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 MAP OF THE 
 
 ROUTE of RICHARD SMITH 
 
 The route shown in red, place names mentioned 
 in the text being given and the modern county lines 
 inserted. 
 
 [Compiled by the Editor.] 
 
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A TOUR OF FOUR 
 GREAT RIVERS 
 
 HE HUDSON, MOHAWK, SUSQUEHANNA AND DELAWARE 
 
 IN I769 
 BEING THE JOURNAL OF 
 
 RICHARD SMITH 
 
 OF BURLINCHON, NEW JERSEY 
 EDITED, WITH A 
 
 SHORT HISTORY OF THE PIONEER SETTLEMENTS, 
 
 BY 
 
 FRANCIS W. HALSEY 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER." 
 
 NEW YORK 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 1906 
 
Copyright, 1906, by 
 Charles Scribner's Sons 
 
 Published May, igob 
 
 THE DEVINNE PRESS 
 
TO 
 EDWARD CARY 
 
 * G 2 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 GREAT SEAL OF THE PROVINCE OF NEW YORK 
 
 Reproduced on the Cover 
 In use from 1767 until the Revolution. 
 From an impression in the State Library at Albany. 
 
 MAP OF THE ROUTE OF RICHARD SMITH . . . Frontisfiea 
 
 The route shown in red, place names mentioned in the text being 
 
 given and modern county lines inserted. 
 Compiled by the Editor. 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 PORTRAITS OF RICHARD SMITH xiv 
 
 (1) From a sketch in the Emmet Collection of the Lenox Library, 
 
 •where it is described as * • taken from a silhouette in the Coates 
 collection." 
 
 (2) From a silhouette owned in the family. 
 
 SMITH HALL xviii 
 
 Built in Laurens, Otsego Co., N. Y., in 1773, by Richard Smith, and 
 now perhaps the oldest house in Central New York south of the 
 Mohawk Valley. The piazza was recently added by the present 
 owner, W. V. Huntington. 
 From a recent photograph. 
 
 PART OF THE VISSCHER MAP OF NEW NETHERLANDS xxix 
 
 Drawn before 1656 and showing the Hudson, Mohawk, St. Lawrence, 
 
 Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers. 
 From a copy in the Emmet Collection of the Lenox Library. 
 
 vii 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 NEW AMSTERDAM IN OR BEFORE 1655 xxxii 
 
 From a view engraved on the margin of the Nicolas J. Visscher Map 
 
 of New Netherlands. 
 This view is almost identical with one given by Van der Donck. 
 
 COLONIAL HOUSES IN NEW YORK CITY xxxvi 
 
 (1) The Franklin House in Franklin Square. Built about 1770. 
 
 (2) The Walton House in Franklin Square. Built in 1750. 
 
 (3) Bums' s Coffee House in Broadway, just above Trinity Church. 
 
 Garden view. 
 
 (4) Burns' s Coffee House. Front view. 
 From old prints. 
 
 HUDSON RIVER MANOR HOUSES xxxviii 
 
 (1) The Verplanck House in Fishkill. Built about 1740. 
 
 (2) The Beekman House in Rhinebeck. 
 
 (3) The Van Rensselaer House which survived in Albany until recent 
 
 years. Threatened with demolition, it has been removed to 
 Williamstown, Mass., and there re-erected as a college frater- 
 nity house. 
 
 (4) The Van Cortlandt House on Croton Bay. 
 From old prints. 
 
 COLONIAL BUILDINGS IN ALBANY AND ON THE 
 
 MOHAWK xlii 
 
 (1) The Mabie House near Rotterdam, built in 1680, and the oldest 
 
 house now standing in the Mohawk Valley. 
 
 (2) St. George's Church, Schenectady, built in 1759. 
 
 (3) The Queen Anne Parsonage at Fort Hunter, built in 171 2. 
 
 (4) An Eighteenth Century Street Scene in Albany. 
 
 The first three from recent photographs. The last from an old print. 
 
 OLD SWEDISH, OR HOLY TRINITY, CHURCH IN WIL- 
 MINGTON, DEL lxii 
 
 Built in 1698, and, in continuous occupation, said to be the oldest 
 church building in the United States. 
 
 From a sketch made by Benjamin Ferris in 1843 and engraved by 
 John Sartain. 
 
 viii 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 COLONIAL BUILDINGS ON THE DELAWARE lxiv 
 
 (i) The Laetitia House on its old site. Now standing as re-erected in 
 Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. Built by William Pcnn and for 
 a time his home. 
 
 (2) The Quaker Meeting House in Burlington ( 1 683-1 787). 
 
 (3) The Old Patrick Colvin Ferry House, still standing opposite 
 
 Trenton. 
 
 (4) The Slate Roof House in Philadelphia. Occupied by William 
 
 Penn from 1699 to 1700. 
 From old prints. 
 
 NEW YORK CITY IN 1768 + 
 
 Looking southeast from a point on Manhattan Island near the Hudson 
 River, and showing, in the center, King's College and Trinity 
 Church spire, and in the distance on the right, Staten Island. 
 From a sketch "drawn on the spot by Captain Thomas Hovudell, of the 
 Royal Artillery, " and engraved by P. Canot. 
 
 THE PHILIPSE MANOR HOUSE 6 
 
 Still standing and for many years in use as the City Hall of Yonkers. 
 From a steel engraving of about 18 JO. 
 
 MAPS OF ALBANY AND NEW YORK CITY 16 
 
 (1) Albany as surveyed by Robert Yates about 1770. 
 
 From a reproduction of the original in Volume HI of the "Documentary 
 History of the State of New York." 
 
 (2) Bernard Ratzen's Map of New York, drawn in 1767. 
 Reproduced from a copy in the Lenox Library. 
 
 TWO VIEWS OF COHOES FALLS 20 
 
 (1) From a drawing by Isaac Weld, the traveler and author, published 
 
 in London in 1798. 
 
 (2) From a sketch by Governor Thomas Poivnall, made sometime before 
 
 1760, and engraved by H'illiam Elliot. 
 
 FORT JOHNSON IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ... 26 
 
 Built by Sir William Johnson in 1 -42, and still standing between Am- 
 sterdam and Fonda. 
 From an old French print. 
 
 ix 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 JOSEPH BRANT (THAYENDANEGEA) 38 
 
 From a portrait made in London from life during Brant's 'visit in 
 1776, the same being an original drawing formerly in the possession 
 of James Bosivell. 
 
 FOUR INDIAN POTENTATES OF NEW YORK . ... 66 
 
 (1) Tee Yee Neen Ho Ca Row, Emperor of the Six Nations. 
 
 (2) Etow Oh Koam, King of the River Indians, or Mohicans. 
 
 (3) Saga Yeath Qua Pieth Tow, King of the Maquas, or Mohawks. 
 
 (4) Ho Nee Yeath Taw No Row, King of the Generethgarichs, 
 
 or Canajoharies. 
 
 From portraits painted in London by I. Verelst in 17 10, during a visit 
 of these Indians <voith Peter Schuyler to {Queen Anne. 
 
 On the margin of other portraits made in London at the same time, these In- 
 dians are described as " the four kings of India who on the 2 May 17 10 were 
 admitted by ber Majesty the Queen of Great Britain praying assistance against 
 the French in America, between New England and Canada." 
 
 A PAGE OF THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT 68 
 
 Illustrating, by comparison with the adjoining text, the changes made 
 
 by Richard Smith in his transcript. 
 Reproduced in facsimile from Mr. Smith's original "Journal, oivned by 
 
 J. Francis Coad, of Charlotte Hall, Maryland. 
 
 INDIAN RELICS FOUND ON THE UPPER SUSQUEHANNA . 86 
 
 (1) Gorgets ( 7 ) Small adzes (13) Sinew stone 
 
 (2) Pipes ( 8 ) Arrow points (14) Small axes 
 
 (3) Pipe with snake ( 9 ) Small gouges (15) Knife blades 
 
 carving (10) Stone beads (16) Banner stones 
 
 (4) Amulets (11) Spear points ( 1 7) Spear points 
 
 (5) Spear points (12) Scrapers (18) Perforators 
 
 (6) Spear points 
 
 Photographed from specimens chosen from the collection of Willard E. 
 Yager, of Oneonta, New York. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PART I 
 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 
 
 rAci 
 
 I Richard Smith xiii 
 
 II The Pioneers of the Hudson xxiii 
 
 III The Pioneers of the Mohawk xl 
 
 IV The Pioneers of the Susquehanna liii 
 
 V The Pioneers of the Delaware lxi 
 
 PART II 
 A TOUR OF FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 I THE HUDSON; 
 
 By Sloop from New York to Albany, 164 Miles, May 
 
 5 — May 11, 1769 3 
 
 II THE MOHAWK: 
 
 By Wagon Road from Cohoes to Canajoharie, 52 Miles, 
 May 11 — May 13 19 
 
 III THE SUSQUEHANNA: 
 
 By Wagon Road from Canajoharie to Otsego Lake; Thence 
 by Canoe to Old Oghwaga, 106 Miles; May 13 — June 5, 
 1769 29 
 
 IV THE DELAWARE; 
 
 By Indian Trail from Old Oghwaga to Cookooze; Thence by 
 Canoe to Burlington, 236 Miles, June 5 — June 10, 1769 . 70 
 
 V A TABLE OF DISTANCES 81 
 
 VI NOTES ON THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF 
 
 THE INDIANS 83 
 
 VII INDEX 89 
 
PART I 
 
 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 
 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 
 
 i 
 
 RICHARD SMITH 
 
 ASa contemporary record of human and other 
 / % conditions in the valleys of four great rivers, 
 1 m during the period between the Stamp Act 
 and the beginning of the Revolutionary War, the 
 journal of Richard Smith has particular historical 
 value. Three of these valleys, or some parts of them, 
 at that time had been undergoing settlement by 
 Europeans for somewhat more than i oo years, while 
 the fourth had been in the hands of Europeans for 
 about twenty-five. Except for the towns which had 
 grown up at or near their mouths, each made its 
 way through a country still sparsely settled. 1 Aside 
 from the fur trade, agriculture was the chief industry, 
 
 1 The population of the Province of New York in 1771, exclusive of In- 
 dians and negroes, was about 150,000, but was mainly confined to New 
 York City, Long Island, Staten Island and the Hudson Valley. West of 
 Orange, Ulster and Albany Counties lay the County of Tryon, comprising a 
 territory that now includes eight counties, besides parts of three others. In 
 all that frontier territory were only about 10,000 inhabitants. 
 
 xiii 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 such others as existed being subordinate to it — the 
 shipping that conveyed flour to the West Indies, the 
 small tradesmen who earned livelihoods as middle- 
 men between manufacturers and consumers. 
 
 Mr. Smith saw these valleys, when the Indians 
 still traversed the trails that had been worn deep by 
 the feet of their forefathers, and when the bark canoe 
 was still an indispensable adjunct of frontier trade. 
 His journal is not alone valuable because of the con- 
 ditions in which it was written, but also for the dis- 
 crimination and precision with which its author ob- 
 served real things and recorded what was vital and 
 interesting in them. In many ways it is an excep- 
 tional document. 
 
 Mr. Smith belonged to a family which was long 
 settled in Burlington, New Jersey, where he was born 
 March 22nd, 1735, being the sixth of the family 
 who in succession had borne the name of Richard. 
 He was a brother of Samuel Smith, who wrote a 
 history of New Jersey, that is still held in esteem by 
 those who prosecute historical inquiries. At the 
 family home, Green Hill, may be seen to this day 
 ancient cherry trees, which Richard Smith as a boy 
 helped to plant. Having studied law in Philadel- 
 phia, he was admitted to the bar and afterwards 
 served as a member of the New Jersey Assembly, and 
 as State Treasurer. 1 When he made his tour of these 
 four rivers, he was thirty-four years old. The jour- 
 
 1 "The Burlington Smiths," by R. Morris Smith (1878). 
 
 xiv 
 
RICHARD SMITH 
 
 nal indicates unusual powers of observation and judg- 
 ment for a man of that age. 
 
 The immediate purpose of Mr. Smith in his tour, 
 was to make a survey of a grant of land now known 
 as the Otego patent, comprising 69,000 acres on the 
 upper Susquehanna, in which he, along with many 
 others, was interested as a proprietor. He and his 
 associates were a few of the many from distant places 
 who, in the years immediately following the Fort 
 Stanwix Treaty of November, 1768, explored and 
 surveyed the fertile lands bordering on the Susque- 
 hanna immediately south of the Mohawk. 
 
 Fort Stanwix, the scene of this treaty, of which 
 no part now remains, occupied the site of the present 
 City of Rome, in Oneida County, New York. It 
 had been built during the French War, taking its 
 name from a British general, but it acquired its chief 
 military distinction in 1777, when, under the name 
 of Fort Schuyler, it became the scene of a notable 
 siege, contemporary with the battle of Oriskany, 
 fought eight miles east of it. Oriskany was a con- 
 test between Indians and Tories on the one hand, 
 and a relief force bound for the fort on the other. 
 
 For many years before the treaty, there had been 
 chronic trouble with the Indians on the New York 
 and Pennsylvania frontiers, the Indians having grown 
 more and more discontented with the white man's 
 "thirst for land." Under Sir William Johnson's 
 direction, a council was at last called, to meet at 
 
 xv 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 Fort Stanwix, its purpose being to establish a scien- 
 tific frontier. 
 
 This council in its results became a memorable 
 gathering. The Indians who came numbered 
 3,200, — probably the largest number who ever assem- 
 bled in America for a conference with white men. 
 Sir William Johnson, in preparation for the meeting, 
 sent to Fort Stanwix twenty large batteaux laden 
 with the necessary presents for the Indians. He 
 ordered sixty barrels of flour, fifty barrels of pork, 
 six barrels of rice, and seventy barrels of other pro- 
 visions, the basis of his calculation being that each 
 Indian would consume twice as much food as a 
 white man. 
 
 After several days devoted to the preliminary nego- 
 tiations, the conference ended in the formal execu- 
 tion by the Indians, of a deed in which was delim- 
 ited what was long afterwards famous as the Line of 
 Property. This division of territory surrendered to 
 the white man all title to lands that lay east of this 
 line, which began near the eastern end of Lake 
 Oneida, whence it proceeded to and followed the 
 Unadilla River southward, then followed part of the 
 Delaware and part of the Susquehanna and finally 
 went westward to the Alleghany, after which it fol- 
 lowed the Ohio. By this conveyance was definitely 
 made over to the English a territory out of which 
 states have since been created, forming as it does the 
 basis of title to a large part of New York State, as 
 xvi 
 
RICHARD SMITH 
 
 well as of Kentucky, West Virginia, and Pennsyl- 
 vania. One of the witnesses to the transaction was 
 Benjamin Franklin. 
 
 The deed transferred these lands, with " all the 
 hereditaments and appurtenances in the fullest and 
 most ample manner unto our said Sovereign Lord, 
 King George III., his heirs and successors, to and for 
 his and their own proper use and behoof forever." 
 While the sum paid to the Indians for this imperial 
 territory was only $50,000, the king thought the 
 demands of the Indians "very unreasonable," and 
 contended that the mother country ought not to 
 have "any part of expense of a measure calculated 
 for the local interests of particular colonies." 1 
 
 Once the treaty had been signed, the granting of pat- 
 ents to the newly acquired territory became an active 
 pursuit. In the same year in which it was executed, 
 John Butler, who was afterwards to acquire an in- 
 famous name at Wyoming, got a tract on the But- 
 ternut Creek just west of the Otego grant. Following 
 this came many other grants, including Croghan's 
 at Otsego Lake, where twenty years later, the father 
 of Fenimore Cooper was to found the settlement 
 that still bears his name. 
 
 The Otego patent comprised a considerable part 
 of the present towns of Oneonta and Otego in Otsego 
 County, just north of the Susquehanna, and south of 
 
 1 A fuller account of this treaty, with a map showing in detail the Line 
 of Property, may be found in M The Old New York Frontier " ( 1901 ). 
 
 xvii 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 Cooperstown. In issuing it, the crown reserved "all 
 white or other sorts of pine trees fit for masts, of the 
 growth of twenty-four inches in diameter and up- 
 wards, at ten inches from the earth, for masts for the 
 Royal Navy of us, our heirs, and successors." It 
 imposed as a condition that one family should settle 
 each i ,000 acres within three years, and should cul- 
 tivate at least three acres for every fifty acres capable 
 of cultivation. 1 
 
 Mr. Smith made his tour accompanied by Robert 
 Wells and several surveyors. Soon afterwards he 
 began the work of settling his part of the tract which 
 comprised four thousand acres on both sides of the 
 Otsdawa Creek. 2 
 
 Several families were induced to take up lands, 
 but one of his projects, the founding of a Quaker 
 settlement, was thwarted by the Border Wars of the 
 Revolution. His notes to his journal, written twenty 
 years afterwards, show that Mr. Smith personally 
 visited these lands in 1773, 1777 and 1783. Dur- 
 ing the visit of 1773, he built a house known after- 
 wards as Smith Hall, which is still standing in the 
 town of Laurens, about half way between the villages 
 
 1 Land papers of Richard Smith, now owned by J. Francis Coad, of 
 Charlotte Hall, Maryland, a great-great-grandson of Mr. Smith. 
 
 2 The reader will perhaps pardon the personal pleasure which it gives me 
 to recall here that, during a vacation from college, one hundred years after 
 Mr. Smith made this survey, I acted as chain bearer in a survey on these 
 Otsdawa lands, the purpose being to determine the true line between two 
 farmers who had carried their disputes into court. 
 
 xviii 
 
RICHARD SMITH 
 
 of Laurens and Mount Vision. He described the 
 house at that time as follows: 
 
 "The cellar is about six feet high, of the same 
 dimensions as the house, that is thirty by twenty. 
 Saturday, July 17th, we raised the house before din- 
 ner, the persons present beside myself, Nathaniel 
 Edwards, John Hicks, Jonathan Fitch, Edward 
 Halsey, William Ferguson, Thomas Wise, Joseph 
 Meynall, William Horner, Joseph Dean, and the 
 carpenters John Newberry and John Brown — no rum 
 or other liquor than good water. The house is a 
 frame one, two stories high, each of eight feet, be- 
 sides the garret and cellar, all built of white pine, 
 except white oak, and black oak, or red oak lath. 
 It is to have two large windows of 24 lights each in 
 the first front story, and three above, and the like 
 in the rear, with two small windows in each 
 end above and below ; a front and back door ; one 
 chimney and three fire-places in the Northeast end, 
 and room left for others in the opposite end, with 
 two small windows in the cellar, and two in the 
 garret. It is the only house, properly speaking, as 
 yet upon the Otego patent, the rest being only small 
 log huts." 1 
 
 During the Revolution Mr. Smith served as a dele- 
 gate from New Jersey to the First Continental Con- 
 
 1 Memoranda made by Mr. Smith in 1773 and the originals now owned 
 by Mr. Coad. Mr. Coad has several deeds pertaining to the Otego patent, 
 three of which are on parchment. Two of these are signed by Benjamin 
 Franklin's son, William, the Colonial governor of New Jersey. 
 
 xix 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 gress, where he is said to have kept the journal of the 
 proceedings. In Matteson's picture, entitled " The 
 First Prayer in Congress/' his portrait is given, and 
 on some of the early issues of Continental currency, 
 his signature may be seen. 1 He was elected to the 
 Second Continental Congress, but afterwards resigned 
 in consequence of ill health. After the war, his son, 
 Richard R. Smith, followed William Cooper to 
 Otsego Lake, and in the winter of 1 789-1 790, 
 opened the first store in the settlement. He was 
 afterwards chosen the first sheriff of the county. 
 Richard Smith about 1790, removed to his farm at 
 Smith Hall, "to which he had long been much 
 attached, and which he continued to improve and 
 cultivate to the year 1799, when he removed to 
 Philadelphia." 2 
 
 On September 17th, 1803, Mr. Smith died in 
 Natchez, while making a tour of the valley of the 
 Mississippi, and was buried in the cemetery at that 
 place. He was a man of cultivated mind, as his 
 journal amply shows, with marked literary tastes. 
 He numbered among his correspondents Tobias Smol- 
 lett. 1 His son describes him as "a man of incor- 
 ruptible integrity, of gentle and amiable manners, of 
 almost unexampled temperance, having through the 
 course of his life, never been known to drink the 
 
 1 " The Burlington Smiths," by R. Morris Smith (1878). 
 
 2 Manuscript sketch of his life, signed "his affectionate son, Richard R. 
 Smith," dated Philadelphia, October 25, 1803, and now owned by Mr. 
 Coad. 
 
 XX 
 
RICHARD SMITH 
 
 smallest portion of ardent spirits, or even wine. He 
 possessed a strong mind, enriched with a variety of 
 knowledge, collected from judicious observations 
 upon men and manners, and from intimate acquaint- 
 ance with almost every author of note in the ancient 
 or modern languages." 
 
 The original manuscript of the journal has been 
 carefully preserved by Mr. Smith's descendants and 
 is now the property of Mr. Coad. In October, 1790, 
 a transcript of it was made "for the use of" M. 
 Pierre Eugene du Simitiere, the Swiss artist, who was 
 then living in this country, and to whom many 
 eminent men sat for their portraits. Mr. Smith 
 prepared for this transcript a series of comments in 
 the form of notes, running with the text, but placed 
 in parentheses, which are given in the present edi- 
 tion as foot-notes with the initials R. S. appended. 
 From this transcript another copy was made long 
 afterward and eventually came into the possession of 
 George H. Moore, formerly the Librarian of the 
 Lenox Library. At the sale of Mr. Moore's books 
 and manuscripts in 1894, it was purchased by me, 
 and has formed the basis of the printer's "copy" in 
 the preparation of the present edition. 
 
 Mr. Coad has very obligingly lent the original 
 manuscript in order that all changes made in the two 
 transcripts might be noted. Apparently the first 
 transcript was made under Mr. Smith's own eye, if 
 not by his own hand, many sentences having been im- 
 xxi 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 proved here and there as to construction and clear- 
 ness of expression, but otherwise the copy of this 
 transcript and the original journal are the same. 
 The reader therefore possesses the journal as Mr. 
 Smith desired it to be read by others, with the addi- 
 tion of the notes that were appended by him twenty- 
 one years after the original was written. Except 
 for a few extracts, pertaining to particular localities, 
 making in all about one fourth of the whole, the 
 journal is not known to have been printed before. 
 
 xxn 
 
II 
 
 THE PIONEERS OF THE HUDSON 
 
 WHEN Mr. Smith reached New York, 
 May 5th, 1769, he found it scarcely yet 
 recovered from the turmoil incident to 
 the Non-Importation Agreement of 1765, in which 
 (perhaps unconsciously, but none the less definitely), 
 had been begun the foundations of American manu- 
 facturing; incident also to the Stamp Act Congress 
 of the same year, the arrival of the stamps, and their 
 seizure and locking up in the City Hall then standing 
 in Wall Street on the site of the present Sub-Treasury 
 Building. Only four years had passed since British 
 officials were hung in effigy in the streets of New 
 York and the state carriage of the Acting Governor, 
 Cadwallader Colden, was hauled down to Bowling 
 Green, and there publicly burned. Liberty poles 
 were now being maintained on the site of the present 
 Post Office Building, with much difficultv, when 
 maintained at all. One year later was to be fought, 
 in John Street, the Battle of Golden Hill, in which, 
 with a prostrate liberty pole for its immediate cause, 
 was shed the first blood of the Revolution. 
 
 The Province of New York was then one of the 
 xxiii 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 smallest of the American colonies, both in population 
 and in resources. The city made a much better com- 
 parative showing than the country, but was still third 
 among the large cities. It had special importance 
 as the administrative centre for Royal interests in 
 America, so that a small court, modelled after the 
 London example, could be said to have been main- 
 tained here. Coaches were owned by twenty-six 
 persons, chariots by thirty-three, and phaetons by 
 twenty-six, while eighty-five gentlemen were entitled 
 to display coats of arms. 1 
 
 In a social sense, the city was perhaps more im- 
 portant than Boston or Philadelphia. The notable 
 houses were the Walton in Franklin Square, and the 
 Kennedy, at No. i Broadway. There were three Epis- 
 copal, or Established, churches; three Presbyterian 
 churches, and three Dutch Reformed ones, while six 
 other denominations had each one church, — the 
 Methodists, Moravians, Baptists, Quakers, French 
 Catholics and Jews. King s College was a notable 
 seat of learning for the Middle Colonies, and there 
 was one theatre. Other buildings were the City 
 Hall, Fort George, the Royal Exchange, and 
 Fraunces' Tavern. 
 
 Thomas Jones, 2 the loyalist, has drawn an idyllic 
 picture of the city as he knew it in 1752, describing 
 that period as "the golden age," the city being then 
 
 1 Du Simitiere. 
 
 2 " History of the Province of New York." 
 
 xxiv 
 
PIONEERS OF THE HUDSON 
 
 "in its happiest state." The inhabitants were in- 
 creasing in numbers and wealth ; luxury was un- 
 known ; the strife of parties was forgotten ; and peace 
 prevailed on the northern frontier. 
 
 While the city had grown as the rural parts could 
 not, the city in its first years grew slowly. Three 
 years after the first settlement, a horse grist mill, in 
 South William Street near Pearl, was about the only 
 visible sign of a settlement meant to be permanent. 
 Twelve years later the town had only three hundred 
 inhabitants, and only seven farms were under culti- 
 vation. Father Jogues 1 in 1644 found four or five 
 hundred people in the place, who spoke eighteen dif- 
 ferent languages. In 1652 one small wharf, fifty 
 feet long, sufficed for trade, the population being 
 eight hundred for the city, and two thousand for the 
 Province. Few of the permanent settlers were 
 Dutch, the Dutch who came in those years being 
 traders. After the expulsion of the Spaniards the 
 Dutch had shown reluctance to emigrate from Hol- 
 land, feeling that "no country was pleasanter to live 
 in." 2 
 
 But a powerful impetus was given to the city some 
 thirty years afterwards, when was passed the Bolting 
 Act, which provided that no mill outside of the city 
 should grind flour for market. This monopoly con- 
 tinued in force sixteen years, and the town under its 
 
 1 "Description of New Netherlands." 
 
 2 John Fiske's ** Dutch and Quaker Colonies." 
 
 XXV 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 fostering influence went forward with rapid strides. 
 Indeed the Bolting Act may be said to have laid the 
 foundation of the foreign commerce of New York. 1 
 
 Combined with other causes, this discrimination 
 restricted, as with an iron hand, the growth of 
 settlements in the Hudson Valley. Such attempts 
 as were made there, were constantly checked, first by 
 the Indians, and then by aggressions from the French 
 in Canada, extending over quite one hundred years. 
 Immigrants in these circumstances chose the safer val- 
 leys offered in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. As the 
 whole northern frontier of New York was exposed 
 to this danger, it was feared that the French might 
 secure the Hudson Valley, in which case no settle- 
 ments there would be secure. The city itself scarcely 
 felt safe, Fort George at the Battery being kept con- 
 stantly in a state of military efficiency. As early as 
 the time of Frontenac (1687), Canadian officials 
 had urged the conquest of New York as a measure 
 which would make the King of France master of 
 North America. The danger was not completely 
 removed until the fall of Quebec, and the Treaty of 
 Paris in 1763 had forever ended the power of France 
 in the New World. 
 
 Let me outline briefly such work as had been done 
 to people the Hudson Valley during the century and 
 a quarter that had elapsed since the Walloons in 
 1623 made the first actual settlement on Manhattan 
 
 1 Janvier's " In Old New York." 
 
 xxvi 
 
PIONEERS OF THE HUDSON 
 
 Island. In 1 6 14, on an island opposite Albany, the 
 Dutch had founded a trading post, and in 1623, 
 Albany itself was founded, with Walloons for the 
 principal settlers. In 1644, Father Jogues described 
 Albany as having "a wretched little fort called Fort 
 Orange," with a population of 100, who reside in 
 25 or 30 houses, "all made of boards, and thatched, 
 the only mason's work being in the chimneys." 
 
 The place thrived, however, as a trading post. In 
 the year 1656, 46,500 beaver and other skins were 
 shipped from Albany to New Amsterdam. And yet 
 when Mr. Smith made his visit one hundred years 
 afterward, the houses in Albany numbered only three 
 hundred, and it was by no means attractive as a place 
 to live in. It was still guarded by a stockade, and 
 had in the centre a small fort, "a sort of citadel," 
 provided with cannon, and capable of holding three 
 hundred men. 1 In 1678, this fort with its 12 guns 
 was described as "sufficient against the Indians," and 
 in 1687, it had small arms for forty men. 2 It was 
 sometimes called Fort Aurania, but more often Fort 
 Orange. 
 
 In these years the Dutch had well explored the 
 interior of the Province. The Visscher " Map of 
 New Netherlands," which dates from before 1656, 
 shows the course of the Hudson, Mohawk, Susque- 
 hanna and Delaware with a fair degree of general 
 
 1 "Documents Relating to the Colonial History of New York." 
 
