Saratoga and Kay-ad-ros-se-ra : an historical address
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'" cc^' C c<c cc d d cc d d c?: cc <£ Ccd. « ccd e CC CU c ^ cc c< c <X cc .« <?: c c cC <X CC . cc c <: c< g: cc <v cccc . <C c c <3: < c c dd c <c c<dc « ..dc tc c dit c*- <d< c cdi; d* ^ d <: c C <7 <Ic::<^^n .c:cc;"'««r' «cr ,^^ ^ v<^<i <c:<^ cc <L <S«Q- ^-v«,-^.-.v'' «iac=' •<i^. «c-^y ^^ ' cc- •<-■< "«gk:. ■ «SL «?'- c<g:- c c ««g.. <iK: < <: « C<£'C< ««3t ' '•iBC c <i'. . c<<: ■ t.c «^QK ■ *««c. c > cr ' c<c--a< «3«:,' 'i«s.c c > « c<r' cc«3Gr -< «k:c-ci - • c< <.c «?ilt '■ ■ *K.c-c <* r ^--<^'-'«^- <jc^ <: Cc ? :<< ■ cc c<c- <c: d _ cc cc: .<L c i^ "^ cc: di c >ii<^c cc::c<:. cc >><; << *.<r ■■-,■-<: <r c:< c. -c < cr<-c<<: LCT'c <c::cc<:^ SARATOGA A.NT> KAY-AD-ROS-SE-RA AN HISTORICAL ADDRESS, N. B. SYLYESTER, DELIVERED AT SARATOGA SPRINGS, N. Y., JULY 4., 1876. "She stood beside the well her God had given To gush in that deep wilderness, and bathed The forehead of her child until he laughed In his reviving happiness. * * * " — Willis. TROY, N. Y.: WILLIAM H. YOUNG, 8 AND 9 FIRST STREET. 181&. Price 25 Cents. SARATOGA AND KAY-AD-ROS-SE-RA AN HISTORICAL ADDRESS, N^B.^'SYLVESTER, DELIVERED AT SARATOGA SPRINGS, N. Y., JXJIL.Y 4, 1876. ■ She stood beside the well her God had given To gush in that deep wilderness, and bathed The foi-ehead of her ehild until he laughed In his reviving happiness. * * * " — WUlis. TROY, N. Y. : WILLIAM H. YOUNG, 8 AND 9 FIRST STREET. is'ze. .^^ Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by Nathaniel Bartlett Sylvester, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. PRELIMINARY PROCEEDINGS. (From the Daily Saratogian of June 6th, 1876.) " A meeting of prominent citizens was held at Congress Hall yesterday evening, for the purpose of considering the importance of having an historical address delivered here on the evening of the Fourth of July, in compliance with the re- quest made through President Grant's proclamation. Gen. E. F. Bullard called the meeting to order, when Capt. J. P. Butler was called to the chair, and Frank H. Hathorn was chosen Secretary. " It was moved and carried that our townsman, N. B. Sylvester, be invited to prepare and deliver the address on that occasion. " An executive committee was appointed, consisting of A. M. Boyce, B. F. Judson, Paoli Durkee, H. A. Wilson, Chas. H. Hulbert, John T. Carr, E. F. Bullard, and John A. Bryan, after which the meeting adjourned." CORRESPONDENCE. Saratoga Springs, June 6th, 1876. N. B. Sylvester, Esq. : Dear Sir — I' enclose to you the proceedings of a public rneeting called to take action in regard to the annual, but this year centennial, natal day. Our citizens, in view of a proclamation of the President, have extended to you a cordial invitation to prepare and deli- 4 CORRESPONDENCE. ver on that occasion an historical address, at the Town Hall in this village. I was designated to advise you of the action of the meeting, and solicit your acceptance. Trusting that you may find it convenient to accede to this call, and advise us of your acceptance at an early day, I am, sir. Very respectfully yours, J. P. BUTLER. Saratoga Springs, June 7th, 1876. Capt. J. P. Butler : Dear Sir — I received to-day your favor of yesterday, in- viting me, in behalf of the citizens of Saratoga Springs, to prepare and to deliver, at the Town flail, on the coming Inde- pendence day, an historical address. Please assure the citizens that in accordance with their wishes I shall be happy to do what I can on the occasion, but while accepting the invitation, and thanking you for your kind expression of it, let me add that 1 fear the limited time inter- vening will hardly permit one to do the subject justice, especially in a place like Saratoga, around whose name cluster so many historic memories. I remain, Very truly yours, N. B. SYLVESTER. PROCEEDINGS AT THE TOWN HALL, JULY 4TH. (From the Daily Saratogian, July 6th, 1876.) " In compliance with the proclamation of the President, an historical address was read at the Town Flail, on the evening of the 4th by Mr, N. B. Sylvester, who had been requested by citizens to prepare and read such a paper. The meeting was formally opened by Capt. J. P. Butler, who made some timely remarks, concluding by nominating Judge A. Bockes as chair- man. On taking the chair Judge B. introduced Mr. Sylvester, who read an able and carefully prepared paper, which will be found printed elsewhere in this morning's Daily Saratogian. "At the conclusion of the address, Judge Bockes compli- mented Mr. Sylvester on the able paper he had just had the privilege of listening to, saying that il was an invaluable his- torical document. '• A motion was made and carried that the thanks of the meeting be extended to Mr. Sylvester ; that the address be published, and that one copy be tiled in the town clerk's office, and another be forwarded to Washington." OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. " History of Saratoga. — "We publish in full, in this paper, the admira- bly written and very interesting History of Saratoga prepared by Hon. N. B. Sylvester, and delivered to a small audience on the evening of the 4th of July. The audience was small owing to the furious rain storm which came up just about the time the meeting was to be held. But in the columns of the Sun Judge Sylvester's admirable historical address will be read by thousands of people, and by all of them with much pleasure, and certainly with great profit. Read it, by all means. True, it is pretty long, but then it abounds in historical facts and incidents which should be familiar to all intelligent Saratoga people." — The Saratoga Sun, July 17. "Mr. Sylvester's Historical Address — We give the valuable historical address of Hon. N. B. Sylvester, delivered on the evening of the 4th, in full this week, and hope the readers of the Sentinel will file it for preser- vation."