The first important industry of the state was "rafting" lumber from Vermont through Lake Champlain and the Richelieu and St Lawrence rivers to Quebec. Burlington became a great lumber market for a trade moving in the direction of Boston after the Richelieu river was blocked to navigation and railway transportation began, and in 1882 Burlington was the third lumber centre in the United States.
Water communication is afforded by Lake Champlain to the south, for seven months of the year, by way of the Champlain canal, via Whitehall, New York, to Troy and the Hudson river and the Atlantic coast, and to the north by way of the Richelieu river and the Chambly canal to the St Lawrence.
A small expedition sent by Cromwell in February 1654 to capture New Amsterdam (New York) from the Dutch was abandoned on the conclusion of peace, and the fleet turned to attack the French colonies; Major Robert Sedgwick taking with a handful of men the fort of St John's, Port Royal or Annapolis, and the French fort on the river Penobscot, the whole territory from this river to the mouth of the St Lawrence remaining British territory till its cession in 1667.
The principal buildings are the church of St Lawrence in Gothic style, erected in 1821, and the mechanics' institute, a fine building, comprising class-rooms, a library, a.
Sixtus prophesied that Lawrence would follow him in three days.