 2 Dongan's ** Report on the Province." 
 
 xxvii 
 
PART OF THE VISSCHER MAP OF NEW NETHERLANDS 
 
 DRAWN BEFORE 1656 AND SHOWING THE HUDSON, MOHAWK, ST. LAWRENCE, 
 
 SUSQUEHANNA AND DELAWARE RIVERS 
 
 From a copy in the Emmet Collection of the Lenox Library 
 
PIONEERS OF THE HUDSON 
 
 accuracy, while the number of place names given 
 is surprisingly large. 
 
 The first efforts made to establish settlements along 
 the Hudson met with constant obstructions in the 
 form of Indian hostilities. In one of the outlying 
 settlements the Indians, in 1643, killed forty Hol- 
 landers and burned many houses, besides barns filled 
 with grain. 1 At Esopus, or Rondout, a trading 
 post had been established in 1614, 2 and what could 
 be called a settlement was made there about 1640, 
 when the entire population of the Province did not 
 exceed one thousand. 
 
 These first pioneers at Esopus were forced away 
 by the Indians, but the place was soon settled again, 
 and in 1655 Peter Stuyvesant personally staked out 
 a village there and sent twenty-four soldiers to guard 
 it. In 1657 the place was described as " an exceed- 
 ingly beautiful land," where "some Dutch inhab- 
 itants have settled themselves, and prosper especially 
 well." 3 By 1658 Esopus contained between sixty 
 and seventy Europeans who that year put " 990 
 schepels of seed grain into the ground." 4 They had 
 found it necessary, however, to live close together in 
 villages, although cultivating lands at a distance, and 
 to build a fort on the site of Rondout, and hence 
 the name Rondout. 
 
 1 Jogues. 
 
 2 E. M. Bacon's "The Hudson from Ocean to Source." 
 
 3 "Documentary History of the State of New York." 
 
 4 A schepel is the equivalent of a bushel. 
 
 xxix 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 In 1658, the village resisted a siege from the In- 
 dians, and in 1 66 1 , after the new village of Wiltwick, 
 now Kingston, had been founded, the pioneers were 
 again attacked. Wiltwick was completely destroyed, 
 twelve buildings being burned, eighteen people killed, 
 six made prisoners, and sixty-five others taking flight. 1 
 Three years later the Eastern shore of the Hudson 
 was devasted by the Mohicans. In spite of these 
 warnings, settlers returned to Esopus, and in 1668 
 were founded the neighboring villages of Marbletown 
 and Hurley. A local court was established, and in 
 1673 Kingston could boast a warehouse thirty feet 
 by forty. In 1646 and 1656, deeds to land on Cat- 
 skill Creek had been obtained from the Indians, and 
 in 1656 one at Schodack. 
 
 None of these settlers were Englishmen, the Dutch 
 having strictly prohibited the English from going to 
 Esopus and Albany. Englishmen from Lynn, Mass- 
 achusetts, who in 1639 had sought to found a settle- 
 ment at Manhasset on Long Island were driven out 
 by the Dutch, and sailing eastward, began a settlement 
 at Southampton, which was probably the first Eng- 
 lish colony planted in New York State. 2 Some years 
 later non-intercourse was proclaimed with Connecti- 
 cut, and in 1657 a fine of ^50 was imposed for har- 
 boring Quakers over night, while any vessel bring- 
 ing Quakers into the City was subject to confisca- 
 
 1 "Documents Relating to the Colonial History of New York." 
 
 2 Southold, Long Island, also claims this distinction. The rival claims 
 have, I believe, never been satisfactorily adjusted. 
 
 XXX 
 
PIONEERS OF THE HUDSON 
 
 tion. x French Protestants, however, were welcomed, 
 Walloons and Huguenots forming a considerable 
 element in all the settlements on the Hudson. 
 Others who came to the Province were Germans, 
 Danes, Norwegians and Bohemians. 
 
 From the Esopus centre went out those adventurous 
 pioneers who, in the years when Esopus was attacked 
 by Indians, pushed westward to the fertile lands 
 in the southwestern part of Orange County, known 
 collectively as Minisink, where grew up a thriving 
 settlement. Before the century closed, a neighboring 
 one called Way wayyonda was founded. The Indians 
 gave trouble at Minisink, and in 1669 a massacre 
 occurred, "the bloody horrors of which still linger 
 in the traditions of the neighborhood." 2 
 
 These Indian wars almost depopulated the Prov- 
 ince. When they began, the population was about 
 2,500, but when they closed, it was under one thou- 
 sand. Indeed it was not until some years after the 
 English rule had become well established that the 
 Province could again boast of 2,500 people. 
 
 With the English conquest, fresh efforts were made 
 to people the Hudson Valley. At Esopus, a new and 
 large tract was acquired in 1664, and thirty lots were 
 granted to each soldier of the garrison. Twenty years 
 later the settlers at that place petitioned to be allowed 
 to choose their own officers and were declared rioters 
 
 1 Broadhead's "History of New York." 
 
 2 Stone's "Life of Brant." 
 
 xxxi 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 for their presumption. After having been bound 
 over to keep the peace, they were released on paying 
 their fines. At New Paltz, in 1677, a deed to a 
 tract twelve miles long was obtained by Hugue- 
 nots who had been in Kingston since 1660, and the 
 beginnings were made of an important community. 
 These settlements in Orange and Ulster Counties long 
 remained the granary of the Province. 
 
 In 1678, the entire Province contained only 
 twenty-four towns, villages and parishes; and twenty 
 years later the number of saw-mills — and a saw-mill 
 was a first necessity to pioneers — was only forty. 1 The 
 population was about eight thousand in 1678. Of 
 these the city alone had 3,430, who were housed in 
 about four hundred dwellings. Long Island, Staten 
 Island and Westchester County, being less exposed 
 to hostilities than other neighborhoods, contained 
 the greater part of the remainder. Twenty years 
 later the Province had 17,000 inhabitants, of whom 
 4,937 were in the City, and 8,241 on Long Island. 
 In Orange County were only 219; in Ulster and 
 Dutchess 1,387, and in Albany County, which then 
 extended over all territory in the Province west and 
 north of the present limits of Albany County, were 
 1, 384^ Few of the immigrants had yet come from 
 the British Isles. In 1687 Governor Dongan de- 
 clared that, in the course of seven years, not more 
 
 1 Bellomont to the Lords of Trade and Plantations. 
 
 2 Returns printed in the " Documentary History of the State of New 
 York." 
 
 xxxii 
 
PIONEERS OF THE HUDSON 
 
 than twenty of the immigrants were English, Scotch 
 or Irish. 
 
 One important cause of this disinclination to settle 
 in New York was the use made of the Colony by 
 England as a place to which objectionable or crimi- 
 nal persons were deported. The Colony thus ac- 
 quired a bad name. Moreover, it became a favorite 
 resort for pirates, to whom it was not inhospitable, 
 Captain Kidd being among the number received. It 
 also maintained, at the foot of Wall Street, a slave 
 market, the number of slaves in the Province in 
 1723 being more than 6,000, and not all were 
 black. 1 The city itself failed at times to keep such 
 headway as it gained. Lieutenant Governor Clarke, 2 
 in 1 74 1, declared that, when he arrived in the Prov- 
 ince, he found "the shipbuilding almost dead," and 
 one hundred houses " empty for want of tenants." 
 In these circumstances, while men who were am- 
 bitious of official life eagerly sought positions in 
 New York, others who desired to take up industrial 
 pursuits and rear families, preferred to plant homes 
 elsewhere. 
 
 Along the Hudson a system of land holdings came 
 into existence bv which settlements were still further 
 restricted. In 1629 what is known as the Charter 
 of Privileges and Exemptions offered liberal grants 
 of land to those who, within four vears, should bring 
 
 1 "Documentary History of the State of New York. 
 
 2 Letter to the Lords of Trade and Plantations. 
 
 xxxiii 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 fifty grown-up persons to the Province, and settle 
 them along the Hudson, these lands to be held as 
 patroonships. The West India Company reserved 
 all right to the fur trade, but other privileges almost 
 feudal were acquired by the patroons. 
 
 Oldest of these famous estates was the Van Rens- 
 selaer estate, the beginnings of which were made as 
 early as 1630. Its founder was Killien Van Rens- 
 selaer, who was interested in the West India Com- 
 pany, but never came to America. From his home 
 in Amsterdam, Holland, he employed agents to trade 
 with the Indians on the upper Hudson, taking lands 
 in exchange for goods. This manor grew in time 
 to be an almost independent little principality. In 
 1650, complaint was made by the authorities on 
 Manhattan Island that the patroon "causes all his 
 tenants to sign that they will not appeal to the Man- 
 hattan authorities," and in practice "absolutely abol- 
 ishes whomsoever he pleases," and " does not 
 allow any person to reside there except at his pleasure 
 and upon certain conditions." The Van Rensselaer 
 patroonship was the only one of those granted by 
 the Dutch which survived after 1664, the others 
 having "died a natural death or been bought back 
 by the Dutch West India Company." 1 
 
 After the English conquest, other feudalistic estates, 
 with more restricted privileges, were founded under 
 
 1 Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer in the "North American Review" 
 for August, 1 90 1. 
 
 xxxiv 
 
PIONEERS OF THE HUDSON 
 
 the name of manors. Extending from Yonkers 
 northward to the Croton River, and comprising 390 
 square miles, Frederic Philipse, by purchases from 
 the Indians and by grants from the government, ac- 
 quired a vast tract, which in 1693 was erected into 
 a manor. 1 North of him was the Van Cortlandt 
 Manor, dating from 1697, and reaching to Anthony's 
 Nose. Its manor house, still standing, was built to 
 serve as a fort as well as a dwelling. 
 
 Next came the Romboudt and Verplanck Manors, 
 granted in 1685, when Dongan was Governor, and 
 extending between the Fishkill and Wappinger 
 Creeks several miles along the river, and sixteen 
 miles back into the interior. East of this lay the 
 Beekman Manor. Next, on the north, lay that 
 part of the river where Robert Livingston acquired 
 a princely domain, which eventually made one of his 
 heirs the richest man in the Province. 
 
 The owners of these tracts sought to secure settlers, 
 but in the early years their success was small. Pioneers 
 of the best class, seeking freedom in the new world, 
 were reluctant to become land tenants, a condition of 
 life in which the old world had taught them that 
 
 1 Of this family was Mary Philipse, whose hand Washington is said to 
 have sought in marriage, not knowing she was already engaged to Col. Roger 
 Morris. By a strange irony of fate, the house which she and Col. Morris 
 were building for a home on Manhattan Island at the time of Mr. Smith's 
 visit, became in 1776 the headquarters of Washington, Col. and Mrs. 
 Morris having fled from the city as loyalists. One of the romantic traditions 
 connected with this marriage is that an Indian soothsayer, who was present 
 at the ceremony, remarked to Mary Philipse, " your possessions shall pass 
 away when the eagle shall despoil the lion." 
 
 XXXV 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 there was serious danger of becoming serfs. Such as 
 came were obliged at first to live in pits dug as cel- 
 lars might be and then roofed over. 
 
 Writing in 1701, the Earl of Bellomont, Governor 
 of the Province, declared to the Lords of Trade, 1 
 that "not less than 7,000,000 acres have been granted 
 away in thirteen grants, and all of them uninhabited, 
 except Mr. Van Rensselaer's grant, which is twenty- 
 four miles square, and on which the town of Albany 
 stands." Two generations had passed away since 
 these Van Rensselaer lands were acquired. Mean- 
 while they had "fallen into many hands by the 
 Dutch system of dividing them equally among their 
 children." 
 
 With the other grants no such favorable results 
 had been reached. Bellomont declared that Mr. 
 Livingston "has on his great grant of sixteen miles 
 long and twenty-four broad but four or five cottages, 
 as I am told — men that live in vassalage under him, 
 and work for him, and are too poor to be farmers, 
 having not the wherewithal to buy cattle to start a 
 farm." Col. Van Cortlandt "has also on his great 
 grants four or five of these poor families," his two 
 grants being each twenty miles square. Col. Philipse 
 on his manor had about twenty families "of those 
 poor people that worked for him." " I do not hear," 
 said the Governor further, "that Philipse's son, Col. 
 Schuyler, Col. Beekman, or Col. Smith have any 
 
 1 " Documents Relating to the Colonial History of New York." 
 
 XXXVI 
 
COLONIAL HOUSES IN NEW YORK CITY 
 
 / . tu „• , '" THC Kranklln H "''^'i» Franklin Square Buill •boul 
 
 (.) ["he Walton H .ooseinFnuAlinSq.mn, (,, Man- . !wav> jl]st 
 
 ,l " lti: above Trinity Church. Garten view. 
 
 U) Bon „, vicw . 
 
 From ,<:.{ prints 
 
PIONEERS OF THE HUDSON 
 
 tenants on their grants," and then added that many 
 people had been "wickedly stripped of their lands 
 by these grantees." 
 
 Early in the new century, an important, though 
 temporary, accession to the population came from 
 Germany. Men of the peasant class from the Palat- 
 inate, having been forced by the wars between their 
 country and France to leave their homes in a state 
 of great poverty, sought the protection of Queen 
 Anne, and made arrangements by which they emi- 
 grated to New York, where they were to acquire 
 lands and eventually were to reimburse the Crown 
 for their passage money and other expenses. 
 
 Several thousand came over, beginning in 1710. 
 Under Governor Hunter, it was arranged that they 
 should take up lands in Livingston Manor, where, 
 about eight miles below the city of Hudson, five 
 villages were laid out for them. But they did not 
 thrive; under the conditions imposed they found it 
 impossible to make money, and after a stern struggle 
 for a few years, gave up the task. Many removed 
 to Schoharie, and others found their way to the Upper 
 Mohawk. A small number remained in the Hud- 
 son Valley — 126 families on the east side, 97 on the 
 west. The failure of these settlements was excep- 
 tional, but it illustrates the radical defect in a system 
 of land holdings which, under the patroons and lords 
 of manors, for a long period retarded the growth of 
 the Hudson Valley. 
 
 xxxvii 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 As late as 1759, in a memorial asking for clergy- 
 men to be sent to the Hudson Valley, it was stated 
 that on the east side of the river, "quite as far as we 
 have any settlements abounding with people," the 
 country was destitute of ministers, except for two 
 Dutch and two German ones, and many people have 
 almost lost all sense of Christianity." In Philipse 
 Manor there were " people enough for a large con- 
 gregation, without any minister." In other words, 
 it was mentioned, as if somewhat remarkable, that 
 from Yonkers to the Croton River there were enough 
 people to fill one of the small churches of that day. 1 
 
 But the best evidence of the backward condition 
 of the Province is found in the census. New York, 
 which in our day has long stood first among the 
 States in population, was eighth among the colonies 
 in 1755. Pennsylvania in that year had 220,000 
 people, Massachusetts 200,000, Virginia 125,000, 
 Maryland 100,000, Connecticut 100,000, New 
 Hampshire 75,000, New Jersey 75,000, and North 
 Carolina 75,000, but New York had only 55,ooo. 2 
 
 Mr. Smith's tour was made thirteen years after 
 these returns were compiled. During the second 
 half of this period, with the return of peace and a 
 peace which it was known would last — at least so 
 far as the claims of France were concerned — remark- 
 able growth had set in. By 1 774, the population was 
 
 1 "Documents Relating to the Colonial History of New York." 
 
 2 Returns made to the Lords of Trade and Plantations. 
 
 xxxviii 
 
HUDSON RIVER MANOR HOUSE 
 
 1,1 The Verplanck House in FUhkiD 
 
 I leek man House 
 in Rbii 
 (.;) The Van Rensselaer House which survived in Albany until i I hrcatcned 
 
 with demolition, it h.i* been removed t.-> Williamstown, M.i>- . and there 
 re-erected as a college fraternity b 
 (4) l'lii.' Van Cortlandl I ; 
 
PIONEERS OF THE HUDSON 
 
 estimated to have reached 182,000, of whom 21,000 
 were black. But in the first half of these thirteen 
 years growth had been impossible, for then occurred 
 the last and most destructive of the French Wars, 
 when the map of the whole northern frontier of 
 New York became dotted with forts and camps. 1 
 That region furnished sites for several important 
 battles, Albany becoming the chief base of supplies, 
 and a rendezvous for troops. Niagara, Lake George 
 and Ticonderoga in those years witnessed many 
 engagements, preliminary to that final combat further 
 north, one of the decisive battles in the history of 
 the world — the victory of Wolfe over Montcalm at 
 Quebec. 
 
 1 A partial list of the forts or fortified towns in the Province at that time 
 would include these : In the Hudson Valley and on the lakes north of it, 
 Fort George (in New York City), Rondout, Philipse Castle, Van Cortlandt 
 Manor House, Fort Orange, Fort George (on Lake George), Fort Edward, 
 Fort Ann, Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point; on the Mohawk, Fort John- 
 son, Fort Hunter, Canajoharie, German Flats, Fort Stanwix, Fort Bull and 
 Fort Brewerton; on Lake Ontario, Fort Oswego and Fort Niagara; on the 
 Susquehanna, Cherry Valley and Oghwaga. 
 
 XXXIX 
 
Ill 
 
 THE PIONEERS OF THE MOHAWK 
 
 KNOWLEDGE of the Mohawk is contem- 
 porary with the founding of the trading post 
 at Albany. Two men, of whom one was 
 named Kleynties, explored the Mohawk in that year 
 or the next and went down the Susquehanna from 
 Otsego Lake. 1 Champlain, for the French, in thesame 
 year (already in 1609 he had explored, almost to its 
 head, the lake called after him — this was in the same 
 year and season that Hudson sailed up the river bear- 
 ing his name, the two men being only one hundred 
 miles apart, and yet each was ignorant of the other's 
 presence), visited central New York, coming by way 
 of Lake Ontario, and thus probably reached some of 
 the headwaters of the Mohawk. 
 
 All through the Dutch period, fur traders explored 
 the Mohawk in their bark canoes, but white men 
 founded no actual settlements there, until after the 
 English had established their supremacy. The 
 Dutch minister Megapolensis, however, had gone 
 
 1 On this expedition was in part based the Figurative Map, the earliest map 
 of the interior of New York. It shows all four of the rivers visited by Mr. 
 Smith. The Visscher or Van der Donck map of before 1656 shows these 
 rivers with many additional details. 
 
 Xl 
 
PIONEERS OF THE MOHAWK 
 
 into the country preaching to the Indians and vis- 
 iting their castles. 1 Meanwhile, the French also had 
 come — not as traders or soldiers, but as Jesuit mis- 
 sionaries, displaying a zeal and devotion " unsur- 
 passed in the history of Christianity." 2 
 
 First among the Jesuits was Isaac Jogues, who 
 was brought into the Mohawk country as a captive 
 and horribly tortured by the Indians, as he " fol- 
 lowed them through the still November forest, and 
 shared their wild bivouac in the depths of the wintry 
 desolation." 3 Escaping from his captors, Jogues 
 reached Manhattan Island, and thence sailed for 
 France, but soon returned voluntarily as a missionary 
 to the Mohawks, who now treacherously murdered 
 him. 4 " One of the purest examples of Roman 
 Catholic virtue which the Western world has seen," 
 was Jogues. 5 Joseph Bressani, another captive mis- 
 sionary, came in 1644, and like Jogues was bar- 
 barously tortured. With only one finger of his right 
 hand left entire, he wrote from the Mohawk to the 
 general of his order in Rome, a letter stained with 
 his own blood, his ink being " gunpowder mixed 
 with water, and his table the earth." 
 
 The beginnings of actual settlements date from 
 
 1 Megapolensis's " Treatise on the Mohawks." 
 - Morgan's " League of the Iroquois." 
 
 3 Parkman's "Jesuits in North America." 
 
 4 This occurred near the present village of Auriesville, on the south side of 
 the Mohawk, a few miles west of Fort Hunter. 
 
 5 Parkman. 
 
 Xli 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 1662, when a grant of the "great flat" at Schenec- 
 tady was made to Arent Van Curler, who soon began 
 to build houses and erect mills. Van Curler had 
 been an agent, or commissioner, of the Van Rens- 
 selaer estate and acquired much distinction in the 
 frontier annals of his time. It was through his per- 
 sonal efforts that Jogues made his escape from cap- 
 tivity. At the same time Van Curler, by fair dealing, 
 secured the lasting friendship of the Indians. By 
 them he was always known as Corlear, and so much 
 did they esteem him that ever afterwards the gov- 
 ernors of the Province were called, not by their own 
 names, but by his, and the governor's official resi- 
 dence to them was always " Corlear's house." 
 
 For more than ten years Schenectady remained 
 the most remote settlement on the Mohawk, ranking 
 as an outpost on the New York frontier, with Mini- 
 sink as settled from the lower Hudson. Next fol- 
 lowed a settlement at Rotterdam, eight miles west of 
 Schenectady, where may still be seen the Mabie 
 House, built in 1680, and now the oldest structure 
 standing in the Mohawk Valley. 1 Meanwhile, the 
 French continued to assert their claims to northern 
 and western New York. De Curcelles, with 1,300 
 men, made an expedition against the Mohawks in 
 1665, and burned five of their castles, or palisaded 
 villages, and La Salle, in 1669, took possession of 
 Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, building a fort at 
 
 1 W. Max Reid's "The Mohawk Valley." 
 
 xlii 
 
COLONIAL BUILDINGS IN' ALBANY AND ON THE MOHAWK. 
 
 1 1) The Mabie House near Rotterdam, built in 16S0, and thcoldest 
 house now standing inthe Mohawk Valley. 
 
 (a) St. George's church, 5 henectady, I 1 1 Hw Queen Anne Parsonage in Fort Hunter, 
 
 built in 1759. built in i;i.v 
 
 (4) An Eighteenth Century Street Scene in Albany. 
 The first ikrttfrom rtctnt fkoiogra^ks. The last /rum an old /Hut. 
 
PIONEERS OF THE MOHAWK 
 
 Niagara. Other Frenchmen in 1673 erected at 
 what is now Kingston, Ontario, another fort to 
 which they gave the name of Frontenac. The Eng- 
 lish seemed not to have fully understood the meaning 
 of these events until 1675, when Governor Andros 
 personally ascended the Mohawk to the site of Utica, 
 where he met the chiefs of the Iroquois in a council 
 extending over several days, the result of which was 
 the appointment of an Indian commission that was 
 to have marked influence on subsequent events in the 
 conflict with the French. 
 
 Fourteen years later, Fort Niagara having been 
 destroyed, a memorable invasion of the valley was 
 made by the French, under Frontenac. Having 
 reached Schenectady at night Frontenac, without 
 being discovered, gained an entrance into the forti- 
 fied town then comprising about forty " well-built 
 houses." He " beset each house, murdered the 
 inhabitants, and then burned the houses." Some 
 sixty persons were killed, twenty-seven made pris- 
 oners, and twenty-seven others escaped to Albany. 1 
 
 Important grants of land, leading to scandalous 
 exposures and finally to a revocation of the grants, 
 had been made in those early days on the Mohawk. 
 They included one to a man named Penhorne that 
 was fifty miles long and two miles wide, one to 
 Captain Evans forty miles by thirty, and a still larger 
 one to Dr. Dellius, a Dutch minister who labored 
 
 1 " Documentary History of the State of New York." 
 
 xliii 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 among the Mohawks. This reckless disposal of some 
 of the most valuable lands of the Province was made 
 in the time of Governor Fletcher. 
 
 When Lord Bellomont came over as Fletcher's 
 successor, severe representations were made to the 
 home government as to what these grants meant. 
 Bellomont, in 1698, wrote that the Dellius tract was 
 reported to be eighty-six miles long and twenty-five 
 broad, or 1,376,000 acres in extent, " which is a pro- 
 digious tract of country to grant away to a stranger 
 that has not a child, that is not denizened, and in a 
 word a man that has not any sort of virtue or merit." 
 Moreover, there was "not a Christian inhabitant on 
 either of his grants." The same was true of Captain 
 Evans's tract, which "has but one house on it, or 
 rather a hut where a poor man lives." 1 
 
 Bellomont pointed out that the most serious feature 
 of these large grants was the harm they would do to 
 the English alliance with the Indians, since they 
 would "constrain and force the Indians of the Ma- 
 quase 2 nation to desert this province, and fly to the 
 French." He added that "it was impossible while 
 things remained so, that the country can ever be set- 
 tled or peopled, the grantees being too few to do it." 
 The Mohawks had been "the best guard and security 
 to these frontiers," and if they were dispossessed, it 
 would be difficult for the English to resist the French. 
 
 1 Letter to the Lords of Trade and Plantations. 
 
 2 Mohawk. 
 
 xliv 
 
PIONEERS OF THE MOHAWK 
 
 Moreover, others of the Five Nations would follow 
 the Mohawks, and New York was "the safeguard 
 and chief defence of all His Majesty's northern plan- 
 tations." 
 
 After these patents had finally been vacated, the 
 Mohawk territory began to be partitioned off into 
 small grants, the earliest dating from 1703, but it 
 was not until fifty years afterward, that the entire 
 south side of the stream passed into private hands, the 
 grants then numbering twenty-eight. Meanwhile, 
 to the north of Schenectady, and lying just west of 
 the Hudson, had been made the large grant known as 
 Kayaderosseras, which comprised 256,000 acres, par- 
 titioned among thirteen persons. It was settled with 
 much difficulty. 1 
 
 In the first part of the new century, settlers could 
 do little toward peopling the Mohawk. Even the 
 Peace of Utrecht 2 in 171 3 was not followed by ac- 
 tive immigration, the government being slow to offer 
 incentives. When Governor Burnet established a 
 trading post at Oswego his act was heralded as a sign 
 of exceptional enterprise by a royal governor, and 
 so indeed it remains as a fact in the history of the 
 State. A new " thirst for land " then set in, and some 
 little progress was made. 
 
 While many small patents were being issued, a 
 missionary work going forward in the valley exercised 
 
 1 See a map of these grants in the " Documentary History of the State of 
 New York." 
 
 - By this Peace was ended the War of the Spanish Succession. 
 
 xlv 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 considerable influence on its development. Governor 
 Dongan was the first among the royal governors who 
 saw the importance of this work as a matter of state 
 policy. It was necessary that Protestants, as repre- 
 senting English interests, should counteract the work 
 of the Jesuits who represented the interests of France. 
 In 1687, Dongan asked the Indians not to "receive 
 any French priests any more, having sent for English 
 where you can be supplied with all to content." He 
 wrote to the home government asking for five or six 
 ministers to live at the Indian castles and thus oblige 
 the French priests "to return to Canada, whereby 
 the French will be divested of their pretences to the 
 country, and then we shall enjoy that trade without 
 any fear of its being diverted." 1 Dongan was soon 
 afterward recalled, but his policy had made some 
 headway and in 1700 an act was passed "against 
 Jesuits and Popish priests." 
 
 Protestant missionaries then came in. At Schen- 
 ectady, in 1 70 1 , was stationed Bernardus Freeman, a 
 Calvinist, who reported that thirty-five Mohawks out 
 of one hundred were Christians, and that he had trans- 
 lated into the Mohawk tongue the Ten Command- 
 ments, the Athenasian Creed, and parts of the Prayer 
 Book. Then came Thoroughgood Moor, who la- 
 bored among the Mohawks three years and was fol- 
 lowed by William Andrews, who also remained three 
 
 1 "Documentary History of the State of New York." 
 
 xlvi 
 
PIONEERS OF THE MOHAWK 
 
 years. It was within this period that a fort one hun- 
 dred and fifty feet square, with a block-house at each 
 corner, and a school house thirty by twelve feet, was 
 built at Fort Hunter. Queen Anne was the moving 
 spirit in this enterprise, having been inspired to it by 
 the visit which Col. Peter Schuyler, formerly Mayor 
 of Albany, made to London in 1710, Schuyler taking 
 with him four Indian kings. One of these kings was 
 the grandfather of the Mohawk leader Joseph Brant, 
 who in Mr. Smith's tour became his guide on the 
 Susquehanna. 1 Mr. Andrews's labors came to a close 
 in 171 8. Among those who followed him were 
 John Miln and Henry Barclay. Barclay in 1743 re- 
 ported that only a few unbaptised Mohawks remained. 
 Under the influence of these missionaries a few set- 
 tlements were founded. 
 
 The chief obstacle to settlements, wrote Lieutenant 
 Governor Clarke, had been " the massacres in King 
 William's War by the French and Indians, so that 
 very little progress was possible until the Peace of 
 Utrecht." After that date, a few farmers began to 
 settle on the Mohawk. The crops grown by them 
 were good and more families soon came in. But 
 war again broke out with the French of Canada in 
 1745, when a descent was made upon Saratoga, and 
 forty houses were destroyed and one hundred pris- 
 
 1 At Fort Hunter still stands what is known as the Queen Anne Parsonage, 
 which has come down from 1712. 
 
 xlvii 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 oners captured. Destruction was also done else- 
 where on the frontier until the more remote parts of 
 the County of Albany became a scene of desolation. 
 
 In the midst of the work done by the missionaries, 
 there arrived in the valley a man who was destined 
 to give a great impetus to settlements and finally to 
 dominate its interests for quite thirty years. During 
 that period his influence with the Indians became so 
 great that to him more than to all other persons is 
 to be ascribed the important aid the Indians rendered 
 in the final overthrow of the French power. Wil- 
 liam Johnson (afterwards Sir William) came to the 
 Mohawk Valley in 1738, as the agent of his uncle, 
 Sir Peter Warren, who had a large grant west of 
 Schenectady, and south of the Mohawk. Johnson 
 founded a settlement beyond Fort Hunter, to which 
 he gave the name of Warren's Bush. Here he 
 cleared land, built mills, opened roads, and arranged 
 to bring in settlers. 
 
