In 1646, who named Lake George “Lake Saint Sacrament”?
In 1609 Samuel de Champlain, on a foray with Canadian Indians south of the St. Lawrence area, came upon a group of Iroquois, and in the battle that followed two Iroquois were shot and killed. Less then 40 years later, a French Jesuit missionary, Father Jogues became a prisoner of the Iroquois, and is believed to have been the first European to see today’s Lake George. Although he was tortured mercilessly, he eventually escaped and returned to France. In 1646 he returned to Canada and again traveled south in hopes of making peace. It was on this journey that he passed Lake George again and named it “Lake Saint Sacrament”. The Mohawks, still hating the French alliance with their old arch enemies the Canadian Indians, overtook Father Jogues several months later and murdered the gentle peacemaker.
