F 127 
 .J4 L29 
 Copy 2 % 
 
 JEFFERSON COUNTY 
 PRIOR TO 1797 
 
 By 
 ROBERT LANSING 
 
Jefferson County 
 Prior to 1797 
 
JEFFERSON COUNTY 
 PRIOR TO 1797 
 
 An Address delivered at the Jefferson County 
 Centennial in June, 1905 
 
 By 
 
 ROBERT LANSING 
 
 (Reprint from the published proceedings issued by the 
 
 Jefferson County Centennial Committee, 
 
 Watertown, N. Y.) 
 
 The strip of land, which Hes between the eastern waters of the 
 MciHterranean Sea and thi- River Jordan, has been for nineteen 
 centuries sacred to Cliristendoni as the home of the Chosen Peo- 
 ])le and the l)irthplace of the Christ. Yet had it never been distin- 
 jj^nished by these events of such moment to the world, it would 
 still have aroused historically a profound interest. Across its 
 rui^^ged uplands and through its fertile valleys marched the mas- 
 ter-empires Of the earth. Tlic armies of Assyria and P)abylon. of 
 F-5T^y])t and i'ersia, of (ireece and Rome, of the Saracen, the Cru- 
 sader and the Corsican passed alons;- its hi.^hways and fouf^ht 
 their battles at the foot of its nmuntains. It was the ever-de- 
 l)atal)U- ground of the < )rient. and the nation which controlled 
 its deep-worn I'ai-awin routes between the I'.uphrates and the 
 Nile was the ruler of the world. 
 
 l'"roni an liistorii-al point of \iew the land of Palestine linds a 
 connterp.art on tlu' continent of \orth America where there is an 
 area o\er which lia\e fought tlu' warriors of contending- nations 
 upon whose success or defeat has de])ended the so\ iTeii^iUv of the 
 
 Caro«ffi<? Tni» 
 
 1924 
 
 JUN 3 
 
JEFFERSOy COIWTY CEXTE.WJ.IL. 37 
 
 western world. While Palestine hemmed in between the sea and 
 the deserts offered but one passage for the armed hosts of the past, 
 this new land of contest, lying south of the River St. Lawrence pre- 
 sented two routes by which the people holding the north or south 
 could invade the territory of the other; the one, by Lake Champlain, 
 Lake George and the tributaries of the Hudson ; the other, by the 
 upper St. Lawrence and the eastern waters of Ontario. Between 
 these two great water-ways lay, like an island, the desolate and brok- 
 en highlands of the Couch-sach-ra-ge, "the dismal wilderness.'^ 
 whose mountain-ri-iges and tumbling streams offered almost insur- 
 mountable difficulties to the movement of large bodies of men, and 
 even prevented smaller bands from attempting its fastnesses. 
 
 Thus the area, which is today called "The Adirondack Wilder- 
 ness", divided this land of conflict into two distinct regions; and we 
 arc to devote our attention to the western of these, where Ontar- 
 io's waters, flowing between the islands, which lie like stepping stones 
 from its northern to its eastern shore, are gathered into the Great 
 River of Canada. Across the eastern end of the lake, among the 
 islands of the St. Lawrence, and through the surrounding forests 
 have passed Algonkin and Iroquois warriors; Hurons and Abena 
 kis; the French grei^adier ard the Scotch Highlander; Hessian chas- 
 seurs, American rangers, and the marauders of Johnson and Brant; 
 the raw militiaman of the young republic and the veteran guards- 
 man of Britain. 
 
 It was a land of scalping parties, of ambuscades and of sleepless 
 vi;2:ils, a neutral ground for parley where "bearers of belts" met and 
 kindled their council-fire, a place where a lonely scout silently pad-, 
 died his caroe beneath the over hanging boughs. How many tales 
 o^ war and death and savage life the waves of Ontario and the moss- 
 clorhed rocks of the St. Lawrence could tell — tales, which have nev- 
 er found their way into history but were forgotten long before the 
 axe and the plow had won a home for the white man in. these for- 
 ests. 
 
 Ch orography 
 
 The region, now occupied by Jefferson County, is separated by 
 Black River into two natural divisions. That to the south rising tn 
 ridges from the lake and the river valley forms the watershed be- 
 tween the Mohawk and Ontario. It has been termed "The Less- 
 er Wilderness" in contradistinction to the "Great Wilderness" of 
 the Adirondack retjion. The section to the north of Black River 
 is in undulating plain with innumberable small lakes and marshy 
 
38 .lEFri'UiSoy COrMV CESTEyyiAL. 
 
 fact^, which in former days ahounded with beaver and otter. It was, 
 even to a comparatively recent period, a favorite hunting ground for 
 the Iroquois, although before it was visited by white men the beaver 
 had been almost exterminated. 
 
 Prehistoric Remains^ 
 
 Along the lower terraces of the uplaiids, through the Black River 
 vallty. and at several places north of the river, particularly in the 
 \icinity of Perch Lake, have been found the evidences of prehistoric 
 occupation. They consist of embankments, more or less extensive 
 i;» size and regular in form, which appear to have been in some cas- 
 es defensive works and in others the foundations of huts such as 
 were commonly constructed by the American aborigines. Within 
 and about these enclosures have been dug up at different times 
 large numbers of flint flakes, stone implements, pieces of pottery, 
 charred grain, and in a few instances human bones. 
 
 Time will not permit to describe in detail these remains or to dis- 
 ( uss their origin, which have been for over a century fertile subiects 
 of study and speculation. The pioneer observer, who recorded his 
 investigations, was the Rev. John Taylor, a New England mission- 
 ary, who in 1802 journeyed through the "Black River Country" 
 from Ellisburgh to Champion.'- His journal has a peculiar interest 
 Iteing illustrated with diagrams of the earthworks which he visited in 
 the territory now occupied by the towns of Ellisburgh, Adams, Rod- 
 man and Watcrtown. 
 
 As Mr. Taylor had the opportunity to make his examinations be- 
 fore the forests had been felled and the ground leveled by cultivation 
 his record is of exceptional value, but the same cannot be said of his 
 lomments upon the origin of the mounds and of his speculations as to 
 thrir builders, in which the i-ost Tribes of Israel are not forgotten. 
 
 American archeologists of more recent years deny the theories of 
 tiieir preileccssors regarding the Mound Builders of the Ohio and 
 Mississippi valleys. The belief in a prehistoric race superior to the 
 Indians whom the u liite men founii in the American forests has fall- 
 en before a more scientific examination of the evidence. Instead ot 
 A mysterious people related in culture, if not in blood, to the Aztecs 
 and Zunis, the constructors of the famous mounds are now said to 
 have been a nation of red men known as the Alleghans, who came 
 from the northeast to the headwaters of the Ohio, presumably forced 
 to emigrate by more warlike tribes. Further investigation has iden- 
 tified this people, whose name is perpetuated in the great range of 
 t!ic Alleghanies, with the Cherokee Nation resident during historic 
 
Ji:ri-i:Rs().\ coiwrv cicme.smal. 39 
 
 time; in Tennessee; and etymologists have shown that the Cherok- 
 ee language has a close affinity to the Iroquois-Huron languages.-^ 
 
 Tt is reasonable to assume, therefore, that a civilization with simi- 
 lar characteristics, though not necessarily of equal development, 
 would be found in these related rations. If the Alleghans or the 
 Cherokees were the builders of the extensive earthworks of the Ohio 
 ^ alley, the presumption is that their kindred, the Iroquois or Hur- 
 ons, constructed the mounds in the vicinity of the eastern end of On- 
 tario, provided that either of these nations occupied this region in 
 foriT.er tirres. 
 
 Such a conclusion, it is true, robs the student of an attractive field 
 for speculation. The remote past becomes comparitively modern. 
 The vanished race of ■VIound Builders which once lived in our school 
 histories, gives place to the rude savages who ranged these forest, when 
 Europeans first set foot on th's continent. Today this seems the most 
 probable solution of the origin of the remains in this section, and, 
 since absolute proof appears to be unattainable, probability is as near 
 as we can crme to the truth. 
 
 The Iroquois. 
 
 The aborigi: es who claimed sovereignity over this region prior 
 and subsequent to the historic period were the Iroquois* a warlike 
 P'/ople, whose villages extended from the Hudson River along the 
 Mohawk Valley and the lakes of central New York to the neighbor- 
 hood of Niagara. Though composed of five independent nations, 
 each speaking a distinct dialect, the Iroquois were united in a confed- 
 eracy varioush' termed the "Hodenosaunee" (People of the Long 
 HouFc), "the Iroquois Confederacy," and "the League of the Five 
 Nations."-' 
 
 Beginning at the Hudson and proceeding westward the confeder- 
 ated nations occupied the land in the following order, the Mohawks, 
 the Oreidas, the Onopdagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas. Of 
 these the Mohawks, wer? the most formidable and influential and 
 the Senecas, the most numerous, while the Onondagas from their 
 central position and from the fact that the great council fire of the 
 Cof^federacy was kindled in their territory rivalled the Mohawks in 
 influence, as they did the Serecas in numbers. 
 
 The character of the Iroquois. and particularly that of the Mohawk, 
 was peculiarly abhorant and repulsive according to modern stand- 
 ards. Fierce, cruel and brutal, his nature was devoid of the finer 
 sentiments of love and mercv. He seemed to lack natural afTec- 
 
40 JEFl-ER.^Oy COL wry VESTEyyiAL. 
 
 tion and to be controlled by his passions. Even his fidelity was rath- 
 er that of the brute than of the man. Devoted to the chase he hunted 
 Men as he did animals, for the sole gratification of his ferocious in- 
 stincts, finding his chief delight in massacre and in the torture of 
 his captives. In person foul, in life degraded, it is only in his poetic 
 miagination and in his eloquence at the council-fire that the Iroquois 
 warrior rose above the beast.*' Add to the ferocity of his disposition, 
 his tenacity of purpose, his sagacity in war and council, his powers to 
 endure hunger, cold and privation, and his fortitude under torture — 
 add these qualities, and he becomes, as he was, the most powerful and 
 most dreaded of the Indian race. 
 
 Though their fighting force appears to have never exceeded twen- 
 ty-five hundred v^arriors, the confederates annihilated nation after na- 
 tion destroying with relentless fury thousands and tens of thousands 
 of men, women and children, until from the St. Lawrence to the Po- 
 ton-'ac and the Tennessee, and from Nova Scotia to the Mississippi, 
 they were masters supreme. A more remarkable record of conquest 
 can scarecly be found in the pages of the world's history, and well 
 are they entitled to the name which has been given them, "the Rom- 
 ans of the West."^ 
 
 Although opinions may dilTer as to the personal characteristics of 
 these savages and as to the motives which influenced their lives — for 
 even they find apologists — there can be but one as to the unportant 
 ptrt which the Confederacy played in the struggle between England 
 ftnd France for the sovereignity of North America. In the early 
 part of the 17th century the French explorer Champlain accompan- 
 ied a band of Algonkins to the lake which bears his name. There 
 rhey met and defeated, chiefly through the effectiveness of the fire- 
 arms of the white men, a party of Mohawks. This act in conjunction 
 with the later alliance of the French with the Hurons, Algonkins 
 and otlu-r heriditary foe of the Iroquois aroused in them 
 a bitter h<)stilit\- to the Canadian settlers, which for a cen- 
 tury and a half \ielded neither to the diplomacy nor arms of 
 France. Stretching like a slender chain between the rival colonies 
 of the two great European powers the Five Nations formed an im- 
 passible barrier to French advance southward, and a sure bulwark to 
 the Dutch and English settlements. Never swerving in its friend- 
 ship to ICngland. or rather in its hatred of France, the Confederacy 
 held in check the enemy until the Anglo-Saxon, gathering force and 
 vigor behind this savage rampart, took the offensive and compelled 
 France to relinquish her dominion over Canada. The services ren- 
 dered to England by the Iroquios are inestimable. Without their 
 
JMFI'ICRSOX COLWTV CEXTESMAL. 41 
 
 undying hatred for the French the whole course of American history 
 might have been changed.^ 
 
 It was this league of indomitable warriors, and the Oneidas and 
 Onondagas in particular, who held in insecure tenure, as a portion oi 
 their hunting grounds, the territory which now forms Jefferson Coun- 
 ty ; and, though after the arrival of the Europeans on the St. Law- 
 rence and the Hudson these Indians never permanently occupied it, 
 thtv had here a few fishing villages and winter camps for hunting. 
 
 Indian Trails an/1 Canoe Routes. 
 
 This region, however, v\ as chieHy a land of passage for the Iroquois 
 m their excursions to the beaver-lands north of Lake Ontario, to 
 wluch they claimed title, and for their war-parties against the French 
 on the St. Lawrence and the western Indians coming to the Mon- 
 treal fur-market by way of the Ottawa River. 
 