 Of this work we gain an important hint in a lettei 
 from Lieut. Governor Clarke, to the home govern- 
 ment, in 1736, in which he refers to "a scheme to 
 settle the Mohawk country which I have the pleasure 
 to hear from Ireland and Scotland, is like to succeed." 
 In brief, the scheme was to give 100,000 acres to 
 the first 500 Protestant families that came from 
 Europe "in 200 acres to a family, who being settlers, 
 would draw thousands to them." 1 
 
 1 Letter to the Lords of Trade and Plantations. 
 
 xlviii 
 
PIONEERS OF THE MOHAWK 
 
 Johnson remained five years at Warren's Bush, and 
 in that time sold off on easy terms two-thirds of his 
 uncle's lands, and then, having obtained for himself 
 a tract of several thousand acres on the north side of 
 the river, near Amsterdam, removed to it in 1743, 
 and there built a saw and grist mill, as well as the 
 stone house called Fort Johnson, which still stands 
 there. In 1 74 1 Johnson had brought in sixty Scotch- 
 Irish families, giving them lands on long leases at 
 nominal rent, and thus had gathered about him a 
 loyal band of feudal followers. 1 Some German refu- 
 gees having come to New York, he induced them 
 to settle on the Mohawk, their number being about 
 1 60. Meanwhile, he carried on an active trade with 
 Indians, and soon had established at Oghwaga, on 
 the Susquehanna, a trading post, Oghwaga then hav- 
 ing 100 Indian lodges. About 1745 he imported 
 from England a breeding stud of horses, as well as 
 cattle and sheep, the horses numbering thirty, the 
 cattle forty, and the sheep 100. By 1746, he was 
 shipping flour to the West Indies, and was the 
 largest slave holder in the Province, having sixty or 
 seventy slaves. 
 
 Thus had the Mohawk entered upon a condition 
 in which it could be said to have become settled 
 from Schenectady to its western limits, but a new 
 war broke out with France, with dangers to the 
 frontier greater than ever before. In 1755, Brad- 
 
 iBuell's " Sir William Johnson " (1903). 
 
 xlix 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 dock was defeated on the western borders of Penn- 
 sylvania, and in 1756 Oswego was lost to the 
 French. Johnson defeated the French at Lake 
 George in 1755, but in 1757 a terrible blow fell 
 upon the frontier in the massacre of German Flats, 
 where on the upper Mohawk in 1751 had arisen a 
 village of sixty dwellings and about 300 souls. 
 Aroused by the French under Beletre at three 
 o'clock in the morning, forty or fifty persons were 
 killed, 130 made prisoners, and their buildings 
 burned. Such was the destruction that when Lord 
 Howe arrived he found "nothing but an abandoned 
 slaughter-field." Consternation struck the frontier, 
 the settlers sending their goods and valuables to 
 Albany and Schenectady, until it " seemed as if these 
 settlements would be entirely depopulated." 1 At this 
 time, in 1758, was built Fort Stanwix to guard the 
 Mohawk from the west, while Albany became the 
 chief rendezvous for troops bound for that fort and for 
 points in the Champlain Valley. 
 
 How well the valley had now become peopled 
 appears in a contemporary statement. At Canajo- 
 harie, where Mr. Smith left the Mohawk to reach 
 the Susquehanna, there stood in 1858 a fort 100 
 paces in size on each side, surrounded by a ditch and 
 four bastions, with pickets fifteen feet high, port- 
 holes, and a stage all around for firing. At each 
 
 1 Stone's '« Life of Brant." 
 1 
 
PIONEERS OF THE MOHAWK 
 
 bastion were small cannon. 1 A good road ran from 
 Canajoharie to Fort Hunter, twelve leagues away, 
 there being i oo houses on the road, occupied mainly 
 by Germans. At Fort Hunter, the cannon were seven 
 and eight pounders, a church being inside the fort, 
 besides thirty cabins for the Indians. From Fort 
 Hunter to Schenectady, a distance of seven leagues, 
 were twenty or thirty houses, occupied by Dutch 
 settlers. Schenectady had 300 houses surrounded by 
 pickets with a fort in the centre of the village, half 
 masonry and half timber, with four bastions, a bat- 
 tery of cannon on the ramparts, and capable of 
 holding 200 or 300 people. Between Schenectady 
 and Albany were two houses. 
 
 On the north side of the river, in the same year, 
 from the mouth of Canada Creek to Fort Johnson, 
 a distance of twelve leagues, were about 500 houses, 
 mostly built of stone, and occupied by Germans, but 
 with no fort for the whole distance. From Fort 
 Johnson to Schenectady were twenty houses. 
 
 When peace was declared in 1763, Acting Gov- 
 ernor Colden issued a proclamation inviting settlers, 
 and many came into the valley. A temporary reac- 
 tion followed during the conspiracy of Pontiac, when 
 many thought of abandoning their homes. Johnson 
 then had 1 20 families as tenants on his new estate, 
 north of the old one, in what is now fohnstown, 
 
 1 " Documentary History of the State of New York." 
 li 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 where he built a new house, in which his beneficent 
 labors came to a close in 1774, the most notable 
 achievement of his last years being the Treaty of 
 Fort Stanwix. 
 
 lii 
 
IV 
 
 THE PIONEERS OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 
 
 THE latest of these four valleys to be settled — 
 latest by more than ioo years — was the 
 Susquehanna. 1 In a sense the river was 
 discovered slightly in advance of Henry Hudson's 
 visit to the Hudson and Delaware. This discovery, 
 however, related only to its mouth, as visited by Capt. 
 John Smith in the summer of 1608. To the Dutch 
 the Susquehanna was not known until Kleynties and 
 his companion in 16 14, after exploring the Mohawk, 
 passed southward from Otsego Lake. That it was 
 soon afterward visited by the early Dutch traders 
 from Albany and Schenectady, may be assumed. 
 These men are known to have penetrated to many 
 remote parts, but French traders may have antici- 
 pated them. It is more likely still that French mis- 
 sionaries were contemporary with the Dutch — 
 Jogues, Bruyas and Milet. 
 
 Oghwaga, on the Susquehanna, was already an 
 ancient Indian town — one of the oldest in the Prov- 
 
 1 Susquehanna is an Algonquin word, meaning river with long reaches. 
 The Iroquois name for it was Ga-wa-no-wa-na-neh Gahunda, meaning 
 great island river. 
 
 liii 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 ince. Originally founded by Mohawks who had 
 had differences with their brethren in the Mohawk 
 Valley, it had become the home also of discontented 
 Oneidas, and finally of Tuscaroras, until the assort- 
 ment of tribes living there was important enough 
 to acquire a name of its own — the Och-tagh-quan-a- 
 we-croones. Oghwaga was long a central trading 
 post for the Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers. Here 
 from the far West and South, came Indians to meet 
 the Dutch. Its first occupation by the Mohawks as 
 a village has been placed as far back as 1550. 1 
 
 Other Indian villages, but much smaller ones, and 
 of a more temporary character, lay at the mouths of 
 several streams flowing into the Susquehanna, such 
 as the Unadilla and Charlotte Rivers, and the Otego 
 and Schenevus Creeks, while at Otsego Lake dwelt 
 Indians who are referred to on the Visscher map as 
 " Canoo-makers." Three miles above the mouth 
 of the Unadilla, on the old Indian trail, long existed 
 a heap of field stones, known to the white people as 
 the Indian Monument — a sort of cairn that had grown 
 up from the Indian custom of throwing a stone upon 
 the spot when passing that way. This custom was 
 understood to be a form of recognition by the Indians 
 of the existence of a supreme being. The monu- 
 ment disappeared about thirty years ago. At the 
 mouth of the same river, there existed in the time of 
 the first settlement of the place remains of an aborig- 
 
 1 Buell's "Sir William Johnson " (1903). 
 
 liv 
 
PIONEERS OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 
 
 inal fort, which Indian tradition said had been 
 erected " five hundred summers ago-" In comprised 
 three acres of land, and was enclosed by a ditch. 
 
 In Governor Dongan's time, it was recommended 
 that traders be sent out to form camps or settlements 
 on the banks of the Susquehanna as being nearer to 
 the Indians than Albany, and "consequently the In- 
 dians more inclinable to go there." Dongan in 1 686 
 made a formal request to the Indians to see that 
 neither French nor English, "go and live on the 
 Susquehanna, nor hunt nor trade without my pass 
 and seal." The Indians were to seize any men who 
 should come without proper passports and deliver 
 them in Albany "where care shall be taken for 
 punishing them." 1 
 
 With the more serious aspects that now arose in 
 the trouble with the French of Canada, nothing for 
 more than a generation was actually done to people 
 the Susquehanna. In 1722 Governor Burnet sent out 
 several young men to Oghwaga as traders, and in 1737 
 Cadwallader Colden, in an official report, declared 
 that "goods may be carried from this lake (Otsego) 
 in battoes, or flat bottomed vessels, through Penn- 
 sylvania to Maryland and Virginia " — an opportunity 
 which had been improved as early as 1723, when 
 thirty families of Palatine Germans, after trouble over 
 their lands in Schoharie, passed down the river and 
 founded settlements in Pennsylvania, thus becoming 
 
 1 "Documentary History of the State of New York." 
 
 Iv 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 among the advance guard of the so-called " Pennsyl- 
 vania Dutch." They were followed in 1725 by fifty 
 other Palatine families, and in 1729 by another com- 
 pany. Older residents still living fifty years ago, at 
 the mouth of the Charlotte River, could remember 
 having seen standing the stumps of trees which these 
 pioneers had felled to make the canoes in which they 
 went down the Susquehanna. 
 
 Not until Sir William Johnson's time was Ogh- 
 waga permanently occupied by Europeans as a trading 
 post. This occurred in 1 74 1 , only three years after 
 Johnson arrived in the Mohawk Valley. Soon after 
 he became established at Oghwaga, missionaries from 
 New England began at that place an important 
 work among the Indians, which lasted about thirty 
 years. The first of these was probably John Sergeant, 
 who came in 1 744, followed soon by David Brainard, 
 and he in turn by Elihu Spencer. In 1748 Mr. 
 Spencer made a translation into the Mohawk tongue 
 of the Lord's Prayer, 1 of which the first words 
 are : " Soung-wan-ne-ha, cau-roun-kyaw-ga." From 
 Spencer's time until the Revolution, New England 
 missionaries (except for a short interruption due to 
 the French War, a threatened invasion by Delaware 
 Indians after the defeat of Braddock) were constantly 
 at Oghwaga. Among those men were Gideon 
 Hawley, Samuel Kirkland, Eleazer Moseley, Eli 
 Forbes and Aaron Crosby. 2 
 
 1 Printed in Smith's " History of New York. " 
 
 2 An account in detail of the work done by these men at Oghwaga is 
 given in '* The Old New York Frontier." 
 
 lvi 
 
PIONEERS OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 
 
 The white man's first title to the lands on the 
 Susquehanna was acquired in 1684, when, in an 
 offensive and defensive alliance, formed at Albany 
 between the English and the Indians, the Indians, in 
 a formal instrument signed and sealed, declared " we 
 have given the Susquehanna river, which we won 
 with the sword, to this government, and desire that 
 it may be a branch of the Great Tree which grows 
 in this place, the top of which reaches the sun." 1 It 
 does not appear that the Indians intended this as a 
 conveyance of all right and title, but rather as part 
 of a treaty of alliance with the English, they still 
 retaining the right to live and hunt on the river. 
 
 Contemporary with the arrival of the missionaries, 
 was the granting of land titles by the Provincial 
 government. John Lindesay, in 1738, obtained a 
 large patent at the head of Cherry Valley Creek, and 
 in the same year, Arendt Bradt one on Schenevus 
 Creek, while on Otsego Lake, a patent was obtained 
 by one Petrie and on Canadurango Lake at Rich- 
 field another was secured by David Schuyler. In 
 1 75 1, Sir William Johnson acquired his vast tract, 
 two miles wide, extending along the Susquehanna 
 River from the mouth of the Charlotte to the Penn- 
 sylvania boundary, being 100,000 acres, of which the 
 part extending from the Charlotte to the mouth of 
 the Unadilla is now known as the Wallace Patent. 
 
 With a few others, these comprise the patents that 
 were granted on the upper Susquehanna before the 
 
 1 " Documentary History of the State of New York." 
 
 lvii 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 negotiation of the Fort Stanwix Treaty in 1768. 
 They had been the means, however, of planting the 
 first permanant settlements on the headwaters of this 
 stream. Mr. Lindesay, who had been Naval Officer 
 of the port of New York, as well as Sheriff of Albany 
 County, came into the country in 1738, with his 
 wife and his father-in-law, besides a few servants. 
 He spent the winter on these lands, during which 
 his family was saved from starvation by an Indian 
 from Oghwaga who secured food in the Mohawk 
 Valley. Mr. Lindesay then induced a young clergy- 
 man named Samuel Dunlop, whom he had known 
 in New York, to come to the settlement, and in 1741 
 Mr. Dunlop prevailed upon several Scotch-Irish 
 families from Londonderry, N. H., to settle on Mr. 
 Lindesay's patent. 
 
 Such were the beginnings of the most important 
 settlement made before the Revolution, south of the 
 Mohawk. It marked for many years the extreme 
 outpost of civilization on the frontier of New York. 
 What is more important, it brought to the frontier 
 the advance guard of what proved to be a consider- 
 able band of Scotch-Irish people, who, during the 
 next thirty years planted settlements at other points 
 on the Susquehanna. When the Revolution began, 
 it was these frontiersmen who, joining with the 
 Germans and Dutch of the Mohawk Valley, formed 
 that enthusiastic and efficient body known as the 
 Tryon County Militia, by whom was forced back- 
 lviii 
 
PIONEERS OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 
 
 ward the rising tide of Tory sentiment, which other- 
 wise might have preserved for the English cause the 
 New York frontier. 
 
 Under Mr. Dunlop's influence a log church was 
 soon built in Cherry Valley, but the settlement grew 
 slowly in consequence of the renewal of troubles 
 with the French. Ten years had passed before a 
 second company of Scotch-Irish arrived. They were 
 followed in 1754 by the Harper family, including 
 several men who won distinction in the Border Wars. 
 In 1769 the settlement embraced forty or fifty fami- 
 lies, who made up a thriving, energetic community. 
 
 Other but smaller settlements grew up elsewhere 
 in this hill country. At the foot of Canadurango 
 Lake in 1758 was formed what was known as the 
 Herkimer settlement. About the same time, the 
 TunniclifFe family settled at Richfield. John C. 
 Hartwick attempted a settlement below Otsego Lake 
 in 1 76 1, but seems not to have succeeded until later. 
 Nicholas Lowe took up lands in Springfield in 1762 ; 
 Joachim Van Valkenberg settled at the mouth of 
 Schenevus Creek in 1765 ; Percefer Carr, as the agent 
 of Col. Edmeston, settled on the Unadilla River in 
 1765; and a few German families took up lands in 
 Middlefield in 1767. 
 
 Then came the Fort Stanwix Treaty, after which 
 the Susquehanna lands were quicklv portioned off", 
 and the way opened for pioneers whose titles could 
 no longer be questioned, and whose fears of war with 
 
 lix 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 the French and Indians were definitely at rest. John 
 Butler obtained his grant in 1769, and George Cro- 
 ghan in the same year secured his tract comprising 
 100,000 acres on Otsego Lake, and made an attempt 
 to found a settlement. Augustine Prevost, Croghan's 
 son-in-law, began a settlement at the head of the lake 
 in the same year. Some Scotch-Irish people about 
 the same time pushed further down the valley, and 
 at the mouth of the Ouleout Creek formed a settle- 
 ment called Albout, while at the mouth of the Una- 
 dilla, Rev. William Johnston formed another and 
 larger one, which was in a thriving state when the 
 Border Wars began. Just south of the Susquehanna 
 settlements two New York merchants, famous in 
 their time, William Walton, and Lawrence Kort- 
 right, secured large tracts, bordering on the Delaware, 
 now embracing each a township, bearing the Walton 
 and Kortright names. 
 
 At the time of Mr. Smith's visit, there must have 
 been altogether about 1 00 families in these scattered 
 settlements on the upper Susquehanna. With rare 
 exceptions, they all became patriots in the Revolution, 
 and in consequence their homes were destroyed by 
 fire, many of them were massacred, and those who 
 survived either fled from the country in terror, or 
 served against the British in the Tryon County Militia. 
 
 lx 
 
V 
 
 THE PIONEERS OF THE DELAWARE 
 
 BY its own name, the Delaware River pro- 
 claims how all that once was Indian in its 
 ownership has forever passed away. For- 
 merly it was the home of Indians who by the 
 English have commonly been called the Delawares, 
 but before the middle of the eighteenth century the 
 river had altogether ceased to be theirs. 
 
 To the Dutch the Delaware was first known as 
 the South River, its present name having been 
 bestowed by the English, after its surrender to them 
 by the Dutch. The Indians called it the Kithanne, 
 meaning the largest stream, and usually called them- 
 selves Lenni-Lenapes, meaning real men, or, as some 
 interpreters say, the original people ; but they also 
 used as their own name the name Dyo-Hens- 
 Govola, meaning people of the morning. The 
 latter term was usually employed by the Senecas, and 
 perhaps was introduced by the Senecas, to whom the 
 Delawares became subject. By people of the morn- 
 ing, reference was made to an Eastern origin, the 
 accepted tradition being that, at the time of the dis- 
 covery of America by Columbus, they were living 
 on Manhattan Island. Lenni-Lenape, however, is 
 the older and more proper name for these Indians. 
 
 lxi 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 The Dutch have commonly been credited with 
 originating the word Manhattan, but the Delawares 
 are believed themselves to have employed it, its 
 meaning being a place where good timber for bows 
 and arrows can be secured, the hickory trees which 
 grew at the lower end of the island having possessed 
 peculiar strength. It is a curious circumstance that, 
 long after the dominion of these Indians over Man- 
 hattan Island had passed away, another dominion 
 over it was acquired by a political organization which 
 derived its name from a noted Delaware chief. 1 
 
 The coming of white men to the Delaware began 
 as early as their coming to the other great rivers 
 visited by Mr. Smith. Henry Hudson discovered the 
 Delaware in the same year in which he sailed up the 
 Hudson, and the first settlements on its lower waters 
 were made at about the same time as those on Man- 
 hattan Island and in Albany. In 1626 the Dutch 
 built on its banks, for use in the fur trade, Fort 
 Nassau, the site of which was about four miles below 
 Camden. This was the first settlement made by Euro- 
 peans on the Delaware River. Seven years later 
 came the Swedes and Finns, who were so successful 
 as fur traders that in 1 644 they were able to send 
 
 1 Tamanend was the original form of the word Tammany, the chief of that 
 name having died about 1 740. His name appears on deeds to Delaware lands, 
 dated in 1683, and 1697, and he is believed to have been buried in New 
 Britain Township, Bucks County, Penn. His traditional reputadon is that of 
 an Indian who was conspicuous for wisdom and benevolence. He appears 
 in Cooper's " The Last of the Mohicans." 
 
 lxii 
 
ei _ 
 
 s. 
 
PIONEERS OF THE DELAWARE 
 
 two vessels to Europe, in which were 6,127 pack- 
 ages of beaver skins and 70,420 pounds of tobacco. 
 In consequence of this rivalry, the Dutch, after what 
 became almost armed conflict, forced the Swedes 
 and Finns into subjection. 
 
 The lands which these pioneers had taken up lay 
 along Delaware Bay and the lower waters of the 
 river. None of the settlements before 1664 had 
 been planted further north than Philadelphia. Not 
 until 1675 was Burlington founded, and then only as 
 a trading post bearing the name New Beverly. Two 
 years later Quakers settled there, and with the Swedes 
 and Finns became the only settlers in a real sense. 
 The Dutch primarily were traders, but the others 
 took to husbandry. The points which the Dutch 
 occupied lay along the Bay, but the Swedes and 
 Finns "sought the freshes of the river Delaware." 1 
 
 Thus the Delaware had become a home of white 
 men half a century before William Penn negotiated 
 his Treaty with the Indians at Shackamaxon, now a 
 part of Philadelphia. At the time of his coming, a 
 few settlements had been made further up the river, 
 in what is now Bucks County, Pennsylvania, which 
 included 'points perhaps as far north as Easton. 2 
 Growth was rapid after Penn made his treaty. In two 
 years, that is in 1684, he had perhaps six thousand 
 
 1 William Penn's " Description of the Province of Pennsylvania " (1683). 
 
 2 Buell in his " Life of Penn " (1904) says : "There were about a thou- 
 sand—some say 1,200— white inhabitants already in the territory granted to 
 Penn." 
 
 Ixiii 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 people in his province, of whom one fourth were the 
 original Swedes, Finns and Dutch. Philadelphia had 
 three hundred houses and 2,500 inhabitants. 
 
 Meanwhile, on the lower eastern shore of the 
 Delaware, had been begun settlements which even- 
 tually were, to form parts of another state. In 1677, 
 Penn had founded his colony of West Jersey, which 
 in 1680 had three thousand inhabitants, who had 
 come into the country chiefly under his influence. 
 These immigrants in the main settled below Burling- 
 ton, but not many years elapsed before settlers had 
 gone to the fertile lands further north. In 1678, 
 when the line was drawn dividing West Jersey 
 from East Jersey, the peopling of the northern part 
 of this valley was kept well in mind. In order that 
 West Jersey might include the entire valley south of 
 what should be claimed by New York, the line was 
 made to run from Little Egg Harbor on the Atlan- 
 tic coast ten miles above Atlantic City, in a straight 
 line northwest, to Cushietunk, on the Delaware. 
 Cushietunk was forty miles above Port Jervis, and 
 is now known as Cochecton, a station on the main 
 line of the Erie Railway. 1 
 
 For half a century afterwards Indians continued 
 to dwell on the Delaware. In 171 8 a deed of re- 
 lease to the Forks of the Delaware 2 was given by 
 
 1 Parts of this line still survive on the New Jersey map as county lines, 
 notably those between Ocean and Burlington, Somerset and Hunterdon 
 Counties. 
 
 2 Now Easton; the Lehigh, which flows into the Delaware at this point, 
 being then called the West Branch of the Delaware. 
 
 lxiv 
 
• 
 

PIONEERS OF THE DELAWARE 
 
 them and settlements followed. What was known 
 as the Walking Purchase belongs to a later period. 
 The character of this purchase is indicated by its name. 
 A man familiar with the land and capable of pedes- 
 trian feats was employed to secure as much land as 
 possible from the Indians in a walk during the time 
 arranged for in the agreement. Indians, however, 
 were not willing to leave this territory altogether, 
 and becoming troublesome, the Iroquois, in 1746, 
 were appealed to for aid in forcing them away. 
 The Delawares being subject to the Iroquois, were 
 finally obliged to depart. They then formed villages 
 further west, mainly on the Susquehanna about 
 Wyoming. 
 
 More than a thousand Palatine Germans, between 
 1725 and 1740, came to the Delaware neighbor- 
 hood of which the "Forks" were the center. As 
 early as 1752 their commercial needs had created a 
 promising village of about forty souls, now known 
 as Easton, and ten years later its population had 
 increased to 250, mostly Germans. 1 Elsewhere 
 along the river the population had advanced 
 rapidly under the impetus given by the policy of 
 Penn, whose colony in 1714 boasted a population 
 of 60,000, of whom more than one half had been ac- 
 quired in eleven years. People other than Quakers 
 came in large numbers in 171 2 and 171 3 and were 
 mainly Germans, Swiss, Huguenots and Scotch-Irish. 2 
 
 1 H. M. Kieffer's " First Settlers at the Forks of the Delaware." 
 - Buell's "Life of Penn." 
 
 lxv 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 Under other influences settlements had already 
 been founded in the Port Jervis neighborhood. Here, 
 in a territory known as Minisink, which derived 
 its name from the Mimsi Indians, 1 tradition points to 
 the arrival of white men, in the period from 1632 
 to 1640. "In some former age," says Nicholas 
 Depuis, a descendant of an original settler, "there 
 came a company of miners from Holland, supposed 
 to have been a rich and great people, from the labor 
 they bestowed in opening two mines — one on the 
 Delaware, where the mountain nearly approaches 
 the lower point of Pahaquarry Flat; the other at the 
 foot of some mountain half way between Delaware 
 and Esopus, and in making the mine road from the 
 Delaware to Esopus, a distance of 100 miles." 2 Other 
 settlers subsequently came from Holland by way of 
 the Hudson, taking up large tracts of lands on the 
 Delaware, among them Huguenots who date from 
 1690, and reached Minisink by way of Kingston. 
 Eventually this grew to be a well-established neigh- 
 borhood — certainly the largest and probably the 
 earliest founded in the American Colonies at a place 
 so remote from navigable waters. Mention has al- 
 ready been made of the massacre which occurred 
 there in 1669. 
 
 1 Thus often stated, but it may be that the Indians got their name from 
 the place, the meaning of which is given by Beauchamp as land from which 
 the water has gone out. This definition pointed to a tradition that in this 
 region had once existed a large lake the waters of which were released when 
 the Delaware forced its way through the Water Gap. 
 
 2 Quoted in "Gordon's History of New Jersey" (1834.) 
 
 lxvi 
 
PIONEERS OF THE DELAWARE 
 When this community spread further southward 
 serious trouble arose. The new County of Sussex in 
 New Jersey, had been formed, with a line extending 
 so far northward, that it was claimed to be an in- 
 vasion of "the bounds formerly set for Minisink." 
 The New York government complained that officers 
 of Orange County, in which lay Minisink, had been 
 "repeatedly beaten, insulted, and prevented from the 
 execution of their respective offices ; taken prisoners, 
 carried to points in New Jersey remote from their 
 settlements and thrown into jail." The people of 
 New Jersey, it was further asserted, " as often as they 
 are able," possessed themselves of vacant lands in 
 Orange County, and " frequently beset the homes of 
 subjects by night and attempted to seize and take 
 prisoners of his majesties subjects." ' 
 
 In 1753, on the eve of the last French War, trouble 
 still existed over this boundary, being described as 
 "great and continuous quarrels and tumults between 
 the persons near the contested bounds and bloodshed 
 and murder were like to ensue." Invasions had been 
 made by New York men, "even down to Minisink's 
 Island, a place about forty miles below North Station 
 Point." 2 In 1754, Thomas DeKay made affidavit 
 that "for some time before he left home, he was every 
 night obliged to nail up all his doors, excepting one 
 at which he placed a guard for fear of being surprised 
 
 1 " Documents Relating to the Colonial History of New Jersey." 
 
 2 Cushietunk, or Cochecton. Cushietunk was formerly the name of a 
 much larger territory than it is now. 
 
 lxvii 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 in his bed by the people of New Jersey, who have 
 sundry times declared they were resolved to take 
 him prisoner and carry him to New Jersey." 1 
 
 One reason for the activity of the Delaware In- 
 dians, which now began on the side of the French, 
 was their discontent at having been forced away from 
 their own valley. With the defeat of Braddock in 
 1755, they took new courage to redress their wrongs, 
 and were described as " roaming among the passes 
 of the mountains unmolested, until between the Dela- 
 ware and Potomac the frontier had been lighted 
 up with the blaze of burning cottages." Governor 
 Belcher of New Jersey wrote to Governor Morris 
 of Pennsylvania that the " enemy have a few days ago 
 burned a town at Minisink, and put the inhabitants 
 to death," 2 and added that he had had " between two 
 thousand and three thousand the week past marching 
 and counter-marching toward the borders of this 
 province," while in addition " near two thousand 
 men were ranging the woods and frontiers." 
 
 It had accordingly been resolved to build forts and 
 block-houses, "where it should be judged most proper 
 on the River Delaware, into which to distribute 
 about three hundred men." In 1758, it was pro- 
 posed that the whole frontier "be guarded to the 
 length of 90 miles on the Delaware" ; that there be 
 erected on this line ten miles apart "ten houses forti- 
 
 1 " Documents Relating to the Colonial History of New Jersey." 
 
 2 This report afterwards proved to be unfounded. 
 
 lxviii 
 
PIONEERS OF THE DELAWARE 
 
 fied against muskets," and to have a guard of twenty- 
 five men at each of these houses, " with a sufficient 
 number of dogs who are very useful in scenting the 
 track of the Indians, and preventing ambuscades." 
 Patrols, three or four times a day, were to pass from 
 house to house. 1 Some of these forts, as shown on 
 an English map, compiled twenty years afterward, 
 were Reading, Van Camp, Walpack, Headquarters, 
 Nominack, Shipeconk, and Jersey, 2 
 
 One of the reports of desolation wrought by the 
 Delawares, in Northampton County, Pennsvlvania, in 
 which lies Easton, named fifty houses burned, and 
 one hundred persons murdered or taken into cap- 
 tivity. Even the upper Susquehanna was threatened, 
 Gideon Havvley, the missionary at Oghwaga, being 
 obliged to retreat to Cherry Valley. Indians who 
 were expected to devastate the whole Pennsylvania 
 frontier, started north early in 1756, until from 
 Shamokin to Wyalusing, "there reigned the silence 
 
 1 " Documents Relating to the Colonial History of New Jersey." 
 
