mies of the French. If instead of adopting the course they did the French had sought to gain the friendship of this people, the result of the subsequent contest between the French and English for the possession of the ChamplainHudson Valley might have been different.

French Claims.-By virtue of Champlain's discovery and succeeding explorations by himself and French missionaries, the French claimed the Champlain and Lake

Defeat of the Iroquois on Lake Champlain. (Drawn by Champlain.)

George valleys as a part of New France. This claim included the greater part of western Vermont. Upon the map of his discoveries which Champlain made later, he called the mountains he had seen at the east "Verd Mont," or Green Mountains, the name probably suggested by the dense growth of evergreen trees which covered their slopes; and he gave the lake his own name, "Champlain."

Two Great Races.-At the time of Champlain's discovery, two great races of Indians dwelt in the northeast section of the United States and to the north in Canada. They were the Iroquois and the Algonquins.

The Iroquois possessed what is now New York, quite a stretch of country to the west of it, and at least that portion of Vermont west of the Green Mountains. The Algonquins occupied most of Canada and the New England States, and much of the country between the Delaware and Mississippi rivers. In a word, they completely surrounded the Iroquois.

Now, although the Algonquins greatly outnumbered the Iroquois, they lived in constant fear of them. In the first place, the Algonquin tribes were widely distributed and could not easily join forces when necessary to fight that nation; while the Iroquois, from their very situa tion, were more closely bound together. Besides this, the Iroquois were braver, more enlightened, had better homes and more strongly fortified villages, a stronger government, and were in every way superior to the Algonquins

as a race.

The territory occupied by these two races was particu larly well fitted for the Indians' savage mode of living, the woods abounding in game and the rivers and lakes in fish, and the climate being well adapted to the growth of Indian corn and beans, which constituted a large part of their food supply. We can not wonder, then, that they were so loath to give up their right to this territory, and fought so desperately, yet hopelessly, the white man who came to take their lands from them.

Tribes. These races of Indians were divided into many small tribes or families, each of which was composed of

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kinsmen. The tribes dwelt in small villages, seldom of more than five hundred inhabitants each. These villages were enclosed by stockades consisting of one, two, and sometimes three rows of posts set upright in the ground and close together. Each tribe had a chief who led in

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ALGO

war, directed in hunting, and was considered authority in matters of weight. In times of great danger all the tribes of a race united, and usually put themselves under the leadership of the chief of the most powerful tribe.

The Iroquois had five principal divisions, consisting of the Mō'hawks, Onei'das, Sěn'ecas, Cayu'gas, and Onon

dä'gas; hence they were often styled the Five Nations. The Tuscaro'ras, living to the south of them, were added at a later date; after which they were called the Six Nations. Among the neighboring Algonquin tribes were the Pennacook, Massachusett, Mohegan, and Abenä'ki. After a time the Abenaki became generally known as the St. Francis Indians, probably because one of their most powerful families lived at St. Francis.

Indian Occupancy. It is quite probable that the land between Lake Champlain and the Connecticut Riverwhich will now be known as the Wilderness-was for ages mostly unoccupied. It was, as it were, a broad huntingground between the two races, where both hunted and fought and which each claimed in turn by right of conquest. Their homes, however, because of their fear of each other, they built upon the outskirts of this territory or beyond its limits.

At the coming of Champlain, the valleys to the east of Lake Champlain were probably not then occupied by the Iroquois so much as at an earlier date, if at all; but no doubt their hunting-ground then included the whole of the western portion of the State, though it is doubtful if they often extended their wanderings across the mountains. Three Indian villages are known to have existed in the present State of Vermont.

Indian Village at Vernon.-An Indian village called Squakheag (Squaw'keeg) comprised what is now Hinsdale, N. H.; Northfield, Mass.; and Vernon, Vt. The Squakheags and Pocům'tucks occupied jointly this territory. The former are thought to have been the remnant of the Mohegan tribe, who were driven out of eastern New York by the Mohawks, and who had fled for refuge across the