William Dean Howells, standing with a friend on the shore of the
Bay of Naples, remarked that he considered one scene in the
world more beautiful than that upon which they were gazing - Lake
Champlain and the Adirondacks, as seen from Burlington.
Morning came bright and clear; a cool breeze waved the clinging
foliage of birch and elm, rippling the lake near the shore and
tossing the waves far out on its bosom, which gleamed white
along their crests. This was the real Lake Champlain, for it is
a very turbulent mass of water and rarely presents a picture of
such calm and quiet beauty as we beheld on the preceding
evening. Numerous islands, "each fair enough to have keen the
Garden of Eden," seen through the level rays of the morning sun,
formed a glorious veil of color. Dark green arbor vitae trees
grew near their edges; nearer still the elm and willows flung
down their lighter masses of foliage to the water, and birch
gleamed silvery white against their shadowy background.
"After the French had built Fort Saint Anne on Isle la Motte a
party of men went out in search of game. They crossed the lake
in a southwesterly direction and were surprised by a band of
Mohawk Indians, who took some of the white men prisoners, and
killed Captain de Traversy and Sieur de Chasy." The place where
they were killed has since been known as Chasy's landing.