— The Saratoga Sentinel, July 13th. " No formal celebration was had at Saratoga Springs. In the evening an audience gathered at the Town Hall to hear an historical address prepared in accordance with' the proclamation of the President. Judge Bockes presided, and introduced the orator of the evening, Hon. N. B. Sylvester. His address, as published in the Saratogian, is a well written essay upon the early history of this section of the country, and bears evidence of deep study of the subject." — The Ballston Democrat, July ^th. " N. B. Sylvester, Esq., formerly of this village, delivered an able and scholarly centennial historical address at Saratoga Springs on the Fourth. — Journal and Republican, (Lowville, N. Y.) July 12th. HISTORICAL ADDRESS. I. INTRODUCTION. Mr. Chairman and Fellow Citizens : We meet to-day, on this anniversary of our nation's birth, under no ordinary circumstances. Last evening's sun, as it slowly sank in glory behind the western hills, marked the closing hours of the first century of our nation's life. Since the fathers of our republic met in Independence Hall, and, proclaiming liberty to all the land, made this day of the year forever memorable in the annals of the world, a hundred years have passed away. And now that we have reached one of Time's moun- tain-peaks, it is well for us to pause for a few brief mo- ments upon its summit, and look back over the weary way which we have been traveling, into the Past, before we press forward again with eager steps into the vale of the shadowy Future which lies forever so invitingly before us. The people of this land have always been so busy with the stirring present, and so anxious about the immediate future, that they have been in a great measure careless 8 HISTORICAL*ADDRESS. and forgetful of the past. Of a truth it may be said that our country, so young in years when compared with the nations of the Old "World, has, until recently, scarcely had a past in which to look. Until quite recent times our nation's birth, as well as all the stages of its won- drous growth and development, have been within the ob- servation and the memory of many living men. But at length a hundred years in passing have removed all the liv- ing landmarks, one by one, and now that the father's lips are sealed forever, and can no longer tell us the story, the children must grope their way among the too meagre re- cords which they have left us, to find what the fathers did so wisely and so well toward building the great su- perstructure which we are now so proud to call our coun- try, upon the foundation which they so firmly laid in suffering and in faith. And as we look back through our country's history, we shall see much to admire and much to condemn. Like all other stories of man's doings, it is a checkered story of mingled good and ill. In its warp and in its woof are many threads of brilliant dyes and by far too many shades of darker hues. Let us hope that as the fabric of our country's history goes widening on, it may grow brighter also with its lengthening years. But these reflections upon national affairs which so naturally rise in our minds all unbidden on this anniver- sary, are not our theme to-day. On this occasion, in com- pliance with the proclamation of the President, the his- tory of our county, our town and our village demands our attention. And what name stands forth more glo- SAEATOGA. 9 riously in our country's annals than Saratoga? With Lexington and Bunker Hill, with Trenton, Monmouth and Ticonderoga, with Germantown and Yorktown, Sar- atoga is one of our country's high historic names. It has been my endeavor, in the short time allotted me, to somewhat briefly recall the main incidents in the story of Saratoga of the olden time, and of its surroundings, which have rendered its name so famous in history. And although the most of these more important events in our history may be as familiar to you all as household words, I trust it will not be unprofitable for us to review them to-day, while every city, town and hamlet in the land is placing on record the story of its struggles and achieve- ments in subduing the old wilderness, and in fitting the waste places of the earth for bearing fruitful harvests. II. GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION OF SARATOGA COUNTY. In order to rightly understand the history of any place, and to properly comprehend the true bearing which