of a later date, Champlain found it impossible to curb wholly the passions of his savage allies.  In this case his remonstrances had the effect of gaining for the victim a coup de grace—­which may be taken as a measure of Champlain’s prestige.  The atrocious savagery practised before and after death is described in full detail.  Champlain concludes the lurid picture as follows:  ’This is the manner in which these people behave towards those whom they capture in war, for whom it would be better to die fighting or to kill themselves on the spur of the moment, as many do rather than fall into the hands of their enemies.’

Beyond the point at which this battle was fought Champlain did not go.  At Ticonderoga he was within eighty miles of the site of Albany.  Had he continued, he would have reached the Hudson from the north in the same summer the Half Moon [Footnote:  Henry Hudson, an English mariner with a Dutch crew, entered the mouth of the Hudson in a boat called the Half Moon on September 4, 1609.  As named by him, the river was called the ’Great North River of New Netherland.’] entered it from the mouth.  But the Algonquins were content with their victory, though they candidly stated that there was an easy route from the south end of Lake George to ’a river flowing into the sea on the Norumbega coast near that of Florida.’  The return to Quebec and Tadoussac was attended by no incident of moment.  The Montagnais, on parting with Champlain at Tadoussac, generously gave him the head of an Iroquois and a pair of arms, with the request that they be carried to the king of France.  The Algonquins had already taken their departure at Chambly, where, says Champlain, ’we separated with loud protestations of mutual friendship.  They asked me whether I would not like to go into their country to assist them with continued fraternal relations; and I promised that I would do so.’

As a contribution to geographical knowledge the expedition of 1609 disclosed the existence of a noble lake, to which Champlain fitly gave his own name.  Its dimensions he considerably over-estimated, but in all essential respects its situation was correctly described, while his comments on the flora and fauna are very interesting.  The garpike as he saw it, with amplifications from the Indians as they had seen it, gave him the subject for a good fish story.  He was deeply impressed, too, by the richness of the vegetation.  His attack on the Iroquois was not soon forgotten by that relentless foe, and prepared a store of trouble for the colony he founded.  But the future was closed to his view, and for the moment his was the glorious experience of being the first to gaze with European eyes upon a lake fairer and grander than his own France could show.

Four years elapsed before Champlain was enabled to plunge once more into the depths of the forest—­this time only to meet with the severest disappointment of his life.  Much has been said already regarding his ambition to discover a short route to Cathay.  This was the great prize for which he would have sacrificed everything save loyalty to the king and duty to the church.  For a moment he seemed on the point of gaining it.  Then the truth was brutally disclosed, and he found that he had been wilfully deceived by an impostor.