Ethan Allen and the Green-Mountain Heroes of '76; With a Sketch of the Early History of Vermont

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1854 edition. Excerpt: ... ETHAN ALLEN, AMD THE GREEN-MOUNTAIN HEROES OP '76. - CHAPTER I. EARLY HISTORY OF VERMONT. -- the 8avages, of murderous sou], In painted bands, dark to the combat roll, With midnight orgies, by the gloomy shade, On the pale victim point the reeking blade; Or cause the hamlet, lulled in deep repose, No more to wake, or wake to ceabelcss woes." Humphreys. Of the adventurous band of navigators, who, early in the sixteenth century, sailed westward in the wake of those frail caravels, the Mina, Pinta, and Santa Maria, James Cartier, a Frenchman, was the first to explore the interior of the vast continent to which Columbus had led the way. While sailing along the Atlantic coast, in 1534, in search of a passage to China, he discovered the month of a great river, to which he subsequently gave the name of "St. Lawrence."* The following spring, in the belief that the St. Lawrence was the desired channel to the East Indies, a larger expedition was equipped, which Cartier conducted direct to this noble stream, and sailed two hundred leagues inland. There the navigation was obstructed by "a • Thus named in honor of tho Saint whose festival occurred on the day (10th August) of its discovery. great and swift fall." At this point, Cartier found a large Indian village, bearing the name of Hochelaga. The population was more numerous, the wigwams were more substantially built, and the town was more strongly fortified than any other occupied by the aborigines, of which the early settlers of the country have given a description. Cartier conciliated the natives by presents of hatchets, beads and rings -- articles more magnificent than any of which they had previously had a conception--and they regarded him and his associates as celestial beings. To...