Fort Dummer.-Between the years 1720 and 1725, a fierce warfare was carried on between the Abenaki Indians and the English settlers. Although the French and English were then under treaty of peace, both the governors of Canada and the French missionaries constantly incited the Indians to deeds of hostility against the English.

Northfield and Deerfield were then the frontier towns on the Connecticut, and were comparatively well protected against the enemy. But to keep the enemy at a distance and thus render the safety of these towns more sure, it was voted by the Massachusetts government to build a fort somewhere above Northfield on the west side of the Connecticut River, on lands called the Equivalent Lands. As some of the western Indians were to form a part of the garrison, it was voted to appropriate not only sufficient land for the fort, but also an additional five or six acres of interval land to be plowed up for the use of those Indians who should wish to bring their families with them.

With the consent of Lieutenant-Governor Dummer, a site was chosen within the present bounds of Brattleboro ; and, in the spring of 1724, a fort was built and called Fort Dummer. It enclosed a third of an acre of ground and was about 180 feet square, made of hewn logs of yellow pine laid up log-house fashion and interlocking at the corners after the manner of a blockhouse. Upon the walls of the fort were boxes for sentries and platforms for the cannon. The houses were built within, having the

wall of the fort answer for their outer sides.

Its first garrison consisted of fifty-five men, of whom about a dozen were western Indians coming from the vicinity of the Hudson River. The fort was also fur

nished with a chaplain, who acted as pastor to the soldiers and missionary to the Indians.

Through the advice of Captain Joseph Kellogg, who had been for many years a prisoner in Canada, and who

had there learned of the lucrative peltry trade carried on between the French and the western Indians, Fort Dummer was soon made an important trading-post. Here the western Indians, finding that they could make better bargains at this station than at the French trading-posts,

came in large numbers, exchanging moose and deer skins and tallow for clothing, food, and the like.

A few months after the completion of this fort, it was attacked by seventy hostile Indians; and four or five of its occupants were killed or wounded.

Within and around this fort grew up a settlement which was called Brattleboro. This has been called the first permanent settlement in Vermont, though it is possible that the town of Vernon, which was then a part of Northfield, Mass., was settled previous to this time. In Brattleboro was born John Sargent, probably the first white child born in the State.

French Grants.-It was during this long interval of peace, and closely following 1725, that the French king made grants of extensive areas of land, called seignories, on both sides of Lake Champlain, and extending south to Crown Point and Ticonderoga. These seignories were much larger than the townships granted by the English, and were measured by leagues instead of miles. A settlement was made at Alburg, of perhaps a dozen settlers, where there was erected a windmill of stone masonry and perhaps a church.

A French Settlement.-Notable among the French settlements on Vermont soil was that at Chimney Point, begun in 1730, forty years after the building of the fort there by the English. Here was built and garrisoned a stone windmill, and a blockhouse was also erected to serve as a citadel in times of danger.

Northward from the fort and extending along the lake shore a few miles, the settlers built their log huts and planted their favorite marigold and lily, which bloomed in picturesque confusion around every doorway. Here might

be seen well-cultivated gardens, flourishing orchards of plum and apple, and vast acres of wheat and corn. Here the farmer hunted the deer and moose, trapped the fur-bearing animals, and fished in the lake, to provide meat and raiment for his family; and here mothers reared their large families and sang quaint French lullabies to their babes. Gaily dressed children played about the doorways, and forest and meadow rang with the gay laughter of youth. Here the people worshiped in their one little church one day in seven, nor dreamed that their little colony would have an existence of but thirty years when English victories would force them back to Canada.

About the time of the building of this fort, Fort St. Frederic was built on the opposite side of the lake. This was a position of great importance and was afterward called Crown Point.

A French and Indian Village. At an early day, French pioneers were associated with the Indians at Swanton, where at one time there was a village of about fifty huts. The stone church erected there by the French missionaries was undoubtedly the first edifice built exclusively for religious purposes in the Wilderness. This church was still standing in 1759. The French also erected here a sawmill with a stockade fort to protect it, but this the English destroyed during the French and Indian War.

In his history of New Hampshire, Dr. Belknap tells us that the Indians in the vicinity of Missisquoi were in the habit of tapping the maples in the spring and making sugar; and from Graham's early history of Vermont we learn the process: "Large troughs were made out of the Pine Tree, sufficient to contain a thousand gallons or upwards; the young Indians collected the sap into these

troughs, the women in the meantime (for the men considered everything but war and hunting as beneath their dignity) made large fires for heating the stones necessary for the process; when these were fit for their purpose, they plunged them into the sap in the troughs, and continued the operation till they had boiled the sugar down to the consistence they wished."

From this village frequent raiding parties went out into the country around, returning with scalps and prisoners.

Number One.-About the year 1736, Massachusetts extended her grants northward on the Connecticut River. One township only was granted west of the river and that was to extend from the Equivalent Lands northward to Great Falls (Bellows Falls). This at first went by the name of Number One, but was afterward called New Taunton, because most of its proprietors were from Taunton, Mass.

A sawmill was there erected and a few families of settlers came. A few years afterward, when it had been decided that this township was within the territory of New Hampshire, the Governor of that province regranted it, changing its name to Westminister.

Settlement of Boundary-Line between Massachusetts and New Hampshire.-A few years after the building of Fort Dummer, a dispute arose between Massachusetts and New Hampshire concerning the boundary between them. The former claimed that her territory extended north several miles farther than the present limits of that State, her claim extending to a line running through the base of Ascutney Mountain. New Hampshire contended that Massachusetts was placing the line too far north and was taking in territory that rightfully belonged to her, she