events happening in other places near at hand or more remote have had upon its welfare, we must take into ac- count its geographical aspects and position. That part of our State which is commonly called Northern New York, in which Saratoga has, at all times, been so prominent, has always been, and is to-day, a vast wilderness surrounded by a narrow fringe of settlements. This wilderness region is a system of rugged highlands that rises into lofty mountain peaks in the interior, and 10 HISTORICAL ADDRESS. gradually slopes off on every side into deep depressions or valleys, in which run great water courses. On the north of this region flows the St. Lawrence. To the east of it are the valleys of Lake Champlain and the Up- per Hudson. To the south of it is the Mohawk and the Oneida Lake and its outlet flowing through the Oswego river into Lake Ontario. On the west is Lake Ontario, from which runs the St. Lawrence, completing the en- circling chain of almost a thousand miles of living waters that surround Northern New York, making of it an is- land. Along these valleys which surround Northern New York, in which these water-courses run, have always been the world's great routes of travel. In these great natural thoroughfares ran all the old Indian trails, and for more than two hundred years they formed the path- way of contending armies. After sixty years of smiling peace other armies travel through them, multitudes of summer tourists in searcli of health or pleasure, on their way to Saratoga, Lake George, the Adirondacks, the gloomy Saguenay, Trenton Falls, the Thousand Islands, Niagara, the great lakes, and the prairies beyond. In the pathway of the Indian warrior, and of the hostile armies of colonial times, stood Saratoga of the olden time. In the pathway of these mul- titudes of summer tourists stands the modern village of Saratoga Springs to-day, the world's greatest watering place. From the earliest colonial times until the close of the war of the American revolution the people who dwelt SARATOGA. 1 1 on the banks of tlie St. Lawrence were at almost per- petual war with the people whose homes were in the valleys of the Hudson and Mohawk. The territory which now comprises the county of Saratoga lay in the angle between two great pathways, one from the north and one from the west. And lying as it did in the angle of the war trails, it became the battle ground of nations. Whoever possessed it was master of the situation and held the door of the country. For the hundred and seventy years before the close ot the war of the revolu- tion in which its authentic history runs back, there was scarcely an hour of peaceful rest unbroken by the fear of the savage invader in this battle ground of Saratoga, in this angle between the great northern and western war trails. III. THE INDIAN SARATOGA. Among the earliest dates in which the name Saratoga appears in history is the year 1684. It was not then the name of a town, nor of a county, neither was it the name of a great watering place, but it was the name of an old Indian hunting ground located along both sides of the Hudson River. The Hudson, after it breaks through its last mountain barrier above Glens Falls, for many miles of its course runs through a wider valley. After winding for a while through this wider valley, it reaches the first series of its bordering hills at a point in the stream near- ly opposite Saratoga Lake. This old hunting ground was 12 HISTORICAL ADDRESS. situated where the outlying hills begin to crowd down to the river banks, and was called in the significant Indian tongue Se-rach-ta-gue, or the " Hillside country of the great river."* It has also been said that Saratoga in the Indian lan- guage, means the " place of the swift water," in allusion to the rapids and falls that break the stillness of the stream where the hillside country begins on the river.f Then again, an Indian whose name was 0-7'on-hia-tek- ha of Caugh-na-wa-ga on the St. Lawrence, who was well acquainted with the Mohawk dialect, informed Dr. Hough, the historian, that Saratoga was from the Indian Sa-ra-ta-he^ meaning " a place where the track of the heel may be seen," in allusion to a spot near by, where depressions like foot-prints may be seen in the rocks.:}: But whether its meaning be this, that, or the other, I am sure it is gratifying to us all that this famous re- sort, situated as it is on American soil, bears an American name. As early as 1684, this hillside country of the Hudson, the ancient Indian Se-rach-ta-gue, was sold by the chiefs of the Mohawks to Peter Philip Schuyler and six other eminent citizens of Albany, and the Indian grant con- firmed by the English government. This old hunting ground then became known in history as the Saratoga * Steele's Analysis, p. 13, N. Y. His. Col. f Vide Judge Scott's historical address at Ballston Spa, July 4th, 1876, also. Reminiscences of Saratoga, by Wm. L. Stone, p. 5. :J:Hough'8 History of St. Lawrence and Franklin counties, p. 189. But Morgan, in his League of the Iroquois, says the signification of Saratoga is lost. SAKATOGA. 