means, the ene- 
 my, who annoyed us from their galleries, would be dislodged ; 
 and in the meantime, we should give orders for some boards to 
 form a species of parapet to cover and protect our men from the 
 arrows and stones. 
 
 "These things, namely, the tower and parapets, could be moved 
 by main force ; and one was made in such a way that water could 
 not extinguish the fire to be applied to the front of the fort ; and 
 those on the tower could do their duty with some arquebussiers 
 posted there, and thus acting, we should so defend ourselves that 
 they could not approach to extinguish the fire, that we should 
 apply to their pickets. Approving this, they began next morn- 
 ing to construct and prepare said tower and parapets ; and made 
 such progress that these were finished in less than four hours. 
 
 "They were expecting the arrival this day of the five hundred men 
 that had been promised, which was, however, doubtful ; not being 
 at the rendezvous, as directed, and as they had promised, our 
 savages were much afflicted. But seeing that they were numer- 
 ous enough to capture the forts, and for my part, considering de- 
 lay to be always prejudicial, at least in most cases, I urged them 
 to attack said fort, representing that the enemy, discovering their 
 strength and the effect of our arms, which pierced what was arrow- 
 proof, would barricade and shelter themselves, which indeed, they 
 did very well, for their village was enclosed with strong quadruple 
 palisades of large timber, thirty feet high, interlocked the one 
 with the other, with an interval of not more than half a foot be- 
 tween them ; with galleries in the form of parapets, defended with 
 double pieces of timber, proof against our arquebuses, and on one 
 side they had a pond with a never failing supply of water, from 
 which proceeded a number of gutters which they had laid along 
 the intermediate space, throwing the water without, and rendered 
 it effectual inside, for the purpose of extinguishing fire. 
 
 "Such was their mode of fortification and defence, which was 
 much stronger than the villages of the Hurons, and others. 
 
 "We advanced then to attack the village ; causing our tower to 
 be carried by two hundred of our strongest men, they placed it 
 within a pike's length in front and I posted on it four arquebus- 
 siers, all sheltered from any arrows and stones that might have 
 
10 
 
 been shot at them. Nevertheless, the enemy did not, for ail that^ 
 cease cischarging and throwing a great number of arrows and 
 stones over their pickets, but the multitude of arquebus shots that 
 were fired, constrained them to vacate and abandon their galleries. 
 
 "But according as the tower was moved, instead of bringing the 
 parapets as ordered, and that on which we were to have placed 
 the fire, they abandoned them and commenced to yell against 
 their enemies, shooting arrows within the fort, which, in my opin- 
 ion, did not do much execution. They are very excusable, for 
 they are not soldiers, and are moreover averse to discipline or cor^ 
 rection, and do only what they like. Wherefore, one inconsid- 
 erately applied the fire to the wrong side of the fort, or to lee- 
 ward, so that it produced no effect. On the fire being kindled, 
 the most of the savages began to set wood against the pickets, but 
 in such small quantities that the fire did not much good. The 
 disorder that supervened, was in consequence so great that it was 
 impossible to hear. In vain I cried to them and remonstrated as 
 well as I was able against the imminent danger to which they ex- 
 posed themselves by their stupidity. They heard nothing in 
 consequence of the violent noise they made. Seeing that by 
 shouting I was only splitting my skull, and that my remonstran- 
 ces were in vain, and that this disorder was irremediable, I resolv- 
 ed to do what was in my power with my men, and fire on those 
 we could discover or perceive, yet the enemy profited by our dis- 
 order. They went to the water and discharged it in such abun-^ 
 dance, that rivers, it may be said, spouted from their gutters, so 
 that the fire was extinguished in less than no time, and they con- 
 tinued to pour arrows on us like hail. Those on the tower killed 
 and wounded a great many. 
 
 "This engagement lasted about three hours. Two of our chiefs 
 and leaders were wounded ; to wit, one called Ochateguain, the 
 other Orani, and about fifteen individuals besides. The rest see- 
 ing their folks and some of their chiefs wounded, began to talk of 
 retreating, without fighting any more, expecting the five hundred 
 men, whose arrival was not far off ; and so they withdrew, having 
 accomplished nothing save this disorderly splutter. However, 
 the chiefs have no absolute control of their companions, who fol- 
 low their whim, and act their pleasure, which is the cause of their 
 disorder and ruins all their affairs. In having taken a resolution, 
 any poor devil can make them violate it and change their plan. 
 Thus, the one with the other, they effect nothing, as may be seen 
 by this expedition. 
 