 2 "American Military Pocket Atlas " (1776), which related in particular 
 to the regions "which now are, or probably may be, the theatre of war." 
 This atlas, now very rare, was published by the British Admiralty and Board 
 of Trade, having been "improved from recent surveys." A copy has been 
 kindly lent to me by Archibald W. Speir who acquired it from the Brinley 
 collection. 
 
 One of the curious errors in the atlas is that all Western New York, be- 
 yond the Fort Stanwix Line of Property, is given to Pennsylvania, thus ignor- 
 ing the Indian title to that country, as confirmed in the Fort Stanwix Treaty. 
 On this map the Delaware above Port Jervis is called the Great Viskill. Jay 
 Gould, in his "History of Delaware County," says the West Branch of the 
 Delaware in early times was called the Fishkill. 
 
 lxix 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 of the grave." 1 It was at this time that Major Wells 
 built the fort at Oghwaga under instructions from Sir 
 William Johnson. 
 
 Earliest of the settlements above Port Jervis was 
 one on the west side of the river at Cushietunk. It 
 lay at the foot of a mountain called by the same 
 name and rising from the Pennsylvania side of the 
 river. This was the first of the settlements made in 
 Pennsylvania by those Connecticut people, who 
 claimed to own the lands of that Province between 
 the 41st and 42nd parallels, a claim out of which 
 afterwards grew their settlements at Wyoming. 
 
 In 1750 men had been sent from Connecticut to 
 view these lands, and in 1753 was formed the Sus- 
 quehanna Company, comprising 840 families, after- 
 wards increased to 1,200, but owing to the Indian 
 troubles no actual settlement was made at Wyoming 
 until 1762. Meanwhile had been formed the Dela- 
 ware Company, composed also of Connecticut peo- 
 ple, and by them in 1757, after the company had 
 bought the Indian title, was made the settlement at 
 Cushietunk, out of which five years later had grown 
 a cluster of rude log cabins, housing thirty families. 2 
 This settlement encountered opposition from the pro- 
 prietary or Penn government of Pennsylvania which 
 sought to destroy it. A proclamation of warning 
 was issued and other aggressive steps were taken. 
 The Cushietunk settlement was not only an actual 
 
 iKulp's " Families of the Wyoming Valley." 
 
 2 Alfred Mathews's *« Ohio and her Western Reserve" (1902). 
 
 lxx 
 
PIONEERS OF THE DELAWARE 
 
 part of the Connecticut invasion of Pennsylvania, but 
 the pioneer among those settlements. Comtemporary 
 with it was a smaller settlement at the mouth of the 
 East Branch of the Delaware about twenty-five miles 
 further north. 1 
 
 In 1762 about 200 Connecticut families crossed 
 through the Minisink country and by way of the 
 Delaware went to Wyoming. The Delaware In- 
 dians claiming these lands, attacked the settlers, and 
 wounded twenty of them. In 1769 forty armed 
 men were sent out from Connecticut to occupy and 
 defend Wyoming and were to be reinforced by 200 
 others. At this time was built what is known as 
 Forty Fort, a name still retained as that of a village 
 on the river opposite, but above, Wilkes Barre. The 
 forty men on arrival were arrested and taken to 
 Easton, where they were thrown into prison, but 
 new settlers soon followed until by the end of 1770, 
 about 6,000 men altogether had gone into Wyoming 
 from Connecticut. A few families at the same time 
 took up homes on the Delaware, the Pennsylvania 
 side of which between the forty-first and forty-second 
 parallels came within the limits of the County of 
 Westmoreland which Connecticut had formed in 
 Pennsylvania. 2 
 
 1 Now Hancock. 
 
 2 When finally, in i 778, these pioneers in Wyoming were attacked and 
 many of them massacred by Indians and Tories, those who survived returned 
 to Connecticut by way of the Pocono Mountains, thence crossing the Dela- 
 ware, and proceeding through the Minisink country. After they had passed 
 through a region known as the Shades of Death they found their first shelter 
 at Fort Penn, which is now Stroudsburg, near the Delaware Water Gap. 
 
 Ixxi 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 The Delaware settlements from Cookooze (now 
 Deposit), where, in 1769, were living the only Dela- 
 ware Indians inhabiting the stream that bears their 
 name, down to Port Jervis, while few in number and 
 at best forming a sparsely settled territory, were now 
 able to produce enough farm products, in excess of 
 their own needs, to require shipments to market. 
 For this purpose long flat boats called Durham boats 
 were put into service, having a capacity of five or six 
 hundred bushels each. Owing to the rapids in the 
 Delaware, and the shallow water at many points, 
 shipments were made only in times of high water. 1 
 
 At the head of the West Branch of the Delaware, 
 a small settlement had been begun before the Revo- 
 lution, at the place now known as Stamford, while 
 on the East Branch, at Margaretville, was founded a 
 larger one. Here at Margaretville, before 1763, 
 pioneers who were probably Walloons or Huguenots 
 had taken up lands. They came from Esopus, which 
 was distant only forty-five miles, and occupied the 
 site of an ancient Indian village. Dutchmen came in 
 later, until a thriving little settlement was established 
 there. Lands for a distance of more than twenty 
 miles along the river passed under cultivation, and 
 schools in which instruction was given in Dutch 
 were founded. There still remains at Margaretville 
 a graveyard in which these pioneers interred their 
 dead. When the Revolution began about thirty 
 
 1 Gordon's " History of New Jersey." 
 
 lxxii 
 
PIONEERS OF THE DELAWARE 
 
 people were living in these settlements on the head 
 waters of the Delaware. 1 
 
 Such in outline are the circumstances in which, 
 when Mr. Smith made his interesting tour, the val- 
 leys of these four rivers had been explored, and such 
 is the extent to which they had been peopled. All 
 had then been known to Europeans for about a cen- 
 tury and a half, — much longer in fact than the period 
 from the Revolutionary War down to our own 
 day — and yet they were everywhere so sparsely set- 
 tled, that the total of inhabitants of all four valleys 
 probably was not equal to the present population of 
 Newark. 
 
 x Jay Gould's " History of Delaware County." 
 
 lxxiii 
 
PART II 
 
 A TOUR OF FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
THE HUDSON; BY SLOOP FROM NEW YORK TO 
 ALBANY, 164 MILES, MAY 5-MAY II, 1 769 
 
 With a View to survey a large Tract of Land then 
 lately purchased from the Indians I departed from 
 Burlington for Otego May 3 d 1769 in company 
 with Rich d Wells, now of Philadelphia and the Sur- 
 veyors Joseph Biddle Jun r & William Ridgway as 
 also John Hicks. We dined at Crosswicks 1 and 
 lodged at Cranbury. 
 
 May 4. We dined at Woodbridge, called by the 
 Way at Brunswick and viewed the Town and Mineral 
 Works; passed thro' Elizabeth Town and lodged at 
 Newark. 
 
 5 th In the Morn? we arrived at Paulus Hook 3 
 Ferry, went over and dined at Burns's Tavern 8 in 
 
 New 
 
 1 At that time Crosswicks was an important settlement on the direct road 
 from Burlington to New York. Twenty years earlier David Brainard, the 
 missionary, labored there among the Indians. 
 
 2 Now Jersey City. 
 
 3 Burns's Tavern, or Burns's Coffee House, stood on the west side of 
 Broadway just north of the present Trinity Building. It was formerly the 
 DeLancey homestead. At various times it bore different names — including the 
 Province Arms, New York Arms, York Arms, and City Arms. Several 
 men had been its proprietors — Burns being one of them. Here in 1765 
 was signed the Non-Importation Agreement. During the Revolution, it was 
 a favorite resort of military men, being near the fashionable promenade, 
 or mall, in front of Trinity Church. In 1 ~93 , the building was taken 
 down, and on its site was erected the City Hotel, which in turn long re- 
 mained a famous hostelry. 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 New York & this we deemed an indifferent House ; 
 here we saw the Gov" Sir Henry Moore and other 
 noted men. In the Afternoon we took Passage in a 
 sloop, Rich d Scoonhoven, Skipper, for Albany; had 
 fine weather and found it extremely agreeable Sail- 
 ing with the country seats of the Citizens on the 
 Right Hand, and the high Lands of Bergen 1 on the 
 Left and the Narrows abaft. We sailed about 1 3 
 or 14 Miles & then came to Anchor for the Night; 
 the great Rains just before we set out had caused the 
 Water of the North River to tast almost fresh at this 
 Place. The Bergen Shore is high and Rocky & the 
 Eastern Side diversified with Hill and Gully. 
 
 6* These Albany Sloops contain very convenient 
 Cabins. We eat from a regular Table accommodated 
 with Plates, Knives & Forks & enjoyed our Tea in 
 the Afternoon. We had laid in some Provision at N. 
 York & the Cap* some more, so that we lived very 
 welL Our Commander is very jocose & good com- 
 pany. About 7 oCloc we passed Spite the Devil 
 (why so called I know not),* or Harlem River, which 
 divides the Manhattan Island from the Connecticut. 
 The Entrance here appears to be narrow, bounded on 
 each side with high Land ; Kings Bridge said to be 
 about a Mile from this Entrance but not in Sight. The 
 Bergen Coast continues to be lined with lofty Rocks, 
 thinly overspread with Cedars, Spruce & Shrubs. 
 
 Nearly opposite to Tappan we took aTurn on Shore 
 
 to 
 
 1 Now known as the Palisades. 
 
 2 Now written Spuyten Duyvil. The origin of the term has been much 
 discussed. In a deed to Van Der Donck in 1646 the Indian name is given 
 as Papirinimen — " called by our people," adds the deed, " Spytden Duyvel, 
 in spite of the Devil." 
 
TOUR OF THE HUDSON 
 
 to a Part of Col. Philips's Manor, 1 from the Hills of 
 which are beautiful Prospects. All the Country on 
 both sides of the River from the City is hilly. The 
 Manor of Philipsburg according to our Information, 
 
 extends about Miles on the River and about 
 
 6 Miles back and is joined above by the Manor of 
 Cortland. 2 This Morn^ the Sloop passed by Col. 
 Philips's Mansion House and Gardens situate in a 
 pleasant Valley between Highlands. The country 
 hereabout excels ours by far in fine prospects and 
 the Trees & Vegetables appear to be as forward 
 almost as those at Burlington when we left it; but I 
 conceive that our countrymen excel the People herein 
 cultivation. Hardly any Houses appear on the Bergen 
 Side from Paulus Hook to the Line of Orange County. 
 The Tenant for Life here tells me he pays to Col. 
 Philips only ^7, per Annum for about 200 acres of 
 Land & thinks it an extravagant Rent because, on his 
 demise or Sale, his Son or Vendee is obliged to pay 
 to the Landlord one Third of the Value of the Farm 
 for a Renewal of the Lease/ The Skipper gave here 
 5 coppers for a Quart of Milk & M' Wells bought 
 
 Ten 
 
 1 The Philipse Manor lands comprised *« all the hunting grounds " 
 between Spuyten Duyvil and the Croton River. In 1693 parts of them 
 were erected into a Manor which included the present town of Yonkers. 
 In 1682 was built the Manor House which still stands in Yonkers and is now 
 the City Hall. Mr. Philipse's possessions included Fredericksborough, since 
 better known as Sleepy Hollow, above Tarrytown, which with other lands 
 comprised 240 square miles. Here in 1683 ne built Castle Philipse, a 
 stone structure, and also built the church which still stands there, the oldest 
 religious edifice in New York state. 
 
 -The first of the Van Cortlandts was Oliver. It was his son, Stephanus, 
 who in 1697 had his landed estates erected into a manor. The manor 
 house he built is still standing in Croton Bay. It was intended to serve as a 
 fort as well as a home, the walls being three feet thick and pierced with 
 holes for use in defense. 
 
 5 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 Ten small Rock Fish for 1 2 coppers. The Freight 
 of a Bushel of Wheat from Albany to N York ac- 
 cording to our Skipper is Four Pence, of a Barrel of 
 Flour one shilling and of a Hogshead of Flour 7/6 and 
 he thinks they have the same Rates from Kaatskill. 
 In the Night we ran ground among the Highlands 
 about 50 Miles from N. York between Orange and 
 Duchess Counties. The Highlands here are not so 
 lofty as I expected and the River at this place appears 
 to be about Half a Mile wide. 
 
 7 th Our Company went on Shore up the Rocks to 
 a miserable Farm and House in Orange & left with 
 the Farmer a Direction for Otego 1 as he and a few of 
 his Neighbors seemed desirous to seek new Habita- 
 tions. He pays Seven Pounds a Year Rent for about 
 1 00 acres including Rocks and Mountains. Hudson's 
 River is straight to the Highlands, but thro them very 
 crooked, many Strawberries are to be seen about the 
 Banks and stony Fields. Martiler's Rock 2 stands in a 
 part of the River which is exceeding deep with a bold 
 Shore encircled on either Hand by aspiring Moun- 
 tains & thro them there is a View of a fine Country 
 above. Here it is chiefly that the sudden Flaws 
 sometimes take the River Vessels for which Reason 
 they have upright Masts for the more expeditious 
 lowering of the Sails on any sudden Occasion. Be- 
 yond the above Rock lies Pollaple's Island. 3 
 
 But 
 
 1 The name of a creek of the river Susquehanna whereon, and in the 
 vicinity, we afterwards formed a settlement. — R. S. 
 
 Otego Creek flows into the Susquehanna from the north a few miles west 
 of Oneonta, and about 25 miles below Cooperstown. 
 
 2 This rock no longer exists there. 
 
 3 Now written Polopel's Island. According to local tradition, it was 
 called originally Polly Pell's Island. 
 
 6 
 
TOUR OF THE HUDSON 
 
 But a few Wheat and Rye Fields appear along the 
 East Side of the River from N York hither and a 
 very few Fields are ploughed as if intended for In- 
 dian Corn. The Lands seem proper for Sheep or 
 perhaps (if the Severity of our Winters will admit) 
 for Vineyards. On the West Side among the High- 
 lands are only a few Houses seated in the small Vallies 
 between the Mountains. From the Streights between 
 Butter Hill 1 and Broken Neck Hill 2 & below them 
 there is a distant Prospect of the Kaatskill Mount 8 , 
 to the N. W. Murderers Creek 3 which runs by the 
 Butter Hill, divides the Counties of Orange and Ulster, 
 there are a few Houses at the Mouth of the Creek. 
 The soil in these Parts is broken, stony and few places 
 proper for the Plow. What grain we saw growing 
 was but indifferent. 
 
 About one oCloc we passed by the Town of New 
 Windsor on the Left, seeming at a Distance to consist 
 of about 50 Houses Stores and Out houses placed 
 without any regular Order. Here end the High- 
 lands. This Town has some Trade and probably 
 hereafter may be a place of Consequence as the line 
 Country of Goshen is said to lie back about 1 2 or 
 more Miles. On the East Side of the River a little 
 above Windsor is the Fish Kill & Landing whence 
 the Sloops carry the Produce of that Side for Market. 
 The North River is here thought to be near Two 
 
 Miles 
 
 1 From the context Butter Hill appears to be Storm King. 
 
 2 Now Break Neck Mountain. 
 
 3 By this is meant the stream known on the maps as Moodna Creek, which 
 enters the Hudson at Cornwall. Murderer's Creek, however, still survives 
 as a colloquial term for it. Below Albany, near Castleton, flowing in from 
 the east, there is another stream called Murderer's Creek. 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 Miles wide and the general range of the Highlands 
 by the Compass as taken on the N. Side by our Sur- 
 veyors is W. S. W. & E. N. E. 
 
 We took a Turn on Shore at Denton's Mill 1 called 
 60 Miles from N. York and walked above Two Miles 
 down the River to Newbury a small scattered Village 
 & to Denton's Ferry. We found excellent Cyder at 
 both. The New England men cross here & here- 
 abouts almost daily for Susquehannah ; their Rout is 
 from hence to the Minisink's accounted only 40 Miles 
 distant, & we are told that 700 of their Men are to 
 be in that Country by the First of June next. A 
 sensible Woman informed Us that Two Men of her 
 Neighborhood have been severalTim.es across to those 
 Parts of Susquehannah which lie in York Government 
 & here the people say our Rout by the Albany is 
 above 1 00 Miles out of the Way. This is since found 
 to be true, yet that Rout is used because it is the only 
 Waggon Road to Lake Otsego. 
 
 The Lands near Hudsons River now appear less 
 Hilly tho not level & a few Settlements are visible 
 here and there; the Houses & Improvements not ex- 
 traordinary. Denton's Mill above mentioned has a 
 remarkable large Fall of Water forming a beautiful 
 Cascade. We saw several other Cascades and Rills; 
 divers Limekills and much Lime Stone on each 
 Shore hereaway & some Appearance of Meadow Land 
 of which we have hitherto seen very little. Lime 
 Stone, it is said, may be found on either Side of the 
 River from the Highlands to Sopus. 2 We have the 
 
 pleasure 
 
 1 This point is now Marlborough. 
 
 2 Esopus is a Delaware word meaning river. Other forms are Seepers and 
 Sopers. 
 
TOUR OF THE HUDSON 
 
 pleasure of seeing sundry Sloops & Shallops passing 
 back and forwards with the Produce of the Country 
 and Returns. In the Evening we sailed thro' a re- 
 markable Undulation of the Water for a Mile or Two 
 which tossed the Sloop about much and made several 
 passengers sick, the more observable as the Passage 
 before and after was quite smooth & little Wind 
 stirring at the Time. We anchored between Two 
 high Shores bespread with Spruce, Chestnut Oaks 
 and other Trees, very like the towering Banks of 
 Bergen. 
 
 8 th There is a high Road from New York to 
 Albany on both sides of the River, but that on the 
 East side is most frequented; both Roads have a 
 View now and then of the River. Poughkeepsing the 
 County Town of Duchess stands above the Fishkill a 
 little beyond the rough Water already noted. We 
 passed the Town in the Night. Slate Stone Rocks 
 are on the West Shore at and below Little Sopus from 
 whence N York has of late been supplied. They 
 reckon Little Sopus Island to be Half Way between 
 N York and Albany. The Weather yesterday and 
 to day very warm but the Mornings and Evenings are 
 cool. Our Skipper says there are at Albany 3 1 Sloops 
 all larger than this, which carry from 400 to 500 
 Barrels of Flour each, trading constantly from thence 
 to York & that they make Eleven or 1 2 Trips a year 
 each. The general Course of Hudson's River as 
 taken by compass is N & by E. and S. 6c by W. in 
 some Places North and South. Between the High- 
 lands and Kaatskill both these Mountains are in view 
 at the same time. 
 
 At Two ocloc we arrived off the Walkill, there are 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 2 or 3 Houses at the Mouth of the Creek & a Trade 
 carried on in Six or Seven Sloops. Kingston 1 the 
 County Town of Ulster stands about Two Miles 
 distant but not visible from the Water. The Kaats- 
 kill Mountains to the N. W. appear to be very near 
 tho they are at a considerable Distance. The Country 
 on both Sides continues still hilly and rugged and 
 what Wheat is growing, looks much thrown out and 
 gullied — more Houses & Improvements shew 
 themselves along the Sopus Shore and Opposite being 
 an old settled Country. 
 
 Our Vessel came to Anchor a little above theWal- 
 kill about 60 Miles from Albany. We went on 
 shore to Two stone Farm Houses on Beekman 
 Manor 2 in the County of Duchess. The Men were 
 absent & the Women and children could speak no 
 other Language than Low Dutch. Our Skipper was 
 Interpreter. One of these Tenants for Life or a 
 very long Term or for Lives (uncertain which) pays 
 20 Bushels of Wheat in Kind for 97 Acres of cleared 
 Land & Liberty to get W T ood for necessary uses any 
 where in the Manor. Twelve eggs sold here for 
 six pence, Butter 14 11 per pound and 2 shad cost 6 d . 
 One woman was very neat & the Iron Hoops of her 
 Pails scowered bright. The Houses are mean ; we 
 saw one Piece of Good Meadow which is scarce 
 here away. The Wheat was very much thrown out, 
 the Aspect of the Farms rough and hilly like all the 
 
 rest 
 
 1 This town has since been burned by the British General Vaughan. — R. S. 
 The burning of Kingston occurred on Oct. 16, 1777. Vaughan was 
 
 accompanying Gen. Clinton northward to reinforce Burgoyne, but arrived 
 too late. Burgoyne capitulated the day after Kingston was burned. 
 
 2 So called, although the Beekmans were not properly Patroons. 
 
 IO 
 
TOUR OF THE HUDSON 
 
 rest and the soil a stiff clay. One Woman had 
 Twelve good countenanced Boys and Girls all clad 
 in Homespun both Linen and Woolen. Here was 
 a Two wheeled Plow drawn by 3 horses abreast, 6^ 
 a Scythe with a Short crooked Handle and a Kind 
 of Hook both used to cut down Grain for the Sickle 
 is not much known in Albany County or in this 
 Part of Duchess. 
 
 9 th We arose in the Morn g opposite to a large 
 Brick House on the East Side belonging to M r Liv- 
 ingston's Father, Rob t R. Livingston the Judge, 1 
 in the Lower Manor of Livingston. Albany Countv 
 is now on either Hand, & sloping Hills here and 
 there covered with Grain like all the rest we have 
 seen, much thrown out by the Frost of last Winter. 
 
 Landing on the West Shore we found a Number 
 of People fishing with a Sein; they caught plenty of 
 Shad and Herring and use Canoes altogether having 
 long, neat and strong Ropes made by the People 
 themselves of Elm Bark. Here we saw the first 
 Indian a Mohicon" named Hans clad in no other 
 Garment than a shattered Blanket; he lives near the 
 Kaatskill 6c had a Scunk Skin for his Tobacco 
 
 Pouch 
 
 1 Robert R. Livingston, the judge, who had been an energetic member of 
 the Stamp Act Congress, was described by Sir Henry Moore, the Governor 
 of New York, as " A man of great abilitv and manv accomplishments, and the 
 greatest landholder, without any exception, in New York." By "greatest " 
 Sir Henrv may have meant the richest: in actual acres Sir William Johnson 
 is understood to have been the largest. Livingston's daughter married 
 General Richard Montgomerv, who fell at Quebec, and lies buried in St. 
 Paul's Churchyard at Broadway and Vesey Street, New York City. His 
 son, also Robert R. Livingston, was the Chancellor who administered the 
 oath of office in Federal Hall, Wall Street, to George Washington at his 
 inauguration as the first president of the United States. 
 
 2 The Mohicans occupied the eastern shore of the Hudson. 
 
 I I 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 Pouch. The Tavern of this Place is most wretched. 
 Trees are out in Leaf. Cattle and Sheep, nothing 
 different from ours, are now feeding on the Grass 
 which seems to be nearly as forward as with us when 
 we left Burlington, the Trees quite as forward & the 
 White Pine is common. One Shad taken with the 
 rest had a Lamprey Eel about 7 Inches long fastened 
 to his Back. 
 
 I was informed here by a person concerned in 
 measuring it that the Distance from Kaatskill Land- 
 ing to Schoharie is 32% Miles reckoned to Cap f Eck- 
 erson's House, a good Waggon Road and Produce 
 bro* down daily; from thence to Cherry Valley half 
 a Day's Journey; that People are now laying out a 
 New Road from Sopus Kill to Schoharie which is 
 supposed to be about 32^3 Miles. Sopus Creek is 
 about 1 1 Miles below Kaatskill Creek and a Mile 
 below where we now landed. They say that 7 or 
 8 Sloops belong to Sopus. The Fish are the same 
 in Hudsons River above the Salt Water as in the 
 Delaware. The Skipper bought a Parcel of Fish 
 here cheap. These Fishermen draw their Nets oftner 
 than ours not stopping between the Draughts. 
 
 At 3 o'Cloc we passed by the German Camp 1 a 
 small Village so called having Two Churches, situated 
 on the East side of the River, upon a rising Ground 
 which shews the Place to Advantage. Some distance 
 further on the same Side of the River we sailed by 
 the Upper Manor House of Livingston. A Quantity 
 of low cripple Land may be seen on the opposite 
 
 Side 
 
 1 A survival of the unsuccessful settlements made on Livingston Manor by 
 the Palatine Germans in 17 10. 
 
 12 
 
TOUR OF THE HUDSON 
 
 Side & this reaches 4 miles to the Kaatskill called 
 36 miles from Albany. Off the Mouth of this Creek 
 we have a View of the large House built by John 
 Dyer the Person who made the Road from hence to 
 Schoharie at the expence of ^400, if common Report 
 may be credited. 
 
 Two Sloops belong to Kaatskill, a little beyond 
 the Mouth whereof lies the large Island of Vastric. 1 
 There is a House on the North Side of the Creek 
 and another with several Saw Mills on the South 
 Side but no Town as we expected. Sloops go no 
 further than Dyer House about Half a Mile up the 
 Creek. The Lands on both Sides of Kaatskill 
 belong to Vanberger, Van Vecthe, Salisbury, Dubois 
 & a Man in York. Their Lands, as our Skipper says, 
 extend up the Creek 1 2 Miles to Barker the English 
 Gentleman his Settlement. The Creek runs thro 
 the Kaatskill Mount 3 said hereabouts to be at the 
 Distance of 12 or 14 Miles from the North River 
 but there are Falls above which obstruct the Navi- 
 gation. 
 
 We landed in the Evening on the Kaatskill Shore 
 4 Miles above the Creek but could gain no satisfac- 
 tory Intelligence only that the [Dowager] Dutchess 
 of Gordon and her Husband Col. Staats Long Morris 2 
 
 were 
 
 1 This island was afterwards called Rogers Island. 
 
 2 Staats Long Morris belonged to the family of that name of Morrisania, 
 and was a brother of Lewis Morris, one of the signers of the Declaration of 
 Independence. He was an officer in the British army, who had served in 
 India, where he was present at the siege of Pondicherry. Having adhered 
 to the royal cause in the Revolution, he lost title to his patent on the Susque- 
 hanna; but these lands were granted to his brothers Lewis and Richard after 
 the war, as compensation for losses due to depredations committed by the 
 British at Morrisania. 
 
 *3 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 were just gone from Dyer's House for Cherry Valley 
 and Susqueh h with Two Waggons; they went by 
 the Way of Freehold at the Foot of the Mountains 
 on this Side and so over them to Schoharie guessed 
 to be about 32^ Miles as was said before. 
 
 1 th We passed by Sunday Islands whereof Scut- 
 ters Island affords a good low Bottom fit for Meadow 
 and some of it improved. Bear's Island is said to be 
 the Beginning of the Manor of Renslaerwic which 
 extends on both Sides of the River. The Lords of 
 Manors are called by the common People Patroons. 
 Bearen Island or Bears Island just mentioned is 
 reputed to be 1 2 Miles below Albany. Cojemans 1 
 Houses with Two Grist Mills & "Two Saw Mills 
 stand a little above on the West Side and opposite is an 
 Island of about Two Acres covered with young 
 Button wood Trees which Island, our Skipper says, 
 has arisen there to his Knowledge within 1 6 years 
 and since he has navigated the River. 
 
 More low, bottom Land is discovered as we pass 
 up, generally covered with Trees ; being cleared might 
 be made good Meadow by Banking an Improvement 
 to which the Inhabitants are altogether Strangers. 
 The upper End of Scotoc's Island 2 is a fine cleared 
 Bottom not in Grass but partly in Wheat & partly 
 in Tilth. However there was one rich Meadow 
 improved. We saw the first Batteaux 3 a few Miles 
 below Albany, Canoes being the Common Craft. 
 
 One 
 
 1 Now written Coeymans. 
 
 2 Now Schodack, but originally Shotag, an Indian word, meaning the 
 fire place, or the place where the councils are held. This island by the 
 action of the water has since been divided into two, which are known as 
 Upper and Lower Schodack Islands. 
 
 3 " Battoes," as New York frontiersmen, through corruption, usually 
 
 H 
 
TOUR OF THE HUDSON 
 
 One Staat's House is prettily fixed on a rising Ground 
 in a low Island, the City of Albany being 3 miles 
 aHead. We discovered for the First Time a Spot of 
 Meadow Ground, ploughed and sowed with Peas in 
 the Broad Cast Way ; the Uplands are now covered 
 with Pitch Pine & are sandy and barren as the 
 Desarts of N. Jersey. 
 
 As we approach the Town the Houses multiply on 
 each Shore and we observe a person in the Act of 
 sowing Peas upon a fruitful Meadow of an Island to 
 the right. The Hudson near Albany seems to be 
 about Haifa Mile over. Henry Cuyler's Brick House 
 on the East Side about a mile below the Town looks 
 well & we descry the King's stables a long wooden 
 Building on the left & on the same side Philip Schuy- 
 ler's Grand House with whom at present resides Col. 
 Bradstreet. 1 Col. John Van Renslaer has a good 
 House on the East Side. 
 
 At 
 
 wrote this word, were boats originally brought into use by the French, as 
 substitutes for the bark canoe in the fur trade, canoes being not strong 
 enough to carry heavy loads. They were usually built of white pine 
 boards, the bottoms flat, and both ends sharp and higher than the centre. 
 In length they varied from 20 to 25 feet. The width in the centre was 
 three and one half feet, and the depth about two feet. 
 