13 patent. As set forth in the Indian deed and described in the letters patent, it was a territory of fifteen miles in length along the river and six miles in width on both sides It reached from the Di-on-on-da-ho-iva, now the Battenkill, near Fort Miller on the north, to the Ta-nen- da-ho-wa, now the Anthony's kill, near Mechanic ville, on the south. The towns of old Saratoga and Stillwater on the west side of the river, and the town of Easton (the east town) on the east side of the river, are within the bounds of this ancient patent. This was the Saratoga of the olden time. It is called on some old maps So-roe- to-gos land. In the year 168Y, three years after the Mohawks had sold this hunting ground, and the patent had been granted. Gov. Dongan of New York attempted to induce a band of Christian Iroquois that the French missionaries had led to Cach-na-oua-ga to return and settle in ancient Se-rach-ta-gueJ^ This was done to form a barrier between the then frontier town of Albany and the hostile French and Indians on the north. Some of their descendants still make an annual pilgrimage to the springs, and en- camping in the groves near by, form an interesting part of the great concourse of visitors. But it will be seen that the ground on which the village of Saratoga Springs is built, and the region in which the famous mineral springs are found, formed no part of the old hunting ground and patent of Saratoga. The So-roe- to-gos land of the olden time lay along the Hudson, and extended no further west than Saratoga Lake. * Doc. His. of N. Y. Vol. 1, p. 156. 14 HISTORICAL ADDRESS^ lY. KAY-AD-EOS-SE-RA. The Indian name for the territory in which the famous mineral springs were found was Kay-ad-ros-se-ra* It was one of the favorite hunting grounds of the Iro- quois, and lay in the angle between the two great rivers, to the south of a line drawn from Glens Falls on the Hudson westerly to near Amsterdam on the Mohawk. Kay-ad-ros-se-ra means in the Indian tongue the lake country, t Its principal lake, now Lake Saratoga, was the Lake Kay-ad-ros-se-ra of the Mohawks, and its largest stream the Kay-adros-se-ra river. On the old French maps, Saratoga Lake is called Cap-i-Orqui. The Indian name for Round Lake was Ta-nen-da-ho-wa. The forests of ancient Kay-ad-ros-se-ra were full of game, and its lakes and streams swarmed with fish. The herring:}: ran up the west side of the Hudson, and through Fish creek, giving rise to its name, into Lake Saratoga in immense numbers. The shad ran up on the east side of the river, and lay in vast schools in the falls and rapids above and below Fort Edward. The sturgeon frequent- ed the sprouts of the Mohawk, and sunned themselves in the basin below Cohoesf falls. * So written in Claude Joseph Sauthier's Map of 1779. Vide Doe. His. of N. Y., Vol. I, p. 774. f Indian Pass, by Alfred B. Street, intro. p. xv. X Vide Annals of Albany. II The Indian name for Cohoes falls was Oa-ha-oose^ meaning the " ship- wrecked canoe." Vide Morgan's League of the Iroquois. SARATOGA. 15 The wild animals of Kay-ad-ros-se-ra were attracted in immense numbers by the saline properties of the min- eral springs that then bubbled up in its deepest shades, all unknown save to them and its Indian owners. In this " paradise of sportsmen " the Mohawks and their nearer sister tribes of the Iroquois, the Oneidas and On- ondagas, and sometimes the fartlier off Cayugas and Sen- ecas, built their hunting lodges every summer around its springs, and on the banks of its lakes and rivers. It will be seen that wild ancient Kay-ad-ros-se-ra Avas as famous in the old time to the red man as modern Sara- toga is to-day to the white man. The first grant made by the Mohawks of any part of Kay-ad-ros-se-ra bears date the 26th of August, 1702. In this deed the Indians sold to David Schuyler and Robert Livingston, Jr., a tract of land lying on the west bank of the Hudson, above the Saratoga patent, and running as far up as the great carrying place, (Fort Ed- ward) " and westward into the woods as far as their property belongs." In the spring following, Samson Shelton Broughton, attorney general of the province ob- tained a license from the governor in behalf of himself and company, to purchase from the Indians a tract of land known by the Indian name of Kay-ad-ros-se-ra. This license is dated April 22, 1703. In pursuance of this license, a purchase was effected of Kay-ad-ros-se-ra^ and an Indian deed given the 6th of October, 1704, signed by the sachems of the tribe. At length a release was obtained from David Schuyler and Robert Livings- ton, Jr., of their title acquired by the deed of the 26th 16 HISTORICAL ADDRESS/ of August, 1702, and on the 2d day of November, 1708, a patent was granted l)y Queen Anne to " her loving subjects Nanning Hermance, Johannes Beekraan, Rip Von Dam," and ten others, of the whole of Kay-ad-ros- se-ra. But it was not until the year 1768 that the deed given by the Indians in 1704 was confirmed by the tribe, and then only through the powerful influence of Sir William Johnson. The chiefs said they were told by the agents of the purchasers that the description in the deed only covered " land enough for a good sized farm," and that they never intended by it to convey to the whites " for a few baubles," their great hunting ground, containing half a million acres. But after more than sixty years of fruit- less quarrels over this old title, the Indians had grown weak and the whites had grown strong, and it is the old story, the weaker gave up to the stronger. On the 2-4th day of March, 1772, three years before the war of the revolution broke out, and about the time the first white settler was building his rude cabin at the Springs, these two patents of Kay-ad-ros-se-ra and Saratoga were united by the colonial government into a district. The name Kay-ad-ros-se-ra was dropped, and the district named after the smaller patent, and called the District of Saratoga. Since then the grand old Indian name Kay-ad-ros-se-ra, so far as territory is concerned, has fallen out of human speech, and is only heard in connection with the principal stream and mountain chain of the great hunting ground so famous in Indian story. The old hunting ground, the beautiful lake and the SAKATOGA. 17 famous springs, have all since the Act of the 24th of March, 1772, borne the name of Saratoga. Six years after the district was formed, on the 7th of March, 1678, it was erected into the township of Sarato- ga. During all this time the district and town of Sara- toga was a part of Albany county. It was not until the 7th of February, 1791, that the county of Saratoga was set off from Albany county. On the 9th of April, 1819, the township of Saratoga Springs was formed from the town of Old Saratoga, and on the 17th day of April, 1826, just fifty years ago, the village of Saratoga Springs was incorporated. THE DISCOVEET OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN. You will remember that in the year 1609 two import- ant events took place in the great northern valley extend- ing from the Atlantic to the St. Lawrence, in which Sara- toga is situated. The one was the discovery and exploration of Lake Champlain by Samuel de Champlain, governor general of New France, in the early summer ; and the other was the discovery and exploration of the Hudson river by Henry Hudson , an English mariner sailing in the employ of the Dutch East India company, early in the autumn. Champlain had founded his infant colony of Quebec only the year before.* * Vide History of Lake Champlain, by Palmer, p. 20 ; Parkman's Pion- eers of France ; Champlain's Voyages de la Nouv France. 3 18 HISTORICAL ADDRESS. During his hunting excursions with the Indians, while sitting around their wild camp fires, they had told him marvelous stories of a great inland sea filled with won- derful islands lying far to the southward of the St. Law- rence, in the land of the terrible Iroquois. His curiosity was excited, and as soon as the melting snows of the next spring would permit, he set out upon a voyage for its discovery. After a toilsome passage up the rapids of the Richelieu, Champlain entered the lake — the far famed " wilderness sea of the Iroquois." It was studded with islands that were clothed in the rich verdure of the early summer ; its tranquil waters spreading southward beyond the horizon. From the thickly wooded shores on either side rose ranges of mountains, the highest peaks still white with patches of snow. Over all was flung the soft blue haze, sometimes called mountain smoke, which seemed to temper the sunlight, and shade off the landscape into spectral-like forms of shadowy 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 nations. On the evening of the 29tli of July they met, near what is now called Crown Point, a band of Iroquois in their canoes paddling down the lake. On the morrow a battle was fought upon the territory of Northern New York, that resulted in a victory for Champlain and his SAEATOGA. 19 Indian allies. The bold Iroquois, panic-stricken at the strange apparation of a white man clad in glittering ar- mor, and sending forth from his weapons fire, smoke, thunderings and leaden hail, fled in uncontrollable terror toward their homes on the Mohawk, leaving everything behind them. On the 12th of September, in the same year, Henry Hudson, in his staunch little ship, the Half Moon, sailed into the mouth of the river that bears his name, which he called the River of the Mountains, and, it is believed, explored the stream as far up as Nach-te-nak, the Indian name for the country lying around the " sprouts "* or mouths of the Mohawk. From these two discoveries, made in the interests of rival powers, there arose conflicting claims to the terri- tory of Northern New York. These conflicting claims resulted in a long series of bloody conflicts, of which the soil of Saratoga often formed the battle ground, for a hundred and sixty years. VI. THE DISCOVERY OF LAKE GEORGE. The next important event in the history of the great northern valley was the discovery of Lake George. In the olden time, when the whole north continent was * The Mohawk, just before it flows into the Hudson, separates into four spreading branches, which the early Dutch settler significantly called Spruytes, which is from the Danish Spruiten or Saxon Sprt/ttan, from which comes our EngHsh word Sprouts. — Vide Annals of Albany, vol. 2 page 226. 