11 
 
 "Having received two wounds from arrows, one in the leg and 
 the other in the knee, which sorely incommoded me, we withdrew 
 into our fort. Being all assembled there, I remonstrated with 
 them several times on account of the disorder that had occurred. 
 But all my talk was vain ; they said many of their men hSd been 
 wounded and I also, and that it would be very inconvenient and 
 fatiguing to carry them, on the retreat; that there was no means 
 of returning again to the enemy as I had proposed to them ; but 
 that they would willingly wait four days more for the five hun- 
 dred men that were expected, on whose arrival they would renew 
 the effort against the enemy, and execute what I had told them 
 better than they had already done. It was necessary to stop there, 
 to my great regret. 
 
 "Next day blew a very strong and violent wind, which lasted two 
 days, particularly favorable for setting the enemy's fort in a blaze, 
 which I strongly urged on them. But fearing a failure, and more- 
 over representing themselves as wounded, they would not do 
 anything. 
 
 "We remained encamped until the i6th of the month. Several 
 skirmishes occurred during that time between the enemy and our 
 people, who became oftenest engaged with them rather by their 
 imprudence than through want of courage ; and I can assure you, 
 that every time they made a charge, we were obliged to extricate 
 them from the difificulty, not being able to extricate themselves 
 except through the help of our arquebuses, which the enemy 
 dreaded and greatly feared. For as soon as they perceived one 
 of our arquebussiers, they immediately retreated, telling us by way 
 of persuasion not to meddle with their fights, and that their 
 enemies had very little courage to require our assistance ; with 
 many other such like discourses. 
 
 "Seeing that the five hundred men were not coming, they pro- 
 posed to depart and retreat at once, and began to make certain 
 litters to convey their wounded, who are put in them, tumbled in 
 a heap, doubled and strapped in such a way that it is impossible 
 to stir; less than an infant in its swaddling clothes ; not without 
 considerable pain, as I can certify, having been carried several 
 days on the back of one of our Indians, thus tied and bound, so 
 that I lost all patience. As soon as I had strength to bear my 
 weight, I got out of this prison, or, to speak plainer, out of helL 
 
 "The enemy pursued us about the distance of half a league, 
 endeavoring to catch some of the rear guard. But their labor was 
 in vain and they retired. 
 
12 
 
 "All I remarked in their wars is, that they retreat in good order ; 
 placing all their wounded and old people in the centre, they being 
 in front, on the wings and in the rear, well armed and arranged in 
 such wise acccording to order, until they are in a place of safety, 
 without breaking their line. Their retreat was very tedious, being 
 from 25 to 30 leagues, which greatly fatigued the wounded and 
 those who carried them, though they relieved each other from 
 time to time. 
 
 "On the 1 8th of said month, some snow fell, which melted rapidly. 
 It was accompanied by a strong wind, which greatly annoyed us. 
 Nevertheless, we contrived to get to the borders of the Lake of 
 the Entouhonorons and at the place where we had concealed our 
 canoes, which we found safe ; for we feared lest the enemy might 
 have broken them." 
 
 Accompanying this narrative was a drawing of the fort, and it 
 represents a very extensive enclosure, peculiarly situated. It was 
 enclosed by a triple row of high palisades, and was surrounded 
 on three sides by water, on the east and west, if the view is drawn 
 as facing north, one brook entering, and the other coming from 
 the Pond (Etang,) which is the boundary of the work on the third 
 or north side. A considerable area is shown as inclosed, occupied 
 by a number of wigwams quite systematically placed in rows. 
 Thus are presented some peculiar features. A slightly raised 
 piece of land with two streams and a pond. The streams not 
 entering the pond and leaving at the opposite end, as is common, 
 but Slowing in and out on the same side a few rods apart. 
 
 The site of this interesting fort has been the cause of many 
 historical controversies, in which the skill of guarded writers has 
 been enlisted, but no very definite conclusions were reached until 
 General Clark, of Auburn, gave great attention to the research. 
 
