Do you wish to know why? Well, because this lake forms a natural waterway from Canada down into the States. If you look on a map you will see that Lake Champlain and Lake George stretch down nearly to the Hudson River and that their waters flow north into the great St. Lawrence River. So these lakes make the easiest way to send trade, and troops as well, down from Canada into New York and New England. Now just let us take a look back in history. The very first battle in the north of our country was fought on Lake Champlain. This was in 1609, when Samuel de Champlain and his Indian friends came down this lake in canoes to fight with the Iroquois tribes of New York. Then in 1756 the French and Indians did the same thing. They came in a fleet of boats and canoes and fought the English on Lake George. Twenty years afterward there was the fierce fight which General Arnold made on this lake, of which I have told you. Later on General Burgoyne came down Lakes Champlain and George with a great army. He never went back again, for he and his army were taken prisoners by the brave Colonials. But the last and greatest of all the battles on the lakes was that of 1814. It is of this I am now about to tell you. You should know that the British again tried what they had done when they sent Burgoyne down the lakes. This time it was Sir George Prevost who was sent, with an army of more than 11,000 men, to conquer New York. He didn't do it any more than Burgoyne did, for Lieutenant Thomas MacDonough was in the way. I am going to tell you how the gallant MacDonough stopped him. MacDonough was a young man, as Perry was. He had served, as a boy, in the war with Tripoli. In 1806, when he was only twenty years old, he gave a Yankee lesson to a British captain who wanted to carry off an American sailor. This was at Gibraltar, where British guns were as thick as blackbirds; but the young lieutenant took the man out of the English boat and then dared the captain to try to take him back again. The captain blustered; but he did not try, in spite of all his guns. In 1813 MacDonough was sent to take care of affairs on Lake Champlain. No better man could have been sent. He did what Perry had done; he set himself to build ships and get guns and powder and shot and prepare for war. The British were building ships, too, for they wanted to be masters of the lake before they sent their army down. So the sounds of the axe and saw and hammer came before the sound of cannon on the lake. MacDonough did not let the grass grow under his feet. When he heard that the British were building a big frigate, he set to work to build a brig. The keel was laid on July 29, and she was launched on August 16--only eighteen days! There must have been some lively jumping about in the wildwoods shipyard just then.