,♦ 



&&0 [Assembly 



gt)vernmental policy rather than Christian charity. To the mind 

 of the Indian, these traits of the French were favorably con- 

 trasted with the cold, stern and repulsive habits of the English- 

 man — with the unimposlng forms of his religions rites, and with 

 the close and parsimonious guard the British government held over 

 its treasury and store houses. 



The annals of the bordei*s of Lake Charnplain is a blood stain- 

 ed recital of mutual atrocities. The feuds of the cabinets of Eu- 

 rope and the malignant passions of European sovereigns, armed 

 the colonies of England and the provinces of France, in con- 

 flicts where the ordinary ferocity of border warfare, was aggra- 

 vated by the merciless atrocities of savage barbarism. 



Each power vied with the other, in the consummation of its 

 schemes of blood and rapine. Hostile savage tribes, panting for 

 slaughter, were let loose along- the whole frontier, upon feeble 

 settlements, struggling- amid the dense forest, with a rigorous 

 elimate and reluctant soil, for a precarious existence. Unprotect- 

 ed mothers, helpless infancy and decrepid age, were equally the 

 victims of the torch, the tomahawk and scalping knife. Lake 

 Charnplain was the great pathway, equally accessible and. use- 

 ful to both parties, of these bloody and devastating fora}s. In 

 the season of navigation, they glided over the placid waters of 

 the Lake, with ease and celerity, in the bark canoes of the In- 

 dians. The ice of winter afforded them a broad crystal high- 

 way, with no obstruction of forest or mountains, of ravine or 

 river. If deep and impassable snows rested upon its bosom^ 

 snow shoes were readily constructed, and secured and facilitated 

 their march. 



Although this system of reciprocal desolation, impeded the pro- 

 gress of civilization and repelled from the frontier, bordering 

 upon the Lake, all agricultural and industrial occupations, both 

 England and France asserted an exclusive right to the dominion 

 of the territory. France based her claims of sovereignty upon 



■ 



the discoverv of Arcadia, and the sfulf and river St. Law- 

 rence, and subsequently upon the discoveries of Charnplain. Be- 

 Ibre that event we have seen, she had conveyed to De Monts a 

 parchment title to the entire region extending to the meridian of 



