A few Indian villages were continued for some time after the white settlers took posses sion of the State. The longest to remain were some Saint Francis Indians who lived until after the Revolution on the Mississippi River a few miles below Swanton. There was a village of Coosucks on the Connecticut River in Newbury until 1725. A few Mohegans lived near Arlington and near the Massachusetts bor der the Moheakunnuks lived. These latter made claim to a considerable area as late as 1767 and about 1780 a tract of land was granted them in settlement of their claim. No full-blooded In dians now remain in the State, but there are still among those, counted as whites, a few who are more or less tinctured with Indian blood. Because of Champlam's discovery the territory about Lake Champlain was claimed by France and a part of it was included in New France in a map published at Paris in 1684. New France was bounded by a line drawn from Penobscot, Me., to the southern end of Lake Champlain and from there to the Mohawk River a little north of Schenectady. On the north it included the whole countty drained by the Saint Lawrence. It is said that when Cham plain first beheld the Green Mountains in the east as hc paddled through the lake he ex claimed, oVoila les Verts Monts') and thus the name by which these mountains have since been known originated.
This journey of Champlain was as an ally of his Algonkin companions and with them they landed and attacked their Iroquois foes some where near Crown Point. Although aiding effectually his friends, Champlain by this at tack with firearms, the first seen by the sav ages, incurred the hatred of the Iroquois and this led to most direful consequences later.
From this time until 1760 the white settlers as they came into the region were subject to frequent and often terrible attacks from their savage foes. A few years after Champlain's visit, Jesuit missionaries with dauntless courage and untiring zeal visited the Iroquois tribes, suf fering incredible tortures, and often death. To protect so far as possible the French interests Fort Saint Anne was built on the western shore of one of the large islands (Isle Ld Motte) in Lake Champlain in 1664. The garrison was first commanded by Captain de la Motte from whom the island was named. The first Christian wor ship was conducted here in 1666 in a small chapel built in the fort There does not appear to have been any settlement, other than a few military outposts, in the Champlain Valley, until, in 1730, a few families came from Canada to locate at Chitnney Point where they built a rude fort. The following year a more serviceable fort was built across the narrow lake on what was later called Crown Point This was named Fort Saint Frederic.
Carillon, later Ticonderoga, was fortified in 1755. The possession of these forts gave the French command of the lake, as at the points named it is very narrow and easily within range of even small guns. While the French had been moving from the north the English had come from the south and in 1724 a settlement and fort were established at Fort Dummer. Other forts,
and where a fort was not needed stockades, were built in the years following and numerous Indian raids and massacres caused terror and suffering to the settlers. Of a number of settle ments during these years the only one to be come permanent was that at Fort Dummer.
The. New Hampshire The first grants of lands along Lake Champlain were of course made by France but after the French had been conquered in Canada by the English and had retired from Vermont as elsewhere, these grants were void and new allotments were made by the new rulers.
The territory of the new country was but very rudely divided for the most part, and New York and New Hampshire, both having been settled to a much greater extent, each laid claim to the unoccupied territory of Ver mont. This dispute, which became very bitter, began in 1749. At this time Governor Benning Wentworth sent word to Governor Clinton of New York that he should grant unimproved lands as determined by King George's descrip tion of the province of New Hampshire, m which it was stated that the authority of New Hampshire extended as far west as that of Massachusetts which was Ito a line riventy miles east of the Hudson River?' The Council of New York, however, ordered the governor to reply that ((this Province (New York) is bounded eastward by the Connecticut River.* At the time he sent his communication to Gov ernor Clinton, Governor Wentworth had al ready granted one township which in his honor was called Bennington. Later the question was laid before the Icing who some years afterward gave decision in favor of New York. The au thorities of that State considered this decision as annulling all the grants made by Governor Wentworth, which by this time had become numerous.
They divided the territory which they claimed as their own, into four counties. The southwestern part was annexed to Albany, north was Charlotte, east Cumberland and north of this Gloucester Counties, these two being east of the Green Mountains. Those who had bought lands from New Hampshire were called upon to repurchase them from New York.
Naturally the occupants of the lands, upon which some of them had expended much money and labor, refused to give them up or to pay for them a second time. New York granted ejectments against the settlers and sent con stables to enforce them. A convention of the injured settlers was called and by it Samuel Robinson of Bennington was sent to England to lay the grievances before the king. As the result of Mr. Robinson's visit, the Icing com manded the governor of New York to make no grants till his majesty's pleasure should be made known. This was in July 1767. The Council of New York did not wholly submit to this decree of the king but declared that it did not apply to lands not already. granted by New Hampshire and continued giving grants to those who applied.