The First Battle of Lake Champlain. 



Champlain and the narrow continuation of it above is marked " Wood 

 Creek/' Now it is a most significant fact that on all, or nearly all the 

 old French maps of Lake Champlain this point bears the name " au 

 Chevelure," or " Scalp Point/' as rendered by this plan referred to. 



Whence came that name so indicative of bloody work? It is the 

 only name on these old maps of Lake Champlain that bears 

 such signification. We find Point au Fer, Point Algonquin, Cape 

 Scomoton as applied to prominent features below, and " Cheonderoga," 

 signifying " Three Rivers," which is now Ticonderoga, where we have 

 been taught to believe the battle was, but nowhere on any of these 

 maps of Lake Champlain is there a name except this which appears to 

 have been applied to commemorate bloodshed or warfare. 



Now the first Battle of Lake Champlain was a notable event in the 

 early annals of this region. The 6rst discharge of Champlain's arque- 

 buse awoke new echoes which heralded the end of savage dominion 

 and the advent of civilization, with its better modes of living and of 

 killing. Is it likely that the early French chroniclers with their 

 habits of careful observation of the minutest things would have omitted 

 to hand down the memory of that first battle of Frenchmen with sav- 

 ages? Or is it probable that they would have applied a name indicat- 

 ing Indian warfare to a point where no notable act of Indian warfare 

 took place and give to the only bloody spot the peaceful name of 

 " Three Rivers ? " In that battle about two hundred and sixty men were 

 engaged— a great force for that time, when the lines of transportation 

 were wilderness trails and fleets were made from the bark of trees. The 

 first naval battle between England and the United States had only about 

 four times that number of men engaged, and the last naval battle between 

 these powers had less than two thousand men. In this first battle of 

 Lake Champlain the force of the Iroquois was nearly decimated, and 

 many scalps were taken — a feature of warfare strange to civilized 

 Frenchmen. What can be more likely than that the scene of such a 

 conflict, which has had no parallel in significance since, on these waters, 

 *ould be appropriately named, and what name could be more fitting 

 than Point au Chevelure or Scalp Point? It seems hardly probable that 

 the site of this battle would go unnamed, with such a minute and graphic 

 description of it as Champlain spread out on the historic annals of that 

 time. They certainly gave no point above this on the lake, a name, in 

 the slightest degree indicating warfare. Ticonderoga, as we have 

 seen, is from a word signifying " Three Rivers the river from Lake 

 George, the river from the upper end of Lake Champlain, and the 

 ■East Creek, the three joining here and flowing down to the lake, con- 