 The canoe route from the Onondaga Nation to Canada passing 
 down the Oswego River skirted the eastern shore of Ontario to 
 Stony Creek in the present town of Henderson; a mile up this stream 
 there was a short "carry" to the head of Henderson Harbor; here the 
 ror.te divided ; the one to the Ottawa following the lake islands. Stony, 
 the Galloups and the Ducks, to the northern shore, and thence by 
 the Cadaraqui River, on which Kingston now stands, and by the Ri- 
 deau to the Ottawa ; the St. Lawrence route passed from Henderson 
 into Chaumont Bay, where the voyager could cross to the river by 
 the "Long" or "Short Carrying Place" on Point Penninsula, or pad- 
 dle up Chaumont River to the head of navigation, from which a port- 
 age of six miles brought him to French Creek at Clayton.'' 
 
 From the Oneida country two routes passed through this section. 
 'j"he first, and most generaly travelled, began with a long "carry'' 
 fiom Oneida Lake to the Salmon River at some distance from its 
 mouth and thence to Ontario where it followed the Onondaga route.^^ 
 The second was froni the Mohawk up West Canada Creek, thence 
 through the forest to the headwaters of the Black River, down which 
 the Oneida paddled to the neighborhood of the present site of the 
 village of Great Bend, where he took a trail which soon 
 brought him to the Indian River; here again launching his canoe 
 he followed the winding stream to Black Lake, from which he 
 reached the St. Lawrence by the Oswegatchie River.^' 
 
 It has been necessary in these reinarks concerning the Iroquois and 
 'heii routes through this region to consider some things, which come 
 
42 .ii:ri'i:R>().\ corsTV < emessial. 
 
 chronologically later, but the intimate connection of this people with 
 ovii subject both prehistorically and historically, has compelled this di- 
 gression. 
 
 Irorjuois Myth and Tradition. 
 
 The Indians of North America possessed strong imaginative 
 povsers, which found expression in the poetic imagery of their orators 
 and the folk-lore of their medicine-men. In two of the tales, which 
 were often repeated in the "long-houses" of the Confederacy, this re- 
 gion prominently figures. One is purely mythical ; the other, tradi- 
 tional. 
 
 1 he myth is one of several concerning the origin of the Iroquois 
 race.^- Upon the banks of one of the small streams flowing northward 
 itito the south branch of Sandy Creek, where the rocks are piled in 
 contused heaps and where once stood a grove of giant pines, there is- 
 sued from a subterranean world by ? way torn open by the thunder 
 blast of "Ha-wen-ne-yu," the Great Spirit, a red-skinned man and wo- 
 man. Following down the little rivulet to the larger stream the pair 
 rcioicing in their new-found world of light, built their hut where the 
 salmon crowded the rapids in floodtime, where the beaver abounded, 
 'I'lJ where the woods were filled with moose and elk. Here in the 
 forest gloom of this hunter's paradise the first Iroquois reared their 
 ihiM'-en and founded a race of future conquerors. Such was the 
 leqi-nd recounted to mary a band of Iroquois mourners, who gathered 
 ■n *.he hut of the deceased after the funeral rites had been performed. 
 
 The tradition which has to do with this section is one concerning the 
 mip ration of the ancestors of the Five Nations from the neighborhood 
 of Montreal to their later home in central New York.^-^ When the 
 Iroquois were but one nation and few in number, so the tale runs, they 
 lived along the northern shore of the St. Lawrence below its rapids 
 engaged in the peaceful pursuit of agriculture.^' Here they were 
 conquered by a savage tribe from the upper Ottawa, who lived solely 
 by the cha-^e and who often during severe winters were forced to 
 sustain life by eating the buds and young bark of trees, from which 
 tin iimstance the Iroquois termed them "Adirondacks", which means 
 'tree-eaters."^ ' 
 
 The brutal t\ranny >of their conquerors at last compelled the un- 
 warlike Irotiuois to open rebellion. Unsuccessful in their endeavor the 
 vanquished fled up the St. Lawrence to escape the wrath of their mas- 
 ters. This flight was not one of a night ror of weeks but (foubtless 
 cccupied years, the fu"itives repeatedly fa-^ing their foe a^-d gaining 
 \\ai'ikr ><kill by constant bntrlc. Along the St. Lawrence and through 
 the woodlands of Ontario's <'a<tcrn shore ttie nation slowlv retired con- 
 
.ii<:rFi':RS()\ corxrv (i:xTi:y.\i.iL. 13 
 
 lending stubbornly for the new villages which they constructed, until 
 ilnally, hopeless of peace, they turned inland, and crossing the ridges 
 of the Lesser Wilderness or following up the Oswego River they 
 founded a new home far away from the land* of the Adirondacks.^^ 
 
 !t is but natural, as the legend unfolds and the long struggle foi 
 existence and freedom passes up the St. Lawrence to the shores of 
 the lake that the mind should turn instinctively to the earthworks 
 scattered through this county.. 
 
 Was it here that the ancestors of the great Confederacy made their 
 l:i«t stand before crossing the highlands into the valleys of the Mohawk 
 and Onondaga? Was it here that the first Iroquois developed their 
 wjli-like characteristics which made their posterity the scourge of east- 
 ern North America? An affirmative answer is mere conjecture based 
 upon a tradition retold by generations, and yet it presents a possible 
 oplijnation of the grass-grown trenches and ramparts, which invite 
 the thought and co-'sideration of the curious and the scholarly. 
 
 Samuel lie Chatii plain. ^' 
 
 The historic period of this region begins with the adventurous expe- 
 dition of Champlain, in the ear'.y years of the 17th century, to the 
 v.estern waters of the St. Lawrence system. There are four figures 
 pre-eminent in the history of New France — Jacques Carrier, the dis- 
 covcre'- of the St. Lawrence ; Samuel de Champlain, the explorer of the 
 Great I akes ; Rene Robert Cavalier, Sieur de La Salle, who gave the 
 West to France ; and Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac, the great- 
 est of the royal governors. Of these four the last three landed on 
 these shores. 
 
 Samuel de Cham.iiaiii, ilie son of a Biscayan mariner, was in 1603 
 commissioned by Her ^y of Navarre to explore the regions discovered 
 by Cart'er. Possessed of a powerful frame, indomitable energy and 
 absolute fearlessness, this Frerch sa-'lor. already experienced in the ha- 
 zards of the western o ean. was well ritted to undertake the mission. 
 For twelve years h-^ ;'\'ilored the eastern territory about the Gulf of 
 St. LaxA'rence, but in July, 161 s. he set out with two white compan- 
 ions and several Irdians to visit the distant country of the Hurons ly- 
 ing about Georgian Pay and Lake Simcoe. Having reached his des- 
 tination I/y wa\ ot I'lc (;it;"p River Champlain joined a large war- 
 party, which was about to proceed against the Iroquois, and paddling 
 do-A-n the River Trent reached Ontario at the entrance of the Bay 
 of Quinte.^^. 
 
 We can picture the bearded and sun-browned Frenchman in hi« 
 steel cap and cuirass, his leathern garments stained and torn by the for- 
 
4J .li:FFi:iiS(>.\ cnl'STY ( i:.\Ti:.\ .\ LI L. 
 
 chronolo-iically later, but the intimate connection of this people with 
 oui subject both prehistorically and historically, has compelled this di- 
 gression. 
 
 Iroquois Myth anil Tradition. 
 
 The Indians of North America possessed strong imaginative 
 powers, which found expression in the poetic imagery of their orators 
 and the folk-lore of their medicine-men. In two of the Cales, which 
 were often repeated in the "long-houses" of the Confederacy, ttiis re- 
 gion prominently figures. One is purely mythical ; the other, tradi- 
 tional. 
 
 The myth is one of several concerning the origin of the Iroquois 
 race.i- Upon the banks of one of the small streams flowing northward 
 iiito the south branch of Sandy Creek, where the rocks are piled in 
 confused heaps and where once stood a grove of giant pines, there is- 
 sued from a subterranean world by ? way torn open by the thunder 
 bhist of "Ha-wen-ne-yu," the Great Spirit, a red-skinned man and wo- 
 man. Following down the little rivulet to the larger stream the pair 
 rcioicing in their new-found world of light, built their hut where the 
 salmon crowded the rapids in floodtime, where the beaver abounded, 
 mmJ where the woods were filled with moose and elk. Here in the 
 forest gloom of this hunter's paradise the first Iroquois reared their 
 child'-en and founded a race of future conquerors. Such was the 
 legend recounted to mary a band of Iroquois mourners, who gathered 
 •n -.he hut of the deceased after the funeral rites had been performed. 
 
 The tradition which has to do with this section is one concerning the 
 n:ipration of the ancestors of the Five Nations from the neighborhood 
 of Montreal to their later home in central New York.^-^ When the 
 Iroquois were but one nation and few in number, so the tale runs, they 
 lived along the northern shore of the St. Lawrence below its rapids 
 engaged in the peaceful pursuit of agriculture.^^ Here they were 
 conquered bv a savaee tribe from the upper Ottawa, who lived solely 
 by the cha-^e and who often during severe winters were forced to 
 sustain life by eating the buds and young bark of trees, from which 
 cinumstance the Iroquois termed them "A(lironda';ks", which means 
 ''tree-eaters."' ' 
 
 The brutal tyranny >nf their conquerors at last compelled the un- 
 warlike Iroquois to open rebellion. Unsuccessful in their endeavor the 
 vanquished fled up the St. Lawrence to escape the wrath of their mas- 
 ters. This flight was not one of a night ror of we^^ks but cToubtless 
 fifupied vears, the fu"'itives repeatedlv ia-ing their foe a-^d gaining 
 warlike skill bv constar-t birtlc. Alone the St. I awrence and through 
 the woodlands of (">ntario's castrrn shore the nation slowlv retired con- 
 
JKrFl'JRSOA COlWry CILXTlLyM.IL. 13 
 
 lending stubbornly for the new villages which they constructed, until 
 nii.-ilJy, hopeless of peace, they turned inland, and crossing the ridges 
 of the Lesser Wilderness or following up the Oswego River they 
 founded a new home far away from the land* of the Adirondacks.^^ 
 
 !t is but natural, as the legend unfolds and the long struggle foi 
 existence and freedom passes up the St. Lawrence to the shores of 
 the lake that the mind should turn instinctively to the earthworks 
 scattered through this county.. 
 
 Was it here that the ancestors of the great Confederacy made their 
 !'i«t stand before crossing the hiehlands into the valleys of the Mohawk 
 and Onondaga? Was it here that the first Iroquois developed their 
 wjl'-like characteristics which made their posterity the scourge of east- 
 ern North America? An affirmative answer is mere conjecture based 
 upon a tradition retold by generations, and yet it presents a possible 
 e>p!«nation of the grass-grown trenches and ramparts, which invite 
 the thought and corsideratfon of the curious and the scholarly. 
 
 Sdmuel de CJianipldlii?' 
 
 The historic period of this region begins with the adventurous expe- 
 dition of Champlain, in the ear'.y years of the 17th century, to the 
 v/estern waters of the St. Lawrence system. There are four figures 
 pre-eminent in the history of New France — Jacques Cartier, the dis- 
 covere" of the St. Lawrence ; Samuel de Champlain, the explorer of the 
 Great I akes ; Rene Robert Cavalier, Sieur de La Salle, who gave the 
 West to France; and Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac, the great- 
 est of the royal governors. Of these fovir the last three landed on 
 these shores. 
 
 Samuel de Chamiiain, the son of a Biscayan mariner, was in 1603 
 commissioned i!y Her ly of Navarre to explore the regions discovered 
 by Carf'er. Posscs>^C(I of a powerful frame, indomitable energy and 
 absolute fearlessness, this Frerch sa'lor. already experienced in the ha- 
 zards of the western o.:ean. v as well ritted to undertake the mission. 
 For twelve years hr* ;'\;)lored the eastern territory about the Gulf of 
 St. Lawrence, but in July, 161 5. he set out with two white compan- 
 ions and several Indians to visit the distant country of the Hurons ly- 
 ing about Georgian Pay and Lake Simcoe. Having reached his des- 
 tination I,y wa> of I'lc ()\\:^^-7\ River Champlain joined a large war- 
 party, which was about to proceed against the Iroquois, and paddling 
 do-\n the River Trent reached Ontario at the entrance of the Bay 
 of Quinte.^^. 
 
 We can picture the bearded and sun-browned Frenchman in hi« 
 steel cap and cuirass, his leathern garments stained and torn by the for- 
 
Mi .lEFi'i'iRsoy coiwrv (j:.\ti:.\m.il. 
 
 Two years later (1663) the valley of St. Lawrence was visited by 
 an earthquake, of which the historian Charlevoix gives a most vivid 
 description.--. Beginning in February with tremendous upheavals 
 which overthrew mountains and changed the beds of rivers causing 
 ing the greatest terror among the colonists, already harassed and dis- 
 heartened by the depredations of the savages, the seismic disturbances 
 continued until August becoming less and less frequent. Unfortu- 
 nately there was no scientific observation or report of the result of 
 the earthquake, so it is impossible to say what topographical changes 
 took place, or to what degree it affected this region. 
 