 1 Since deceased, and Schuyler is now a Major General in the service of 
 the United States. — R. S. 
 
 Philip Schuyler, when only 23 years old, had served with Bradstreet at 
 Oswego, and in 1758 had become Bradstreet's deputy commissary. In 
 1 76 1 he went to England as Bradstreet's agent in settling his accounts with 
 the home government. A few years later he became an acknowledged 
 leader of the patriot party in New York, during the controversies that pre- 
 ceded the Revolution. 
 
 Major General John Bradstreet, whose rank had been won in the French 
 War, had title to an extensive tract of land, some 300,000 acres, on the 
 Susquehanna River near the mouth of the Unadilla, which, after his death, 
 became a subject of litigation, unprofitable alike to his heirs and to the set- 
 tlers, many of whom were ruined by the expenses involved in the contest. 
 
 15 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 At Half after i o oCloc we arrived at Albany 1 es- 
 timated to be 164 Miles by Water from N. York 
 and by Land 157. In the Afternoon we viewed the 
 Town which contains according to several Gen- 
 tlemen residing here, about 500 Dwelling Houses 
 besides Stores and Out Houses. The Streets are 
 irregular and badly laid out, some paved others not, 
 Two or Three are broad the rest narrow & not 
 straight. Most of the Buildings are pyramidically 
 shaped like the old Dutch Houses in N York. We 
 found Cartwright's a good Tavern tho his charges 
 were exorbitant & it is justly remarked by Kalm 2 the 
 Swedish Traveller in America that the Townsmen 
 of Albany in general sustained the character of being 
 close, mercenary and avaricious. They deem it 60 
 miles from Albany to Cherry Valley. 
 
 We did not note any extraordinary Edifices in 
 the Town nor is there a single Building facing 
 Albany on the other Side of the River c The Fort 
 is in a ruinous neglected Condition and nothing now 
 to be seen of Fort Orange built by the Dutch 
 
 but 
 
 1 While Albany is one of the earliest permanent English settlements made 
 in the United States, the French are believed to have had a trading post 
 near there much earlier still — that is, in 1540, but this was soon abandoned. 
 
 2 Peter Kalm visited America in 1748-175 1. Writing of the fur trade at 
 Albany, he said : " Many persons have assured me that the Indians are 
 frequently cheated in disposing of their goods, especially when they are in 
 liquor, and that sometimes they do not get one-half, or one-tenth, of the 
 value of their goods. I have been witness to several transactions of this 
 kind." He adds that "the avarice and selfishness of the inhabitants of 
 Albany" are well known. Kalm had in mind particularly the fur traders. 
 These men, as a class, not only in Albany but elsewhere, at that time, bore 
 evil reputations. Parkman says many of them were "ruffians of the coarsest 
 stamp, who strove with each other in rapacity, violence, and profligacy. 
 They cheated, cursed and plundered the Indians, and outraged their 
 families." 
 
 l6 
 
ft? (fan .f^n/f 
 
 
 *5f 
 
 
 
 
 MAI'S OF ALBANY AND NEW YORK. CITY 
 
 (i) Albany as surveyed by Robert Yates al • .••-- From 
 
 Volume III of the "Documentary History of 1 1 rl 
 
 (:) Bernard Ratsen's map of New York, drawn in 1767. Reproduced from a copy in the 
 
 I • ■ \ I ibrary. 
 
TOUR OF THE HUDSON 
 
 but part of the Fosse or Ditch which surrounded it. 
 The Barracks are built of Wood and of ordinary 
 Workmanship; the same may be said of the King's 
 Store Houses. The Court House is large and the 
 Jail under it. One miserable Woman is now in it 
 for cutting the Throat of her Child about 5 years 
 old. There are 4 Houses of Worship for different 
 Denominations and a Public Library which we did 
 not visit. Most of the Houses are built of Brick or 
 faced with Brick. The Inhabitants generally speak 
 both Dutch and English & some do not understand 
 the latter. The Shore and the Wharves 3 in Number 
 abounded in Lumber. Stephen Van Renslaer the 
 Patron or Lord of the Manor of Renslaerwick 1 his 
 House stands a little above the Town ; he is a young 
 man. 
 
 The Site of the Town is hilly and the soil clay 
 but round the place it is mere Sand bearing pine 
 Trees chiefly of the Pitch Pine. Some Lime or 
 Linden Trees as well as other Trees are planted 
 before the Doors as at N York and indeed Albany 
 has in other Respects much the Aspect of that City. 
 The Houses are for the most Part covered with 
 Shingles made of White Pine, some few with 
 
 red 
 
 1 This manor was founded by Killian Van Rensselaer, a wealthv pearl and 
 diamond merchant of Amsterdam, Holland. At first his possessions em- 
 braced land on the west side of the Hudson River, from a point I 2 miles 
 south of Albany to Smack's Island, "stretching two days into the interior." 
 Later he concluded the purchase of land on the east side, both north and 
 south of Fort Orange, and reaching "far into the wilderness." This vast 
 estate included the entire territory now embraced by Albany, Columbia, and 
 Rensselaer Counties, and was known as Rcnsselaerwick. It was Stephen 
 Van Rensselaer, the seventh patroon, who in 1765, took down the old manor 
 house, and built a splendid new one, which survived until recent years. A Kil- 
 lian Van Rensselaer of this family died in New York Citv in November, 1905. 
 
 17 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 red or black Tiles. In one of the Streets there is a 
 Sign of the Jersey Shoe Ware House being supplied 
 in Part with Shoes by Henry Guest of N. Brunswick; 
 there is a Town Cloc which strikes regularly. We 
 saw some Indians here & found the Weather very 
 warm and sultry. 
 
 18 
 
II 
 
 THE MOHAWK: BY WAGON ROAD FROM COHOES 
 TO CANAJOHARIE, 52 MILES, MAY I I -MAY 13 
 
 11 th Having hired an open Waggon the Com- 
 pany quitted Albany early in the Morn& intending 
 for Schenectady by way of Cahoe's Falls; the Fare of 
 the Waggon with two Horses was 2of. It is called 
 7 miles from the City to the Mouth of the Mohawk's 
 River & from thence to the Cahoes 5 miles, 1 from 
 the Cahoes to Schenectady 16 Miles. From Albany 
 to Schenectady in a Direct Line along the usual 
 Road is 17 Miles. The Patroons House at the North 
 End of Albany is a large handsome Mansion 
 with a good Garden & Wheat Field that reaches 
 down to the North River. The Road leads along 
 the Bank for about 6 or 7 miles from Albany and 
 the rich Bottom on each side of the River is near 
 Half a Mile broad consisting of a blac Mould very 
 level & low, proper for the best Sort of Meadow, 
 but here sown with Wheat and Peas both which 
 look well. Some of the Peas are up and some 
 are now sowing. Very little Indian corn is raised 
 
 in 
 
 1 The Mohawk has three mouths. Mr. Smith seems to have been giving 
 the distance from the southern mouth, but even that is less than five miles 
 below Cohoes. Cohoes is an Indian word meaning a shipwrecked canoe, 
 and refers to an occurrence, in which the owners of a canoe had a remark- 
 able escape from death. 
 
 19 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 in these Parts & that not planted in Furrows & Rows 
 but at random, one Field excepted. They plant 
 three or 4 Feet apart in the Hills & the same Ground 
 every year. The Land back of this fertile Space is cov- 
 ered with the Pitch and White Pine chiefly and yet 
 not bad Land, and along the Mohawks River also 
 this rich flat Ground extends from a Quarter to Half 
 a Mile wide, but somewhat narrower on the upper 
 parts of that River. 
 
 This Stream at the Cahoes is reckoned to be about 
 a Quarter of a Mile in Breadth & the Falls extend 
 quite across. The Heighth of the Fall is conjectured 
 by M r Wells & the Two Surveyors to be 60 Feet or 
 upwards but I have seen a Copper plate that calls it 
 y$, tho' upon ocular View it appears less. The Fall 
 is almost perpendicular, the whole Body of the River 
 brawling over a Slate Rock. The Banks of the 
 River consist of this Rock intermixed with a crumb- 
 ling stone and are perhaps 30 feet higher than the 
 Bed of the River. The whole looks as white as 
 cream except in the middle where the black Rock 
 projects a little and the water breaks into many 
 small Rills. We descended down to the Shore by a 
 dangerous passage and ascended by the same after 
 examining every Thing below particularly some 
 heavy Stones and other Indications of a Copper 
 Mine being not far ofF. 
 
 Upon quitting this spot we directed our Course 
 for Schenectady and passed some excellent Farms 
 and likewise some poor barren Pine Land; yet we 
 saw choice Ground bearing the Jersey or Pitch 
 Pine a Thing to me heretofore unknown. The 
 Course from the Cahoes to Schenectady was nearly 
 
 20 West 
 
rwo \ IEM S 01 COHOl S 1 VLLS 
 
 (i) From .1 .Ir.iu: by 1 Wi Id, the traveler and author, published in I 
 
 (;) From a sketch by Governor I ill, made some time befor 
 
 and engraved by William Elliot 
 
TOUR OF THE MOHAWK 
 
 West. About six Miles below that Town we are 
 told that the rich Bottoms sell at ^"35 or ^40 p 
 Acre while the Upland will only fetch ^"3 or there- 
 abouts. They hardly ever plow their Upland. The 
 Indian Corn in the rich Lands is said to produce 
 from 40 to 60 Bushels an Acre altho every Year 
 planted in the same Earth. By the Information 
 rec d Stephen Van Renslaers Manor extends on each 
 Side of the North River 1 2 Miles below Albany 
 and 12 above by 48 Miles acrofs East & West. 
 Along the Road the Trees are out in full Leaf and 
 the Grass in the Vales several Inches high. Clover 
 and Timothy are common to the Country. They 
 use wheeled Plows mostly with 3 horses abreast & 
 plow and harrow sometimes on a full Trot, a Boy 
 sitting on one Horse. The Timber in these Parts 
 besides the Two sorts of Pine consists of Blac 6c 
 White, Oak, White and brown Aspen large and 
 small, Bilberry, Maple red Oak Hazel Bushes, Ash 
 and Gum together with Butternut and Shellbark, Hic- 
 cory in plenty, Elm and others. The Woods abound 
 in Strawberries, and we find the Apple Trees, Bil- 
 berries, Cherries and some others in Blolsom as are the 
 wild Plums which are very common here. We were 
 informed by D r Stringer at Albany that the Owners 
 of Hardenberghs or the great Patent 1 sell their 
 Lands in Fee at 7/6 per Acre. 
 
 12 th 
 
 1 Issued to Johanus Hardenburg and others in 1708, with an additional 
 tract in I 75 I . This princely estate comprised altogether something under 
 2,000,000 acres and to it, in 1844, spread what was known as the anti-rent 
 war, which, in a milder form, had broken out sometime earlier on the 
 manors of the Hudson Valley. Men disguised in sheep skins, wearing horns 
 and tails, and calling themselves Indians, committed many acts of violence in 
 
 21 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 1 2 th Lodged last Night at Clench's in Schenec- 
 tady a very good Inn and the Landlord' intelligent 
 and obliging. The Town according to our Conjec- 
 ture counts about 300 Dwelling Houses besides Out 
 Houses, standing in/ 3 Principal Streets nearly East 
 and West ; these are crossed by 4 or 5 other Streets. 
 Few of the Buildings are contiguous, some of them 
 are constructed in the old Dutch Taste generally of 
 Wood but sometimes of Brick and there may be 6 
 or 7 elegant Mansions without including a large 
 Dutch Church with a Town Cloc, a Presbyterian 
 Meeting House and a neat English Church now fin- 
 ishing off, containing a particular Pew for Sir WT 
 Johnson 1 adorned with a handsome Canopy supported 
 by Pilasters. There are no Wharves but a public 
 Landing or Two at the Ends of the Streets where 
 the Batteaux bring the Peltry and wheat from above. 
 These Batteaux which are built here are very large, 
 each end sharp so that they may be rowed either 
 way. 
 
 The Townspeople are supplyed altogether with 
 Beef and Pork from New England most of the 
 Meadows being used for Wheat, Peas and other 
 Grain ; however there are certain choice Grass 
 
 Meadows 
 
 Delaware County, such as tarring and feathering, seizing and burning 
 sheriff's papers, and finally caused the death of the sheriff, O. W. Steele. 
 Companies of militia were then sent into the country, and Delaware County 
 was declared to be in a state of insurrection, which after a time was sup- 
 pressed. Besides the greater part of Delaware this patent comprised a large 
 part of Sullivan and Ulster Counties. 
 
 1 Sir William Johnson, the most notable figure in the Colonial history of 
 New York, had for his second wife Molly Brant, a sister of Joseph Brant, 
 with whom he lived in a state of felicity, she being commonly known as 
 '* The Indian Lady Johnson." In his will he described her as his '« house- 
 keeper." 
 
 22 
 
TOUR OF THE MOHAWK 
 
 Meadows about the Place and yet at the End we en- 
 tered, the Sandy Pine Land approaches within 300 
 Yards of the Buildings. The Mohawks River here 
 is hardly wider than Half a Quarter of a Mile, the 
 Course W. S. W. and E. N. E. by compass. Fresh 
 Beef sells at 5 d and 6 d p pound. We thought the 
 Carriers here very apt to impose on Strangers ; it was 
 with some Difficulty we engaged an open Waggon 
 with Two Horses for Cherry Valley for Forty Five 
 Shillings; they told us the Distance was 50 Miles. 
 The Inhabitants are chiefly Descendants of the low 
 Dutch, a few Irish & not so many English. We 
 did not observe any Orchards or Gardens worthy of 
 Attention. M r Clench says the cold here is not at 
 all severe and the Grass out earlier in the Spring 
 than in Pennsylvania where he has lived. The North 
 River was open several Times at Albany during the 
 last Winter j Sloops and Oyster Boats came up both 
 in January & February. Numbers of people from 
 N England and elsewhere have travelled this Way 
 during the last Winter & this Spring looking out for 
 settlements ; there is yet remaining in Schenectady a 
 small wooden Fortrefs having 4 Towers at the 
 corners. 1 
 
 In the early part of this Day we crofsed the River 
 at a Ferry kept in Town from whence to Col. Guy 
 Johnsons" son in Law to Sir W m are 1 5 Miles ; 
 
 thence 
 
 1 This fort had been erected during the first French War. From its earliest 
 settlement Schenectady had been protected, either by a stockade or a fort. 
 The word is Indian, and means beyond the opening, or beyond the pineries. 
 
 2 Col. Guy Johnson was Sir William's successor as Superintendent of In- 
 dian affairs. Remaining loyal to the crown, he retired to Canada, and 
 became active in the war, his lands being confiscated afterward. 
 
 *3 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 thence nearly a Mile to Col. Claus 1 who also mar- 
 ried a Daughter of the Baronet, & from him to Sir 
 John Johnson 2 a Mile ; thence to the Spot which lies 
 opposite to Fort Hunter 3 3 miles. Fort Hunter 4 
 stands Half a Mile up Schoharie Creek whose 
 Waters here mix with the Mohawks stream, & at or 
 about the Fort live a small Party of Mohawk In- 
 dians 5 who subsist by Agriculture. From Fort 
 Hunter to Major Funda's 6 are 4 Miles and thence to 
 M r Kincaid where we lodged 5 miles, the Road gen- 
 erally lying on the Eastern Banks of the River in 
 those fertile Wheat Meadows so much celebrated. 
 Sir Wm. Johnson resides at Johns Town the Capital 
 of the extensive County of Tryon, 7 which Town lies 
 
 7 or 8 
 
 1 Col. Daniel Claus, when the war began, followed the Johnsons to 
 Canada, and was active on the frontier, his relations to Joseph Brant being 
 particularly close. 
 
 2 Sir John Johnson, the heir to Sir William's title, and to a large part of 
 his estate, during the Border Wars was personally the most active of all the 
 influential loyalists of the frontier. His Royal Greens were at the massacre 
 of Wyoming, and he led two expeditions into the Mohawk Valley, effecting 
 great destruction. The last is believed to have been connected with Arnold's 
 treason. "Both shores of the Mohawk," says Stone, "were lighted up 
 by the conflagration of everything combustible." Sir John's vast landed 
 property was confiscated after the war. 
 
 3 Tribes Hill. 
 
 4 Fort Hunter was the Lower Castle of the Mohawks. 
 
 5 Quere: Whether they have not since been routed by order of Gen- 
 eral Sullivan ? — R. S. 
 
 The Sullivan expedition of 1779 encountered no hostile Indians in the 
 Mohawk Valley ; nor had there been any resident there since 1776, when 
 practically all the Mohawks followed Col. Guy and Sir John Johnson to 
 Canada. 
 
 6 Here now stands the town that bears Major Fonda's name. 
 
 7 Tryon County, formed in 1772 from Albany County, and taking its 
 name from Governor Tryon, but later called Montgomery, after the Gen- 
 eral, originally comprised the territory now embraced in the Counties of 
 Otsego, Madison, Herkimer, Fulton, Hamilton, St. Lawrence, Oswego 
 and Jefferson, with parts of Delaware, Oneida and Schoharie. 
 
 24 
 
TOUR OF THE MOHAWK 
 
 7 or 8 miles back from the River. The Breadth of 
 the Flats on each Side of the River from Schenec- 
 tady to M r Kincaid's maybe from ioo to 300 yards, 
 the Road very level and good ; the Upland in general 
 is no other than Pine Barrens both Stony and Hilly. 
 Guy Johnson's House is of Stone 2 stories high, 
 neat and handsome; the Garden behind runs down 
 to the River and is accommodated with a pretty Pa- 
 vilion erected over the Water. 1 Daniel Claus's 
 House is of stone and one story high. Sir John's is 
 also of stone and contains Two Stories, all Three 
 situate at the Foot of Hills very steep, barren and 
 rocky having narrow Strips of Bottom Ground. Sir 
 John has most Meadow and their Farms are much 
 inferior to those of many common People here- 
 abouts. The Country seems to be well settled & we 
 are told that wild Pidgeons breed everywhere. Sir 
 John possesses an elegant Seat and Gardens called 
 Fort Johnson" tho there is now no other Fortress 
 than a wooden Block House and a Powder Maga- 
 zine. From Sir Johns to his father Sir W ms they 
 count 9 Miles. 
 
 Fort 
 
 1 This House was afterwards, in the absence of the Family, destroyed by 
 a Flash of Lightning, and all the elegant Furniture consumed, and among the 
 rest, a curious Map drawn by the Colonel, and which we had viewed with 
 Pleasure, describing the Bounds and Situation of the various Patents for Lands 
 granted previous to the late Treaty of Fort Stanwix in this Quarter of the 
 Government, with their several dates ; but another House, similar to the 
 former was finished, and it has been much defaced since that Gentleman 
 joined the British Interest against his own Country. — R. S. 
 
 Col. Johnson also made a "Map of the Country of the VI Nations 
 Proper, with Parts of the Adjacent Colonies." It was engraved and printed 
 in 1771, dedicated to the Governor, William Tryon. It may be found in 
 volume IV of the " Documentary History of New York." 
 
 - Still standing between Akin and Tribes Hill, where it may be seen from 
 a New York Central Railroad train. 
 
 25 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 Fort Hunter, as they say for we did not go over, 
 is constructed of Wood having 4 Bastions and is 
 like the small Fort at Schenectady. We saw some 
 of the young Indian Women who reside there & 
 several other Parties of Indians some of them 
 painted very hideously and preposterously in red and 
 blac, — The River a little above Fort Johnson breaks 
 into a Number of Channels forming so many Islands. 
 The Timber seen to day was much the same as yes- 
 terday with the Addition of wild Rasberries cur- 
 rants and gooseberries. We observed a Saw Mill on 
 the Road with 1 4 Saws, a Thing usual in this Part of 
 the Country, but very uncommon if not altogether 
 unknown in Jersey and Pennsylvania. 
 
 At Kincaid's we first met with the Maple Sugar 
 of which our Hostess manufactures 300 or 400 
 Weight per Annum. She describes the process as 
 extremely simple. In Feb. March or the Beginning 
 of April as the Season admits they draw the Liquor 
 from the Tree (the Acer Saccharinum Foliis quin- 
 quepartito-palmatis accuminato dentatis of Linnasus's 
 Species Plantarum pag. 1055) by striking an Ax 
 into it or boring it and placing proper vessels there- 
 under to receive the Juice as it distils. This they 
 boil for several Hours taking care to stir it while it 
 cools & so pour it into any Kettle or pot previously 
 rubbed with Hogs Lard and then the Sugar is taken 
 out in cakes like Beeswax which when used they 
 cut down with a Knife. This Kind has the Aspect 
 of coarse brown Muscavado but tastes more like 
 coarse loaf sugar. Mr? Kincaid says She sells it 
 in Common g d p. pound and she has exchanged 
 2 pounds of this for 3 Pounds of West India Sugar, 
 
 26 the 
 
TOUR OF THE MOHAWK 
 
 the People esteeming the former best. They tap 
 200 Trees for 400 Weight, the same Juice is con- 
 verted into Molasses and sometimes into Vinegar. 
 For this last the Liquor is half boiled and worked 
 with Yeast. They use our common Maple also 
 but prefer the Sugar Maple. After a Tree has been 
 tapt several years the Liquor is thought to grow 
 stronger. About 3 Gallons are sufficient for a Pound 
 of Sugar and this Quantity will ooze from a Tree in 
 a days Time. The Mohawks River is but shallow tho' 
 very rapid and the Navigation obstructed by Rifts 
 and the Inhabitants of its Banks are said to be sub- 
 ject to Fevers and Agues. The Measures introduced 
 originally by the Dutch are still in vogue. A 
 Morgan of Land contains somewhat more than Two 
 Acres and a Skipple is about 3 Pecks. Col. Claus 
 is clearing the Hill before the Door with an Inten- 
 tion to plant a Vineyard. A neighbor of Kincaids, 
 as we hear, lately sold 360 acres of Land whereof 
 30 were all Meadow, for the Sum of j^goo. The 
 People of the German Flats bring their Loads of 
 Wheat in Sleighs down to Schenectady, the Distance 
 being 60 Miles, and return in 3 Days. One Hassen- 
 clever it seems has formed a Settlem' above the 
 German Flats. 1 I was informed that M r Clenchs 
 Tavern in Schenectady rented for ^100 a year pre- 
 vious to the Peace of 1763. 
 
 1 These places have been since destroyed during the present War. — R. S. 
 
 German Flats was first settled about forty years before the date of this 
 journal. In 1757, as already stated in the Introduction, it was burned, 
 and its people were massacred. In 1 7-8 it was again burned by Joseph 
 Brant, who carried away all the horses, cattle and sheep, but the people, 
 having retired to the fort on hearing of Brant's approach, escaped bodily 
 harm. 
 
 27 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 i 3^ May. — Kincaids is not a public Tavern but 
 for our Money we were civilly and tolerably enter- 
 tained. The Inns between [Canajoharrie] and Cherry 
 Valley are few and wretched. We crossed the River 
 from Kincaids to the South Side and passed along 
 its shores for 8 Miles to Scramlins 1 which is nearly 
 opposite to Col. Fry's; we found the road passable. 
 Fry's House of one story high is built of Lime 
 Stone or has that appearance, he has a Brew House 
 & these look well from the high Hill fronting 
 them. 2 
 
 1 At or near Canajoharie, "Col. Fry's" being Palatine Bridge. Cana- 
 joharrie was the Upper Castle of the Mohawks. The name came from a 
 place in a creek where the water flows through a circular gorge and thus 
 was called by the Indians Canajoharie, meaning the pot that washes itself. 
 In 1677 an Indian village stood on the opposite side of the Mohawk and 
 was stockaded. 
 
 2 Fry was one of the Members of Assembly for Tryon County. He 
 afterwards removed over the River to a handsome house oddly placed in a 
 Hollow just under the Hill before mentioned, from the top of which I 
 beheld it in 1773 and again in 1777, and the view brought to my mind the 
 Idea of a House fixed in the Bottom of a Well. — R. S. 
 
 28 
 
Ill 
 
 THE SUSQUEHANNA: BY WAGON ROAD FROM CANAJO- 
 HARIE TO OTSEGO LAKE; THENCE BY CANOE TO OLD 
 OGHWAGA, 1 06 MILES; MAY I 3-JUNE 5, I 769 
 
 I 3 th May. At Scramlins we turned off from the 
 River pursuing a S.W. Course for Cherry Valley and 
 perceived the Soil to be blac & deep bearing very lofty 
 White Pines, Butternut, Beech, Shell Bark Hickery 
 and many other sorts of Timber including several 
 Trees of the English Yew as affirmed by R. Wells & 
 John Hicks who were both born in England. The 
 roads were miry and heavy. We saw great plentv 
 of Lime Stone & heard that a Hedge Tavern 
 Keeper 1 living 5 Miles from Scramlins gave ^190 
 for 200 acres where he resides. We met, on their 
 Return Four Waggons which had carried some of 
 Col. Croghans Goods to his Seat at the Foot of 
 Lake Otsego. The Carriers tell us they were paid 
 30/. a Load each for carrying from Scramlins to 
 Cap* Prevost's 2 who is now improving his Estate at 
 the Head of the Lake; the Cap! married Croghan's 
 Daughter. 
 
 In 
 
 1 So reads the manuscript. Perhaps it should be "A. Hedge, tavern 
 keeper." 
 
 '-'Augustine Prevost's military title had been acquired in the British Army. 
 He had seen service in Jamaica. Near this point there grew up a settlement 
 called Springfield, which was burned by Brant in 1778, the inhabitants being 
 all driven out. 
 
 29 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 In the afternoon he arrived at Major Wells, one 
 of the principal Freeholders of Cherry Valley called 
 i 2 Miles from the Scramlins & 50 from Schenectady. 
 Near Cherry valley we chased an Animal till he 
 climbed into the Top of a tall White Pine Tree 
 where we shot him. He proved to be the only 
 Porcupine I ever saw, & I brought some of his 
 Quils to Burlington. There are Farms and new 
 Settlements at a short Distance all the Way from 
 the Mohawks River, the Ground in many places 
 hilly & broken but strong and producing thick and 
 tall Woods. In Cherry Valley 1 there are about 40 or 50 
 Families mostly of those called Scotch Irish and as 
 many more in the vicinity consisting of Germans 
 and others. There is a Pearl Ash Work and much 
 Lime Stone in the Valley. Major Wells has a choice 
 Farm with a large Quantity of even Meadow on 
 each side of his House. He has lived here all the 
 Two last Wars and entirely unmolested. 2 
 
 We rec d Information at this Place that there is 
 a Rout from Kaatskill across to Susquehannah in this 
 
 Line 
 
 1 Cherry Valley, so long the most important settlement on the Susque- 
 hanna, and the parent of several others, is now a small village. For many 
 years after the Revolutionary War it was an important place on the Great 
 Western Turnpike. 
 
 2 The Major died not long afterwards. His worthy Widow, Children 
 and Domestics to the number of nine, were put to death in November 1778, 
 and their home burnt during the horrid Massacre and Destruction of C. Valley 
 by the Indian Savages and British Monsters, headed by Butler and Brant. — R. S. 
 
 Robert Wells had a son named John who escaped. He was then at school 
 in Schenectady. John Wells was afterwards an eminent lawyer in New York, 
 and became associated with Alexander Hamilton. A beautiful monument 
 to his memory was erected by his associates at the bar, inside of St. Paul's 
 Church, at Broadway and Vesey Street, where it may still be seen. 
 
 Walter N. Butler was the chief offender in this massacre. He seems in- 
 deed to have planned it. Brant joined the expedition with some personal 
 
 3° 
 
TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 
 
 Line, namely from Kaatskill to Akery 8 miles, to 
 Batavia 12, to Red Kill 8, (on the Schoharie where 
 it is crossed, there are said to be settled Places) from 
 Red Kill to a Lake at the Head of the Mohawks or 
 Main Branch of the River Delaware, 1 2 and to 
 Otego about 16 — in all 56 Miles. 1 
 
 14 th Being Sunday We attended Major Wells and 
 his Family to the new Presbyterian Meeting House 
 which is large and quite finished and heard a Sermon 
 from the Rev. M' Delap an elderly courteous Man 
 who has lived in this settlemt above 20 years. 2 
 The Congregation tho not large made a respectable 
 Appearance, several of them being genteely dressed. 
 From our Lodgings about the centre of the Vallev 
 down to the mouth of Cherry Valley Creek they 
 reckon 12 or 14 Miles and in Freshes one may pass 
 in a Canoe from the House to Maryland. Here are 
 3 Grist Mills and one Saw Mill and divers Carpen- 
 ters and other Tradesmen. The Soil is a strong 
 
 blac 
 
 reluctance, having many old friends among the inhabitants of Cherrv Valley. 
 During the massacre his influence was one of restraint. He afterwards said 
 the white men were ** more savage than the savages themselves." The chief 
 barbarities due to the Indians were committed bv the Senecas, under the 
 leadership of Hiokatoo, whom Brant afterwards said he could not control. 
 
 1 In April 1777 I rode over the Delaware just below this Lake, or Pond, 
 which serves as a Reservoir for a Saw Mill, and the River is no other than 
 a Brook, not a Foot deep, and two or three vards broad. — R. S. 
 