 Very little difference has been found in the views of various 
 writers in following the path of Champlain and his motley fol- 
 lowing to Oneida Lake. Grossing the lower end of Lake Ontario, 
 his descriptions of the distances, and of characteristic features of 
 the country, lead very accurately to that lake, where the evidence 
 is made very conclusive by the mention of islands, Oneida being 
 the only one of the lakes of Central New York that has islands. 
 
 From this point, Champlain's march of four leagues has been 
 made to carry him to many improbable points, some of them on 
 Canandaigua Lake, sixty miles to the westward ; but at none of 
 the points where it was assumed that the fort was situated, were 
 
13 
 
 the natural features found to correspond to any extent with the 
 peculiar ones of the French engineer's sketch. 
 
 General Clark, in following out his investigations, concluded 
 that the fishing ground, where the captives were taken, was the 
 point where the Chittenango Creek enters Oneida Lake, and set- 
 ting here on a map one point of a compass extended to the scale 
 of four leagues or twelve miles, he drew a circle, and then pro- 
 ceeded to examine all the promising points that it swept over. 
 One of the first points visited, was Cazenovia; the outlet of 
 Lake Owahgena being just under the line of the twelve mile radius, 
 and there being at this place evidences of Indian occupation, but 
 the formation of the land failed to correspond with expectations 
 founded on a reliance on Champlain's exactness as a draughtsman. 
 Foiled her.e, but not discouraged in his search, Gen. Clark made 
 many inquiries of the writer with regard to Indian grounds, that 
 should be examined. One only gave promise of realizing the 
 requirements, without which no spot would be manifestly the 
 place so eagerly sought, and that also was intersected by the free 
 point of the compass still pivoting on the centre at Oneida Lake. 
 The search was becoming very interesting indeed, and reminded 
 us a little of the astronomer that was sure, from long study, that 
 a planet was to be found in a certain calculated orbit, and we 
 hoped that like him, events would prove these expectations true. 
 Inclement storms and a bitter winter prevented continuing this 
 search ; but in the following summer. Gen. Clark came again, and 
 we arranged to meet immediately on the ground to be examined 
 to learn if there wfts to be a new disappointment, or final success. 
 
 The place was one that had long been recognized as a very 
 important one in Indian times, and it was roughly described, and 
 very erroneously, in Schoolcraft's work many years ago. It is east 
 of Perryville, 9 miles northeast of Cazenovia, and near the mile 
 strip Four Corners, on a farm owned by Mr. Nichols. Here the 
 writer formerly excavated for Indian remains with success, and 
 here Mr. Frank H. Gushing, when connected with the Smithsonian, 
 unearthed many rare and interesting relics, which are now in that 
 government collection. 
 
 A large part of the area that bears evidence of having been 
 included in the Indian ground, has been cultivated for years, but 
 part remains, with venerable forest trees of great size. Where the 
 plow has been, many bits of crockery and broken stone imple- 
 ments are found ; while in the undisturbed ground can be seen 
 
14 
 
 marks where the deeply set palisades decayed, where graves were 
 dug and deep pits indicated that grain was cached or stored. 
 
 A good deal of ground has been dug over by relic hunters, who 
 for many years have enriched their cabinets from this abundant 
 source. From high points adjacent, a wide view extends before 
 the eye, one of very unusual extent and beauty, and a watch or 
 alarm fire, lighted on this commanding height, would be seen 
 from near Lake Ontario to the western peaks of the Adirondacks, 
 and similar fires equally rem.ote would be plainly seen from these 
 overlooking points. A small pond, where the ancient water mark 
 was once much higher, is fed by a stream that enters and leaves 
 it on the south, and a low broad knoll lies between these brooks. 
 
 Such briefly is a mention of the place where the writer met 
 Gen. Clark, by appointment, to test its features with Champlain's 
 words and illustrations. 
 
 The General had reached there the day before, and had already, 
 with his fine engineering skill, made an accurate map, which so 
 fully corresponded, even in minute details, with his preconceived 
 ideas of the site of Champlain's fight, that he arose after a sleep- 
 less night of thought, fully satisfied that after two hundred and 
 sixty-two years of concealment, he had brought to light the 
 earliest historic point of Central New York. It was with feelings 
 very deeply stirred, that our party went over this ground, seeing 
 the pond, the two streams, and the low, wide, central ground 
 they surrounded on north, east and west, and even the small rise 
 of ground the old sketch shows beyond the east creek ; then 
 traced the palisade line and found beyond its limit many graves, 
 perchance of savages that fell before the first shots fired among 
 these hills, while defending their home. It was strange to realize 
 that probably we were the first to recognize that this was the 
 point where one of the movements was made of the long and 
 bloody series that embraced the struggles of Indians, French, 
 English and Dutch to possess these hills that command to-day 
 the main strategic points of the north. 
 