20 HISTORICAL ADDRESS. a vast howling wilderness from the Frozen Ocean to the flowery Gulf Land, many bright fair lakes lay sleeping in its awful solitudes, their waters flashing in the sunshine like gleaming mirrors, and lighting up the sombre deso- lation like jewels in an iron crown, but the fairest and the brightest of them all was Lake George. It was the gem of the old wilderness. Of the thousand lakes which adorn the surface of northern New York, there is none among them all so like " A diadem of beauty " as Lake George ; its deepest waters as pure and bright as the dew drops that linger on its lilies. The first white men* who saw Lake George were the Jesuit Father Isaac Jogues, and his two companions, Rene Goupil and Guillame Couture, who were taken over its waters as prisoners — tortured, maimed and bleed- ing by the Mohawks — in the month of August, 1642. Father Jogues, who had been staying a year or two at the mission among the Hurons, had, in the spring of 1642, visited Quebec. On his return to the Huron country, he was captured by a roving band of Mohawks in the early morning of the second day of August on that expansion of the St. Lawrence now called Lake St. Peters. After submitting to the most cruel tortures, he, with his companions, was taken through Lake Champlain to Lake George, and from the liead of Lake George across the country on the old Indian war trail to the valley of the Mohawk. The old Indian trail, from the head of Lake George to the Mohawk castles, ran directly across our old hunting * Parkman's Jesuits in North America, p. 217, &c. SARATOGA. 21 ground of Kwy-ad-ros-se-ra^ over the Greenfield liills and across Galway, along the slope of the mountains to the west of us, in plain sight of Saratoga Springs. It was a rugged trail, leading through the tangled forest in which there were many streams to ford, lakes to cross, swamps to pass over, and mountains to climb. After remaining a prisoner in the Mohawk country until July of the next year, Father Jogues, aided by the Dutch settlers at Fort Orange (now Albany), made his escape. In the spring of the year 1646, Father Jogues again passed through Lake George on his way to the Mohawk country. But this time he went as an ambassador from the French and Algonquins in Canada to ratify a treaty of peace with the Mohawks. On his way he reached Lake George on the eve of Corpus Christi, the feast of the Blessed Sacrament, and naming the beautiful lake in honor of the day, he called it " The Lake of the Blessed Sacrament." As Lake St. Sacrament this lake was known for more than a hundred years, until Sir William John- son,* in 1775, changed its name to Lake George in honor of King George II. Better, says an eminent historian, had it been called Lake Jogues in honor of its gentle discoverer. Again, in the fall of 1646, Father Jogues passed over Lake St. Sacrament, and along the old Indian trail which * Doc. His. of N. Y., Vol. I, p. 429 : " I am building a fort at this lake which the French call Lake St. Sacrament, but I have given it the name of Lake George, not only in honor to his Majesty, but to ascertain his undoubted dominion here." — Sir William Johnson to Board of Trade, September 3d, 1775. 22 HISTORICAL ADDRESS. led across Kay-ad-ros-se-ra to the Mohawk country. He was on his way to his mission, where he was soon mur- dered by the savages, and which was ever after known as the Mission of the Martyrs, St. Mary of the Mohawks. YII. THE WAR OF 1666. After the weary feet of Father Jogues had ceased to tread the old trail that crossed Ka/y-ad-ros-se-ra^ no white man passed this way again for twenty years. In the year 1666, two expeditions crossed our old hunting grounds on their way to the Mohawk castles. The lirst was the one under Gov. Courcelle, which was made in the depths of the Canadian winter. Courcelle left Quebec on the 9th of January. Over the frozen lakes and rivers, and through the pitiless wintery forests he marched on snow shoes, creeping slowly on, day after day, with his little band. At night they encamped in squads among the trees, dug away the deep snow with their snow shoes, and piling it in a bank around them, built a fire in the middle, and lay down around it on beds of hemlock boughs to rest. After leaving Lake St. Sacra- ment, now Lake George, they lost their way, and wan- dered down to Saratoga Lake, and then struck the old Indian trail that led up tlie Kay-ad-ros-se-ra river and up the Mourningkill past Ballston Lake to the Mohawk 8AEAT0GA. 23 near Schenectady. But this expedition proved a failure, and Courcelle soon returned by the way he came.