 Courcelles and LaSalle. 
 
 W^hen the fortunes of Canada had reached their lowest ebb Dan- 
 iel de Remi, Seigneur de Courcelles, arrived as governor with the 
 Marquis de Tracy as royal intendant. The governor's energetic 
 j'oiicy of retaliation upon the Mohawks brought rest to the wearied 
 colony. Negotiations for peace were renewed and the route to the 
 Onondaga country was again frequented by white men. 
 
 It was about this time that Cavalier, better known to the world as 
 La Salle arrived at Montreal. He was a young man not thirty 
 year-^ old, when, tempted by the tales told by Seneca traders of a 
 great ri\er flowing westward from the lands south of Ontario, he 
 or-^anized a small pnrty to visit the unknown stream hoping that it 
 W')uld be found to empty intt) the Great South Sea. In seven can- 
 o-- La Sa'le and his companions paddled up the St. Lawrence, and 
 passing by the usual Indian route through this region he followed 
 the lake shore to Irondequot Hay. Here we must leave the daring 
 young explorer, though he \\ ill be fou'nl later in this neighborhood. 
 
 Canada now entereil upon a period of rapid growth and develop- 
 ment, as the direct result of thr ailininistration of her able intendant. 
 Jean Baptiste Talon. He had at i^^'^cc reconiized the strategic im- 
 portance of the \\-ater\\ a\- af the eastern end of (Ontario, and in 1 670 
 rtrongly advoiatcd thr rsrahlishnient in rliat region of a military post 
 garrisoned with a hundred men and furnished with a galley which 
 could be used to intercept the Iroquois war-parties passing between 
 H.*nderson Bay and the Cadaraqui River or the St. Lawrence. 
 3o»)n after recording this suggestion and apparenth upon further in- 
 formation he adxised the t-onstnirtion of two posts, the one on the 
 nort'i side, and other on the south side of the lake at its outlet.-^ 
 Ihi^ortunately for the future peace of New France this latter phwi 
 was either disapproved or ignored. 
 
Governor Courcelles, perceiving, however, the necessity of protect- 
 ing the Ottawa River from Iroquois depredations and making it a 
 safe highway for the transportation of furs from the west, deter- 
 mined to personally inspect the region about the outlet of Ontario 
 w hich seemed to be the key to tlie situation. He therefore set out 
 from Montreal on June 3, 1671, with fifty-six companions. In or- 
 d^r to impress the Indians with French ability he managed with 
 much difl:culty to drag up the rapids of the St. Lawrence a flat-bot- 
 tomed galley of two or three tons burthen. On the 12th of June he 
 (\ terrd Ontario. 
 
 Here he found encamped in the bays of the eastern shore engaged 
 in fishing and hunting a number of Iroquois, who had been apprised 
 of his coming by the Jesuit Simon le Moyne, whom the Governor 
 had dispatched in advance to proclaim his pacific intentions. Some- 
 where on the shores of Chaumont, Henderson or Black River Bay 
 Courcelles met the hunters, expressed to them his desire for their 
 friendship and trade, and gave them letters for tht missionaries lab- 
 oring in their villages. Satisfied with the wonder caused by his gal- 
 ley and with the friendliness of the savages the Governor returned 
 to Montreal convinced more than ever of the necessity of garrison 
 ing the outlet of Lake Ontario 
 
 The chronicler of the expedition, while making much of the diffi- 
 culties encountered in ascending the rapids of the St. Lawrence 
 describes another annoyance with which those who today journey 
 through the northern forests in June and July are unpleasantly fa- 
 mi'ar. It was the mosquito or black fly; and of it the writer gave 
 this vivid description: "It is a fly, similar to the French gnat, so tor- 
 menting that a vast number of them are constantly around you, 
 seeking an opportunity to light on the face or parts of the body pro- 
 tected merely by a slight covering easily pierced by their sting, and 
 are no sooner down than they suck blood, in place of which they de- 
 posit a species of poison, that excites a strange itching with a small 
 tumor which lasts three or four days."-^ One can imagine Seigneur 
 tie Courcelles, famous for his elegance of manner and superbness ot 
 dress, his face distorted with the venomous bites of the insects, slap- 
 ping, scratching and cursing with all the vehemance but none of the 
 grace for which the courtiers of "Le Grand Monarch" were ever re- 
 nowned. 
 
 J'-riiYil of the Coriite de Frontenac. 
 
 The year after this expedition its leader was forced to retire from 
 the governorship on account of ill health. He was succeeded by the 
 Comte de Frontenac. The new governor was a man of exceptional 
 
4s .ii:Fri:iis<)\ (Oiwty cemesmal. 
 
 ability and strength of character, though with extravagant tastes 
 which he did not hesitate to gratify with money often obtained by 
 very questionable means. He furthermore aroused the antipathy of the 
 clergy by his high-handed methods, and it was chiefly through their 
 efiForts that he was finally recalled. 
 
 Frontenac immediately perceived the necessity of controlling the 
 cistern end of Lake Ontario, and in 1673, the year after his arrival, 
 he determined to inspect the region.--^ Having sent forward La Salle 
 to the Onondagas to invite them to a council on the north side of 
 the Lake, he started up the St. Lawrence and reached Ontario be- 
 fore the Indian deputies arrived. While awaiting their coming the 
 Governor personally explored the eastern shore visiting the bays and 
 islnnds of this section. 
 
 On the arrival of the Indians a great council, occupying several 
 days, took place at Cadaraqui ; and there Frontenac remained some 
 time entertaining the Iroquois and extending his examination of the 
 southern shore, until his men had completed a log fort, which with 
 characteristic modesty he named "Frontenac" as he subsequently did 
 the lake which it was intended to guard. 
 
 La Salle and Fort Frontenac. ' \ 
 
 La Salle, whose ability and enterprise appealed to the energetic 
 jiovernor, was shortly after the return of the expedition to Monti eal 
 {.M'ven the command of the new post. Loving adventure and rest- 
 less by disposition the young commandant often visited the islands 
 ;ind shores on this side of the lake, A\'hich he reported to abound with 
 elk, deer, bear, otter and the grey moose. In his correspondence may 
 also be found accurate descriptions of the wild fruits indigenous to 
 the soil.2c 
 
 In 1675 La Salle was granted a patent of nobility; and, upon 
 condition that he construct a stone fort and garrison it, he was given 
 scignorial authority over Fort Frontenac and the islands opposite it, 
 together with the fishing rights over Ontario and its rivers.-" The 
 lake abounded in white fish, lake trout and other food fish, and the 
 streams swarmed with salmon and brook trout. Even in the early 
 part of the last century enormous catches of salmon were made in the 
 Ellisburgh creeks. It was over these waters that Sieur de la Salle 
 held the exclu'^i\ c, but then iiseles'^ Privilege of taking fish ; and the 
 grant also included the equally valueless monopoly of hunting on 
 ihf lake shores. 
 
 T he Comte de Frontenac was accustomed to make an annual visit 
 fo the fort on the Cadaraqui, often extending his journey to the east- 
 
JI'JFFhJRSOX COrXTV CE.XTESMAL. 19 
 
 ern shore of the lake, where he seems to have had in view the possi- 
 biiitj' of establishing another post, as the Intendant Talon had advo- 
 cated.-^ 
 
 1 1 en nc pi II.''* 
 
 It was at this time that I.ouis Hennepin, a Reccolet friar (who 
 subsequently published a book of his travels containing the fir.t pic- 
 ture of Niagara Falls and other interesting illustrations) was sta- 
 tioned at Fort Frontenac to labor among the Indians encamped on 
 the Cadaraqui and the Bay of Quinte. In the winter of 1677 accom- 
 panied by a soldier of the garrison he crossed the frozen lalce on 
 ^now shoes to this region and thence made his way through the for- 
 est to Onondaga. He visited the Oneida and Mohawk villages, 
 from which turning northward the two companions crossed the wat- 
 ershed between the Mohawk and Black Rivers, and following down 
 the latter to Ontario finally arrived safely at Fort Frontenac. 
 
 Though the Chevalier de la Salle carried on an extensive trade 
 uith the Indians at Cadaraqui he failed to make the venture a fin- 
 ancial success and in 1682 the Marquis de la Barre, who had' suc- 
 ceeded Frontenac as governor, seized the seigniory during La Salle's 
 absence in the Mississippi counfry on the ground that it was forfeit- 
 ed because the fort had not been maintained. 
 
 Ln Barrels Expcititioii to La Faiiiitw.^^ 
 
 Meanwhile the Iroquois, grown arrogant by their successes against 
 the Indian allies of the French in the west, treated the garrison of 
 Frontenac with increasing insolence, intercepted the canoes bringing 
 furs from the upper lakes, and even plundered the bark with which 
 the French navigated Ontario. ^^ The disorders continued to in- 
 crease in spite of the embassy of Charles Ic Moyne, the most famous 
 Indian fighter in Canada, who in 1683 passed through this region to 
 the Seneca country returning to Montreal with deputies from that 
 nation. •'^^ Impelled by renewed outrages of the Iroquois, particular- 
 ly frgainst the Illinois, La Barre, a feeble and timid old man, decid- 
 ed finallv to conduct a punitive expedition against the Senecas, who 
 vvere the chief ofifenders. Collecting an army of eight hundred 
 whites and two hundred Indians he proceeded to Fort Frontenac ar- 
 riving there August 9, 1684. 
 
 Immediately on his arrival the governor despatched the Jesuit 
 Jacques de Lamberville to his elder brother Jean, who was resident 
 among the Onondagas, with the request that the latter use their in- 
 fluence with that nation to persuade the Senecas to an amicable set- 
 
50 JRFFERSoy (OL MY (EMEXMAIj. 
 
 tlement of the differences between them and the French. At the 
 same time he sent forward Sieur D'Orvilliers with two brigades and 
 a party of Indian scouts to La F'amine, which, La Barre reported 
 was "a post favorable for fishing and hunting." A week later hav- 
 ing leceived word that the Onondagas intended to send delegates to 
 council with him, the governor embarked in his batteaux and canoes 
 for La Famine. 
 
 The location of La Famine has been a subject of much controver- 
 sy and discussion. After carefully weighing the evidence it seems 
 probable that the place of meeting between La Barre and the Onon- 
 dagas was at the mouth of Sandy Creek in Ellisburgh. No other 
 spot seems to so fully coincide with the conditions described."''^ 
 
 The force which \l. de la Barre led across Ontario to the marshy 
 shores of this locality must have presented a strange appearance to 
 one familiar with the usual order and discipline of a military expedi- 
 tion. Of over one thousand men but one hundred and thirty were 
 regular troops. The remainder consisted of peasant militiamen, ad- 
 venturers, coureurs de bois, Hurons, Ottawas, and Algonkins, with 
 a number of Iroquois, who having been converted by the Jesuits had 
 removed to Canada settling near Montreal and on the Bay of Quinte. 
 
 Of this little anr.y the least amenable to discipline and the most 
 picturesque were the coureurs de bois, unique products of the wilder- 
 ness who had abandoned civilization for the freedom — or rather the 
 license — of the forest.^^ A writer of the time says, that many of 
 them had become veritable barbarians wearing the clout, leggms and 
 head-dress of the Indians, their black beards and hair hanging ovei 
 their naked breasts and shoulders, which exposure had bronzed to 
 the color of their savage companions. They even employed foi- 
 adornment vermillion war-paint and brass earrings; scalped their en 
 einies; tortured their captives; indulged in the war-dance; uttered 
 :he war-whoop; and were the prey of superstition like the Indian^ 
 whom they imitated. 
 
 These strange adopted sons of the wilderness play an interesting 
 part in tlie border wars of Canada, now aiding and now resisting the 
 French authorities, ambushing English and Dutch fur-traders in the 
 west smuggling beaver-skins from the Ottawa to Fort (Grange, or 
 guiding a devoted prirst through the forests. (lovernor Denon- 
 ville said of them, that they were "tall and well-made, robust and 
 active, and accustomed to live on little;" but that they were "guilty 
 of an infinitude of disorders," a'-d that "the most frightful crimes" 
 were perpetuated hv "tlie young warriors and the French who resort 
 
.TEFFERSOy COIWTV CEXTETS S I A L. 51 
 
 to the woods." Uneducated, impatient of restraint, brutish in life, 
 trufl and passionate, the coureurs de bois were a most uncertain 
 factor in mih'tary operations. •'^•'' 
 
 Starting from Fort Frontenac the galleys and canoes af La Barre, 
 after battling with a strong head wind and high sea, reached Gal- 
 loup or Stony Island, where they passed the night, and arrived at La 
 Famine in the evening of the next day. There the Governor found 
 the vanguard under D'Orvilliers suffering with m.any cases of au 
 intormittant fever, wliich was probably the same a^ the malarial 
 *'lake fever" to which, the Rev. Mr. Taylor says, the early settlers 
 ol EHisburgh were subject while cutting hay in the marshes. To 
 add to the discomfort and depression of the army, dampness spoiled 
 large quantities of the bread which had been baked at Frontenac, and 
 a scarcity of provisions was imminent.-^''. 
 