 This reference appears to be to Summit Lake, the head of the River Char- 
 lotte, not the Delaware. The Delaware takes its source from a spring at 
 Stamford. 
 
 2 His wife was murdered in the Massacre aforesaid. — R. S. 
 
 Rev. Samuel Dunlop is here referred to. Surviving the massacre, he re- 
 moved from Cherry Valley during the war and died elsewhere. In the 
 Presbyterian Church at Cherry Valley, in the summer of 1904, a tablet was 
 set up to his memory. Bishop Potter, whose grandfather, Eliphalet Nott, 
 had been pastor of the same church, made one of the addresses. 
 
 w 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 blac Mould with a large Proportion of Bottom Land. 
 Their Patent is only for 9000 acres, the Farms 
 rather small, M r Wells's Homestead being but 200 
 Acres. The Price of Land uncertain & according 
 to the Quality and Improvements. Uncleared 
 Woods possessing a due Proportion of low Ground 
 sell at least for 10/. an Acre and cultivated Farms 
 from 40/. to ^5. an Acre. Major Wells says he 
 turns his Horses and Cattle out to full Pasture about 
 the First of May sooner or later as the Season may 
 prove and begins to fodder about the Middle of 
 November. Summer Wheat is grown as well as 
 Winter Wheat and thought to produce as much. 
 
 From the Mouth of Cherry Valley Creek for 9 
 miles upwards on both Sides the Low Lands (and 
 these only) are said to belong to Gov r Clarke's 1 Heirs 
 and some of the Livingston's who include the place 
 called Skeneves's. 2 Gov. Clarkes son Leased out 
 Lands in C. Valley (being concerned in that Patent) 
 on these terms viz : Ten Years for Nothing, for 7 
 Years afterwards 3 d Sterling an acre then ever after 
 6 d sterlg. an Acre — the Landlord to pay the Quit 
 Rent to the Crown. 
 
 About 9 miles from the Mohawks River on the 
 Road to Cherry Valley, as Report says, is a Brim- 
 stone Spring 3 at the Foot of the Hill where we shot 
 the Porcupine. We 
 
 1 George Clarke, Lieutenant Governor of the Province, had come to 
 America in Queen Anne's time. He was related to the Hydes, who were 
 Earls of Clarendon. Hyde Hall on Otsego Lake and the George Hyde 
 Clarkes who own it, still preserve the name in those parts. 
 
 2 Now a small village and railroad station, the name being written 
 Schenevus. 
 
 3 Known afterwards as Sharon Springs, long a fashionable watering-place, 
 and still much visited by invalids. 
 
 3 2 
 
TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 
 
 We find ourselves well entertained at M r Wells's 
 who keeps a Store where Powder may be had for 3/. 
 and shot for 6 d p pound by the Dozen, Rum sells 
 from 5/ to 6/ a Gallon, Ozenbrigs 1 8 d a yard and 
 at divers Farms Cyder may be procured from the 
 press at 1 2/. p Barrel. A large Quantity of Flaxseed 
 is purchasable for 4/. a Bushel — The Cherry Valley 
 Men make all their own Linen and some Woolen. 
 A Fulling Mill is much wanted. There are Two 
 Furnaces in the Pearl Ash Work. The Manager 
 gives 7 d and 8 d a Bushel for Ashes and pays in Goods 
 sold at a large Advance. He has one Hand to assist 
 Him. A Pair of Mens shoes costs 9/. and for making 
 only they ask 2/6. There is a Gun Smith and a 
 Blacsmith who have 1/. a pound for Plough Shares 
 Coulters & c and io d a Pound for some other Work. 
 The Distance from Cherry Valley to Cap 1 Prevosts 
 on the Head of Susquehannah is 9 Miles. 
 
 1 5 th We are informed that the Flats on Schoharie 1 
 are pretty wide ; the Improvements there from 
 about 12 miles up the Creek may extend 20 Miles 
 further up; they carry their Wheat & Peas to 
 Albany 40 miles and back again in Two Days. 
 Some of the Farmers are reported to be worth 
 money. It is asserted and probably with Truth 
 that fresh Settlers frequently do not till their Land 
 for the First Crop but only rake the ground clean, 
 then sow the Wheat, harrow it in or draw a Bush 
 over it and reap good Crops. 
 
 M r Wells would accept no Recompence for our 
 
 Entertainment 
 
 Schoharie was already an old settlement, many of its lands having been 
 taken up by Palatine Germans as early as 17 14. 
 
 33 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 Entertainment, but hiring to us his Cart drawn by 
 2 Horses we set out for the Lake and passing by the 
 Ministers House we noticed a Pair of Elks Horns 
 killed in the Neighborhood 2 years ago, the Length 
 of each Horn was 4 Feet and each Horn produced 
 6 points, the Distance between the Points of the 
 Main Beam 3^ Feet. We arrived at Cap* Pre- 
 vosts in 4 Hours, the Road not well cleared but full 
 of Stumps and rugged thro' a deep blac Mould all 
 the Way producing very tall Beech, Sugar Maple, 
 Linden, Birch and other Timber, the course guessed 
 to be N. W. 
 
 M r Prevost has built a Log House lined with 
 rough Boards of one story on a Cove which forms 
 the Head of Lake Otsego. He has cleared 16 or 
 1 8 acres round his House and erected a Saw Mill 
 with one Saw, the Carpenters Bill of which came to 
 ^30; he began to settle only in May last. 1 M' 
 Young has a Saw Mill about 3 Miles off. The 
 Cap 1 treated us elegantly. The Soil around his 
 House is a fruitful blac Loam on a stratum of 
 Gravel. We have not seen a Blac Walnut or hardly 
 a Chesnut Tree since we left N York. The Cap 1 
 says that here are stones proper for grindstones, 
 absolutely necessary to every Settler, & that he has 
 caused one to be made and that two Mill stones 
 have been from the same Material & he thinks 
 there is a Saltpetre Spring 2 a few Miles distant. He 
 has several Families seated near him and gives Wages 
 from 55/. to £2 a Month. In 
 
 ir rhis farm has been since greatly improved and was occupied by Nicholas 
 Lowe from New York. — R. S. 
 
 2 This reference may be to what is now Richfield Springs. 
 
 34 
 
TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 
 
 In this Part of our Journey we passed thro 
 Springfield in Waggoners Patent, a German Settle- 
 ment of 10 Families where one Myers from Philad* 
 keeps a Tavern and has established a Pottery; nor do 
 they lack a Blacsmith who is a good Workman, 
 there are 1 2 more Persons residing on Godfrey 
 Millers or Martins Patent. It is supposed to be not 
 more than 5 or 6 Miles on a direct Line from Major 
 Wells's to Lake Otsego & 9 or 10 Miles from Cherry 
 Valley to a Colony of Six Families at West Kills from 
 whence to Cobus Kill are 8 miles: this contains 6 
 or 8 Families and from Cobus Kill to Schoharie 
 they reckon 8 miles. Myers of Springfield gave 
 £ijo for 200 Acres about Two years ago. His 
 House is about 5 Miles from Cap f Prevosts. At 
 Harpers Saw Mill 1 in the Lower part of Cherry 
 Valley they now sell White Pine Boards at 45 p 
 Thousand Feet; the Creek could be easily cleared 
 out and their saw mill is about 9 miles from the 
 Mouth. 
 
 16 th Our Company was retarded yesterday for 
 Want of Craft but this Morng. we proceeded in Col. 
 Croghan's Batteau, large and sharp at each end 
 down the Lake which is estimated to be 8 or 9 
 Miles long and from one to 2 miles broad, the Water 
 of a greenish cast denoting probably a Lime stone 
 Bottom; the Lake is skirted on either Side with 
 Hills covered by White Pines and the Spruce called 
 
 Hemloc 
 
 'The Harper family who came to Cherry Valley from Windsor, Conn., 
 in 1 754 and became the staunchest patriots in the Revolution, obtained in 
 1770 a patent to lands on the River Charlotte, where they founded the settle- 
 ment of Harpersfield, which in the Revolution was destroyed by Joseph 
 Br.int. 
 
 35 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 Hemloc chiefly. We saw a Number of Ducks, 
 some Loons, Sea Guls and Whitish coloured 
 Swallows, the Water very clear so that we des- 
 cried the gravelly Bottom in one Part 10 or 
 1 2 Feet down. The rest of the Lake seemed to be 
 very deep; very little low Land is to be seen round 
 the Lake. 
 
 M r Croghan 1 Deputy to Sir W m Johnson the 
 Superintendent for Indian Affairs, is now here and 
 has Carpenters and other Men at Work preparing to 
 build Two Dwelling Houses and 5 or 6 Out Houses. 
 His Situation commands a View of the whole Lake 
 and is in that Respect superior to Prevosts. The site 
 is a gravelly stiff" Clay covered with towering white 
 Pines just where the River Susquehannah, no more 
 than 10 or 12 yards broad, runs downwards 
 out of the Lake with a strong Current. 2 Here 
 
 we 
 
 1 Col. George Croghan, one of Sir William Johnson's deputy superintendents, 
 acquired his tract on Otsego Lake, comprising 100,000 acres, as compensa- 
 tion for lands in Pennsylvania, which he lost under the terms of the Fort 
 Stanwix Treaty. Near Cherry Valley he had another tract of 18,000 
 acres. Croghan mortgaged the Otsego tract to William Franklin, son of 
 Benjamin Franklin, and lost it under foreclosure. The title eventually 
 passed to William Cooper and Andrew Craig, both of Burlington, N. J., 
 which will be recalled as the home of the author of this journal. Mr. 
 Cooper decided to settle the tract, and in 1786 had induced several families to 
 live on it. In 1790, he brought his own family to the lake, one member of 
 which was an infant, destined to wide literary celebrity. It is a curious cir- 
 cumstance that the world should thus be indebted to the Fort Stanwix 
 Treaty for the "Leather Stocking Tales." 
 
 2 At this point in the lake, and almost in the stream itself, stands a large 
 boulder known as Council Rock. Cooper in his «* Chronicles of Coopers- 
 town," tells how the trees that once overhung it formed "a noble and ap- 
 propriate canopy to a seat that had held many a forest chieftain during the 
 long succession of unknown ages in which America and all it contained ex- 
 isted apart, as a world by itself." 
 
 36 
 
TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 
 
 we found a Body of Indians mostly from Ahquhaga 
 come to pay their Devoirs to the Col; some of them 
 speak a little English. The Colonels low Grounds 
 intended for Meadow lie at some Distance; he 
 talks of opening a Road from hence to Brekaheen 
 on the Schoharie from whence there is already a 
 Waggon Road to the Kaatskill. We lodged at Col. 
 Croghans and next Morng. get all ready to go on the 
 Survey, Rob 1 Picken our other Surveyor being gone 
 down to wait upon the Duchess of Gordon & Col. 
 Morris (whose Tract adjoins to our Patent) & not 
 expected back in 10 Days. 
 
 17 th We departed at 9 oCloc with two pack 
 Horses carrying Provisions and Baggage & one riding 
 Horse with 5 Men as Chain Carriers and Servants & 
 Two Mohawk Indians as guides. 1 In about 4 Miles 
 we came to the Oaksnee 2 which is the Branch that 
 leads into the Susquehannah from Lake Camadu- 
 
 ragy 
 
 1 One of these was the notorious sachem Joseph Brant, who has since fig- 
 ured as the Commander of a Bloody Banditti. — R. S. 
 
 Brant's character was not so black as it has often been painted, nor as the 
 expression " commander of a bloody banditti " would imply. Brant, whose 
 Indian name was Thayendanegea, and who is the most interesting, if not the 
 most famous personage in connection with the Revolutionary history of Cen- 
 tral New York, was now 27 years old. He was of distinguished lineage, 
 his grandfather, a king of the Mohawks, having been one of the five Iroquois 
 kings, who in 17 10 visited Queen Anne, their stay in London being de- 
 scribed by Steele in the " Tatler" and Addison in the "Spectator." Under 
 Sir William Johnson's patronage, Brant for two years had been a student at 
 Dr. Wheelock's school in Lebanon, Conn., where, in Dr. Wheelock's 
 words, he "much endeared himself to his teacher." He was with Sir 
 William at the siege of Fort Niagara in 1759, and again at the battle of Lake 
 George. In 1761 he taught the Mohawk tongue to Samuel Kirkland, the 
 missionary to the Indians, who founded Hamilton College. 
 
 2 Now known as Oaks Creek. 
 
 37 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 ragy. 1 It is here about 8 or 10 yards wide and very 
 rapid. We felled a large Tree to cross upon and 
 observed a rich low Bottom on each side of the 
 Oaksnee but not wide. On the Way we passed 
 several deep Morasses & found great Variety of 
 Timber mixt with White Pine. The Waters of the 
 Oaksnee are not green like those of the Otsego Duct. 
 At Half after Two oCloc after passing along 
 Hartwicks Line 2 we arrived at the Otego before it 
 enters our Tract. 3 We crossed this Creek and dined 
 in the rich low Bottom appertaining to it, the Cur- 
 rent at this Spot does not exceed 5 yards in Width 
 running down rapidly. The Soil hither abounds 
 with shelly or slate Stone which for the most Part 
 is covered by a thin Stratum of blac Mould. The 
 Low Land on Otego is irregular and unequal, in 
 some Places half a Mile broad, in others not 20 
 Yards, but the Glebe is of the right kind and the 
 Trees strong and lofty. The Country in general is 
 hilly and full of fallen timber ; here are a variety of 
 Weeds, good grass for the Horses and plenty of cur- 
 rant and Gooseberry Bushes. After traversing a deep 
 Hemloc Swamp we encamped in the Eveng. 1 1 or 
 1 2 Miles from Croghans. We found a Beaver Dam 
 across one of the Branches of Otego. Our Indians 
 in Half an Hour erected a House capable of shel- 
 tering 
 
 1 The lake at Richfield Springs, afterwards called Schuyler's Lake, from 
 David Schuyler, to whom a patent of land in those parts was granted in 
 1755. In recent years the Indian name has been restored, the accepted 
 spelling being Canadurango. 
 
 2 John C. Hartwick's tract is now a township, bearing Hartwick's name. 
 
 3 By this the author means that they reached the upper waters of the creek, 
 not the point where it enters the Susquehanna. 
 
 38 
 
JOSEPH BRANT (THAYENDANEGEA 
 
 lM A PORTRAI1 MAD] IN LONDON FROM LIFE DURING BRANT'S VISIT IN 1776, 
 THE SAME BEING AN ORIGINAL DRAWING FORM] KI V IN THE 
 1 JAMES BOSWE1 I 
 
TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 
 
 tering us from the wet for it rained most of the Day 
 and Night succeeding. They place 4 crotched 
 stakes in the Earth, the Two front ones being tallest. 
 On these are rested poles which are crossed by other 
 poles and these are covered with wide hemloc Bark . 
 a large chearful Fire being soon raised in the Front, 
 they compleated our Kitchin and Bed Chamber 
 wherein after broiling Salt Pork for supper we 
 rested prepared by Fatigue very comfortably. 
 
 18 th About Six oCloc we moved from our En- 
 campm c . ; this strong uneven Land is covered with 
 Beech, Sugar Maple, Ash and various other sorts of 
 Wood, the surface covered here and there with 
 shelly stones, & at y z after 1 1 oCloc we hit upon 
 the East and West Line between Croghans and our 
 Otego Tract about 3 Miles from the N. W. Corner. 
 This morning we surmounted sundry high Hills and 
 came over 5 or 6 Branches of the Otego and had 
 the satisfaction of dining on our own Territory 
 which is here low and tolerably level but in most 
 places stony under a surface of blac Mould. Hith- 
 erto we have seen no Snakes or Wild Beasts nor 
 have we killed any Thing but the Porcupine. At 
 y 2 after Two oCloc we crossed a Brook of the 
 Unadella 1 and a little beyond it in the middle of 
 
 one 
 
 1 Since named by Robert Lettis Hooper Burlington Creek. Neither the 
 Unadella or the Otego are marked on Evans's or any other map to mv knowl- 
 edge.— R. S. 
 
 Probably the Unadilla River was not known by its present name when these 
 maps were drawn. Unadilla at first was merely a term for the place where 
 this stream joins the Susquehanna, its meaning being place of meeting, or con- 
 fluence. Here three counties now come together — Otsego, Chenango, and 
 Delaware. In Delaware County just above the confluence, lies the village of 
 Sidney. Unadilla has since become, not only the name of the river here 
 
 39 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 one of the finest Bottoms in the World stands the 
 Corner to this and the Otsego or Croghans Patent, 
 a Butternut marked 
 
 "G: C: C: r:—?68" 
 
 The Letters stand for George Croghan and his sur- 
 veyor Christopher Yates. 
 
 The Forest in this Bottom is composed of Birch, 
 Sugar Maple, Wild cherry, Blac Thorn, Butternut, 
 Elm., white and red, Iron Wood & many more with 
 a vast Variety of rank Weeds and Grass above a 
 Foot high. The Place may be easily cleared. 1 The 
 Breadth of this Bottom above a Quarter of a Mile 
 and the Length farther than could be seen. We set 
 a South Course by the Compass & found that a large 
 Part of the Bottom was without our Tract. From 
 the above Butternut Corner Mess rs Biddle and Ridg- 
 way began the Survey, running down this Afternoon 
 3 Miles due East. The Timber along this Line 
 hither is chiefly tall Beech, Sugar Maple, and Hem- 
 loc; not an Oak or Hiccory was seen. Besides Bur- 
 lington Creek which I waded thro being above- the 
 
 Knee 
 
 tributary to the Susquehanna, but of the township in Otsego County which 
 lies east of it in the corner of that county formed by the two streams, and 
 also the name of the village on the Susquehanna five miles above Sidney. 
 Unadilla Village gained importance early in the 1 9th century as the terminus 
 of the Catskill and Susquehanna Turnpike, then one of the great highways, 
 leading into Central New York. Likewise Otego was originally a name for 
 the mouth of the creek only. While the creek now bears the name, the 
 settlement called Otego that grew up after the Revolution is situated 
 several miles distant on the Susquehanna. 
 
 1 Some years after this Benjamin Lull, perfected choice meadows round 
 this corner. — R. S. 
 
 Mr. Lull, with several grown-up sons, came into the country in 1777. 
 
 40 
 
TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 
 
 Knee and about 8 or 10 yards wide running with a 
 strong Current over a stony Bottom, the soil a shelly 
 stone slightly covered with black mold. We passed 
 several Rivulets & noticed divers good seats for 
 Mills. There was one long Hill of gradual As- 
 cent & others smaller but the ground more level 
 than any yet observed. We passed thro a large nat- 
 ural Nursery of Cherry Trees supposed by some of 
 the Company to be the Blac Mazard Cherry. The 
 Water is good and many living Springs. 
 
 1 9 th It rained all Night and this Morning & we 
 experienced, now and often, that our temporary 
 Bark Habitations can preserve us dry. The lively 
 Note of the Swamp Robin, the Red Bird and other 
 Birds from the earliest Dawn is entertaining. The 
 Trees are out in compleat Leaf every where. We lay 
 by all Day being rainy. At the Pearl Ash Work in 
 Cherry Valley, we are informed two men make 
 above a Ton per Month. They receive £^0 p Ton 
 delivered at the Mohawks River a Carriage of 12 
 Miles and are paid in goods. 
 
 20 th We came 3 Miles before Dinner thro a 
 good Soil tolerably level and near Half the Way 
 is low ground proper for Meadow, well timbered 
 with Beech, Sugar Maple Wild Cherry, Ash, a few 
 blac Oaks and several Groves of Hemloc, but no 
 Hiccory or Pine. Some of the Hellibore is two 
 feet high. We saw Two Garter Snakes and one of 
 our savages snapt his Gun at 4 Wolves. We skirted 
 a beautiful Lake Half a Mile long and a Quarter of 
 a Mile wide, surrounded with gently swelling Hills; 
 it disembogues in a placid stream and presents a 
 
 most 
 
 41 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 most fit spot for Water Works. 1 We crossed many- 
 Brooks and discovered not a few Fountains, for the 
 whole Line is well watered above. Half the 
 Timber is Beech & Underbrush, plenty in most 
 Parts. Nearly 7 Miles from the Corner is a Knowle 
 somewhat in the Form of a Sugar Loaf, beautifully 
 stationed so as to command a Prospect all around of 
 low grounds which extend to Otego Creek, here 
 broken into several Islands, the Water 2 Feet deep 
 and very rapid, the largest Branch 8 or 10 yards 
 wide. The Valley is about half a Mile from Hill 
 to Hill and of the richest Kind, Nature producing 
 a Multitude of Herbs, Plants and Flowers and inter 
 alia the wild Lilly and the Polishing Reed used by 
 Joiners; the Timber here Elm, Beech, Sugar Maple, 
 Birch Wild Cherry and others, a gravelly Bottom 
 to the Creeks and wild rasberries in plenty. 
 
 There is a high Hill on the farther Bank of 
 Otego which, and another arm of it being passed, we 
 arrived at Hartwick's Corner, a Sugar Maple, which 
 is just 7^ Miles and 16^ Chains from the Butter- 
 nuts. 1 We begin to be teazed with Muscetoes and 
 little Gnats called here Punkies. The remainder of 
 this days journey was thro hilly ground with mode- 
 rate Ascents and Descents ; Two Hemloc Swamps & 
 Sundry Brooks occurred ; the Soil & Wood as before 
 
 with 
 
 1 This Lake is now the property of my nephew John Smith and called 
 Smith's Lake. — R. S. 
 
 On a map dated 1856 it is known as Gilbert's Lake. 
 
 !The Butternut Creek is tributary to the Unadilla River. General Jacob 
 Morris, nephew of Staats Long Morris, ascended it in a canoe in 1787, 
 founded a settlement on its banks, and in 1795 was visited thereby the 
 French statesman, Talleyrand. 
 
 42 
 
TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 
 
 with the Addition of a few large White Pines, not 
 a single Pitch Pine yet seen. 
 
 21 st It rained all last Night and this Morning. 
 Nevertheless we proceeded and g}4 Miles and i \y 2 
 chains from the Butternuts we crossed over an 
 exalted Hill from whence there is a view beyond the 
 Susquehannah to the right. At the Foot of this 
 Hill we passed the Brook Letter B in Pickens Map 
 about 8 Feet broad and runs with a brisk pace, 
 murmuring like the rest of the Rivulets over Stones, 
 the Meadow on both sides ioo yards wide but not 
 so rich as some we have seen. Rising the opposite 
 Hill we found at the Foot of it another Brook as 
 large as Letter B, & afterwards passed many other 
 streams and springs with a deep Hemloc Swamp. 
 Some of these Rivulets descend under Ground and 
 rise again at a Distance, great variety of Flowers 
 in every Direction and plenty of a particular Species 
 of Grass thought to be the small Plaintain or Sheep 
 Grass of which our Horses are fond. 
 
 After labor thro a long Hemloc Morass bordered 
 on the River with a good but narrow Bottom we 
 came to the Susquehannah and marked a Butternut 
 Saplin for a Corner by the edge of the River in the 
 said low Ground, standing between a Blac Birch a 
 Linden and a Sugar Maple all marked, where the 
 River bears S. 2° E. and is about 30 yards wide run- 
 ning with a still but strong Current. The Length 
 of this E. and West Side is 12 Miles 50 chains and 
 50 Links. I tried to fish with Bacon Bait but caught 
 Nothing. We encamped on the Borders of the 
 River in the midst of a Shower and it was the first 
 Time I ever slept in a Morass. The Timber on 
 
 1 - this 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 this part of the Susqueh h is mostly Elm and Sugar 
 Maple; on the opposite Shore there is a Grove of 
 Hemlocs and the Underbrush here as in many other 
 Places is not very thick. 
 
 22 n . d W m Ridgway and myself went up to the 
 Col sl with the Men and one Pack Horse leaving R. 
 Wells Jos Biddle and John Hicks at the Corner 
 Tent. We had a fatiguing Walk over Hills and 
 Bogs and several Times wandered out of the Way 
 and lost each other. At length Ridgway & myself 
 found out the Oaksnee assisted by the Compass. 
 The rapidity of this stream carried me off several 
 yards till I happened to seize a Tree & escaped with 
 the Loss only of one Shoe which the Violence of 
 the Current took from my foot. The Oaksnee at 
 this Spot is 12 or 15 yards broad and between 3 
 and 4 Feet deep. We met M r Picken at the Oaksnee 
 and he returned with us. I walked 4 or 5 Miles thro 
 a rugged path with one Shoe and saw by the Way a 
 Pheasants Nest with 7 Eggs of the same Color and 
 Shape and Twice the Size of a Partridges Egg. The 
 Land from our upper Corner to Col. Croghans 
 House along the Susquehannah is in general but in- 
 different, some deep Meadow & low Ground but far 
 more which is rough & hilly. 
 
 23 d M r Wells, Biddle and Hicks came to us at 
 Col. Croghans; none of our yesterdays Party except 
 one came in today; being rainy we staid here 
 all day. 
 
 24 th It rained again. The Elevated Hills and 
 aspiring of this country seem to intercept the flying 
 
 vapors 
 
 iCol. George Croghan. 
 
 44 
 
TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 
 
 vapors and draw down more moisture than more 
 humble places. So Nature wisely feeds the two 
 great Rivers whose sources are here'; 1 we advanced 
 N. W. along the Lake near a Mile into the woods 
 with 3 carpenters felled a white Pine Tree and 
 began a Canoe. Two men detached yesterday 
 Morng. to seek out our lost Associates returned and 
 brought in one only with a Chain and Keg; the 
 other Two men with Pickens Son and the Pack 
 Horse are still missing. 
 
 The Lands seen today are like the rest covered 
 with White Pines, Elm, Beech, Birch & so on, the 
 Soil a gravelly Clay and Situation somewhat more 
 level than usual with some Gullies & Runs of 
 Water. We saw a few Hiccory and Oak Trees 
 which are rare here. Some Trout were caught this 
 Morng. 22 Inches long; they are spotted like ours 
 with Yellow Bellies, yellow Flesh when boiled 6c 
 wide mouths. There are Two species, the Common 
 & the Salmon Trout. Some Chubs were likewise 
 taken above a Foot in Length. The other Fish 
 common in the Lake & other Waters, according to 
 Information are Pickerel, large and shaped like a 
 Pike, Red Perch, Catfish reported to be upwards of 
 Two feet long, Eels, Suckers, Pike, a few shad and 
 some other Sorts not as yet perfectly known. The 
 Bait now used is Pidgeons Flesh or Guts, for Worms 
 
 are 
 
 1 The author may refer here to the source of the Delaware as well as the 
 Susquehanna, but the Delaware rises at Stamford, thirty miles distant in a 
 straight line. Small streams tributary to the Mohawk descend the hills a 
 few miles north of Otsego Lake ; but these latter are scarcely the source of 
 the Mohawk. Doubtless the author had in mind the hill country in general 
 in those parts, as the source of the Susquehanna and Delaware. 
 
 45 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 are scarce. 1 The Land Frogs or Toads are very 
 large, spotted with green and yellow, Bears and 
 Deer are common; I saw their Dung often and both 
 the Species were seen by some of our Company. 2 
 
 After Dinner M r Picken and another went out 
 on a Scout after our lost Men. Two others also 
 took a different Rout for the same Purpose. Mus- 
 cetoes & Gnats are now troublesome. We observed 
 a natural Strawberry Patch before Croghans Door 
 which is at present in bloom, we found the Ground 
 Squirrels and small red squirrels very numerous and 
 
 1 approached near to one Rabbit whose Face ap- 
 peared of a blac Colour. 
 
 25 th We finished and launched our Canoe into 
 the Lake. She is 32 Feet 7 Inches in Length and 
 
 2 Feet 4 Inches broad ; the next Day we made oars 
 and Paddles. 
 
 26 t . h Our lost Party returned having been 4 
 
 Days 
 
 *In 1773 the Settlers had procured a Sein which with a Canoe they drew 
 across the Susquehanna. I happened to lodge one night, May 17, at their 
 Fishing Hut, while several women amused themselves in catching fine Shad, 
 Herring, Trout, Chub, and Succers. — R. S. 
 
 2 In April 1777, being at John Sleeper's House on the Otego, he told 
 me his Boys had taken 1 2 or 1 5 deer that winter near the House. They had 
 placed a Steel Trap by the side of a Dead Cow wherein I saw a large she- 
 wolf, sleek and plump, and the next Morning the same Trap secured a 
 Raven.— R. S. 
 
 John Sleeper was probably a son of Joseph Sleeper, a Quaker preacher 
 from New Jersey, whom Mr. Smith induced to settle on the Otego tract. 
 Joseph Sleeper was a man of many frontier accomplishments, being besides 
 preacher a surveyor, inill-wright, carpenter, stone-mason, and blacksmith. 
 He built the first saw and grist mill on the Otego patent, doing the work 
 himself, and securing patrons from points as far distant as thirty miles. 
 Brant was often a guest at his home. Some Seneca Indians, on their return 
 from Cherry Valley, after the massacre, visited Sleeper's home, and robbed 
 it of food and clothing. Brant tried in vain to restrain them. 
 
 46 
 
TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 
 
 Days & Nights in the Wilderness without Food ; 
 they abandoned the pack Horse and Goods in the 
 Woods. 
 
