After numerous delays and adjustments and readjustments of plans, when the expedition was fairly afloat on the River Richelieu it consisted of sixty warriors in bark canoes, clad in their usual armor, accompanied by Champlain and two French arquebusiers. Proceeding up the river, they entered the lake, coursed its western shore, and moved tardily along. At the expiration of nearly three weeks,—on the 29th of July, 1609,—in the shade of the evening, they discovered a flotilla of bark canoes containing about two hundred Iroquois warriors of the Mohawk tribe, who were searching for their enemies, the tribes of the north, whom they hoped to find on this old war-path. Early the next morning, on the present site of Ticonderoga, near where the French subsequently erected Fort Carillon, whose ruins are still visible, the two parties met.[380]
[Illustration: DEFEAT OF IROQUOIS AT LAKE CHAMPLAIN.
[A fac-simile of Champlain’s engraving in his edition of 1613. Key: _A_ (wanting), the fort; _B_, enemy; _C_, oak-bark canoes of the enemy, holding ten, fifteen, or eighteen men each; _D_, two chiefs, who were killed; _E_, an enemy wounded by Champlain’s musket; _F_ (wanting), Champlain; _G_ (wanting), two musketeers; _H_, canoes of the allies, Montagnais, Ochastaiguins, and Algonquins, who are above; _I_ (also on the), birch-bark canoes of our allies; _K_ (wanting), woods.—ED.]]
It was the first exhibition of firearms which the savages had ever witnessed. Champlain, moving at the head of his allies, discharged his arquebus, and by it two chiefs were instantly killed, and another savage fell mortally wounded. The two French arquebusiers, attacking in flank, poured also a deadly fire upon the astonished Mohawks. The strange noise of the musketry, their comrades falling dead or wounded, and the deafening shout of the victors, carried dismay into the Mohawk ranks. In utter consternation they fled into the forest, abandoning their canoes, arms, provisions, and implements of every sort. The joy of the victors was unbounded. In three hours after the fight they had gathered up their booty, placed the ten captives whom they had taken in their canoes, performed the customary dance of victory, and were sailing down the lake on their homeward voyage. They soon reached their destination, having lingered here and there to inflict the usual inhuman punishments upon their poor prisoners of war. The cruelties which they practised in the presence of Champlain were abhorrent to his generous nature, and he used his utmost influence to mitigate and soften the sufferings which he could not wholly avert.