Lake Cham-plain. 41 



their food is fith, without bread or any 

 other meat j and another feafon, they eat 

 nothing but ftags, roes, beavers, &c. 

 which they (hoot in the woods, and rivers. 

 They, however, cijoy Jong life, perfect 

 health, and are more able to undergo hard- 

 fhips than other people. They fing and 

 dance, are joyful, and always content ; i 

 and would not, for a great deal, exchange ^ 

 their manner of life for that which is pre- 

 ferred in Europe. 



WHEN we were yet ten French miles 

 from fort St. John, we faw fome houfes 

 on the weftern fide of the lake, in which 

 the French had lived before the laft war, 

 and which they then abandoned, as it was 

 by no means iafe : they now returned to 

 them again. Thefe were the firft houfes and 

 fettlements which we faw after we had left 

 thofe about fort St. Frederic. 



THERE formerly was a wooden fort, 

 or redoubt, on the eaflern fide of the lake, 

 near the water-fide; and the place where 

 it ftood was (hewn me, which at prefent is 

 quite overgrown with trees. The French 

 built it to prevent the incurfions of the 

 Indians, over this lake; and I was a flu red 

 that many Frenchmen had been flain in 

 thefe places. At the fame time they told 

 me, that they reckon four women to one 



man 



