Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1877 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXXIII. SARATOGA AND THE NORTHERN WAR-PATH. She stood beside the well her God had given To gush in that deep wilderness, end bathed The forehead of her child until be laughed In his reviving happiness. * * --WiUU. I. INDIAN SARATOGA. Among the earliest dates in which the name Saratoga appears in history is the year 1684. It was then not the name of a town, nor of a county, nor of a great watering place, but it was the name of an old Indian hunting ground situated along both sides of the Hudson River. The Hudson, after it breaks through its last mountain barrier above Glens Falls, for many miles of its course runs through a wider valley. After winding for a while through this wider valley, it reaches the first series of its bordering hills, and this old hunting ground was situate where the outlying hills begin to crowd down to the river banks. In the Indian tongue it was significantly called Se-rach-ta-gue, meaning "the hillside country of the great river.* It also has been said Saratoga, in the Indian language, means the "place of the swift water," in allusion to the rapids and falls that break the stillness of the stream where this hillside country begins on the river, f An Indian whose name was O-ron-hia-tek-ha of Caughna-wa-ga on the St. Lawrence, who was well acquainted with the Mohawk dialect, informed Dr. Hough, the historian, that Saratoga was from Sa-ra-ta-ke, meaning "a place where the track of the heel may be seen," in allusion to a spot near by, where depressions like foot-prints may be seen in the rocks. Yet Morgan, in his League of the Iroquois, says the signification of Saratoga is lost. Steele's Analysis, p. 13. f Vide Judge Scott's historical address at Ballston Spa, July 4th, 1876, also, ..."
