128 The First Battle of Lake Champlain. 



Thirdly, we come to Cliamplain's picture of the battle, drawn by 

 himself. In this he represents the savages of both sides, Champlain 

 being at the head of his party of Canadian Indians on the left, and 

 the Iroquois on the right, while well around on the right flank of the 

 Iroquois, and on higher ground than they, are Champlain's two white 

 companions. Now, if the battle was at Ticonderoga, we must assume 

 that Champlain and his party voluntarily threw themselves to the 

 southward of their enemies, towards the enemy's country, in an un- 

 known wilderness, the two white companions putting themselves in 

 even greater peril than the main force, and this with their foes out- 

 numbering them more than three to one. Is it possible to believe that 

 Champlain would commit this mistake, familiar as he was with the 

 wily tactics of the savages? Is it probable that the warlike Montag- 

 nais would thus have voluntarily put themselves at this disadvantage, 

 after having already penetrated with extreme caution over a hundred 

 miles into the enemy's country? 



The Iroquois landed first, and Champlain and his party had their 

 choice whether to attack from the left or the right. Can it be reason- 

 ably supposed that they would have chosen to give battle from the 

 south, where the danger to themselves was certainly greater than if 

 they attacked from the north? The evidence of the journal, of the map, 

 and of the battle picture — all the work of Champlain himself — ap- 

 pears to combat the supposition that the battle could have been fought 

 at Ticonderoga. 



Where then was it fought? 



I believe all the reliable evidence in the case points to Crown Point, 

 where the French erected Fort Frederick, their extreme outpost in 

 1731, the ruins of which, with enclosing earthworks, are still visible 

 near the northern shore, while farther inland stand the stone barracks 

 of the Amherst fort. 



Here is a locality which perfectly answers to Champlain's descrip- 

 tion of " a cape which extends into the lake on the western bank,'' 

 and here is the only spot, at the extremity of the cape, and thence 

 around to the head of Bay St. Frederick, as the French named it, now 

 Bullwagga Bay, where the western shore trends to the northward, and 

 the only spot on the western side of that part of Lake Champlain, 

 where a skilled warrior like Champlain, and savages like his allies, 

 would have been likely to attack their foes from the left and north, 

 rather than from the right and south. In fact this is the only point 

 along the entire west shore of Lake Champlain where the shore line 

 takes a northerly direction, with the exception of Willsborough Point, 