 27^ We are waiting for our goods. Picken was 
 dispatched to Cherry Valley to hasten some Hands 
 hired there ; we engaged Joseph Brant the Mohawk 
 to go down with us to Aquahga. 1 Last Night a 
 drunken Indian came and kissed Col. Croghan and 
 me very joyously ; here are natives of different Na- 
 tions almost continually ; they visit the Deputy Su- 
 perintendent as Dogs to the Bone for what they can 
 get. John Davies a young Mohawk, one of the 
 Retinue, who has been educated at D' Wheelocks 2 
 School in Connecticut, now quitted our Service to 
 march ag f the Catawbas 3 in company with a few of 
 his Countrymen who take this long Tour merely to 
 gratify revenge or Satiate Pride. 
 
 We found many petrifyed Shells in these Parts & 
 sometimes on the Tops of high Hills, & they seem 
 on a transient Glance to be of the Marine Kind. 
 Col. Croghan says he once found oyster shells on the 
 Allegheny Mount 5 . He shewed us a piece of copper 
 
 Ore 
 
 1 More properly written Oghwaga. In the 1 8th century the name was 
 spelled in almost every conceivable manner. Oghwaga, the most ancient and 
 the largest Indian settlement on the Susquehanna, was closely identified with 
 the Border Wars of the Revolution as a headquarters and base of supplies for 
 the Indians. 
 
 -Rev. Dr. Eleazir Wheelock of Lebanon, Conn., where, under the pat- 
 ronage of Sir William Johnson, many Indian boys besides Joseph Brant were 
 educated. The school was afterwards removed to Concord, N. H., and out 
 of it was eventually developed Dartmouth College. 
 
 3 The Catawba Indians lived on the river of the same name in the Caro- 
 linas. They had long been at enmity with the Iroquois, and with some of 
 the southwestern tribes. With the white settlers they were friendly, and in 
 the Revolution assisted the patriot cause. 
 
 47 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 Ore as supposed. The Indian who gave it to him 
 said he found it on our Tract. 1 We are told that 
 Lake Camaduragy contains much Fish of the Kinds 
 already noted. Col. C. says that some of his Cows 
 were out in the Woods all last Winter without Hay 
 and they now look well and a Man at the other 
 Lake lost a Horse last Fall and found him this Spring 
 in good order. Our Goods and Horse were recov- 
 ered to day. The Colonel says he has sold his land 
 back of Hardwick's Patent to sixty New England 
 Families at 6/ an Acre and that some of them will 
 settle on the Tract this Fall. 2 
 
 The Col. had a Cargo of Goods arrived to day such 
 as Hogs, Poultry, Crockery Ware and Glass. The 
 settled Indian Wages here are 4/. a Day York Cur- 
 rency, being Haifa Dollar. 
 
 28 th Sunday. I had an Opportunity of inspecting 
 the Bark Canoes often used by the Natives ; these 
 Boats are constructed of a single sheet of Bark 
 stripped from the Elm, Hiccory or Chesnut, 1 2 or 
 14 Feet long and 3 or 4 Feet broad and sharp at 
 each End and these sewed with Thongs of the same 
 Bark. In Lieu of a Gunnel they have a small Pole 
 fastned with Thongs, sticks across & Ribs of Bark, 
 and they deposit Sheets of Bark in her Bottom to pre- 
 vent Breaches there. These vessels are very light, 
 each broken and often patched with Pieces of Bark 
 as well as corked with Oakum composed of pounded 
 Bark. 
 
 Col. 
 
 1 1 found a transparent Stone there in 1773 which has much the appear- 
 ance of polished Chrystal. — R. S. 
 
 2 This settlement appears never to have been made. 
 
 48 
 
TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 
 
 Col. C. says that Cap 1 Prevoost has sold some of 
 his Lands at £io, and some at ^40 p Hundred Acres 
 (credat Indams Apella non Ego). The Col. talks of 
 building a Saw Mill and Grist Mill here on the Sus- 
 quehannah near his House and has had a Millwright 
 to view the Spot. 1 
 
 29 th Myself with Joseph Brant his wife and 
 Child and another Young Mohawk named James 
 went down in the new Canoe to our upper Corner 
 whilst the rest of the Company travelled by land. 
 W m Ridgway and 3 others were detached to the 
 Otego to take the courses of the Creek. Picken is to 
 take the courses of the Susquehannah. This River 
 from the Lake Otsego hither is full of Logs and 
 Trees and short crooked Turns and the Navigation 
 for Canoes and Batteaux requires Dexterity. Ed. 
 Croghan is about to employ the Indians in the useful 
 service of removing the logs next summer. 2 My Two 
 Mohawks brought me safe and without any Delay, 
 save about an Hour that it took to cut away some 
 Logs which crossed the stream and stopped the Pas- 
 sage 
 
 1 This was never done, but some Transient Travellers from Monmouth 
 County N. Jersey, afterwards erected a good Bridge over the river, just 
 where it issues from the Lake. — R. S. 
 
 At this point the Susquehanna is still spanned by a bridge, which con- 
 tinues eastward the main business street of Cooperstown. Just below the 
 bridge, on both sides of the river, are the grounds in which stands the summer 
 home of Bishop and Mrs. Henrv C. Potter. 
 
 - In 1779 General James Clinton and his army, en route to join Sullivan 
 in his expedition against the Indians, met with the same difficulties. He 
 overcame them by building a dam across the river, which raised the waters of 
 the lake two or three feet. He then released the waters by breaking the dam, 
 so that his flotilla passed rapidly down the river to Tioga Point, a distance 
 of more than one hundred miles. 
 
 49 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 sage totally till we cleared it by hard labor. 1 The 
 current very rapid, the [bottom] commonly Gravel 
 and the waters clear so that we saw many large Fish 
 swimming up. The Indians strike them with Har- 
 poons and sharp pointed sticks. Settingpoles are 
 more used than Paddles. 
 
 It is perhaps about Ten Miles from Croghans to 
 our Upper Corner by Land and near 20 by Water ; 
 the Oaksnee is not so large at the Mouth as the Sus- 
 quehannah. I did not observe any large Creeks be- 
 sides. The Lands along the River on either Hand 
 are generally level and the greater Part might be 
 made Meadow & some extraordinary good, particu- 
 larly at the Mouth of the Oaksnee and several other 
 Places where the Weeds and Grass were high and the 
 Timber Butternut, Sugar Maple, Beech, Hemloc & 
 many other Species. I saw divers Grape Vines, the 
 Bunches were quite out and ready to blofsom. They 
 appeared to be of the little blac winter Grape. A 
 Young Bear was killed and eaten by our People. In 
 the Evening Mess rs Wells and Biddle myself and an 
 Indian struck off a South Westerly Course thro the 
 Tract to examine it ; we travelled Two Miles and 
 encamped ; it rained all Night. 
 
 30 th We moved on very early and reached the 
 Otego about Two oCloc at the Place where it is 
 broken into several Branches forming Islands. The 
 Creek just below is about 50 Feet broad running at 
 present with much Velocity; it rained all Day. In 
 
 the 
 
 1 In May 1773, I carried down a large loaded Batteau from the Head of 
 Lake Otsego to the mouth of Otego, and then up that Creek [several] more 
 miles, being probably the first white man that ever [navigated] that creek so- 
 high.— R. S. 
 
 5° 
 
TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 
 
 the Dawn of this Morng. I was waked up by the 
 Yell of a wild Beast within ioo yards of our Tent, 
 conjectured to be either a Wolf or Panther. 
 
 The Otego here has a stony Bottom ; we walked 
 down it near a Mile and in some places the Low 
 Land on each Side is rich but narrow, exhibiting a 
 great Variety of Plants Weeds and Vegetables and 
 among the rest the Rasberry, Gooseberry, much 
 Hellebore which is common all over the Low Lands 
 & some of it is now near 3 Feet high, Water Grass 
 and other Herbage. One Meadow is almost clear 
 of Wood and ready for the Scythe. We could not 
 well discover the Extent of the Meadows on the 
 Western Banks of Otego, but they appeared to excel 
 the Eastern which seldom were more than 100 
 yards wide and now and then the Hills reached the 
 Edge of the Water. The Islands are good & rich. 
 These Parts are not much encumbered with Under 
 Brush & the prevailing Woods are Elm, Blac Thorn 
 and Button wood. 
 
 We had taken an oblique Direction thro the 
 Heart of the Patent, from the upper Corner to the 
 Otego, guessed to be at least 1 4 Miles over 1 2 
 extensive and exalted Hills forming all the Course 
 save a few small Intervales not remarkable for Good- 
 ness. In the Evening we steered across for Skeneves 
 but soon built our Bark Shed and made our Fire as 
 usual for the Night. The Indians have a convenient 
 mode of carrying their Children. On a broad Board 
 2 or 3 Feet long there are fastned Bindings of 
 List, Cloth or Wampum which grow larger from 
 the lower to the upper End in the Manner of a 
 Partridge Net, with a Hoop at the Head. In this 
 
 5 1 Kind 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 Kind of Basket they tye the Child with its Blanket 
 or [Clothes] on. The Board has a Strap by which 
 they Sling it on the Shoulders. Upon occasion they 
 set the Board and Infant upright against a Tree or 
 lay it out of the Way with little Trouble. They 
 bind the Children too tight so as to swell the Face 
 and make them uneasy. The Mother washes her 
 Offspring often. It continues to be rainy Weather. 
 
 31*5 Yesterday I observed a Birds Nest on the 
 Ground at the Foot of a Tree containing 3 Eggs of 
 the same Colour, Size and Shape of the Robins 
 Egg. I suppose they belong to the Swamp Robin 
 who delights in Solitude, avoiding the Haunts of 
 Mankind & whose chearful and sprightly Note in 
 the dreary Wilderness often enlivens the weary 
 Traveller. Yesterday also and before and after we 
 discovered petrifyed Sea Shells at the Top of the 
 Hill on the Roots of large Trees blown down and 
 at the Bottom of Brooks. 
 
 At 7 oCloc A. M. we decamped for Skeneves & 
 hit the Susquehannah near 2 Miles below; then 
 following the common Indian Path 1 we arrived at 
 the Landing opposite to Yokums House at one 
 oCloc: it is supposed to be about 6 Miles across 
 from the Otego to Skeneves. Yokum says he has 
 travelled often to Schoharie along a path the same 
 which Col. Morris and the Duchess of Gordon 
 
 lately 
 
 1 This was the regular Susquehanna trail, one branch of which in these 
 parts went to Otsego Lake and Cherry Valley, and another, following the 
 Charlotte, crossed from Summit Lake to Schoharie, whence it ran to Fort 
 Hunter and the Mohawk. Following this trail southward one met the 
 Oneida trail at the mouth of the Unadilla River. Proceeding thence along the 
 Susquehanna one could find his way to Chesapeake Bay. 
 
 52 
 
TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 
 
 lately took on Horseback with their retinue; he 
 thinks it is between 40 and 50 Miles and he has 
 walked it in a day ; that there is but one Creek and 
 that is fordable and about 3 large Hills & has no 
 Doubt but that a good Road may be opened for 
 Carriages. 
 
 Yokum (or Joachim Falkenberg) 1 has lived here 
 with his Family 4 years, he is a Dutchman but 
 speaks good English, pays no Rent as yet to Liv- 
 ingston, built the House, but found the Orchard 
 already planted by the Indians who also planted one 
 at the Mouth of Otego. The Pheasants are plen- 
 tiful. Of those we saw one had 8 or 9 young ones; 
 they are said to be fond of Beech nuts wherein these 
 Parts abound. 
 
 The Course we took yester evening and to day 
 from Otego was about E. by S.; we passed 5 High 
 and long Hills constituting nearly the whole Dis- 
 tance. These Hills are for the most Part tillable; 
 much Small Slate Stone on the Surface of the Soil 
 covered sometimes by that dark mould which is de- 
 rived from putritied Leaves and Vegetables; there 
 are a few Flats but the Bone is more plentiful than 
 the Flesh. We traversed one or more Hills sup- 
 posed to be the Corner of Letter F. in Pickens Map 
 or of that Nature; this Part sustains a few large 
 White Pines and a little Brush but most of it has 
 been destroyed by Fire and the Soil is stony in 
 Clay, very barren & good for little except the Slopes 
 
 of 
 
 Joachim Van Valkenberg, whose family for forty years had been settled 
 in the Mohawk Valley, came to this place in I 765. In the Border Wars he 
 was a noted scout. In 1781 he was killed in a battle on Summit Lake. 
 
 53 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 of Hills which produced Rasberries Strawberries, 
 Blaeberries and other Fruits and Flowers but Lime- 
 stone seems to abound. 1 
 
 Along this Tour Beech is the Master Wood as 
 Oak is in Pennsylvania ; this is nearly equalled by 
 the Sugar Maple, nor is there any Want of Elm, 
 Linden, Iron Wood, Some Chesnut, a few Blac, 
 red and White Oak, Shell bark, Hiccory, together 
 with Button wood, Ash, Hemloc, White Pine, 
 Birch, Wild Cherry, Blac Thorn, Butternut and 
 others. The Hemloc grow mostly in Swamps but 
 sometimes in Groves on the Upland; the White 
 Pine is scattered here and there; the Button Wood 
 Blac Thorn and Butternut are to be found chiefly in 
 Marsh and low Grounds and along the Sides of 
 Creeks & the River; the rest grow indifferently on 
 the Mountains & Valleys. The Trees are ever tall 
 and lofty, sometimes 200 Feet high and strait, but 
 not proportionally large in Circumference, except 
 some white Pines and a few particular Trees of 
 other Kinds which are both long and bulky. 2 
 
 The Underbrush is in some Places very thick; in 
 others one may almost ride in a chair. The Woods 
 are in many Parts blocked up with fallen Trees, so 
 that it was a wearisome Pilgrimage for me. My 
 Companions bore it better. The whole Country is 
 well watered by Creeks Brooks & Springs. 
 
 In 
 
 1 This Letter F was thought too unprofitable to be divided with the rest 
 among the Owners ; so it remains, about 2,000 acres in Quantity, the 
 Common Property of all concerned in the Patent. — R. S. 
 
 2 Some years afterwards John Sleeper and myself measured a Birch Tree 
 growing in his Meadow on the Border of Otego Creek, and found it 26 feet 
 in Circumference. — R. S. 
 
 54 
 
TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 
 
 In the Afternoon we went over the River to 
 Yokums House; the Susquehannah is fordable at this 
 spot. The Orchard planted by the Natives is irreg- 
 ular and not in rows ; some Trees are a few Feet & 
 some many Yards asunder & they are at present in 
 Blofsom. I discerned one Morella cherry among 
 them ; they are middle sized & look healthy and vig- 
 orous. We have cold Weather for the Season and 
 Rain again to-day. Skeneves Creek was so termed 
 from an Indian of that Name who formerly lived 
 there. The Indian Graves in the Orchard are not 
 placed in any regular Order nor shaped in one 
 Fashion. One of them was a flat Pyramid of about 
 3 Feet high trenched round ; another was flatted like 
 a Tomb and a Third something like our Form. 
 Here is level, rich Pasture Land cleared long since 
 by the Indians & the remains of their Corn Hills yet 
 to be seen. Yokum's Mare looks in good order and 
 has been out in the Woods all winter but there is 
 now good pasture of our common Grass in the cleared 
 Parts. 
 
 The Indians of Aquhaga, Otsiningo (or as the 
 Maps spell them Ononchquage and Osewingo) 
 and other places below have a Path along the Sus- 
 quehannah on the West side to Skeneves where they 
 ford the River and have their Path on the East side 
 up to Cherry Valley ; the River here may be 25 
 Yards over at present a rapid Stream and there is a 
 dangerous Passage occasioned by Logs a Quarter ot a 
 Mile below where Two Canoes lately overset and a 
 white Child was drowned. Many People are passing 
 this Way to view the Country. Yokums Indian Corn 
 is planted but not yet come up. He says he com- 
 
 55 monlv 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 monly raises very good Corn with the Hoe only hav- 
 ing but lately procured a Plow. He has a small 
 Garden. The Indians are not troublesome to Him 
 tho they often call at his House; he has sown no 
 Wheat or Rye, obtains his Necessaries chiefly from 
 Cherry Valley, but would rather from Schoharie if 
 the Road was opened. Col. Morris and the Duchefs 
 lodged 3 Nights at his House 2 or 3 weeks ago, with 
 a large Train of Attendants ; they went over to view 
 their Tract at Unadella or as some call it Tuna- 
 derrah. 1 
 
 Here we met with one Dorn a Dutchman with 
 his Family from Conejoharie going to settle at 
 Wywomoc; he informs us That he bought of the 
 Proprietors of Pennsylvania 300 acres chiefly Flats 
 for ^5 sterling p Hundred to be paid in 15 years 
 without Interest and a Penny an Acre sterl! Quit Rent 
 payable annually; That 130 Families from his 
 Neighborhood on the Mohawks River have actually 
 bought there and are about to remove, his Family 
 being the second, the Man who lost his Child here 
 the first; 2 that he has travelled from Sopus to 
 Depues on the Delaware, 3 a good Waggon Road 
 
 & one 
 
 1 Other forms of this word in contemporary writings are Tunadilla, Tian- 
 adorha, Cheonadilla and Teyonadelhough. 
 
 2 By Wywomoc is meant the Wyoming Valley. These families from the 
 Mohawk represented a migration independent of the one from Connecticut 
 and essentially hostile to it. By " the Proprietors of Pennsylvania " the 
 author means the Penn party between whom and the Connecticut settlers 
 conflicts were springing up which are known in history as the Pennamite 
 Wars. In 1775 some forty of these families from the Mohawk (Dutch and 
 Scotch-Irish) were expelled from Wyoming by the Yankees. The resent- 
 ment thus caused became one of the contributory motives for the massacre of 
 1778. 
 
 3 Above the Water-gap whence the route lay past the Pocono Mountains. 
 
 56 
 
TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 
 
 & one may go it on Horseback in Two Days. From 
 Depues to Wywomoc are 30 Miles, a Foot path but 
 may be rode very well on a Horse; 40 miles from 
 Wywomoc to Bethlehem at present a Foot path but 
 they are soon to make a Waggon Road ; that he has 
 been on the Delaware 1 5 or 20 miles above Cookoose 
 and 1 5 below that. They were obliged to carry the 
 Canoe 5 Times and the last Time above a Mile & 
 a half, thinks he should have been lost if it had not 
 been for the assistance of his Indians on the Rocks 
 and Falls in those Parts ; that 1 5 miles below the 
 Cookoose one Decker lived 1 who traded to Philad 3 
 in a large Durham Boat 2 so that from thence it is 
 passable ; it was 1 o years since he was here. 3 They 
 call it 20 Miles from Yokums House to Cherry 
 Valley ; his Son goes and returns on Horseback in 
 One Day between Sun & Sun. 4, The Canoe we had 
 built at the Lake being gone up for Provisions for 
 the Use of the Surveyors our Indians Joseph Brant 
 & James set about building a Bark Canoe. 
 
 June 1. 1769. We found it very cold last Night 
 & observed high Hills all round Yokums House at 
 a small Distance. Mess re Wells and Biddle this Day 
 marked out a Path to the intended Store House on 
 the Creek Onoyarenton. 5 Joseph discovered a 
 
 Rattle 
 
 1 At the mouth of the East Branch, or what is now Hancock. 
 
 2 The boat, referred to in the Introduction as used for the shipment of 
 grain from points on the upper Delaware. 
 
 :t In the sequel we met with none of these Difficulties on the Delaware ; 
 nor is it probable that any White Person ever dwelt between Cookose and 
 Cushietunk.— R. S. 
 
 4 I have found it a moderate day's Journey from my house in Otego to 
 Cherry Valley by the foot of Lake Otsego. — R. S. 
 
 5 Now written Oneonta. The village of that name is the largest town 
 on the Susquehanna above Binghamton. The word means a stony place. 
 
 57 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 Rattle Snake not far from the Tent and called for 
 me to view it. The Snake lay quiet till we pro- 
 voked him to rattle for Some Time and then James 
 ran a sharp Stick thro his Head. He was about 33^ 
 Feet long, small at the Neck and Tail and thick in 
 the Middle. His Back was of a brown Hue spotted 
 with dusky red and yellow, his Belly of a bright 
 Yellow slightly spotted ; he had 1 2 Rattles, a large 
 Mouth and Two very sharp Teeth, one on each Side 
 of the Upper Jaw & these it is said he can draw 
 back at his Pleasure; he did not attempt to bite 
 tho we stood about him for some Minutes — probably 
 the coolnefs of the weather benumbed him. This 
 was the only Rattle Snake I ever saw alive. 
 
 This Evening our Bark Canoe being finished, at 
 y z after 5 oCloc myself, Joseph Brant his Wife and 
 Child embarked in Her with some Loading and 
 M r Wells with James the other Indian in a small 
 Wood Canoe containing most of the Indians Bag- 
 gage and our own. We first walked down the path 
 about Haifa Mile to avoid the bad Passage before 
 mentioned, Jos. Biddle going so far to see us on 
 board. Thus we parted from our tent at the landing 
 opposite to Skevenes, or Yokum's, now on our 
 return homewards. We paddled down stream two 
 hours, and enjoying a fine serene Evening as we 
 descended the stream about 10 Miles to a Bark Hut 
 where we found a Fire burning. There was but 
 one other carrying place and the man said we might 
 have well passed that as they in the canoe came safe 
 through. We passed the Adiquetinge 1 on the left 
 
 & the 
 
 x Now the Charlotte, which early settlers were in the habit of pronouncing 
 Shalott. Sir William Johnson, on receiving a patent to an extensive tract 
 bordering on this river, changed the name to Charlotte as a compliment to 
 
 58 
 
TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 
 
 & the Onoyarenton on the Right. The first appeared 
 to be abo c 40 Feet broad at the Mouth with rich 
 Bottom on each Side, the latter a very small Creek 
 not more than 12 or 15 Feet over. There are many 
 Islands and all low good Bottom particularly a large 
 one below the Adiquetinge very fine. We found 
 some good Bottoms on our Side down to the Begin- 
 ning of Sir W m Johnsons Land and some Intervale 
 but divers great barren Hills good for little. 
 
 We took Notice of Sir Williams Tract on 
 each Side of the River and he likewise has his 
 Portion of Mountainous Lands with Spots of good 
 Meadow wider and more considerable on the East 
 Side than on the West. We could not know the 
 Breadth of some of the Flats with any Accuracy 
 when they were broad because we sat low in our 
 diminutive Vessels and slid expeditiously along. 
 
 2 d The Cold last Night and for several Nights 
 past was extreme for the Season so that I could not 
 sleep well notwithstanding a rousing Fire, a Blanket, 
 Great Coat and Bear Skin. The Place where we 
 slept was an extensive Flat whereof a Patch was 
 bare of Wood and overrun with Fern (the Filix 
 Florida of the Botanists) a finer sort than ours, Two 
 and Three Feet high. Much of this & other Sorts 
 of Fern are dispersed over the Country; the May 
 Apple, Hellebore and many more Herbs and Weeds 
 are to be seen including Wild Balm, Wild Onions 
 or rather a large kind of Garlic whose bulb is of 
 the size of a Musket Bullet which is very common 
 and of this the Butter at M r Croghan's tasted strong, 
 
 and 
 
 the Queen of George III. After the Revolution, the heirs of Sir William 
 having been loyalists, the Charlotte Valley lands were confiscated by the state. 
 
 59 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 and including also wild Columbine, Nettles and 
 Honeysuckles. 
 
 A Bear came this Morning near to us & was pur- 
 sued by Brant and his Dog who after some Chase 
 brought him in. This Mohawk it seems is a con- 
 siderable Farmer possessing Horses and Cattle and 
 ioo acres of rich Land at Canejoharie. 1 He says 
 the Mohawks have lately followed Husbandry 
 more than formerly, and that some Hemloc 
 Swamps when cleared will produce good Timothy 
 Grafs. In his Excursion after the Bear he says he 
 was on the Onoyarenton and saw some good Flats 
 there. 
 
 In an Hour after our Departure we arrived at the 
 old Field 2 near the Mouth of Otego where we met 
 W m Ridgway who finished traversing that Creek 
 yesterday Evening ; he makes the exact Length of the 
 Otego according to its various Windings. — (R. Wells 
 has taken a Copy of the Courses & Distances) 
 
 We landed and walked half a Mile along the Path 
 to the old Field and from thence it is about Haifa 
 Mile to the Mouth of Otego. We dined here in Com- 
 pany with M r William Harper and M^ Campbell 3 the 
 Surveyor who are now running out Harpers Patent. 
 
 Ridgeway 
 
 1 Brant's house in Canajoharie was a frame structure 14x16 {eet in size. 
 The cellar wall was standing as late as 1878. Here Brant once had as his 
 guest a missionary named Theophilus Chamberlain, who said afterwards that 
 Brant was " exceeding kind." 
 
 2 Originally called Wauteghe, a corruption of which is the modern Otego. 
 Here had existed a rather large Indian village. An orchard extended along 
 the northern side of the river. 
 
 3 Harper and Campbell were from Cherry Valley. The former served as 
 a captain in the Border Wars, and was living in Cherry Valley at the time 
 of the massacre. 
 
 60 
 
TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 
 
 Ridgevvay & Hicks were likewise present. This field 
 has been formerly planted by the Indians with Corn 
 and Apple Trees; a few of the latter remain scattered 
 about and are now in Bloom & intermixed with 
 Aspens & other wild Trees with Rasberries and 
 Blackberries & there are Quantities of Strawberry 
 vines in Blofsom. The Soil is fit for the Plow and 
 tolerably level but surrounded by Hills and on the 
 other side of Susquehannah are high Ridges in 
 Appearance of little value. 
 
 The Point on the East side of Otego is good but 
 there is not much of it; on the West Mouth there 
 is more but we did not go over. The Otego is here 
 but narrow and fordable for Horses. The Susque- 
 hannah may be about 50 yards over. Sir W m John- 
 son's Tract on each side of the River hither con- 
 tinues hilly with some intervales and small rich 
 pieces, the Hills very high and I think not til- 
 lable in general. The Low Lands on the West 
 Side of Otego are thought to excel those on the 
 East. 1 W. Ridgway saw Yesterday Indians who had 
 just taken Two young Beavers alive in the Otego. 
 Numbers of Saplins are cut off by these animals. 
 Wild Hops grow here in Plenty said to answer the 
 Purposes of Garden Hops. 
 
 In 3 Hours & 3 Quarters from the Mouth of 
 Otego we reached a Place on the East shore where 
 we encamped. Many parts of these shores have 
 choice Bottoms flanked at a little Distance by mode- 
 rate Mountains with some even upland; in some 
 Places the Hills reached the Water, in [some] of 
 
 these 
 
 1 This has since been found true. — R. S 
 6l 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 these we are told that King Fishers breed in the 
 Bank. The Path to Ahquhaga is very near the 
 River mostly; the widest Bottoms appeared to me 
 to be from the Otego downwards on either shore 
 for 3 or 4 Miles. These little Canoes as ballasted 
 carry us very well. The Islands in the River are all 
 rich. We saw no Creek of Note this Afternoon but 
 were incommoded by Muscetoes. We imagine Sir 
 W m has at least one Third good Ground exclusive 
 of Elevations. 1 This was a fine clear Day and warm. 
 
 Joseph being unwell took some Tea of the Sassa- 
 frass Root and slept in the open Air but was not 
 much better next Morning. 
 
 3 d Harper told us Yesterday that Sir W m has some 
 Hemloc Swamps cleared which produce plenty of 
 good grass. The Distance from the Mouth of Otego 
 to the Mouth of Unadella 2 is according to Harper & 
 Campbell 16 Miles and from thence to Ahquhaga 
 28. Yesterday we came slower on account of Jo- 
 seph's illness and the water for some miles less rapid. 
 We set out about 7 oCloc and in Two Hours we ar- 
 rived at a small village of Mohiccons consisting of 2 
 houses on the right hand and 3 on the Left, a Mile 
 
 above 
 
 1 Besides his patent to the Valley of the Charlotte, Sir William, as already 
 stated, was owner of Susquehanna Valley lands — two miles on each side 
 from the mouth of the Charlotte to the mouth of the Unadilla. The title 
 subsequently (in 1770) passed into the hands of several men in New York 
 City, chief among whom were Alexander and Hugh Wallace. The patent 
 is still known as Wallace's. Both Wallaces became Tories, but their lands 
 escaped confiscation thro having passed into the possession of Gouldsborough 
 Banyar, whose atdtude during the war was one of clever neutrality. He 
 long survived the conflict, spending his last days in Albany as a blind old 
 man whom a faithful negro was often seen piloting about the streets. 
 
 2 Written Tunaderra in the original draft. 
 
 62 
 
TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 
 
 above Unadella. 1 Here we went on shore and per- 
 ceived the Huts to be wretched and filled with Wo- 
 men and Children. They have Cows & Hogs & a 
 little Land cleared with a Garden fenced in & In- 
 dian corn planted very slovenly. Among the Grass, 
 the Cows were large and fat. I saw no fruit Trees 
 except wild ones. The low Lands to the Unadella 
 from several Miles above it are more extensive than 
 any we have seen and as far up that Creek as we 
 could discern they were low & rine yet bounded 
 back by the same range of High Lands on each 
 Hand. We passed many Islands & all good. 
 