 Not uncontested does Gen. Clark find his views, but they are 
 likely to be fully confirmed. He did not find a place as other 
 explorers did, and bend all the record to it, but he took Cham- 
 plain's story in the original, made his own severe translations, 
 and with all firmly in his mind, discarded all and every place, 
 without regard to its claims, until here he found a full realization 
 of his faith in a localit}- that not only fits, but confirms Cham- 
 plain's long disputed narrative. 
 
15 
 
 So many features of this place meet and coincide with all that 
 comes from authentic sources of information, regarding Cham- 
 plain's former expeditions, that they cannot be deemed simple 
 coincidences or accidental. The Indian occupation was evidently 
 fully as ancient as the period of his invasion, for the large trees 
 that still occupy part of the place are silent but incontestible 
 witnesses that testify to not less than two centuries of undisturbed 
 growth ; and unlike many other Indian works, these are free from 
 any evidences of early communication with trappers or mission- 
 aries. There are not found here the beads, medals or Jesuit 
 tokens that are common in places that were occupied when the 
 devoted priests and adventurous traders brought such things to 
 dazzle and tempt the savages, then so eager to meet them and 
 learn the mysteries the whites were masters of. 
 
 Indeed, no change or adaptation is called for in Champlain's 
 narrative, or in his sketch of the spot, to fit both to this hill top 
 pond ; and although there are many ready pens disputing this 
 long delayed discovery, there is every reason to feel assured that 
 discussion will only eventually confirm the work that connects 
 the story of 1615 with one of our most commanding summits. 
 
 As it has been stated, with the exception of water in the form 
 of a lake or pond, no features of Canandaigua or Onondaga Lakes 
 are described that establish for points on their margins any 
 especial claim to represent the form of ground that is shown in 
 Champlain's drawing, and consequently this sketch has been 
 regarded as largely fanciful ; but so accurately did the French 
 commander describe the low level borders of Ontario, the sandy 
 plains covered with chestnut trees, and the rivers and ponds lying 
 between his landing place on Ontario and his camp in sight of the 
 beautiful islands, that his observations cannot be regarded lightly. 
 Indeed, so little has before been found to confirm his sketch, 
 that facts have been about even as between the points assumed 
 as the site of the fort, but now this is all changed ; for just at the 
 proper distance from his camp by the islands, a large and impor- 
 tant Indian work has been found, and when an eye trained in 
 antiquarian research falls upon it, it sees that the palisaded work, 
 if it could be restored from the mould of nearly three centuries, 
 would fit it like hand and glove, even to the small knolls and 
 winding streams. 
 
 With Champlain's retreat ended the first French foray. Had 
 their arms gained and maintained so strong a point at that early 
 day, many pages of our history might tell a different tale, and 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 16 
 
 017 374 396 8 
 
 possibly we might read it all in Frencu, lur it was a long conrest 
 with nearly even chances that alone determined the French or 
 English domination in the lake country of New York. 
 
 The St. Lawrence, the valley of the Mohawk, Oneida and On- 
 ondaga Lakes, and the Oswego River have all been frequent war- 
 paths from the unrecorded days when scalps .were taken by rival 
 savage warriors, and now it seems that one of the earliest incur- 
 sions of the present ruling race, was met and defeated on one of 
 our highest and most commanding points, where, long ago, the 
 silent forest crept over the blood-stained grounds, and the autumn 
 leaves of many years fell quietly on the spot, while the same con- 
 test was swaying here and there, often on the plain that is over- 
 looked from the points whence Champlain first saw the Indian 
 stronghold. 
 
 Here under the renewed forest, the secret lay hidden for two 
 hundred and sixty-two years, at last to be discovered ; and the old 
 story is brought from the archives of France to rest on a quiet 
 pond, where herons have stood undisturbed, and none have 
 dreamed that a war cry ever arose in the solitude. 
 
H LIRRARY OF CONGRESS