7. Transitions.-During this time slowly but surely great changes are being wrought-social, industrial, and commercial. These are brought about by various causes, prominent among which are the War of 1812, the development of resources, the emigration of the old stock, the incoming of a foreign element, the telegraph, and the railroads. This period of nearly half a century extends from 1814 to 1861. 8. The Civil War.-This period extends from the breaking out of the Civil War in 1861 till its close in 1865. Vermonters make quick and generous response to the appeal to arms, and take an honorable part in a war whose sole object is the preservation of the Union. 9. Vermont since the Civil War.-This period extends from the close of the Civil War in 1865 to the present time (1904), giving something of an account of the growth and changes in these latter days and noting some of the important events of the period. BLACKBOARD ANALYSIS The Red Men. Lake Champlain discovered. First Occupation of Vermont by White Men. French and English at War. Vermont used as a Thoroughfare. Many Townships granted. Life and Customs of First Settlers. Colonies at War with Great Britain. Vermont organizes a Government and becomes Vermont Appeals for Admission into the Union. Rapid Growth in Population. Most of the Counties formed. Vermont Admitted into the Union. FIRST PERIOD THE INDIAN (-1689) CHAPTER I FRENCH DISCOVERIES-FIRST INHABITANTS OF VERMONT First Inhabitants. In a remote age, long before the discovery of Lake Champlain by white men, a tribe of Indians is supposed to have dwelt upon its eastern shores. There is nothing to show to which of the many races of Indians, dwelling upon the American continent at the coming of the white man, this tribe belonged; or whether they were an entirely distinct people, perhaps annihilated by succeeding races; but that such a people lived there seems to be little doubt, as many of the relics, found in the river valleys in the western part of the State, indicate an age antedating by far that of the Indian whom. the white man found when he came here to settle. First Knowledge of Lake Champlain.-In the year 1608, Samuel de Champlain, a Frenchman, sailed up the St. Lawrence River and planted a colony at Quebec-the first colony made by white men in Canada. Europeans had, for at least a century, fished upon the banks of Newfoundland; but, up to that time, had made no permanent settlements. Champlain, possessing to a great degree the love for adventure and conquest common to the times, and hearing from the Indians of a beautiful lake at the southwest, determined to explore it. Discovery of Lake Champlain.—The Algonquin (Ălgon'kin) Indians, who knew something of the country, agreed to accompany him on his adventurous undertaking on condition that he aid them in battle against the Iroquois (Iro-quoi'), their deadly enemies, should they encounter them. With two other Frenchmen and about sixty Indians, Champlain slowly paddled his way up the St. Lawrence and Richelieu rivers, and on July 3, 1609, sighted a sheet of water to the south, which, set in a wilderness of luxuriant green, was indeed beautiful, as the Indians had said. The next day he entered the lake. He spent three weeks exploring it and its shores, going as far south as Crown Point or Ticonderoga, perhaps farther; and this was probably the first time that any part of Vermont had ever been looked upon by white men. It was but a month later that Captain Henry Hudson entered New York Harbor and sailed up the Hudson River to where Albany now stands. Champlain's Allusion to the Green Mountains; Lamoille River Discovered. The following is Champlain's own account of his discovery of the Green Mountains: "Continuing our route along the west side of the lake, contemplating the country, I saw on the east side very high mountains capped with snow. I asked the Indians if those parts were inhabited. They answered me 'yes,' and that they (the inhabitants) were Iroquois, and that there were in those parts beautiful valleys, and fields fertile in corn as good as I had ever eaten in the country, with an infini tude of other fruits." They also told him that the islands of the lake were formerly occupied by the Iroquois, but had now for some time been abandoned because of war between the Iroquois and their own nation. On this expedition a river to the east is said to have been discovered by Champlain and called by him "La Mouette," the French name for gull, a fowl abundant at its mouth. Through the carelessness of the engraver the t's were not crossed, when it was put on the French map of "New Discoveries," and the name became Lamoille. An Encounter with the Iroquois.-On the evening of July 12, while skirting the west shore of the lake near where Ticonderoga now stands, the little fleet met a force of the Iroquois three times as large as their own. Iroquois quickly landed and began to make preparations for the morrow's conflict. The Unaccustomed to defeat, confidently they advanced to meet the invaders at early dawn of the following morning; but the sight of the steel-clad warriors, from whose firearms flashed the death-giving bolts, which prostrated one after another of their brave men, filled them with terror, and they fled, leaving about fifty of their number dead on the field. For the first time the Iroquois had seen the white man's weapon, which he afterward learned to use with such deadly effect upon those who taught him its use. Champlain and his companions took several prisoners and some booty, and these they carried with them on their return to Canada. This battle, though seemingly of little importance, may possibly be classed among the world's decisive victories. The haughty Iroquois could hardly be expected to overlook this humiliation, and were thereafter the implacable ene |