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Article: TREASURED ISLANDS
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- July 6, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2005 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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NORTH HERO, Vt. "There are many pretty islands here, low, and
containing very fine woods and meadows." Though penned in a 1609
journal, the observation could easily have been made today.
The observer was none other than French explorer Samuel de
Champlain, the first European to set eyes on the freshwater lake that
would bear his name. Arriving in July with 60 Algonquians, 24 canoes,
and a pair of French crewmates, he discovered an archipelago teeming
with fish, game, and wild fruit.
What surprised him was the scarcity of humans. Intertribal
hostilities, the Indians explained, had forced the natives inland.
Yet four centuries later, the islands are still sparsely populated,
for reasons that ...