Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 7).djvu/61

 French around the highland portages explain the need of English forts on the Kennebec. The forts of the Connecticut River were largely necessitated by the routes of travel between the heads of its tributaries and the "Rivière Sundefined. Francis" and "Otter River." On the Morris map we read "Indians of Sundefined. Francis in league with the French." The mouth of Otter Creek was near Fort Ticonderoga, and it offered, with a portage to the Connecticut, another route of French aggression. "From this Fort the French make their excursions," reads the interesting Morris map, "and have this war [1745 seq.] burnt and destroy'd two Forts (Saratoga and Fort Massachusets) and broke up upwards of 30 Settlements."

The Hudson–Lake George portage marked the most important course from Canada to New York, but there was another route which was fought for earnestly. The French could ascend the St. Lawrence to Lake Ontario and gain access to the entire rear of New York, and by a dozen minor waterways the Hudson again could be reached. The St. Lawrence had long been