Where the North Country touches Lake Ontario, this region forms the western gateway to the Adirondacks. Although Samuel de Champlain reached it in 1615 and other French explorers, La Salle and Frontenac, saw it, the area remained an unsettled wilderness until some time after the Revolution. Watertown, on the Black River, was settled in 1800, where abundant water power turned paper mills and other manufactories. During the War of 1812, nearby Sackets Harbor was attacked by a British fleet, but Americans under General Jacob Brown repulsed the enemy with heavy losses. Henery Eckford then built a fleet from forest timber, with which Captain Isaac Chauncey sought to gain control of Lake Ontario. After the war came a period of development. The French nobleman Le Ray de Chaumont promoted settlement by purchasing a large estate and selling parcels, many of them to Yankees from New England, whose industry and thrift ensured material progress. Farmland and forest, together with abundant water power, made the area important in the economic life of New York State, and the Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence became a favorite vacation land.