* The second hostile expedition from Canada of the year 1666, was the one undertaken by the Marquis de Tracy, lieutenant governor of New France, in the autumn of that year. In the beginning of October, Tracy set out from Fort St. Anne, on the Isle La Motte, at the northern end of Lake Champlain, in command of 600 regular troops of the regiment Carignan-Salieres,t and about the same number of Canadians and Indians. In passing over Lake George this army formed the first of those military pageants which in after years made the fair scene historic. In going through the old wilderness of Kay-ad-ros-se-ra, over the Greenfield hills, in the vicinity of Lake Desola- tion, their provisions gave out and they came near starv- ing. At length they came to a grove of chestnut trees, and finding nuts in great abundance, with them they satisfied their hunger. Reaching the valley of the Mohawk, they marched through the whole length of it without opposition, de- *M. de Courcelle was accompanied by M. du Gas, his lieutenant ; M. de Salamper, gentleman volunteer ; Father Pierre Raffeix, Jesuit ; by 300 men of the Regiment Carignan-Salieres, and 200 volunteers — habitans. Doc. His. of N. Y., Vol. I., p. 65. f The regiment Carignan-Salieres was the first body of regular troops sent to Canada by the French king. It was raised by Prince Carignan, in Savoy, in 1644, who, being unable to support it, gave it to the king. It was conspicuous in the service of the French king in the battles with Prince Cond6 in the revolt of the Fronde. In 1664, it took a distinguished part with the allied forces of France in the Austrian war with the Turks. It 1665 it came with Tracy to Canada. It was under the command of Colonel de Salieres — hence its double name. — Vide Parkman's Old Regime, and Doc. His. of New York, Vol. I. 24 KESTOEICAL ADDRESS. stroyed all the Indian castles and corn fields, and took solemn possession of the country in the name of the French king. After erecting huge wooden crosses upon the ashes of the Indian villages, in token of conquest and dominion, they returned unmolested to Canada by the way they came. The Mohawks, chastised and humbled, remained quiet for a long time afterward, and for another period of twenty years there was peace in the old blood-stained wilderness. YIII. THE WAR OF 1686. Again in 1686, after these twenty years of peace were ended, the French and Indian war broke out afresh, and lasted through nine weary years to the peace of 1695. During this period of nine years, numerous war parties passed through Kay-ad-ros-se-ra and Saratoga on their way to and from the hostile settlements on the St. Law- rence and the Mohawk and lower Hudson. In the month of August, 1689, nine hundred Mohawk warriors passed over the old trail that led across the Gi'eeniield hills, that twenty -three years before had been trodden by the victor- ious Tracy with liis veteran soldiers and train of French noblemen. During the twenty years' peace, these wild savages had been nursing their wrath, and now their hour of sweet revenge had come. Launching their bark canoes, they swept down through Lakes George and Champlain, and landing on the island of Montreal, like SARATOGA. 25 SO many ravening wolves, carried the war to the very gates of the French forts on the St. Lawrence. Six months later, in February, 1690, Lient. Le Mojne de St. Helene passed down upon snow shoes, and travers- ing Lake Saratoga upon the ice, and winding up the Kay-ad-ros-se-ra river and the Mourningkill to the little hamlet, now below Ballston, called East Line, passed over Ballston Lake, and in the dead of the night of the 9th of February, swept down upon the sleeping inhabitants of Schenectady with indiscriminate slaughter. On their hasty return they were followed by Major Peter Schuyler, at the head of a company of two hun- dred whites and a band of Mohawks, as far as Lake Champlain, and fifteen French prisoners were taken and brought back to the Mohawk towns. And now we come during these nine years of war to the first of those military expeditions that were under- taken by the English colonies upon a large scale for the conquest of Canada, that, passing through Old Saratoga, made it a place of note in the annals of savage warfare.* On the 1st day of May, 1690, the first American Con- gress met at the old fort in the city of New York. In pursuance of its recommendations, a joint expedition of the colonies for the conquest of Canada was planned and fitted out, the command of whicli was given to General Fitz John "Winthrop of Connecticut. On the 14th day of July, 1690, Gen. Winthrop left Hartford with the New England troops, and passing through a virgin wilderness, whose interminable shades * Butler's Lake George and Champlain, p. 26. 4 26 HISTOEICAL ADDRESS. were broken only by the little settlements at and near Albany, arrived at Stillwater on the 1st of August. Stillwater was " so named " says the old chronicler, " because the water passes so slowly as not to be discover- ed, while above and below it is disturbed, and rageth as in a great sea occasioned by rocks and falls therein." On the day after, he arrived at Sar-agh-to-ga, near where Schuylerville now is. Here at Saratoga he found a block-house and some Dutch troops under Major Peter Schuyler, mayor of Albany, who had preceded him with the New York forces. From this date, the 2d day of August, 1690, six years after the old patent was granted, and almost two centuries ago, Saratoga takes its place among the long list of our country's geographical names. Major Schuyler had already pushed up to the second carrying place, now Fort Miller Falls, where lie had stopped to build some bark canoes. The next and third carrying place above was from the Hudson at Fort Ed- ward to what is now Fort Ann on Wood Creek. This portage ran through a magnificent grove of pines for twelve miles, and was known in old forest annals as the " Great Carrying Place." This expedition proved an utter failure. But before its return, Capt. John Schuyler, brotliei" of the mayor, and grandfather of Gen. Philip Schuyler of revolutionary memory, pushed on down Lake Champlain and made his famous raid upon the Canadian settlement of I.a Prairie. In the next year, 1691, Major Peter Schuyler, at the head of two hundred and sixty whites and eighty Mo- hawks from their camp at Saratoga Lake, following in SAEATOGA. 