136 The First Battle of Lake Cliamplain. 



stituting Wood Creek, named also " Ossavages" on one old map? All 

 other points on the west side of the lake where the battle could have 

 possibly taken place are left nameless on the old French maps except 

 Point au Chevelure, Crown Point, or Scalp Point. Is not this strong 

 presumptive evidence that there was the battle? 



Champlain, in his rude map of Lake Champlain, plainly marked the 

 "cape which extends into the lake," placing by it the number 65, re- 

 ferring to his explanation of this as the site of the battle, this cape 

 being the most prominent projection on the western shore. The French 

 map-makers, following him, gave the outline of the lake with remark- 

 able accuracy, and they too marked the " cape which extends into the 

 lake," and gave it a name which commemorates bloodshed, and to-day, 

 no observant traveler, following Champlain's course up the lake can 

 fail to be struck with Crown Point as answering more completely to 

 Champlain's description of the site of his battle than any other locality 

 where the battle could have possibly been fought. 



All along down the course of historic time Crown Point has been 

 noted as one of the grand strategic points of the Champlain valley- 

 Here an outpost was established by the English in colonial times, near 

 the close of the seventeenth century; here, in 1731, the French built 

 Fort Frederick, making a bold advance from their former frontier a 

 hundred miles north; from this point the great military road was b 

 across the mountains to the Connecticut; here, under the guns of i or 

 Frederick, was the first church in the Champlain valley, the Jesui 

 Fathers planting the cross beside the French lily according to their cus- 

 tom, as if in obedience to Champlain's desire; here the walls of tiw 

 great Amherst fort — said to be the most massive and best pr es( f^ 

 of all the Revolutionary or pre-Revolutionary military ruins of t « 

 North -began to rise in the very month that the French were finally 

 driven out of the valley; here, doubtless, at the head of the' ^ 

 which is the gate of the country," was the scene of many bloo dy en^ 

 counters between the two great nations of savages before the w « 

 men came; here, the best evidence concurs in showing, was the sp 

 where the Iroquois built the first fort since the dawn of historic tin ., 

 in the Champlain valley, on the night of July 29th, two hunflr 

 and eighty years ago, and here, on the morning of the 30th of <W 

 1609, was fought the first Battle of Lake Champlain. 



(1) He (Champlain) was norie-ht and nminMo ir> V.« rl*™rtmeiit — was zealo 



Thompson's Vermont, Part 2, p. 2, foot-note ) 

 (2) Map accompanying Pownall's Topographical Description 1776. 



