THOMPSON'S VERMONT. 



Jjatt Stton5r» 



CIVIL HISTORY OF VERMONT. 



CHAPTER I. 



INDIAN AND COLONIAL WARS. 



Section I. 



Discovery of America — Discovery and Set- 

 tlement of Canada — Discovery of Lake 

 Champlain. 



The discovery of the American con- 

 tinent by Christopher Columbus, in 1492, 

 awakened a spirit of enterprize not only 

 in Spain, but in all the principal nations 

 of Europe. From each of these, expedi- 

 tions were fitted out, and swarms of ad- 

 venturers issued forth, either to immor- 

 talize their names in the annals of discov- 

 ery, or to enrich themselves and their 

 country with the treasures of a new 

 world. Spain took the lead in the career 

 of discovery, and was followed by Eng- 

 land, France and Holland ; but while 

 Spain, invited by the golden treasures of 

 the Incas, was pursuing her conquests 

 and exterminating the defenceless natives 

 in the south, the three latter nations were, 

 for the most part, peaceably and success- 

 fully prosecuting their discoveries in more 

 northerly regions. 



In 1534, James Cartier, in the service 

 of France, while exploring the continent 

 of America in the northern latitudes, dis- 

 covered the great gulf and river of Cana- 

 da, to which he afterwards gave the name 

 of St. Lawrence. The next year he re- 

 turned with three ships, entered the St. 

 Lawrence, and, having left his ships at 

 anchor between the island of Orleans and 

 the shore, he ascended the river St. Law- 

 rence with his boats, 200 miles further, to 

 Ft. 11. 1 



the Indian town of Ilochelaga, where he 

 arrived on the 2d day of October, 1535. 

 To this place he gave the name of Mont-, 

 real, (Mount-royal,) which it has ever 

 since retained. This was doubtless the 

 first voyage ever made by civilized man 

 into the interior of North America, and 

 the first advance of a civilized people into 

 the neighborhood of the territory of Ver- 

 mont. 



Cartier and his companions were eve- 

 ry where received by the natives with 

 demonstrations of joy, and were treated by 

 them with the greatest respect and ven- 

 eration. The savages seemed to consider 

 the Europeans as a higher order of beings, 

 whose friendship and favors they deemed 

 it of the highest importance to secure. 

 And this was true not only of the Canada 

 Indians, but of the natives of every part 

 of the American continent ; and the sus- 

 picions of the natives were not generally 

 aroused, nor preparations made, either for 

 defence or hostility, till the new comers 

 had manifested their avarice and mean- 

 ness by the most cruel acts of injustice 

 and violence. 



On the 4th of October, Cartier de- 

 parted from Hochelaga, and on the 11th 

 arrived safely with his party at the island 

 of Orleans. Here he spent the winter, 

 during which he lost many of his men by 

 the scurvy, and in the spring returned to 

 France. In 1540, Cartier again visited 

 Canada and attempted to found a colony ; 

 but this colony was soon broken up,and no 