 When the Iroquois deputies arrived on September 3rd, they found 
 La Earre, who had then been two weeks at La Famine N\t\\ his tev- 
 er-stricken and half-starved followers, ready to make peace on almost 
 any terms. The council was brief and, through the influence of a 
 Seneca chieftain who was present but took no part in the discussions, 
 France, by the treaty which was signed on the 4th, ignominiously 
 abandoned her western allies, becoming practically neutral in the war 
 f.f extermination which the Senecas were waging against the Illinois. 
 Immediately on the conclusion of the council the French set out for 
 Fort Fro"terar, abandoning ma'^y of their canoes and some of theit 
 batteaux because there were not enough men free from disease to man 
 them. 
 ■ The Jeuit lean de I amberville. who from the first had advocated 
 peace rather than punishment, hailed La Barre as "the Liberator of 
 his Country "^" but Lewis XIV was not equally pleased. He in- 
 formed the Intendant de Meules that he was much dissatisfied with 
 tl.e outcome of the expedition and was "seriously displeased" at the 
 abandoment of the Illinois, the allies of France. At the same time 
 the king wrote to La Barre relieving him from the governorship, po- 
 litely adding "your years do not permit you to support the fatigues 
 inseperable from the duties of your office."""^ So ended La Barre's 
 American career. He was succeeded by the Marquis Denonville. 
 
 D en ri viUc 's Expcditio //.•'•' 
 
 The new governor found affairs along the St. Lawrence in a very 
 satisfactory state, but in the west it was far different. The Senecas 
 with many of the Mohawks were vigorously prosecuting the war in 
 the Illinois country, burning villages, laying waste the fields, and 
 
.-,.' .ii:ri'h:R^<>.\ cor my cestesmai.. 
 
 murdering thousands. In order to divert the Senecas from theii 
 prey and to force their war-parties to return from the west, Denon- 
 ville determined to invade their territory. 
 
 About the time that this expedition was to set out from Montreal, 
 D'Orvilliers, the commandant at Fort Frontenac, seized by the gov- 
 ernor's order, forty Iroquois encamped near the fort engaged in trade 
 and sent them bound to Montreal. This was done for fear that these 
 savages, though friendly to the French, might warn their kinsmen 
 of the impending invasion.'" It was an ill-judged act which bore 
 bitter fruit. 
 
 Denonville, accompanied by the Chevalier de Vaudreuil, arrived 
 at Fort Froiiterac on July ist. nSy, with seventeen hundred troops; 
 and on the 4th the expedition in one hundred and forty batteaux and 
 a large number of canoes set out for the Iroquois country "by way 
 of La Famine." (^n the same day they very opportunely reached the 
 "Island named des Galots", for a tempest swept over the lake short- 
 ly after their arrival. All that night and the following day the 
 storm continued, and ft was not until noon of the 6th that the 
 batteaux could again be launched and the journey renewed. Before 
 eveninii Deronville's boats had been drawn out on the sandy beaches 
 near La Famine, where it would appear from later documents he 
 established a temporary r<'^t to iiuard his line of communication.^^ 
 In returning from the expedition the Governor crossed the lake near 
 Niairara and followed the northern shore to Frontenac, thus circum- 
 navigating the lake anu not a second time visiting this region. 
 
 It is of interest to note that the converted Iroquois who accompan- 
 ied Denonville were led by Kryn. "Le Grand Anie" (the Great Mo- 
 hawk), as he was called by the French,^- who two \ears later directed 
 the savages in the attack upon Schenectady and became notorious as a 
 marauder along the New F.ngland border.'' 
 
 The Sfrata^y of Kondiaronk:^^ 
 
 Another event, which occurred at this time and in this section, 
 aroused the Onordaeas and Oneidas even more than the unprovoked 
 seizure of their warriors near Front Frontenac. Kondiaronk. better 
 known as "Le Rat."^"' a chieftain of the Dinondailies living at Michil- 
 li-nacinac. was suspected bv the French of secret dealings with the 
 Iroquois. The rumor reached the ears of the chief, and in order to 
 convince his white friends of his fidelity and to secure their friend- 
 ship he organized a war-par^y and set out for the Iroquois country by 
 way of Fort Frontenac. Arriving at the post Kondiaronk found that, 
 as a result of Denonville's expedition, the C^neldas and Onondagas 
 
.iiJFi'KRSOA (oiwrv <'i:\ri:.\.\i.iL. 5S 
 
 were disposed toward peace, and that their envoys were expected to 
 pass Frontenac within a few days on their way to Montreal. The 
 commandant urjied the Dinondadies, therefore, to return home lest 
 thi-ir presence might cause the Iroquois to be suspicious of the inten- 
 tions of the French. 
 
 Kondiaronk seemingly complied with the request and led his war- 
 party out of the fort. But it was not his purpose to allow the peace 
 ne^'.otiatiops to continue, if he could prevent them, fearing that friend- 
 ship between the French and Iroquois would be injurious to the in- 
 terests of his nation. Crossing the lake by a circuitous route the 
 chieftain concealed his warriors near the portage between Stony Creek 
 and Henderson Harbor.*'^ Tw'o days later the unsuspecting envoys 
 with forty companions arrived and were suddenly attacked by Kondi- 
 aronk and his men. The surprise was complete, all of the Iroquois 
 being killed or captured. 
 
 The chieftain now exhibited a shrewdness, for which he was fam- 
 ous. He gave his captives to understand that he had ambushed them 
 by direction of the French authorities; and they in turn told him ot 
 their mission and the promised safe-guard of the Governor. Upon 
 hearing that the party which he had attacked were envoys, Kondiaronk 
 evinced the greatest astonishment and, as Dr. Colden says, pretended 
 "to grow Mad and Furious" declaring that he would "be Revenged o\ 
 him (the Governor) for making a Tool of him to commit such 
 horrid Treachery." Bew^ailing the fact that he had attacked the sa- 
 cred persons of ambassadors through ignorance of their office, the 
 wily chieftain as evidence of his sincerity set free his prisoners and 
 furnished them w\x\\ arms and ammunition. Completely deceived the 
 Iroquois assured him of the gratitude of their people and turned back 
 to their country. 
 
 Kondiaronk immediately recrossed the lake to Front Frontenac, pre- 
 sented himself before the commandant and exclaimed, "I have killed 
 the peace." Without vouchsafing further explanation to the astonished 
 officer he rejoined his warriors and was soon on his way to Michilli- 
 macrinac. The results were all that the crafty savage could have de~ 
 sired ; from one end of the Confederacy to the other sounded the war- 
 songs and steamed the war-kettles, while the war-posts bristled wn'th 
 hatchets as their owners, daubed wn'th the paint of battle, vowed ven- 
 g,anre against the treacherous Frenchmen. 
 
 While hundreds of the infuriated Iroquois sought the lower St. 
 Lawrence by the way of Lake Champlain killing and capturing 
 scores upon scores of the settlers about Montreal, others equally en- 
 raged turned to the stone fort upon the Cadaraqui. Charlevoix 
 
rA .lEI'l'ERSoy (Or.XTY CICMBXyLll.. 
 
 says that Lake Op.tario, "was coxered with the enemy's canoes." 
 Party after party from the Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca cantons 
 paddled along the lagoons of Ellisburgh, crossed the portage at 
 Stony Creek and passed northward through Henderson Bay toward 
 Frontenac. The fort was invested. A few of the garrison fell 
 into the hands of the savages and as wretched captives passed 
 through this region on their way to an agonizing death in the 
 fires of the Iroquois villages. At last the defenders, few in number 
 and hopeless of relief, destroyed their supplies, threw their can- 
 non into the bay, scuttled their vessels, and blowing up the walls of 
 the fort n:ade good their escape to Montreal.^' 
 
 The abandonment of the Cadaraqui station and also the fort at 
 Niagara was a serious blow to the prestige of the French arms. The 
 Iroquois controlled Lake Ontario, and the route at the eastern end of 
 the lake, which led to the Ottawa, was open to their warriors. Band 
 after band sought that highway to the west plundering and murder- 
 ing the traders as they passed down the river with their bales of furs 
 lor the Canadian market. For a time the trade was paralyzed, and 
 the chief source of revenue for New France was cut of¥. 
 
 Frontcruu's Exprtlilion A i^ainst the () no-idcf^as.^^ 
 
 In this extremity the Court of V^ersailles, forgetting the short-com- 
 ings of the Comte de Frontenac and remembering only his energy and 
 ability, sent him out aeain as governor of the colo ^. Although the 
 Iroquois had boastfully declared that the fort on the Cadaraqui should 
 never be rebuilt, the sturdy governor sent a strong force to the place 
 in 1O95 and soon the white flag of France again floated anove the 
 stone bastions of Fort Frontenac.^" 
 
 To still further impress the Onornlagas — the ration he deemed 
 most dangerous to French interest in the west — Frontenac de- 
 termined to invade their territory and chastise them for their active 
 hostility to France. Early in July, 1696, taking command in 
 person he departed from IVIontreal with two thousand men in- 
 cluding a large number of Indian allies. In advance of the van- 
 guard went fifty coureurs de bois and Abcnakis tmder the com- 
 mand of Mantet, notorious as the officer who directed the sack of 
 Schenectady in 1690.''" On July i8tli the army arrixed at Fort 
 Frontenac. Eight days later riiey departed in hatteaux and 
 
 lanoes and arrived at (irenadier Island w here they encamped, Mantet 
 and ius scouts keeping well In adxaiue of the main body. 
 The day following the expedition made its camp on the Ellisburgh 
 sands and on the 28tli entered the Oswego River. 
 
JEFFERSON <'l>rXTy CEM'EAM.IE. 55 
 
 Three weeks later the courageous old nobleman, far past his 
 "three score years and ten", feeble In body but indomitable in will, is- 
 sued with his transports from the mouth of the Oswego. He had suc- 
 ceeded in humbling the haughty Onondagas, and had forced the On- 
 eidas to sue for peace. In spite of a severe gale the fleet started on its 
 homeward journey covering ten leagues the first day. The chronicler 
 of the expedition says: "The navigation is quite dangerous for canoes 
 and batteaux; the waves extraordinarily high and the land very dif- 
 iicult, there being numerous shoals in some places, and in others head- 
 lands against which the billows dash to a stupendous height." Here 
 IS evidently the impression made by a coasting voyage along the EUis- 
 biirgh shore and the cliffs of Stony Point. That night the army en- 
 camped "in a river," so the memoir states, though it was probably 
 in Henderson or Chauinont Hay, and the next day arrived at Fort 
 Frontenac. 
 
 From its rebuilding in 1695 until its capture by the English in 1758 
 the fort on the Cadaraqui was uninterruptedly maintained by the 
 French. To those experianced with the conditions existing the con- 
 trol of Lake Ontario became an important factor in the rivalry be- 
 tween England and France for the possesion of North America. Ca- 
 i.'adian officials were continually urging their home government to es- 
 tablish a military post on the south side of the lake, which with Fort 
 Frontenac and Fort Niagara would insure French control. The New 
 York authorities were equally importunate in their demands for funds 
 with which to erect a fort on the lake shore. Viewed from overseas 
 things looked much less important than they did in the provinces, and 
 neither the French nor English government appreciated the soundness 
 of the advice. As a result the state of affairs remained practically un- 
 changed for a quarter of a century, although France continued to ex- 
 tend and strengthen her chain of forts in the west. 
 
 Osivego.^^ 
 
 Governor Burnet of the Province of New York finally succeeded 
 in 1726 in securing funds to erect a fort at the mouth of the Oswego 
 River, where two years before a block house for trading purposes had 
 been built. The following spring the work was commenced and soon 
 Completed though not without protest and menace on the part of the 
 government of New France. 
 
 The French governor, the Marquis de Beauharnois, made formal 
 protest to Governor Burnet, and at the same time sent the Chevalier 
 Begon to Oswego.'^' Before reaching Fort Frontenac the Chevalier 
 sent runners to the Onondagas and Oneidas requesting an interview. 
 
.-,() .lEFFERSOy roiWTY CKMEXNIAL. 
 
 In icsponse envoys from the two nations met him on the "He aux Ga- 
 lots," where the council-fire was kindled, the pipe of peace smoked, and 
 several days were passed in feasting and speech-making. Before leav- 
 ing the island the Iroquois promised that they would insist upon the 
 immediate withdrawal of the English from their lands- -a promise 
 which they never fulfilled and probably never intended to. Elated 
 with the result of this it^terview Regon proceeded to Oswego and form- 
 ailv demanded the demolition of the fort. The demand was ignored 
 by the English commander, and the Chevalier returned to Montreal 
 having accomplished nothing by his mission. 
 
