V.

ALTITUDE OF LAKES AND FOREST STATIONS.

A table showing the height in feet above tide water of some of the lakes, summer resorts and forest stations in and near the Wilderness, mostly as computed by Verplanck

Colvin in his Adirondack survey:

*By A. F. Edwards, Chief Engineer Sackett's Harbor and Saratoga

Railroad.

From Hough's Gazetteer.

CHAPTER X.

THE NAMING OF THE CHAZY RIVER.

And dar'st thou then

To beard the lion in his den,

The Douglass in his hall?

I.

-Sir Walter Scott.

The Chazy River flows from the beautiful lake of the same name, northerly and easterly, and falls into the northerly end of Lake Champlain, nearly opposite the Isle la Motte, of historic fame. The Chazy Lake sleeps at the foot of Mount Lyon, one of the central peaks of a mountain group of the Lake Belt of the Wilderness, on the rugged eastern border of Clinton county. This beautiful stream was named in memory of Sieur Chazy, a young French nobleman who was murdered on its banks, near its mouth, by the Indians, in the year 1666.

M. Chazy was a nephew of the Marquis de Tracy, Lieutenant General of Canada, and was a captain in the famous French regiment Carignan-Salières. This regiment was the first body of regular troops that was sent to Canada by the French king. It was raised by Prince Carignan, in Savoy, during the year 1644. Eight years after, it was conspicuous in the service of the French king, in the battles with Prince Condé in the revolt of the Fronde. But the Prince of Carignan was unable to support the regiment and gave it to the king, who attached it to the armies of France. 1664 it took a distinguished part with the allied forces of France in the Austrian war with the Turks. The next year

In

it went with Tracy to Canada. Among its captains, besides Chazy, were Sorel, Chambly, La Motte and others, whose names are so familiar in Canadian annals. The regiment was commanded by Colonel de Salières-hence its double name.*

In 1665 Tracy landed at Quebec in great pomp and splendor. The Chevalier de Chaumont was at his side, and a long line of young noblesse, gorgeous in lace, ribbons, and majestic leoline wigs, followed in his train. As this splendid array of noblemen marched through the narrow streets of the young city to the tap of drum, escorted by the Carignan-Salières, "the bronzed veterans of the Turkish wars," each soldier with slouched hat, nodding plume, bandolier and shouldered fire-lock, they formed a glittering pageant such as the New World had never seen before.

In the same year, the Captain Sieur La Motte built Fort St. Anne upon the Isle La Motte, at the north end of Lake Champlain, opposite the mouth of the Chazy River. Young Chazy was stationed at this fort in the spring of 1666, and while hunting in the woods near the mouth of the river with a party of officers, was surprised and attacked by a roving band of Iroquois. Chazy, with two or three others, was killed upon the spot, and the survivors captured and carried off prisoners to the valley of the Mohawk. For months the war raged with unabated violence, and the old wilderness was again drenched in blood, as it had been in the time of Father Jogues twenty years before.

But in the August following a grand council of peace was held with the Iroquois at Quebec. During the council, Tracy invited some Mohawk chiefs to dine with him. At * Parkman's Old Regimé, page 181.

the table some allusion was made to the murder of Chazy. A chief named Ag-ari-ata at once held out his arm, and boastingly said:

"This is the hand that split the head of that young man."

"You shall never kill anybody else," exclaimed the horror stricken Tracy, and ordered the insolent savage to be taken out and hanged upon the spot in sight of his comrades.*

Of course, peace was no longer thought of. Tracy made haste to march against the Mohawks with all the forces at his command. During the month of September, Quebec on the St. Lawrence, and Fort St. Anne on the Isle La Motte, on Lake Champlain, were the scenes of busy preparation.

At length Tracy and the Governor, Courcelle, set out from Quebec on the day of the Exaltation of the Cross, "for whose glory," says the Relations, "this expedition is undertaken." They had with them a force of thirteen hundred men and two pieces of cannon. It was the beginning of October, and the forests were putting on the gorgeous hues of an American autumn. They went up Lake Champlain, and into Lake St. Sacrament, now Lake George. As their flotilla swept gracefully over the crystal waters of this gem of the old wilderness, it formed the first of the military pageants that in after years made that fair scene famous in history.

Leaving their canoes where Fort William Henry was afterward built, they plunged boldly on foot into the southern wilderness that lay before them toward the Mohawk country. They took the old Indian trail so often trodden by the weary feet of Father Jogues, and by the war-parties *Parkman's Old Regimé, page 192.