and which the Indians, with Champlain, represented,
had been inhabited by them. He says, in his account of this excur-
sion : "I saw four beautiful islands, ten, twelve and fifteen leagues
in length, formerly inhabited, as icell as the Iroquois River, by
Indians, but abandoned, since they have been at war, the one with
the other." " They retire from the rivers as far as possible, deep
into the country, in order not to be soon discovered." And again
he says* " Continuing our route along the west side of the lake, I
saw, on the east side, very high mountains capped with snow. I
asked the Indians, if those parts were inhabited. They answered,
yes ; and that they were Iro(iuois, and that there were in those parts
beautiful vallics, and fields fertile in corn, as goodas I had ever
eaten in the country." In anticipation of this expedition, Cham-
plain, had entered into a treaty with the Algonquins, who dwelt
along the north bank of the St. Lawrence, between Quebec and
IMontreal, in Avhich " they promised to assist the stranger, in his
attempt to traverse tlie country of the Iroquois, on condition, that
he should aid them in a war against that fierce people ;" and he and
the two Frenchmen with him, came armed for the conflict, with
muskets. The Indians described the place, where they expected to
meet their enemies, and they, as well as the Frencli in Canada,
spoke of this as the country of the Iroquois. On the border of the
lake, near Crown Point,* as they expected, they met a war party
* Historians generally represent that tins battle