 The succeeding thirty years are uneventful in the history of this 
 region. Both governments continued to strengthen their respf^ctive 
 outposts and to watch with jealous eye the operations of the otiier. 
 France constructed two or three small vessels at Fort Frontenac, and 
 immediately England did the same at Oswego. These vessels built by 
 the rivals seem to have been modelled on lines very similar to the 
 flat-bottomed, sloop-rigged scows, which today navigate Ontario, ex- 
 cept that they were furnished with hanks of oars and carried an arma- 
 ment of sn^all cannon."'-^ 
 
 De Lery's Expedition J'* 
 
 7"he renewal of hostilities in 1755 after seven years of uncertain 
 peace had been anticipated. Governor Vaudreuil hastened reinforce- 
 mnnts to Niagara and Frontenac and planned an immediate attack 
 upon Oswego, which was however delayed on account of the lack of 
 artillery. The energy of the French governor, the intrigues of Jon- 
 caire, the famous coureur de bois, with the Senecas, and the effect of 
 the defeat of General Braddock upon the Indians placed the Eng- 
 lish outpost at Osweiio in grave peril. 
 
 In March, 1756, De Lery, a Canadian lieutenant of colonial troops, 
 led an expedition on snow-shoes from La Presentation (now Ogdens- 
 burii) an^ainst Fort Bull near the present site of Rome. D« Lery 
 passed through the eastern section of this county and, appearing sud- 
 denly before the English fort with Xwu lin-d'-d a''' fifty Ca-^adians 
 and a hundred India-^'s, romnelled its surrt-nlcr. Having destroyed 
 the stores which he found the French commander hastened northward 
 taking with him thirty prisoners. Among these was a trader, Robert 
 Eastburn. who wrote an account of his experiences as a captive. In- 
 stead of returning by the same route by which he had come De Lery 
 (;n reaching Black River appears to have followed its western and 
 southern banks to Ontario. Here he was fortunate in finding near 
 
the shore some batteaux from Fort Frontenac, which ferried him with 
 his men and prisoners across the mouth of the ri\-er, whence he 
 marched to the St. Lawrence and along its banks to La Presentation. 
 
 The French Camp on Slx-Toicn Point:''' 
 
 Doubtless the batteaux which were so opportunely in the neighbor- 
 hood of Black River Bay, were engaged in the transportation of troops 
 and supplies from Fort Frontenac to Si.\-'i own Point where, in ac- 
 cordance with Vaudreuil's plan against Oswego, a fortified camp was 
 f) be constructed. As soon as the ice in the lake had broken up suf- 
 ficiently for navigation (which seems to have been that year exception- 
 ally early), Captain de Villiers, one of the most famous partisan lead- 
 ers of Larada, was sent with eight hundred Canadians and In- 
 dians to establish a post "at the head of Nioure Bay," as the waters 
 of Henderson and Black River Bays were called. This camp was in- 
 tended as a base for scouting parties toward Oswego and the 
 Mohawk/'^*' 
 
 Within a few years the outlines of an entrenchment could be easily 
 traced on that portion of the point known now as "Warner's Island." 
 The work was a square with bastions at each corner, and extended be- 
 tween fifty and sixty feet on a side and was probably constructed of 
 logs set upright in the ground. Situated on the inner side of the point 
 this stockaded camp possessed exceptional advantages for watching the 
 channel between the mainland and Stony Island and the harbor from 
 which ran the portage to Stony Creek. It is appropriately named in 
 the documents "Camp de I'Observation." 
 
 Dr. Hough in his history of Jefferson County also mentions anoth- 
 er post established by the same officer at the mouth of Sandy Creek, 
 but it must have been of a very temporary character, since it does not 
 figure to any extent in the numerous papers referring to the period. 
 
 From the camp on Six-Town Point Villiers despatched scouts to 
 watch the English at Oswego, the garrison of which had been consid- 
 erably reinforced, and his Abenakis and Ottawas brought in many 
 scalps and prisoners.'^''' In the early part of June (1756) an English 
 sloop attended by eight galleys landed a party on the "He aux Galots" 
 who intended to remain some days on a reconnaissance. It happened 
 that a band of Villiers' Indians saw the landing, and they hastened 
 to the camp to notify their commander. Under cover of darkness » 
 force was sent in canoes to surprise the enemy. The enterprise was 
 successful; fifteen of the English were killed or captured, and among 
 the latter the commander of the scouting party. The remainder 
 managed to reach their vessels and made their escape to Oswego. 
 
58 .lEFFERSOX COiWTY CEyrEAXLiL. 
 
 First Kaval Battle on the Great Lakes.^^ 
 
 Between Fort Frontenac and Camp de I'Observation the French 
 vessels were constantly passing with men and supplies, carrying des- 
 patches, and incidentally guarding the approaches to the two posts. 
 "On the 25th June," writes Goverror Vaudreuil, "as our two Corsair* 
 were cruising between the "Islands of Couis (the Ducks) and the 
 Galots, one of them being near the Bay of Nioure got intelligence of « 
 schooner returning to Chauagen (Oswego)." The two French 
 vessels pursued the stranger but she managed to elude them. 
 
 The following day the two "corsairs" having spent the night in 
 Henderson Bay were returning to Fort Frontenac, when three Eng- 
 lish sails were sighted approaching from the Ducks. The French 
 iniinediately attacked them, and after putting two of the enemy's ves- 
 sels to flight captured a twenty-ton sloop with six sailors and eight 
 soldiers. This is noteworthy as the first naval battle which took place 
 upon the Great Lakes. It was fought in the neighborhood of Gal- 
 loup Island and close to the present boundary line between Canada 
 and Jefferson County. 
 
 Montcalm'!: Expedition Against OszcegoJ"^ 
 
 Meanwhile the Marquis de Montcalm had arrived in Canada to 
 t.'ike command of the military operations He found the preparations 
 for the attack upon Oswego almost completed; and, perceiving tht 
 strategic importance of the post, he determined to direct the expedition 
 in person. On July 2Qth he arrived at Fort Frontenac, where three 
 regiments of regulars/'" numbering thirteen hundred men, together 
 with seventeen hundred Canadians and Indians had already been as- 
 sembled. 
 
 An officer of the Regiment of La Sarre gives some interesting de- 
 taik of the expedition. On the day of Montcalm's arrival this regi- 
 ment embarked, encamped that night on Galloup Island, and on the 
 following day arrived at Camp de I'Observation, where they construct- 
 ed a number of ovens and commenced baking b^end for the army. On 
 Aueust 5th the main body left Fort Frontenac and proceeded to Gal- 
 loup Island wliere rh('\ were compelled to reira-n two days on account 
 of rouizh weather. On the 8th thev arrived at the camp in Nioure 
 Hay 
 
 At dawn on the <)th the iiiarih hf'an from the head of Henderson 
 Harbor, Canadian and Indian sco\irs scouring the woods in advance, 
 while the veteran irrenadiers of La Sarre led the van. Across the port- 
 age to Stony Creek and alonti the sands of FIli>^burgh toiled the French 
 i'.rmv'. All that day and the succeeding night the march continued. 
 
JEFFKRsoy coi wry ('ii:\Ti:.\.\i.iL. .59 
 
 1 he batteaux laden with artillery, ammunition, and provisions, having 
 rounded Stonj' Point, followed the troops. On the I2th Oswego 
 was beseiged and two days later capitulated. 
 
 Having razed the fortifications "from cellar to rafter," and, having 
 captured six sloops and a large quantity of munitions, Montcalm re- 
 turned to Nioure Bay with sixteen or seventeen hundred prisoners. 
 Among these was Colonel Peter Schuyler, nephew of the famous In- 
 dian commissioner Peter Schuyler, called by the Iroquois "Qulder 
 Schuyder," whose Influence had preserved to England the friendship of 
 the Confederacy during tht? latter part of the 17th century. At Camp 
 dc rObservation Montcalm left the Regiment of La Sarre to supervise 
 the transportation of the stores collected there, he himself with the 
 ri'st of the army proceeding directly to Fort Frontenac. 
 
 It is probable that during the year 1757 a small detachment was 
 stationed at the Nioure outpost, ^^ but the Immediate danger on the 
 western frontier having been removed by the destruction of Oswego, 
 the regular troops were recalled to take part in the campaign about 
 Crown Point. It would appear that by the close of the year Camp 
 de rObservation had been abandoned on account of the numerical 
 weakness of the Frontenac garrison. It was never again reoccupied. 
 
 Bradstrect's Expedition J^ainst Frontenac.'^- 
 
 In 1758 the English again took the offensive and General Brad- 
 jtreet with an army of four thousand men proceeded to Oswego and 
 marched thence along the lakeshore to Henderson Bay, where ou 
 August 26th he was discovered by Indian scouts from Fort Fronte- 
 nac. On the next day twenty-six hundred English appeared before 
 the fort, which surrendered without resistance since its garrison con- 
 sisted of but fifty-three men. Having burned the buildings and scuttled 
 five of the seven vessels in the port retaining only two twenty-ton 
 brigs, Bradstreet retired to Henderson Bay before he was intercepted 
 by the French troops already en route up the St. Lawrence. 
 
 Accompanying General Bradstreet in this expedition were Colonel 
 Phillip Schuyler and Captain Horatio Gates, the o"e to be honored 
 bv posterity for his magnanimous patriotism at the battle of Saratoga, 
 the other to be condemned for his jealous intrigues aiainst Srhuyler 
 r.nd Washing'on. A lieutenant in t'^e e p-dltlo'^ was Ge)r c Clinton, 
 who became New York's governor and a v'ce-president of the Un- 
 ited States. 
 
 The army remained some days on the shores of Henderson Bay, 
 but finding the French troops had turned back on learnine of the fall 
 of Fort Frontenac they retired to Fort Bull carrying with them the 
 
artillery which they had captured, many of the cannon being brass 
 pieces, which had been taken from Braddock at the time of his dis- 
 asterous defeat, and had later been used by Montcalm in his attack up- 
 on Osuepo 
 
 French Scou/ing Camps. 
 
 'J'he general successes of the English arms forced the French to 
 contract their western line of defense along the St. Lawrence. La 
 Presentation and a redoubt, Fort Levis, at the head of the Galop Ra- 
 pids became the guardians of the upper river, although scouting par- 
 ties were to be found in Lake Ontario. There was in August, 1759, 
 a small entrenched camp on Galloup Island, and other temporary 
 camps appear to have been situated on Grenadier Island and on the 
 mainland near the present site of Cape Vincent. ^'■'^ From these out- 
 posts the coureurs de bois and the Indians kept in close touch with 
 the English operations on the upper Mohawk and further west. 
 
 Lord Amherst's Expedition.'"^ 
 
 lU\t the great conflict for North America was nearly ended. Que- 
 bec fell on September 17, 1759. and Governor Vaudreuil fled to Mon"- 
 irea', where he bravely maintained the hopeless struggle for another 
 }ear. Finally on September 7, 1760, three armies invested the town. 
 ;ind the Governor was forced to make a general capitulation of Can- 
 ada. The largest of the three English armies was under the com- 
 mand of General Lord Amherst, and came down the St. Lawrence 
 from Oswego. 
 
 During the summer troops had continued to arrive at Oswego pre- 
 paratory to the final scene in the great drama. On the arrival of 
 Lord Amherst and his staff Colonel Sir Fredcri'k Ha'dimand was 
 .sent forward to the outlet of Ontario with a <mall detachment to 
 drive in the enemy's outposts, but he found that the French had 
 vithdrawn to the neighborhood of La Presentation. The army 
 shortly arrived in a lar-je fleet of transports, and proceeded down the 
 St. Lawrence to fiuht the last battle of the \Aar at Fort Levis 
 
 It is interesting to note the oflRcers of this expedition that passed 
 through the waters of this region, the names of whom have become 
 fainiliar to every American through the parts played by them in the 
 War for Independence. Among them were General Thomas Gage and 
 Lieutenant Israel Putnam, fifteen years later to be rival commanders 
 in the opening scenes of the Revolution. Holding commissions were 
 Horatio Gates and Charles Lee. the two soldiers of fortune who had 
 come to America with General Braddock. Espousing the cause of 
 the colonists in the apparent hope of personal gain the two comrades 
 
.//•;/.'/ 7'; A'.s'o.v (orxTY ('i:.\rir.\M.iL. (>i 
 
 attained high military rank in the Continental Army, but closed theii 
 careers, the one as an unscrupulous intriguer against his great com- 
 mander, the other as a trator to his adopted country. In charge of the 
 seven hundred Iroquois, who accompanied Amherst's army was Sir 
 
 William Johnson, the famous Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and 
 with him were his nephew and son-in-law Guy Johnson and Colonel 
 
 John Butler, the notorious Tory leaders of the New York frontier. 
 
 The Fort on Carlcion I shut d. 
 
