(i84 [Assembly 



an area of about four miles from the fort, not a tree or a bush to 

 obs'ruct the view over the beautiful and wide champaign, that 

 had beeu once highly cultivated. Novv' a heavy forest covers 

 half the tract. Rogers, in describing one of his predatory excur- 

 sions, speaks of luxuriant crops waving upon these fields, and on 

 another occasion, he alludes to his firing, in a sudden foray, the 

 village itself. Kalm, the Swedish traveller, saw about the fort 

 in 1749, " a considerable settlement," and ^' pleasant cultivated 

 gardens," and " a neat little church within the ramparts." 

 Persons recently deceased, whose recollection extended to a 

 period beyond the revolution, recalled Crown Point when its 

 business operations were conduAed in several stores. A circum- 

 stance occurring at a later period, which we shall introduce, with 

 its evidences, in a subsequent part of this narrative*, that seems 

 to have contemplated Crown Point as the capital of a projected 

 province, is strongly suggestive of its central position and politi- 

 cal importance. A solitary farm house, now occupies the penin- 

 sula of Cr©wn Point. I have been allured by the pathos and 

 romance of a subject that I believe has no parallel in this countryj 

 to yield an unasual space to its consideration. / 



Ahhougk Canada continued in the military occupation of the 

 armies of England, the clouds and uncertainties, which shrouiled 

 her future policy in reference to the permanent acquisition of the 

 e©untj.y, retarded the settlement of the environs of Lake €!hani- 

 plain by American emigrants. The officers and soldiers, of botk 

 the regular and provincial line, in their repeated campaigns, had. 

 become familiar with the region, and appreciated its beauty and 

 fertility. The teeming west was still the domain of the savage. 

 , These impediments to colonization were dispelled, when, by the 

 treaty of 1762, Canada, Acadia and Cape Breton, were ceded to 

 England. 



A proclamation made, Oct. 7th, 1763, by the King of Great 

 Britain, authorized the colonial governors to issue grants of land 

 on either side of Lake Champlain. The reduced ofl^cers and men, 

 who had served in the Canadian campaigns, were especially to be 

 regarded in the issuing of these grants. The holders were em- 

 poweredj by the teiias of their giants, to make locations upon any 



