THE GEM OF THE OLD WILDERNESS.

In the olden time, when the whole North Continent was a vast howling wilderness from the frozen ocean to the flowery gulf land, many bright, fair lakes lay sleeping in its awful solitudes, their waters flashing in the sunshine, like gleaming mirrors, and lighting up the somber desolation like jewels in an iron crown; but the fairest and the brightest of them all was Lake George.

Of the thousand

It was the gem of the old wilderness. lakes that adorn the surface of Northern New York, there is none among them all to-day so fair, none among them all so like "A diadem of beauty," as Lake George-its deepest waters as bright and as pure as the dew drops that linger on its lilies.

Its authentic history runs back for two hundred and forty years. Its forest traditions extend into the dim, mythical, mysterious and unknown romance of the New World. But its waters have not always been as pure as they are to-day, and we would all grow weary of its story, for it is a story of blood. In the following pages, therefore, I shall attempt to sketch a few only of the most noted incidents connected with its discovery by white men.

II.

ISAAC JOGUES.

The first white men who saw Lake George were the Jesuit Father Isaac Jogues, and his companions René Goupil and Guillame Couture. They were taken over its waters as prisoners-tortured, maimed and bleeding,-by the Mohawks, in the month of August, 1642.

Isaac Jogues, the discoverer of Lake George, was born at Orleans, in France, on the 10th of January, 1607, and received there the rudiments of his education. In October, 1624, he entered the Jesuit Society at Rouen, and removed to the College of La Fletche in 1627. He completed his divinity studies at Clermont College, Paris, and was ordained priest in February, 1636. In the spring of that year he embarked as a missionary for Canada, arriving at Quebec early in July.

At the time of his first visit to Lake George, Jogues was but thirty-five years of age. "His oval face and the delicate mould of his features," says Parkman, "indicated a modest, thoughtful, and refined nature. He was constitutionally timid, with a sensitive conscience and great religious susceptibilities. He was a finished scholar, and might have gained a literary reputation; but he had chosen another career, and one for which he seemed but ill-fitted." His companions were young laymen who, from religious motives, had attached themselves without pay to the service of the Jesuit missions.

III.

WAR IN THE WILDERNESS.

Thirty-three years before Jogues' first visit to Lake George, Samuel de Champlain, while on his voyage of discovery, had attacked the Iroquois on the shores of the lake that bears his name, and they had fled in terror from his murderous fire-arms to their homes on the Mohawk. Since then they had ceased to make war upon their hereditary enemies, the Canadian Algonquins, or the French colonists. But the Iroquois had by no means forgotten their humiliating defeat. In the meantime they had themselves been supplied with fire-arms by the Dutch traders at Fort Orange, on the Hudson, in exchange for beaver skins and wampum, and now their hour of sweet revenge had come.

The war with the Eries, the Hurons, and the other western tribes, had been undertaken by the Senecas, the Cayugas and Onondagas. It was left to the Mohawks and the Oneidas to attempt the extermination of the Canadian Algonquins and their French allies. They came near accomplishing their bloody purpose. But for the timely arrival of a few troops from France, the banks of the St. Lawrence would soon have become as desolate as the country of the lost Eries or that of the Hurons. The savages hung the war-kettle upon the fire and danced the war-dance in all the Mohawk castles. In bands of tens and hundreds they took the war-path, and passing through Lakes George and Champlain, and down the River Richelieu, went prowling about the French settlements at Montreal, Three Rivers and Quebec, and the Indian villages on the Ottawa. The Iroquois were everywhere. From the Huron country to

the Saguenay they infested the forests like so many ravening wolves. They hung about the French forts, killing stragglers and luring armed parties into fatal ambuscades. They followed like hounds upon the trail of travellers, and hunted through the forests, and lay in wait along the banks of streams to attack the passing canoes. It was one of these hostile bands of Mohawks that attacked and captured Isaac Jogues and his companions.

IV.

CAPTURE OF JOGUES.

Father Jogues had come down the savage Ottawa River a thousand miles, in his bark canoes, the spring before, from his far-off Huron Mission to Quebec, for much needed supplies. He was now on his return voyage to the Huron country. In the dewy freshness of the early morning of the second day of August, with his party of four Frenchmen and thirty-six Hurons, in twelve heavily laden canoes, Father Jogues reached the westerly end of the expansion of the St. Lawrence called Lake St. Peters. It is there filled with islands that lie opposite the mouth of the River Richelieu. It was not long before they heard the terrible war-whoop upon the Canadian shore. In a moment more Jogues and his white companions and a part of his Hurons, were captives in the hands of the yelling, exulting Mohawks, and the remainder of the Hurons killed or dispersed.

Goupil was seized at once. Jogues might have escaped, but seeing Goupil and his Huron neophytes in the hands of their savage captors, he had no heart to desert them,

and gave himself up. Couture at first eluded his pursuers, but, like Jogues, relented, and returned to his companions. Five Iroquois ran to meet Couture as he approached, one of whom snapped his gun at his breast. It missed fire, but Couture in turn fired his own gun at the savage, and laid him dead at his feet. The others sprang upon him like panthers, stripped him naked, tore out his fingernails with their teeth, gnawed his fingers like hungry dogs, and thrust a sword through one of his hands. Jogues, touched by the sufferings of his friend, broke from his guards, and threw his arms around Couture's neck. The savages dragged him away, and knocked him senseless. When he revived they gnawed his fingers with their teeth, and tore out his nails as they had done those of Couture. Turning fiercely upon Goupil they treated him in the same

way.

With their captives they then crossed to the mouth of the Richelieu, and encamped where the town of Sorel now stands.*

The savages returned, by the way which they came, to the Mohawk with their suffering captives.

On the eighth day, upon an island near the south end of Lake Champlain, they arrived at the camp of two hundred Iroquois, who were on their way to the St. Lawrence. At the sight of the captives, these fierce warriors, armed with clubs and thorny sticks, quickly ranged themselves in two long lines, between which the captives were each in turn made to run the gauntlet up a rocky hill-side. On their way they were beaten with such frenzy that Jogues fell senseless, half dead, and covered with blood. After passing this or*Parkman's Jesuits in North America, p. 217.