 With the E^nglish conquest of Canada the importance of this re- 
 gion as a borderland ceased for a time, and it is not until 1774 that 
 it is again mentioned. In that year Sir Frederick Haldimand, the 
 commander of the British forces in America, in connection with a gen- 
 eral scheme of military occupation of the Great Lakes, caused a fort 
 or stockaded camp, to be erected on Buck or Deer Island, now called 
 Carleton Island. It seems probable that Ge eral Haldina^d's know- 
 ledge of the locality acquired as the commander of the advance guard 
 of Amherst's army had much to do with the selection of the spot foi 
 tlip fortification. 
 
 'I'he outbreak of the American Revolution in the ^ear following 
 the construction of the post on Carleton Island again made this region 
 the frontier between warring peoples, but it did not occupy the same 
 relative importance to the events of that period that it had to those 
 of the English and French wars. In the latter struggle the southern 
 ■chores of Ontario bad been ahrost continually in the possession of Eng- 
 liind or her savage allies; but in the Revolution the American line 
 of defense lay along the Mohawk and Susquehanna, Ontario being 
 entirely controlled by the English posts at Niagara, Oswego, Fron- 
 tenac and Carleton Island. 
 
 With the commencement of hostilities Colonel Guy Johnson, who 
 upon the death of Sir Wiliam had succeeded to the ofTice of Indian 
 Commissioner fled from Guy Park on the Mohawk to Oswego accom- 
 pained by the infamous Butlers, father and son, and the Mohawk 
 chieftain Thayendanegea, known commonly by his English name of 
 Joseph Brant. At Oswego Johnson assembled a great council of 
 fifteen hundred Indians; and, exercising the power of the Johnson 
 name, he persuaded the large majority to cast their lot with Eng- 
 land, only the Oneidas and a portion of the Tuscaroras of the 
 Iroquois Comfederacy preferring the friendship of the rebelling 
 colonists.^'' 
 
 This council occurred in May, 177s. Two months Iat»r the 
 Tory leaders with a chosen band of warriors and about two hundred 
 
()-' JEFFEUSOA COUATY CENTENNIAL. 
 
 Loyalists passed through this region on their way to Montreal.^" In 
 
 the following year Sir John Johnson, the son and heir of the old 
 baronet, and Colonel Daniel Claus, another son-in-law of Sir Wil- 
 liam, abandoning their estates on the Mohawk, fled to Canada, 
 where the former raised a Tory regiment known as the "Royal 
 Greens." 
 From the time that the British authorities had sanctioned the em- 
 
 ploj^ment of savages to reduce the colonists to submission,'''' the fort 
 OK Deer Island, which in 1777 or 1778 was renamed Carleton Is- 
 land, became a favorite resort for the bands of Tories and Indians, 
 
 who harried the outlying settlements of the New York frontier per- 
 petrating the most horrible atrocities upon their former neighbors 
 
 and friends.^^ 
 
 St. Leger's Expedition.^^ 
 
 In conjunction with the advance of General Burgoyne by way of 
 Lake George, and as a part of the British plan of campaign of 1777, 
 Maior Barry St. Leger was directed to proceed to Lake Ontario and 
 from that point strike Fort Schuyler (more commonly referred to 
 by its old rame of Fort Stanwix), march down the Mohawk valley 
 and attack General Schuyler's army in the flank or rear. In ad- 
 vance of St. Leger's army of seventeen hundred men Colonel Claus 
 and Sir John Johnson with the "Johnson Greens" went up the St. 
 Lawrence ; and Colonel Claus, who had become Superintendent of 
 the Canadian Indians fixed upon Carleton Island as the place of 
 re ndezvous for the savages who were to accompany the expedition. 
 On July 8th St. Leger with his troops arrived and about the same 
 time came Colonel John Butler from Oswego. 
 
 St. Leger, having supplied the Indians with arms, ammunition and 
 Vermillion, and having offered, it is alleged, a liberal bounty foi 
 scalps,'*^ left Carleton Island and advanced to Henderson Bay where 
 the troops disembarked and commenced the march down the coast. 
 It had been the original intention to take the trail from Salmon Riv- 
 er to Oneida Lake, but the British commander on reaching that rivei 
 vinwisely issued a quart of rum to each savage, "which," as Claus 
 writes, "made them all beastly drunk, and in which case it is not in 
 the power of man to quiet them." As a result the plan of march 
 was changed, and the expedition continued along the coast to Oswe- 
 go, where Brant had collected a large war-party to co-operate with 
 St. Leger. 
 
 FortunatcK for the cause of American independence th^ atrempt- 
 Cii flank moveme'ir rMidcd in *nilure. The battle of Oriskanv 
 
JHFFICRSOA col wry ('/':.\n:y.\i.iL. a:) 
 
 turned the tide against the British arms and was the beginning of 
 the disaster which culminated in the surrender of Burgoyne and his 
 army at Saratoga. 
 
 On the return of St. Leger's expediton from Oswego a severe 
 storm was encountered near the entrance to the St. Lawrence ; sever^ 
 a] transports were wrecked on the rocky shore of Point Peninsula, 
 ?nd others barely escaped by taking refuge in Chaumont Bay. 
 
 The prisoners, a number of whom had been taken, were brought 
 to Lake Ontario with the retreating army; and through the indiffer- 
 ence or wanton cruelty of the British commander several were per- 
 mitted to remain in the hands of the savages. In view of the losses 
 sustained by the Indians at Oriskany and about Fort Schuyler this 
 action of St. Leger was peculiarly atrocious. It is said, that a 
 band of Ottawas crossing from Henderson to Quirte stopped at 
 Gal'oup Island, and there tortured to death and devoured one of 
 these wretched captives ,his bones being discovered not long after by 
 an American scouting party from Fort Schuyler. 
 
 Fort Hald'anand?'^ 
 
 Soon after the defeat and capture of Burgoyne Sir Guy Carleton 
 was at his own request retired as Governor of Canada, though re- 
 maining in the military service. He was succeeded by Major Gen- 
 eral Haldimand. The new governor was famliilr with the strategic 
 points in the defense of the upper St. Lawrence, and at once dettr- 
 niined to make the stockaded camp on Carleton Island a permanent 
 post to control the southern channel of the river. For this purpose 
 he sent engineers to the island in 1778, and caused the construction 
 of a fort, which was known as Fort Haldimand. 
 
 At Carleton Island the British built a number of vessels for the 
 navigation of Lake Ontario, and the post became a principal rendez- 
 vous for the scalping parties which harassed the New York frontier. 
 The Indians flocked there from the south and west; and on the 
 mainland opposite the island appears to iiave been their "Great 
 Camp."^2 There the savage kindled their council-fire and held their 
 wild orgies, exchanged the bloody trophies of massacre for English 
 gold, and boasted of their crimes. 
 
 It was at Carleton Island before and after tlie construction of 
 Fort Haldimand that Brant aroused th,> blood-thirst of the Mo- 
 hawks and sent them forth, with the Tories of Colonel John Butler 
 an'i his son, Walter the most infamous villain of the border, to ply 
 the torch a^d hatchet in the valleys of central New York. It was 
 there that Sir Guy Johnson delivered to the Indian chiefs presents 
 
64 .lEFl- ERSoy COiWTY CESTlCSMAL. 
 
 from the English Icing, and urged them on in their work of slaugh- 
 ter and pillage by the promise of future reward. 
 
 The grey ruins of Fort Haldimand still stand as a gaunt monu- 
 ment to the black deeds which were Hatched within its walls when 
 the Johnsons and the Butlers sat there in council with Brant and 
 his chieftains — a crumbling memorial of a nation's crime in subject- 
 ing a kindred people to the horrors of an Indian war, in which neith- 
 er age nor sex protected from nameless cruelties. 
 
 After the peace of 1783 the uncertainty of the northern boundarlea 
 left the fort in the possession of Great Pritain. In 1796 surveyors 
 of the Macomb Purchase found there a British corporal and three 
 soldiers. '^•'^ Possession so continued, the Canadian authorities con- 
 trolling both channels of the St. Lawren- :s, until the post was cap- 
 tured by the Americans at the opening of the War of iSia."* 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 The allotted period of local history closes here. Looking back 
 over the years prior to the first settlement in the wilderness, where 
 pre now the farms and villages and cotta7;e-lined bays and islands of 
 Jefferson County, one cannot but be impressed with its interesting 
 past. Its waters and shores have witnessed events which have con- 
 trolled the destinies of this continent. Its soil has been trod bv men 
 lamous in the annals of American history, 
 
 In the long roll of distinguished ramrs are those of Champlain 
 Frontenac and La Salle; La Barre, Denonville a-d Maitet; Vaud- 
 reuil and Montcalm; the Jesuits, Le Mosre, I amberville and Char- 
 levoix; the great Iroquois chieftains, Kryn a'^d Thayendanegea ; the 
 British generals Bradstreet ?nd Amherst, Gige and Haldimand; the 
 soldiers of fortune, Horatio Gates and Charles Lee; the American 
 patriots, Putnam and Schuyler and Clinton; Sir William Johnson, 
 Sir Guy and Sir John; those scourges of th ^ border, the Butlers and 
 C-laus; besides those of nianv others who ^'ere conspicuous in the 
 stirring scenes enacted during the 17th and i8th centuries along tbr 
 great river of Canada and the lake from which it l^ovs. 
 
 From the fir-^t tradition of the Ironuois ihi-; reeion has been the 
 disputed h't'd of nation's: the Ca'^nan of tho West. Its wooded shorcij 
 and rocky islets \'\\\f ci hoed the yells of ^nvnee warriors; its dark 
 forests have rung with the tramp of marching soldiery; across its wa- 
 ters have soiH"'(led the boom of cannon a'"d the cries of combat. 
 Not until the energies of the new-born repiblic had transformed tne 
 wilderness into broad pastures and wav'ng grain-fields did praci 
 come to this lard of conHi( t, and cxtMi then it was to once a'_raln hear 
 the noise of battle. 
 
JKFFERSOA COL STY VENTESMAL. G5 
 
 Ninety years have passed since the last hostile shot sounded in this 
 region. May it be the will of heaven that never again shall this 
 border-land of ours become the theater of war, but that the future 
 may hold in store for Jefferson County peace and prosperity to the 
 end. 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 EARLY MAPS AND GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. 
 
 It is natural to expect that the maps of new'y-discovered region* 
 should at the first be very imperfect, but that with increasing know- 
 ledge and more careful observations the mistakes should disappear. 
 This did indeed happen in regard to the territory, now within the 
 boundaries of Jefferson County, but the corrections were made much 
 later and took much longer to secure general acceptance than might 
 be supposed. Even during the last quarter of the i8th century 
 the upper St. Lawrence and the eastern portion of Lake Ontario were 
 incorrectly delineated on the maps. 
 
 The trouble in this particular case seems to have been that the 
 map-makers derived their data from the writings or sketch-maps of 
 historical chroniclers and unscientific travellers who paid little atten- 
 tion to actual locations and were indifferent to or negligent of dis- 
 tance and direction. 
 
 Furthermore, cartographers are usually, perhaps wisely so, ex- 
 tremely cautious in the adoption of information contradictory of ex- 
 isting maps. They assume that their predecessors had proper and 
 sufficient data, and unless conclusively proven to be false they are 
 unwilling to assume the responsibility of changing them as charted. 
 From this attitude of map-makers toward maps already drawn, and 
 from the further fact that maps are unaccompanied by the data con- 
 sulted in their preparation, mistakes once made are copied and re- 
 copied, each copy forming cumulative proof on the supposition that 
 the copyists had confirmed the truth by independent investigation. 
 As a result cartography, particularly that of a hundred years ago, is 
 peculiarly liable to perpetuate errors arising from incomplete know- 
 ledge, misinformation and conjecture. 
 
 Trend of Ontario's Shore. 
 
 This persistency of geographical error is demonstrated by an ex- 
 amination of the maps of this region published during the 17th and 
 
6G JEFFERSOy (Oi WTV (FM F.WXFIJ.. 
 
 i8th centuries, which often make uncertain the location of places 
 named by contemporaneous writers and in the official documentb. 
 
 The most noticeable fault in the earlier maps is the trend of th^. 
 eastern shore of Lake Ontario, which is extended northeast and south- 
 west, instead of north and south as it should be. The result is that 
 there is no defined outlet to the lake but a giadual narrowing like a 
 wedge, the southern and eastern shores being merged into one. This 
 error which affects the points of the compass as given in documents 
 is very marked in the maps of Champlain (1632), Galinee( (1669), 
 and Joliet (1674). It is less marked in a map made about 1683, 
 preserved in the Archives of the Marine at Paris, and has entirely 
 disappeared in the map of the Jesuit, Pierre Rafifeix (1688), yet to 
 show how persistent such an error may become and how later observ- 
 ers may through carelessness confirm it, it may be noted that Char- 
 levoix, the Jesuit historian in 1721 stated that looking westward 
 from the head of Galloup Island he could see the mouth of the Os- 
 weeo River, while in fact from that island Oswego lies almost due 
 <outh. 
 