27 the track of his brother, made another descent upon the doomed settlement of La Prairie. To retaliate these injuries, Count de Frontenac, Gover- nor-general of Canada, resolved to strike a blow upon the Mohawk settlements. Accordingly, in January, 1693, he sent a force of six hundred and twenty-five men, includ- ing Indians, who passed down over the old trail that led from Lake George to the bend of the Hudson above Glens Falls, and froin thence through Wilton, Gi-eenfield, and along the brow of the Kay-ad-ros-se-ra range to the Mohawk castles. On its return march over this old trail, this war party was followed by Major Peter Schuyler and his forces, who overtook it in the town of Greenfield or Wilton. Up yonder, near the old Indian Pass over the Palmer- town range on the border of Wilton, almost if not quite in sight of Saratoga Springs, in the month of February, 1693, a battle was fought, or rather a series of engage- ments took place, in which the French loss amounted in all to thirty-three killed and twenty-six wounded. At the conclusion of the fight the French retreated toward the Hudson. It had been thawing, and the ice was floating in the river. When the French arrived on its banks a large cake of ice had lodged in the bend of the stream. The French crossed over on this cake of ice in safety, but be- fore their pursuers came up it had floated away, leaving them no means of crossing, and the chase was relinquish- ed. This closes the record of the nine years' war from 1686 to 1695. From the year 1695 until the year 1709, 28 HISTORICAL ADDRESS. a period of fourteen years, peace again spread her white wings over the grim old wilderness. IX. THE WAK OF 1709. In the year 1709 the war known as Queen Anne's war broke out between England and France, and the warfare of the wilderness again began its savage butchery.* In this war we come to the founding and construction of the military works in old Saratoga and along the great northern valley, which lasted unto comparatively modern times, and with whose names we have been so long fa- miliar. Again in 1709 a joint expedition like that led by Gen. Winthrop in 1690, was planned for the conquest of Canada. In 1709, Major Richard Ingoldesby, who had come over in command of the Queen's four companies of regulars, was lieutenant governor of the province. Peter Philip Schuyler was now a colonel in the service, as well as one of the governor's council and a commissioner of Indian affairs, while his brother John had been advanced to the rank of lieutenant colonel. The command of the expedition was given by Ingoldesby in May to Gen. Nicholson. About the 1st of June, Col. Schuyler, in command of the vanguard of the English forces, comprising three hundred men, including pioneers and artificers, moved out of Albany upon his northward march. At Still- *Vide Butler's Lake George and Champlain, and N. Y. His. Doc. SAEATOGA. 29 water, Colonel Schuyler halted his command, and built a small stockaded fort for provisions, which he named Fort Ingoldesby, in honor of the lieutenant governor. Halt- ing again at old Saratoga, where he had built a block house in 1690, and which in the meantime had become a little hamlet in the wilderness. Col. Schuyler built another stockaded fort. This fort was built on the east side of the Hudson, below the mouth of the Battenkill, on the hill nearly opposite the mouth of Fish Creek, and was known as Fort Saratoga. Proceeding up the river. Col. Schuyler built another fort at the second carrying place of Fort Miller Falls. From Fort Miller Falls Col. Schuyler built a military road along the east banks of the Hudson up to the Great Carrying Place. At the beginning of the Great Carry- ing Place on the Hudson, at what is now Fort Edward, Col. Schuyler built another stockaded fort vvdiich he named Fort I^icholson, in honor of the commanding gen- eral. Proceeding across the Great Carrying Place to the forks of Wood creek, which runs into Lake Champlain, he built another stockaded fort, which was first called Fort Schuyler, but which two years later was called Fort Anne, in honor of the Queen. I need not follow the for- tunes of this expedition to its failure and return. Two years later, in the year 1711, another expedition in command of Gen. ISTicholson, left Albany, on the 24th of August, and proceeding up the northern valley of the Hudson, crossed the Great Carrying Place to Fort Anne. While there, Gen. Nicholson learned that her Majesty's fleet in the St. Lawrence, which was to co-operate with 30 HISTORICAL ADDRESS. 