30 ABORIGINAL MONUMENTS OF NEW YORK. 



dred and forty-three cortical layers were counted above it. It must, therefore, 

 have been fired in 1667. Fire-arms were introduced among the Iroquois, by the 

 French, as early as 1609 — the date of Hudson's exploration of the river bearing 

 his name. Brass crucifixes, medals of silver and other metals, dial-plates, and arti- 

 cles of iron are of frequent occurrence here, mingled with stone-axes, and implements 

 and ornaments of bone, shell, and clay, the relics of an earlier period. Amongst 

 other articles of European origin, a cross of pure gold was found some years 

 ago, bearing the sacred monogram I. H. S. Not far from this spot are 

 two high hills of great regularity, sometimes called mounds, the surfaces of 

 which are covered with pits, and which Mr. Schoolcraft conjectures were 

 caches. 



Some investigators are of opinion that Champlain penetrated into this county 

 in 1615. The reasons in support of this opinion are forcibly put forward by 

 Mr. O. H. Marshall, of Buffalo, in a paper published in the Bulletin of the New 

 York Historical Society, for March, 1849. From this paper the subjoined ac- 

 count of the Indian fort attacked by Champlain is extracted. It throws light upon 

 the modes of defence common to the Indians at that period, besides being of inter- 

 est in several other particulars. Says Champlain : 



" ' On the 10th of October, at 3 p. m., we arrived before the fort of the enemy. 

 Some skirmishing ensued among the Indians, which frustrated our design of not 

 discovering ourselves until the next morning. The impatience of our savages, and 

 the desire they had of witnessing the effects of our fire-arms on the enemy, did not 

 suffer them to wait. When I approached with my little detachment, we showed 

 them what they had never before seen or heard. As soon as they saw us, and 

 heard the balls whistling about their ears, they retired quietly into the fort, carry- 

 ing with them their killed and wounded. We also fell back upon the main body, 

 having five or six wounded, one of whom died.' 



" The Indians now retired out of sight of the fort, and refused to listen to the 

 advice of Champlain as to the best mode of conducting the siege. He continued 

 to aid them with his men, and, in imitation of the more ancient mode of warfare, 

 planned a kind of movable tower, sufficiently high when advanced to the fort to 

 overlook the palisades. It was constructed of pieces of wood placed one upon 

 another, and was finished in one night. 



" ' The village,' says Champlain, ' was enclosed by four rows of large interlaced 

 pahsades, thirty feet high, near a body of unfailing water. Along these palisades 

 the Iroquois had placed conductors to convey water to the outside, to extinguish 

 fire. Galleries were constructed inside of the palisades, protected by a ball-proof 

 parapet of wood, garnished with double pieces of wood. 



" ' When the tower was finished, two hundred of the strongest men ad- 

 vanced it near to the palisades. I stationed four marksmen on its top, who 

 were well protected from the stones and arrows which were discharged by 

 the enemy.' 



" The French soon drove the Iroquois from the galleries ; but the undisciplined 

 Hurons, instead of setting fire to the palisades, as directed by Champlain, con- 

 sumed the time in shouting at the enemy, and discharging harmless showers of 