 Islands Near the Outlet of Ontario 
 
 The next prominent fault is the location of the islands in Ontario 
 near its outlet. (It is not strange that the islands in the St. Lawrence 
 should, before an accurate survey had been made, be shown conven- 
 tionally.) In the earlier maps the lake islands are scattered about 
 with little regard to their number, extent and location. In the Cham- 
 plain map (1632), however, two unnamed islands are shown in shape 
 and situation corresponding to Galloup and Stony Islands with an 
 f.ccuracy which could only have been acquired from actual observa- 
 tion. 
 
 On the Raffeix map (1688) for the first time appear "lies des 
 "Gallots" in nearly their proper position, although the large estuary 
 ea'-t of the islands, formed by Chaumo"t, Black River and Hender- 
 son Bays is contracted into the mouth of a narrow river. 
 
 Some fifty years after the Raffeix Map there wa.-; issued a French 
 map( 1744), which is in the Paris Marine Archives. This shows 
 "I. aux Galots" quite accurately placed, but the "I. aux Chevreuils" 
 (Grenadier Island) and the "I. aux Reyrards" appear between the 
 Ducks and Galloup Island, and the former between Grenadier Island 
 and Fort Frontenac. 
 
 A few years later ( I7s8) the I/Ondon Maca/.ine published a map 
 of Fort Frontenac "with adjacent countries" to illustrate the mili- 
 tary operations in that region, l^pon it "Deer Island" (He aux 
 Chevreuils) and "Foxes Island" (He aux Reynards) are located due 
 
.//<; /'7 ■ /•;/!■. s'( J. V cot ^Ty ('I':xte.\ m.il. m 
 
 west of the southern point of the "Bay of Niaoure" (the estuary 
 formed by Chaumont, Black River and Henderson Bays), which 
 would be Six-Town Point. To the southeast of these islands and 
 very close to the mouth of Stony Creek are three islands named on 
 tiie map "I. aux Galots." Stony Point, called "Traverse Point", 
 appears also at the mouth of this creek. The confusion of locations 
 and the errors are so great as to forbid explanation, but they demon- 
 strate the ignorance of the English concerning the geography of the 
 region. 
 
 Another English map, which may be considered authoritative, was 
 one of the Province of New York made by the cartographer Sauth- 
 ier (1777) under the direction of the last provincial governor, and 
 published in Eondon in 1779. On it the "Couis" (Ducks). "Chev- 
 rcuils, "Renards" and "Galots" are laid down with approximate 
 accuracy as to location, although the last islands are composed of a 
 group of seven and are very extraordinar>' in shape. Six-Town 
 Point and also Stony Point are shown, the latter being marked "Pt. 
 de la Traverse, now Portland Poirt." 
 
 The peculiar contours of some of the islands may not be so er- 
 roneous as they appear in comparing them with the modern maps. 
 The gravelly formation of many of the islands and the shores makes 
 them susceptible to rapid change. As an instance of this fact, resi- 
 dent« of the town of Henderson, who have been alive in the lasi 
 forty years, remembered Campbell's Point Shoal in Henderson Bay 
 as an island of several acres, although now submerged below the 
 surface of the lake. Undoubtedly other shoals were islands a cen- 
 tury ago, and during that time the shore lines have materially 
 changed. 
 
 Mfanini^ of the Name "Galloup." 
 
 There has been at different times discussion of the meaning of the 
 name which is now spelled "Galloup" or "Galloo", though no sat- 
 isfactory conclusion seems to have been reached, and it is not now 
 proposed to solve the problem but only to submit the facts which 
 have bearing upon the subject. In the first place it is to be noted 
 
 that this name is the only one in this section which has retained its 
 French sound, if not its French spelling. It seems a significant fact 
 that the English translated the names of the other islands given 
 
 them bv the French, but this has remained for two centuries practi- 
 cally the same. There may be any one of three reasons why this was 
 so: (i) the name may have had the same sound in English and 
 
 French and had the same meaning; (2) the word may have had no 
 counterpart in English ; and (3) the English may never have known 
 
«8 JKFIIJRSOX COLWry ce.xte.wmal. 
 
 the meaning and so had to adopt it without change or else rename the 
 island. Any one of these reasons may be the true one but the first 
 would seem the most probable if supported by other evidence. 
 
 in the Raffeix map (1688) the name is spelled "Gailots" and in 
 ail the others referred to, in which the island or islands are named, 
 it is spelled "Galots." (The preposition compounded with the ar- 
 ticle is "des" or "aux" showing the word is in the plural number). 
 Now neither of these words belong to the French language as found 
 in the French dictionaries. They must, therefore, be a corruption of 
 an Indian word, which from their sound seems very improbable, or 
 else a misspelled French word. If the latter is the correct explana- 
 ation, there seem to be three words, any one of which might oFfer it- 
 scli as a source of the rame. These are '^ i ) tra'cts ( pebble-^ V (2) 
 the adjective galeux (scrufy), and (3) galiotes, also spelled galliotes 
 (small galleys used in the Mediterrean Sea and havi-g one mast and 
 seat-«: for sixteen or twenty oarsmen). While the first word ^u'^2e:^t~ 
 ed has some strong points in its favor, namely, the pebbly character 
 of the shores of the isla^^d and the fact that the word is masculine, 
 the persistency of the ending "ots" is strongly against it. The second 
 word being an adjective and not a noun, and being very different in 
 spelling seems the least probable of the three. The third word', on 
 the other hand, has the strongest claim for consideration in spite of 
 its feminine gender, which ienorance. carlessness, or an obsolete mas- 
 culine form may explain away. 
 
 In the first place in writing the word "galiotes" mistake or lack of 
 knowledge might have dropped the letter "i' or changed it to the 
 letter "1". The "e" may have been dropped through error as to 
 the gender or may not have existed if there was an early masculine 
 form. In the second place the French used for navigation on the 
 lake flat-bottomed barges or scows fitted with a single- mast and banks 
 of oars, similiar to the small Mediterranean galleys, and the 'He aux 
 Gailots" was one of the principal places of refuge and refreshment 
 (or these vessels in crossing from Fort Frontenac to the southern 
 shore. And in the third place the English name for craft of this sort 
 is galiots or galliots, practically the same word appearing on the 
 French mat^s. which would arcount for the continua-n-e of the name 
 on the English maps. 
 
 "Deer hlaiid" of the Eni^Iish Maf>s\ 
 
 'I he name of another island, which is often mentioned in the rto- 
 ciiments relating to this region, is the He aux Chevreuils (Island of 
 the Roebucks), no\\- called Grenadier Island. The name, which 
 mav be tra'^slated, as it is in the London Magazine Map (1758), 
 
./HFFi'jRsoy coryry vestesmal. m 
 
 "Deer Island", or in order to preserve the gender "Buck Island", has 
 been often applied to Carleton Island. From this fact the fort on 
 the latter island has been by some supposed to be of French origin, 
 through confusing it with a temporary scouting camp which the 
 French for a time maintained on the "He aux Chevreuils." On the 
 Sauthier official Map (1779) Carleton Island is put down as the "He 
 a la Biche" (the Island of the Roe), which also may be translated 
 "Deer Island" as it was by the English officers stationed there in 
 1 777-1 7 78, though not "Bucks Island" or "Buck Island" as was sub- 
 sequently done in complete diregard of the original gender. It is ap- 
 parent that the natural consequences of such loose translations would 
 result in confusion and contradictions as to the location of the orig- 
 inal Deer Island or Buck Island. 
 
 O'nission of Black River from the Maps. 
 
 'Fuming again to the cartographical errors a mistake, which at 
 once catches the eye, is the general omission of Black River from the 
 maps, even the Sauthier Map (1779) has no suggestion of it. Only 
 in the Champlain Map (1632), in which the distances are so uncer- 
 tain as to make very difficult the identificatioan of streams, and in the 
 Rai^eix Map (1688), in which no bay is shown at the mouth, the 
 river entering abruptly into the lake, is the existence of this promi- 
 nent natural feature of this reegion recognized. 
 
 This omission is explainable from the fact that the inland region 
 was not on the route usually followed by white men through this ter- 
 ritory'. The csnfiguration of the shoreline between Mexico Bay and 
 the St. Lawrence, and the location of the islands along the coast were 
 of far greater practical importance to the travellers and officials of 
 the period \\hen the maps were prepared than the marking of a river 
 which was for thirty miles from its mouth unnavigable for canoes. 
 
 Nioure Bay 
 
 The arm of the lake, embracing Chaumont, Black River and Hen- 
 derson Bays, was known as Nioure, Niouare, Niaouenre and Niver^ 
 nois Bay, and for a considerable time after t^e settlement of this 
 cornty as Hungry or Hungary Ray. This body of water does not 
 jppear on the maps until the i8th century, and its shape like its 
 name changes with each cartographer. At the first it is a broad es- 
 tuary extending directly inland with a few islands scattered along its 
 southern shore, but in the Sauthier Map (1779) it has assumed some- 
 tlrng like its proper shape, so far as Henderson Bay is concerned, but 
 Chaumont Bay is much too small, while Black River Bay is not shown 
 at all. 
 
70 .lEFrERSOy COl NTY CEXTl'jyMAL. 
 
 In this map Six-Town Point is much too large and too prominent, 
 being in fact of much greater area than Point Peninsula. Stony 
 Creek, called "R. de I'Assomption", "Assumption Riv." anJ "R. a 
 Mr. de Comte", is shown with much plainness, its upper course flow- 
 ing near the head of Nioure Bay, between which and the river Sauth- 
 icr marks the portage which was commonly travelled. 
 
 The Region Inland 
 
 On the Sauthier Map (1779), to the eastward of Niaouenre Bay 
 lies a large unnamed lake near the present site of Watertown, and 
 still further to the east are immense tracts of marsh-land dotted over 
 with ponds. Across this latter region are printed the words "full of 
 Beavers and Otters." While it is possible that a centurj' and a half 
 ago the swamp to the west of Watertown was a body of water of con- 
 siderable extent, it seems to be more probable that the map-maker 
 was depicting Perch Lake, and that the marshes and ponds were 
 those of the Indian River, the favorite hunting grounds of the Iro- 
 quois. 
 
 Map Names of Lake Ontario and the St. Laivrence River. 
 
 The names borne by Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River 
 are shown in the following table: 
 
 Dare Map of Lake Ontario St. Lawrence River 
 
 1624 Sir William Alexander. The Great River 
 
 of Canada. 
 i6;^2 Champlain Lac St. Louis 
 
 1642 In French Archives Lac Ontario 
 
 1647 Robert Dudley , R. Di Canada 
 
 1636 Sanson Ontario ou Lac La Grande Riviere. 
 
 de St. Louis. 
 1658 Duvals Atlas Lac St. Louis D. de Canada 
 
 1669 Galinee Ontario 
 
 1674 Joliet Lac Frontenac 
 
 1681 (?) Joliet L. Ontario 
 
 1683 (?) In French Archives. Lac Ontario 
 ou Frontenac 
 1683 Hennipin. L. Frontenac. Fl : de St. Lawrence 
 
 1688 Raffeix I,ac Ortario ou de St. Louis 
 
 1697 He-Miipin. L. Ontario ou Frontenac. 
 
 1744 In French Archives Ontario Flauve St. Laurent 
 
 1758 London Magazine Lake Ontario Iroquois or Catarakui 
 
 River. 
 1779 Sauthier Oneario 7>ake River Cadarakuol 
 
JicFFKRso.y ('(xwry (Eme.wial. -\ 
 
 The name "River of Canada" and also "River of the Iroquois" 
 appear frequently in the English documents as a name for the St. Law- 
 /cnce; and Cadwallader Colden in comparing the nomenclatures of 
 tile English and French gives for the French "Ontario lac" and for 
 the English "Cadarackui Lake". 
 It is apparent from the foregoing table, including fourteen maps in 
 
 which Lake Ontario is named, that the name "Ontario" has persist- 
 ed from the first in spite of the attempts of the French to change it to 
 
 St. Louis and later to "Frontenac". 
 
 On the other hand the name of "St Lawrence" for the river does 
 not appear to have come into use until the latter part of the 17th 
 
 century. Prior to that time the "River of Canada" and the "Great 
 
 River of Canada" seem to have been the names employed. The 
 English cartographers in the i8th century named the river "Cadara- 
 
 koui" connecting it with the native name for Fort Frontenac and al- 
 so termed it "The River of the Iroquois". The name "St. Law- 
 rence" was from the first applied to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and 
 
 later was extended to embrace the great river flowing into it. 
 
 REFERENCES 
 
 1. History of Jeffjrson roiinty, F. B. Hough, p. 9; Transactions of Jeflcrson County 
 Historical Society (1895), p. 53; Ibid. (1886-1887), p. 58 and p. 105. 
 
 2. Journal, III Documentary History of New York, p. 1107, et seq. Kor a crltica; 
 examination of Mr. Taylor's statements see Address of W. H. Beauchamp, Transaction* 
 of Jeff. Co. Hist. Soe. (18861 887). p. 105. 
 
 3. The Problem of the Ohio Mounds, C. Thomas, Bureau of Ethnology, 1889 ; The 
 Aboriginal Races of North America, S. G. Drake, B'k 4 chaps 13-16; Information res- 
 pecting the Indian Tribes, H. R. Schoelcraft, pt. 5, p. 133. 
 
 4 The meaning of the name "Iroquois" or "Hiroquois" has been the subject of much 
 discussion,, and several solutions have been suggested. The most probable seems to bt 
 that it comes from the Iroquois-IIuron word "garokwa" a pipe or piece of tobacco, and 
 in the verbal form, to smoke. Iroquois might be translated "they who smoke." 
 (Iroquois Book of Rites, H. Hale, App., Note A.) It should be stated, however, that 
 this derivation does not meet the vi( ws of W. H. Beauchamp, although he offers no 
 better. 
 
 5. In 1715 the Tuscaroras, a kindred tribe resident in North Carolina, immigrated to the 
 southern part of the Province of New York, and were admitted to the Confederacy, which 
 was known afterward to the English a5 "The League of the Six Nations," Hodenosau- 
 nee was the Seneca name ; Rotinonsionni, the Mohawk and Kannoseone the Onondaga. 
 
 6. Remonstrance of the People of New Netherland, 1649, I New York Colonial Docu- 
 ments, p. 281. 
 
 7. Historical Essays, John Fiiiko, Vol. II, p. 94 ; Works of Francis Parkman covering 
 the period from 16.S0 to 1700; LcaRiie of \\h- Inxpiois. I.-wis W. Morgan, Vol. I p. 11; 
 History of the New York Iroquois. W. If. It. aucliaiup, N. V. State Museum Bulletin 7S, 
 chaps. 7-12. 
 
 The Iroquois were first termed "the Romans of tlie West" by the French traveller and 
 author of the 18th oentury, the C^omte de Volney. 
 
72 JEFFERSON COUyTY CENTENNIAL. 
 
 8. Governor Dongan, 1687, III N. Y. Col. Docs., p. 393 ; The Dutch and the Iroquoib. 
 Charles H. Hall (A paper read before the Long Island Historical Society and publishea 
 in pamphlet form). 
 
 9. History of Jefferson County., Hough; p. 200. 
 
 10. The trail struck Salmon River about 12 miles from its mouth, where the Oneldat, 
 had a fishing village. IV N. Y. Col. Docs., p. 655; X Ibid; p. 675. 
 
 11. Historical Reminiscences, William K:iycl. Tran.s;ictions of Jeff. Co. Hist. Soc. 
 (1886-1887), p. 92. 
 
 The trail between the Black River and the Indian River is marked on a mnp of Ne» 
 York State appearing in Munsell's Historical Series, Vol. I on Indian Affairs. 
 
 12. Northern New York and the Adirondack wilderness, N. B. Sylvester, p. 108. 
 
 13. League of the Iroquois, Morgan, B'k I chap. 1 ; History of the Five Indian Na- 
 tions, Cadwallader Colden, Prtfuce to the First Part ; The People of the Long House, 
 E. M. Chadwick (Toronto, 1897). 
 
 14. Cartier in 1535 visited the site of Montreal and found there an Indian village 
 called Hochelaga. From the vocabulary of the natives, which the explorer pre- 
 served, it is certain that they were of the Iroquois-Huron stock. Seventy five years later 
 when the French again visited the region Hochelaga was occupied by an .-Mgonkin tribe 
 See also History of the Iroquois, Beauchamp, p. 140. 
 
 15. The Adirondacks were of Algonkin stock. 
 
 16. It is a significant fact in relation to the course of migration that in both the 
 myth and legend the Iroquois recognize that their ancestors came from the upper St. 
 Lawrence and eastern end of Ontario to their lands in Central New York. 
 
 17. Pioneers of France in the New World, Franei-! Parkman, p. 370 et seq. ; 
 Champlain, the Founder of New France, E. \. Dix. p, 166 et. seq.; Champlain's Voyages, 
 III Documentary History of New York, p. 12. ' 
 
 18. The original spelling of the name was "Keiile," which indicates the proper pro- 
 nunciation. 
 
 19. Northern Niav York and the .\dirondack Wiblerness, Sylvester, p. 35. 
 
 20. I Doc. Hi.st. of N. Y., pp. 62-63. 
 
 21. Canada. J. 0. Bourinot, p. 147. 
 
 22. Ill History of New France, Rev. P. F. X. de Charlevoix, (HarpiT's ed., 1900) pp. 
 67-64. 
 
 23. 
 
 I\ N, Y. Col. Docs., pp. 64-65. 
 
 
 24. 
 
 Ibid. p. 82. 
 
 
 2.^). 
 
 Ibid., pp. 9.vn3. 
 
 
 26. 
 
 Ibid., p. 127. 
 
 
 27. 
 
 Ibid., pp. 12212.'->. 
 
 
 28. 
 
 Ibid, pp. 168, 17.'5. 
 
 
 29. 
 
 La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West, 
 
 , Francis Parkman, p. 122. 
 
 30. 
 
 I Doc. Hist, of N. Y., pp. 95 143; IX N. V. 
 
 C..1. Docs., pp. 241-245; New V07. 
 
 1 to 
 
 North America, La llontan, (English ed. of 1 
 
 1703) Letters VII. 
 
 31 
 
 IX N. Y. Col. Docs., p. 175. 
 
 
 32. 
 
 Ibid., pp. 202, 206. 
 
 
 33. 
 
 L.K Famine. The location of this place has be 
 
 en the subject of much discussion ; 
 
 and while recent investigators have almost without exception identified the rendezvous of 
 La Barre's army with the mouth of Salmon River in Oswego County, there are some 
 excellent reasons for doubting the correctness of thus locating it. 
 
 It is not an imusual occurrence for geographical names through the ignorance or de- 
 sigfn of map-makers, to be transferred from one locality to another. Thus on some maps 
 Black River is named "Riviere de Monsieur le Comte," while on others the name Is ap- 
 
JKrri'JRSOX COIWTV CESTESMAL. 73 
 
 plied to Stony Creek in Henderson. Black River as well as Salmon River has borne 
 the name "Famine River," and on maps published about 1800, and even later, Henderson 
 Bay appears as "Hungry Bay." These are cited only (or the purpose of showing the 
 common practice of transferring place-names, and not as a basis for a claim that they wert 
 properly used. Another use of the name of a particular locality was to extend it so as 
 to embrace surrounding regions. An instance of this may be found in the case of Cadara- 
 qui, originally the name of a river flowing into Ontario, then of a village on its banks, 
 later of a considerable territory and also of the St. Lawrence River. 
 
 There can be no doubt that Salmon River was the original "Riviere de la Famine." 
 Charlevoix, who visited the region in 1721 and who wrote his history of New Franc* 
 some years later, states that the name was given because of La Barre's unfortimato 
 e.xpericnce ; and he locates the place on a bay "four or five leagues from the mouth of 
 the River toward Montreal" (III History of New France, Harpers ed., 1900, p.2.')3). 
 This may have been true of the place of conference between La Barre and the Onondagas, 
 but was not true of the original La Famine, for on March 1.3, 1682, two years earliei 
 than La Barre's expedition, Frontenac opposed meeting the Onondagas "near La Famine' 
 (IX N. Y. Col. Docs., pp. 172 2.5."!). The proposal for that meeting was made by Jean 
 de Laiiiborvillo, the .Jesuit resident in the Onondaga villages, and the place proposed 
 was not at La Famine but "near La Famine." This seems worthy of note, since the 
 same priest two years later arranged the conference with La Barre. In view of tht 
 succeeding events it was natural to suppose that the name originated in the sufferingk 
 of La Barre's a.iiiy. as was beliiviMl Charlevoi.x and others who have followed him as a» 
 authority. 
 
 In view of the fiiets stated, the place of meeting not being at La Famine proper but 
 nearer the St. Lawrence than Salmon River, the most probable bay seems to be that at 
 the mouth of Sandy Creek in Ellisburgh. It was at this place in 1802 that Rev. John 
 Taj'lor speals of the remains of a batteau being uncovered in a marsh and of iron in- 
 struments of European manufacture being foiind. Though this ma> have been a coin- 
 cidence, it is a fact that La Barre was forced to abandon some of his batteau x at th» 
 place of conference. 
 
 If this is the correct solution of the problem it becomes unnecessary to make La 
 Famine of La Barre and of Charlevoix coincide with the older name as apjilied by Lam- 
 berville and others to Salmon River. 
 
 See also in this connection Appendix, Early Maps and Geographical Names. 
 
 .34. The Dutch forest-runners were called "bosslopers" ; the English, "bushrangers.* 
 
 3.'^. IX N. Y. Col. Does., pp. 277, 279. 
 
 36. Ill Doc. Hist, of N Y., p. 1140. 
 
 37. IX N. Y. Col. Docs., p. 261. 
 
 38. Ibid., p. 269. 
 
 39. Ibid., pp. 3.')9-3e9. 
 
 40. Ibid., p. 331. 
 
 41. Ibid., pp. 969, 999. 
 
 42. Ibid, p. 3.^>2. 
 
 43 IV History of New France, Charlevoix, p. 123. 
 
 44. ll)i(l., pp. 12-13; History of the Five Indian Nations, pt. 1, chap. VI. 
 
 45. Golden calls the chief "Adario." 
 
 46. Some authorities state that the ambuscade took place at the first rapids of the 
 St. Lawrence. Charlevoix says that it was at Hungry Bay. It undoubtedly occurred be- 
 fore the envoys reached Fort Frontenac, for from that point so important a deputation 
 would have been accompanied by one or more Frenchmen. 
 
 4T. IX N. Y. Col. Docs:, p. 436. 
 
 48. Ibid. pp. 649-656. 
 
 49. Ibid., p. 602 ; IV History of New France, Charlevoix, p. 265. 
 
v.. 
 
 I>. 481. 
 
 
 PI' 
 
 ■l4(l-4(iT. 
 
 
 
 c tlio^p of L; 
 
 S; 
 
 ent, 
 
 ' composed of 
 
 1i< 
 
 lan 
 
 submit to the 
 
 opp 
 
 74 .llirFERSOy COrXTV (EXTEXMAL. 
 
 f.0. IV History of New Frame. ( liarlcvoix. pp. 121 122. 
 f)l I Doc. Hist, of N. Y., pp. 44.S-f>Ofi. 
 
 52. IX N. V. Col. Docs., pp. y73, 975. 
 
 53. X N. Y. Col. Doc^., pp. 308, 403. 
 
 54 Ibid., p. 403; Hi.^tory of St. Lawrciicp and Franklin CoiiMtics. F. B. Hough. p. 63. 
 
 55. X N. V. Col. Docs. pp. 441, 443. 
 
 56. Ibid., pp. 3!I8, 41.T. 
 
 57. Ibid., p. 426. 
 58 I Uoc. Ili.n. of N. 
 
 59. X. N. Y. Col. Docs. 
 
 f.O. The three rcfrinients were tho<e of L;i Sarro, (Juyeruic, and Beam, the last be- 
 ing the famous "lri.<h Regiment," composed of Hoinan Catholic refugees, who had gone 
 into voluntary exile rather than submit to the oppressive acts of the English Parliment. 
 to the conditions, see History of Knftland. Macaulay chap. 17 and People's History of Ir«. 
 land, .John F. Fiiuictry, chaps. l.\ and X. 
 fll. X. N'. Y. Col. Does., p. (572. 
 
 62. Ibid., pp. 823-834. 
 
 63. Ibid, p. 1031. 
 
 64. Ili-tory of St. Lawrence and I'ranUlin Counties, Hough, pp. 00. 99. 
 
 65. Sir Guy Johnson credits Sainutl Kirtland, a missionary among the Onei.las with 
 having \V(.n them to the .\meric«n cause. \'III N. Y. Col. Docs,, p. 687. 
 
 06. Ibid., p. 636. 
 
 67. Governor Tryon to Lord Gi org.> Gerniaine, Ibid., p. 756. 
 
 68. Ibid, p. 779. 
 
 89. Ibid., p. 719; History of the Irociuois, Beauehamp. p. 356. 
 
 70. History of the Iro(iuois, Bcauc!iam[i. p. .':.'').''i. quotitiff Mar>- .Icinison. 
 
 71. See the interesting pamphlet "The (»M Fort and Its BuildiTs," by Major J. H. 
 Durham (Cape Vincent, N. Y'., 1889). 
 
 72. It is .so lo.Ml.d on the Sauthier Map ..f 1779. tlioufrli other authorities place it 
 •■ French Creek in the town of Clayton. 
 
 73. History of .leflferson County. Hough, p. 22. 
 
 74. Ibid., p. 462. 
 
LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 
 
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