 At this village we left our Wood Canoe and en- 
 gaged a good looking old Indian named Una to take 
 us down in his Canoe and pilot us over to the Dela- 
 ware which is his Hunting Country. He took a 
 Quarter of an Hour to drefs Himself his Wife and 
 little Son and then we all embarked. These Vil- 
 lagers could not speak English. The Unadella or 
 Tunaderrah is large being 60 or 70 yards broad at 
 the Mouth and here we enter the Indian Territory 2 
 not as yet ceded to the English. 
 
 At one oCloc we arrived at an Oneida Village of 
 4 or 5 Houses called the Great Island or Cunna- 
 hunta, 3 the Men were absent but a Number of pretty 
 Children amused themselves with shooting Arrows at 
 a Mark. The Houses resembled great old Barns. 
 
 We 
 
 1 That is, a mile above the confluence, three of these houses being in what 
 is now Sidney, and two in the township of LJnadilla. 
 
 2 Here the Fort Stanwix line, coming down the Unadilla from the north, 
 crossed the Susquehanna and thence went over the hills to the Delaware at 
 Cookooze. 
 
 3 Near the present village ot'Afton, Chenan.-o County. 
 
 63 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 We dressed some Pork on the shore for Dinner and 
 staid only Half an Hour. There are fine Islands and 
 lowlands about Cunnahunta & yet between the Un- 
 adella & this there is much indifferent Soil. The 
 Trees seem rather smaller than above. A Number 
 of Ravens on One of the burnt barren Hills saluted 
 us with their hoarse Croakings. The River now 
 becomes wider. 1 Our Squaw in the Canoe suckles 
 her son tho he seems to be between 2 and 3 
 years old. We saw Two Apple Trees before a Door 
 of this Village and some of the Islands are a little 
 cleared. The Master wood along Shore from the 
 Unadilla is maple and in higher Ground Beech. 
 
 Forty minutes after 3 oCloc we passed by 2 Indian 
 Houses on the left and just before us saw some In- 
 dians setting Fire to the Woods. Here are many 
 Islands & one of them large, quite cleared and full 
 of fine & high Grass. Much of the Upland here- 
 abouts has been burnt & looks something like a set- 
 tled Country. Several single Huts are seated on rich 
 Spots & some are now building Houses and Apple 
 Trees are seen by some of these Huts. The River 
 yet has its Rapids where we slide fast along. 
 
 At 5 oCloc we entered Ahquhaga an Oneida 
 Town of 15 or 16 big Houses on the East side and 
 some on the West side of the Susquehanna just at 
 the Moment of the Transit of Venus, which M r 
 Wells observed with a Telescope he bought for 
 that purpose. We took our Lodgings with the 
 Rev. M r Ebenezer Moseley a Presbyterian Mis- 
 sionary 
 
 1 In consequence of the large accessions made to its waters by the Una- 
 dilla River and several smaller streams. 
 
 64 
 
TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 
 
 sionary from Boston 1 who has an Interpreter named 
 James Dean. Moseley enjoys a Salary of ^"ioo 
 Sterling and Dean ^50 Sterlg. allowed by the Com- 
 missioners at Boston. The former has resided here 
 3 years and the latter 9 years. Ml Dean says the 
 Distance from Ahquhaga to Unadella is 25 Miles & 
 from Ahquhaga to Otsiningo 2 across by Land 18, 
 and by Water 40, the River making a large Turn. 3 
 
 There are some good Islands opposite to this Vil- 
 lage which has a suburb over the River on the 
 Western Side. Here is a small wooden Fortress 
 built some years ago by Cap' Wells of Cherry Valley 
 but now used as a Meeting House. 4 
 
 The Habitations here are placed straggling with- 
 out any order on the Banks. They are composed of 
 clumsy hewn Timbers &c hewn Boards or Planks. 
 You first enter an inclosed Shed or Portus which 
 serves as a Wood house or Ketchin and then the Body 
 of the Edifice consisting of an Entry thro upon the 
 Ground of about 8 Feet wide on each side whereof 
 is a Row of Stalls or Births resembling those of Horse 
 Stables, raised a Foot from the Earth, 3 or 4 on 
 either side according to the Size of the House, 
 Floored and inclosed round, except the Front, and 
 
 covered 
 
 1 He has since turned Merchant. — R. S. 
 
 Mr. Moseley (Eleazer was his first name) was the last but three of many 
 missionaries sent to Oghwaga between 1748 and 1770. The mission was 
 maintained by the Boston commissioners of the Society in Scotland for Propa- 
 gating the Gospel. James Dean in 1769 had been employed there under 
 several successive missionaries. 
 
 - Oueningo was an Indian village further down the Susquehanna near 
 Binghamton. 
 
 3 At this point there is now a village called Great Ben J. 
 
 4 This fort was built in 1756, from plans prepared in Albany, under 
 orders from Sir William Johnson. 
 
 65 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 covered on the Top. Each Stall contains an entire 
 Family so that 6 or more families sometimes reside 
 together, the Sisters with their Husbands and 
 Children uniting while the Father provides them 
 a Habitation; thus Brant & his Wife did not lodge 
 with her Father who was a Priest & a Principal 
 Man, but with her Sisters. The fire is made in the 
 Middle of the Entry and a Hole is left in the Roof 
 for the Smoke to escape for there is neither chimney 
 nor window ; consequently the place looks dark and 
 dismal. The House is open as a Barn, save the Top 
 of the Stalls which serve to contain their lumber by 
 way of Garret. Beams are fixed Lengthways across 
 the house, and on one of these, over the Fire, they 
 hang their wooden Pot Hooks & cook their Food. 
 Furniture they have little ; the Beds are dirty 
 Blankets. The stalls are about 8 Feet long & 5 
 deep and the whole House perhaps from 30 to 50 
 Feet in length by 20 wide, filled too often with 
 Squalor & Nastiness. Almost every House has a 
 Room at the End opposite to the Ketchin serving as 
 a larder for Provision ; there are no cellars. The 
 Roofs are no other than Sheets of Bark fastned 
 crossways and inside to Poles by way of Rafters. 
 Upon the Outside are split Logs which keep the 
 Roof on ; they are Pitch Roofs and it is about 8 Feet 
 from the Ground to the Eves of the House, and this 
 is said to be the general Form of building their 
 Houses and Towns throughout the 6 Nations. At 
 Ahquhaga each house possesses a paltry Garden 
 wherein they plant Corn, Beans, Water Melons, Po- 
 tatoes Cucumbers, Muskmelons, Cabbage, French 
 Turneps, some Apple Trees, Sallad, Parsnips, & 
 
 66 other 
 
FOIR INDIAN POTENTATES OF NEW YORK 
 
 " I I ■ > sNkbn HoCa Row, Emperor 
 
 of the Six Nations. 
 
 (;,) Saga Yi \th Qi \ Pn in Tow, King of 
 
 the Maquas, or Mohawks. 
 
 Oh Koam, King of the River 
 Indians, - - M 
 
 'I'll N U \ I \ K iw, King 
 
 of the i Jenerethg 
 
 From portraits painted in London by . 
 
 PtttT 5 
 
 i>n the margin of other portraits made in London at the same time, the*-- I -ibedas 
 
 "the four kings of India whoon the -■ May 1710 were admitted by her Majesty the Queen 
 
 Britain praying as s is t a n ce against the French in America, between New Kngland and Canada.'* 
 
TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 
 
 other Plants. There are now Two Plows in the 
 Town together with cows, Hogs, Fowls and Horses 
 which they sell cheap but they never had any Sheep, 
 and it is but of late that they have provided Hay for 
 their Winter stock. Their Fences are miserable and 
 the Land back of the village very indifferent. We 
 found the Inhabitants civil and sober. 
 
 4 th Sunday, in the Morning we attended Mess" 
 Mosely & Dean to Divine Service which was con- 
 ducted with regularity and Solemnity. They first 
 sang a Psalm, then read a Portion of Scripture and 
 after another Psalm Moseley preached a sermon (in a 
 chintz Night Gown) and the Business was concluded 
 by a Third Psalm. The Congregation consisted of 
 near ioo Indians, Men, Women and Children includ- 
 ing the chief of the Tuscarora Town 3 miles below 
 with some of his People & they all behaved with 
 exemplary devotion. The Indian Priest named Isaac 
 sat in the Pulpit, and the Indian clerk, Peter, below 
 him, 1 this Clerk repeated the Psalm in the Oneida 
 Language and the people joined in the Melody with 
 Exactness and Skill, the Tunes very lively & agree- 
 able. The Sermon delivered in English was repeated 
 in Indian by Dean, sentence by sentence. The Men 
 sat on Benches on one Side of the House and the 
 Women on the other. Before Meeting a Horn is 
 sounded 3 several Times to give Notice. 
 
 Ahquhaga 
 
 1 Isaac Dakayenensese and Peter Agwrondougwas, whom Elihu Spencer 
 had converted at Oghwaga during his work there in 1748. Peter, otherwise 
 known as " Good Peter," was a chief of the Oncidas. He was born on the 
 Susquehanna, and had fame as an orator. He survived the Revolution, and 
 in 1792 John Trumbull painted a portrait of him in miniature which may 
 still be seen at Yale University. 
 
 67 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 Ahquhaga contains about 140 Souls and the Tus- 
 carora Town about the same Number. At the last 
 named Place there is a Shad Fishery common to the 
 people of Ahquhaga also ; they tye Bushes together 
 so as to reach over the River, sink them with Stones 
 & hawl them round by Canoes ; all persons present in- 
 cluding strangers, such is their laudable Hospitality 
 have an equal Division of the Fish. They reckon 
 the Distance from Ahquhaga to Wialoosin 1 100 
 Miles and from thence to Wywomoc 60, which last 
 is the same with Wyoming. 
 
 In the Afternoon we attended the Service again ; 
 this was performed by the Indian Priest in the 
 Oneida Language. He began by a Prayer. Then they 
 sang a Psalm, the Tune whereof was long with many 
 Undulations, then a prayer and a second Psalm, fol- 
 lowed by an Exhortation, repeating Part of what 
 Moseley had said in the Morning with his own Com- 
 ments upon it and reading sometimes out of a Book, 
 here being several Books in the Indian Language/ 
 He finished the Service with a Benediction. He and 
 his clerk were dressed in Blac Coats. Isaac is the 
 chief here in religious affairs, and his Brother a stout 
 fat man, in civil, like Moses and Aaron. This last 
 fell asleep while his Brother was preaching but 
 assisted in singing with a loud and hoarse voice. 
 These Brothers and other Chiefs came to visit us 
 very kindly. Some of the Women wear Silver 
 
 Broaches 
 
 1 Wyalusing, which means the home of the old warrior. 
 
 2 In the original manuscript at this point appears the following in paren- 
 theses: "Mr. Wicwise here to-day. This spring he bought 1,000 acres 
 twenty-five miles below Wyoming of John Allen for ^500, and next day 
 was offered ^200 for his bargain." 
 
 68 
 
v //^ &^aO*t^ +*,j0/hr£<4 fi~/»fr 
 
 *Wa<^ Xt'+ dittos ^ A^2*^ ^^" 
 
 *P^ ^T«- ^CuA^^^f- pfc<^) fi*K4%<* Jt-cao^J* A<fv^T ***— 
 *>£n/*C atuniiyo <rrJO 1/^i-h C&fr- Art l+jEh^ 
 
 A PAGE OF THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT 
 ILLUSTRATING, BY COMPARISON WITH THE ADJOINING TEXT, THE 
 CHANGES MADE BY RICHARD SMITH I\ HIS rRANSCRIPT 
 
 Reproduced in facsimile from Mr. S„: 
 J. /•>,: 
 
TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 
 
 Broaches each of which passes for a Shilling and are 
 as current among the Indians as Money. Brant's 
 wife had several Tier of them in her Dress to the 
 amount perhaps of 10 or £15. 
 
 69 
 
IV 
 
 THE DELAWARE; BY INDIAN TRAIL FROM OLD 
 OGHWAGA TO COOKOOZE ; THENCE BY CANOE TO 
 BURLINGTON, 236 MILES, JUNE 5— JUNE I O, 1769 
 
 5 th At Nine oCloc We quitted Ahquhaga and 
 arrived at the Mohawks Branch of Delaware 20 Min- 
 utes before Six having rested an Hour and Half at 
 Dinner. 1 It is computed by M! Dean to be 15 
 Miles across. M T . Wells conjectures it to be 13 or 
 14. The Course along a blind Indian Path is 
 E. S. E. and the Delaware at this Place nearly North 
 and South about 70 or 80 yards over, less rapid than 
 most parts of the Susquehannah & fordable with a 
 Stoney Bottom not deeper than 3 or 4 Feet. Here 
 are Two Huts of Delaware Indians who live most 
 wretchedly, yet have better Corn than the Oneidas 
 & more of it being now 4 Inches high and planted 
 in a slovenly Manner. The Path from Ahquhaga 
 
 to 
 
 1 This route long remained the chief highway between the two rivers. 
 Cookooze, a word intended to represent the sound made by an owl in hooting, 
 and corrupted into Cook House, owes its present name of Deposit to the 
 fact that it became to Susquehanna pioneers a convenient point at which to 
 deliver lumber for shipment down the Delaware; the Susquehanna, because of 
 its greater length, tortuous course, and shallow waters, being undesirable. 
 Here seventy years ago was broken the first ground for the Erie Railway. A 
 monument commemorating that event was erected at Deposit in November, 
 1905. The name Deposit was officially adopted in 1814. Three miles 
 further down the river is a place once called Cooke-ooze-Sapoze, meaning little 
 owl's nest. Owls formerly were numerous in the dark woods on the south 
 side of the river at Deposit. 
 
 7° 
 
TOUR OF THE DELAWARE 
 
 to Cookoose, so is this place stiled, (the Word in 
 the Delaware dialect signifies an Owl) is in many- 
 parts blocked up by old Trees and Brush ; the Coun- 
 try is hilly, but of very large Hills there are only 2 
 to travel over, one of which might be avoided and 
 on the side of the other a Road might readily be cut. 
 This last is bare of Trees & affords an extensive Pros- 
 pect. M r Wells & myself both think it practicable 
 to make a good Waggon Road from one River to 
 the other hereabouts. 
 
 Our Company, consisted of M r Dean, Una the 
 Mohiccon & James the Mohawk, with 2 Horses one 
 to carry our Baggage and one I rode, for my Com- 
 panion chose to walk. We hired them of the Indians 
 at Ahquhaga for a Dollar p Horse the Trip that is 
 one Day going & another in returning. We travelled 
 slowly. A few times I got off the horse and led him : 
 otherwise tolerable riding. The Oneidas and most 
 other Indians are said to be extortionate and very 
 apt to ask high Prices especially when they perceive 
 a Necessity for their Assistance. Perhaps they 
 learned this from the Dutch. We are to give Una 
 5 Dollars for his service from Unadilla down to 
 Cushietunk. He procured a Canoe at the Delaware 
 immediately and we went over to the East side and 
 encamped. We had bought a few curiosities ot In- 
 dian Manufacture at Ahquhaga, among which a Pair 
 of embroidered Moccisons cost 1 o . Una procured 
 a canoe immediately and we went over to the East 
 side and encamped. 
 
 We found the first Half of this Rout not only 
 hilly but full of stones and almost barren. As we 
 approached the Delaware however the Lands seemed 
 
 71 better 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 better. The Timber still continues to be chiefly- 
 Beech Hemloc, Sugar Maple, Chesnut and a few 
 Oaks and Hiccories & others. The Indians make 
 Maple Sugar and have some to sell. The Delaware 
 here is encompassed with Hills each side but these 
 Two Families possess a good Flat on the East Side 
 and in their corn field we are now encamped. We 
 observed today that the Indians either thro Acci- 
 dent or Design have burnt large Spaces in the Woods. 
 We passed a small Creek at divers Times which emp- 
 ties into the Delaware above the Cookooze & indeed 
 the Waters seemed to incline to this River for above 
 Half Way over. 1 
 
 6 th It rained last Night and this Morng. and we 
 recollected the account of certain Distances given by 
 M T . Spencer of Cherry Valley 2 who said he had trav- 
 elled 
 
 1 Since the Commencement of the present War, Ahquhaga has been de- 
 stroyed and the Indians driven entirely away from Susquehanna. A flour- 
 ishing Settlement of whites at Unadella has also experienced the like Cal- 
 amity, wherein great Quantities of grain perished. This was before General 
 Sullivan burned the Indian Towns between Susquehanna and Niagara. — R. S. 
 
 Unadilla in 1776 was a flourishing white settlement, but Brant in that 
 year drove the settlers out and it then became a headquarters and base of sup- 
 plies for hostile Indians commanded by him. In the summer of 1778 Gov- 
 ernor George Clinton was informed that "Unadilla has always been, and 
 still continues to be, a common receptacle for all rascally Tories and run-a- 
 way Negroes." Oghwaga and Unadilla, where several hundred of the 
 enemy were then supposed to be living, was destroyed in October of that 
 year by Col. William Butler with some Scotch-Irish troops and a detach- 
 ment from Morgan's Riflemen, in all 260 men, who went out from Scho- 
 harie, where, with a larger force, they had been stationed. Butler found both 
 places deserted, and everything " in the greatest disorder," indicating a speedy 
 flight. He burned the two settlements, — not only the houses, but their con- 
 tents, and upwards of 4,000 bushels of grain, taking back with him 49 
 horses and 52 horned cattle. He described Oghwaga as "the finest Indian 
 town I ever saw." 
 
 2 Thomas Spencer, a half breed, who was famous as an orator and served 
 as interpreter on the patriot side, was killed at the battle of Oriskany. 
 
 72 
 
TOUR OF THE DELAWARE 
 
 elled this Rout, namely, from Otego to Unadella 26 
 Miles, to Cunnahunta 16, to Ahquhaga 12, to 
 Cookoose 12, to the Forks of Popaghton 15, to 
 Cushietunk 20, to the Minisinks 40, Length of the 
 Minisinks 40, to Durham 44, in all 225 miles. We 
 paid James the Mohawk half a Dollar p Day. The 
 Indian Custom, probably derived from the Dutch, 
 is to be paid for the time of returning as well as 
 going. 1 
 
 6 th June. At Half after 6 oCloc we departed from 
 Cookoose down the Delaware. At Half after 9 
 oCloc we came to the Mouth of Popaghton. 2 At 4 
 oCloc we reached the first Settlement 3 in Cheshietunk 4 
 and at 5 oCloc we came to the Station Point be- 
 tween N. York and N. Jersey. Popaghton is about 
 as large as the Mohawks Branch, which to Cushie- 
 tunk is in general not so crooked as the Susque- 
 hannah and has a stony Bottom mostly shallow so that 
 in some Places our Canoe could just conveniently 
 pass over, but by the marks on the Shore the Water 
 is sometimes 3 or 4 Feet higher. The Navigation at 
 present is pretty good, but when the water is very 
 low perhaps impracticable. 
 
 There is a Range of high Hills on either Hand 
 
 from 
 
 1 In the original manuscript, but not in the transcript, is this statement : 
 
 " To-morrow they [begin to] open a wagon road from Cushietunk to 
 Sopus, 70 miles. Sopus is their best way to market." 
 
 - Here now stands the village of Hancock, its Indian name, Chehocton(in 
 a Hardenberg deed of 1 7 5 I , the place is called Shokakeen), being a Dela- 
 ware word meaning the union of streams, or the confluence. In early times 
 it was written Shehaw kin. 
 
 3 This point was probably about where Callicoon now is. Callicoon, 
 which on a map of 1828 is written Kolli Kolen, has been derived from a 
 Delaware word Gulukocksoon, meaning a turkey. 
 
 * Now written Cochecton, which means low ground. 
 
 73 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 from Cookoose to Popaghton and some small Pieces 
 of good low Land here and there, but from the latter 
 down to Cushietunk hardly any, for it is all hilly, 
 stoney, broken, barren and little worth. The Timber 
 down to Popaghton is mostly Beech, Maple, Hemloc, 
 Butternut & Buttonwood and from thence not so 
 much Beech and Butternut. We agree that the 
 Delaware cannot compare with the Susquehannah for 
 good Land; nor is the Timber much more than 
 Half as tall. We observed several Ducks with their 
 young Broods so that they breed in this River. 
 
 Cushietunk contains 16 or 17 Farms of which 4 
 or 5 only are beyond the Rock on Station Point. 
 The Mohawks Branch tend up N. and Popaghton 
 N. E.; there is a small Quantity of good Land at 
 Station Point and at the Mouth of Popaghton. The 
 Islands in the River are all good. We did not stop 
 to dine and came down on an average between 4 & 
 5 Miles an Hour, but went on shore at Station Point 
 where the River bears (I have forgot the Bearing as 
 well as the Inscription on the Rock). 1 There is no 
 Trace of a Settlement all the Way from Cookoose 
 to Cushietunk 2 but several pretty Cascades down the 
 Mountains into the River and they tell us That no 
 Boats larger than Batteaux have ever gone down the 
 River from Cushietunk on Account of the Falls. 
 
 yth w e discharged Una who was desirous of re- 
 turning 
 
 1 This is a reference to the point of land made by a sharp bend in the 
 river to the northwest just above Cochecton Village. It forms with the land an 
 isosceles triangle of which the sides are about one mile in length. Across the 
 river in New Jersey are the Cushietunk Mountains, near which the Connecticut 
 folk made their settlement in 1757. 
 
 2 Decker, whom " Dorn a Dutchman" found at the mouth of the East 
 Branch ten years before, had obviously died or moved away. 
 
 74 
 
TOUR OF THE DELAWARE 
 
 turning and hired a Bazileel Tyler to take us down, 
 having purchased a Canoe here for 40/. We set off 
 from Cushietunk at Six oCloc and stopt at Shehola 
 Creek 1 called Half Way, at y 2 after 1 2 to dine. 
 We gave Una provisions for his Return besides the 
 5 Dollars and we parted mutually satisfied he being 
 an expert Navigator tho perhaps he never saw a Ship 
 or a Sail ; he could not speak English. 
 
 We afterwards passed a considerable Creek run- 
 ning in from the Westward called Lacwac (in Gib- 
 son's Map Lechawacsein 2 ) & approached within 1 2 
 Yards of a large Blac She Bear and her Two Cubs 
 feeding on the Shore. M r Wells fired at and 
 wounded her & we pursued her into the Woods 
 without Effect. The Lands all the Way from Station 
 Point hither are miserable affording only short 
 scrubby Timber, no Flats, Hills, Rocks, and Stones 
 in plenty & but one or Two Inhabitants. 
 
 At y 2 after 5 we arrived at the First House in the 
 Minisinks where we stopt to make Oars for our 
 Canoe having poled it all the Way from Cookoose 
 w r ith a little Help from a Paddle. We saw upon 
 the Shore 2 Deer & 7 Wild Turkies but our Gun 
 flashed in the Pan. The Lands from Schehola to 
 the Minisinks continue bad with many high Rocks 
 by Way of Banks similar to the rocky shore of 
 Bergen. One of the highest we supposed to be 400 
 Feet. The River from Cushietunk is full of Rifts 
 and long Falls thro which the Canoe was con- 
 ducted safely and dexterously by our Skipper. 
 
 We 
 
 1 Shoholaisthe present form of this word, Shohola Glen being a popular resort. 
 
 2 Lackawaxen, which means forks of the road. 
 
 75 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 We passed by a Creek called Mangap 1 (not marked 
 on the Maps). 
 
 We are now of opinion that it will be impractic- 
 able to transport the Produce of Otego this way to 
 Advantage because of these Rifts. We saw but two 
 Small Settlements between Cushietunk and the Mini- 
 sinks and no Place fit for another. The Upper part 
 of the Minisinks trades to Sopus and the lower to 
 Philad 3 The Timber seen this Afternoon is like the 
 rest low and scrubby and includes the White Pine 
 Oak and Maple. At this upper part of the Mini- 
 sinks the River is about 200 yards over. We learn 
 that the Jersey Surveyors lately appointed to run the 
 Line in Conjunction with the York Surveyors between 
 the Two Provinces were here and as far as Popagh- 
 ton last Week. They found that from Peter Kiken- 
 dahls the Upper End of Minisinks to the Station Point 
 measured 43% Miles and from the Station Point 
 Rock to Shehawkin or the Mouth of Popaghton was 
 31^2. From Kikendahls to Justice Rosecrants they 
 reckon 30 Miles. 
 
 8 th We lodged last Night at Peter Kikendahls. 2 
 He had good Beds but we chose our Bear Skins as 
 usual. There is a tolerable Farm and the first we 
 have seen for some Time past. Here the Hills on the 
 River open to the right and left and let in some good 
 Flats. We found here a Number of Eels and large 
 Lampreys taken in one of the Eel pots. They have 
 a Shad Fishery so high up as Cushietunk. 
 
 We 
 
 1 Now written Mongaup, a stream ofconsiderable size with three branches 
 flowing into the Delaware from the north about five miles above Port Jervis. 
 The word means several streams. 
 
 2 Now Port Jervis. 
 
 76 
 
TOUR OF THE DELAWARE 
 
 We quitted M r Kikendahls at 7 oCloc and in 
 i^H Hours reached one Otters 18 Miles above 
 Easton, stopt one Hour at Dinner. M r Wells and 
 myself rowed all the Way being 52 Miles. The 
 Lands along the Minisinks are not so rich as I ex- 
 pected ; very little Meadow is visible, the Ground 
 rather fit for the Plow and somewhat sandy like ours 
 about Burlington & accordiugly they raise more rye 
 than wheat. Not many Houses are to be seen and 
 those quite mean, the Flats in many places narrow 
 flanked still by the Range of Hills. The Islands are 
 low & level, but the Bushes so thick round them that 
 we could not discover how far they were improved. 
 Samuel Depue has a good place. 
 
 In the Evening we passed thro the Water Gap 
 being the Passage between the Kittatinny 1 or Blue 
 Mountains which are here very lofty and craggy; the 
 Trees on their Tops appeared as Shrubs. The Spec- 
 tacle was grand and worthy of a particular Descrip- 
 tion but neither the Time or our Situation admitted of 
 it. One Dunfy lives on a narrow Point at the Foot 
 of the Mountains which surround him in such a 
 Manner that he cannot stir from his House but 
 by Water. 
 
 The Soil of Sussex as far as we have seen is hilly, 
 stony broken and indifferent; it is the same on the 
 Pennsylvania side. The Timber is now the same as 
 ours Oak and Hickory, Chesnut and Maple but 
 shrubby 6c not fit for Sawing for the most Part. 
 We had a Glimpse of the late Col. Van Camps 
 
 Place 
 
 a This word has been referred to the similar word Kittating, 
 meaning great mountain or endless hills. 
 
 77 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 Place 1 below Walpack ; he has a good share of even 
 Land and a Range of swelling Hills proper for Sheep 
 Pasture as much of all this Country would be if it 
 was cultivated. 
 
 9 th The Rifts from Kikendahls are less frequent 
 than from Cushietunk thither. Leaving Otters 2 at 7 
 oCloc we passed thro the Wind Gap and stopt at 
 Easton to drink some Punch and get shaved. The 
 Country now becomes less hilly except about the 
 Wind Gap above Easton where there is a Range of 
 small Mountains not so large as the Kittatinny — 
 they say that Lewis Gordon of Easton is Ferryman, 
 Tavern Keeper Lawyer, Clerk of the Court and 
 Justice of the Peace — we found the Foul Rift rather 
 more turbulent than the rest. Opposite to Durham 
 we dined & saw only 2 houses at the Mouth of Dur- 
 ham Creek. Musconetcung 3 which divides Hunter- 
 don from Sussex is about a Mile above. A hand- 
 some Court House is lately built at Easton. 
 
 From Durham downwards we had the Pleasure of 
 viewing the improved Plantations in Hunterdon and 
 Buck's Counties. Adam Hoops has several Mills in 
 Sufsex and Tho s Riche a Country House in Hunter- 
 don, opposite to which is another House pleasantly 
 situated ; this we find a hot day. We saw many of 
 those long vessels called Durham Boats so useful to 
 
 the 
 
 1 One of the forts shown on the " American Military Pocket Atlas " pub- 
 lished in London in 1776 for the use of the British army during the Revo- 
 lutionary War. 
 
 2 Otter's appears to have been what is now Manunka Chunk. 
 
 3 Five miles below Easton flows into the Delaware the River Musconetcung 
 which has its lower courses between the Pohatcongand Musconetcung Moun- 
 tains. 
 
 78 
 
TOUR OF THE DELAWARE 
 
 the Upper Parts of the River and have passed fewer 
 Rifts since we left Easton. In the Evening M r Tyler 
 went home and we lodged with Edward Marshall 
 who lives on an Island 35 Miles above Trenton 
 which Island his Father bought of the Indians and 
 he now holds it independent of any Government. 
 
 This Marshal is the Man who performed the 
 famous Walk 1 for the Proprietaries of Pennsylv 3 in 
 1733, for which as he tells us, he has never yet rec d 
 any Reward. He has been a great Traveller about 
 the back Parts. He avers that on the Top of the 
 Blue Mountains, a Mile from the Water Gap, on the 
 Jersey side there are Two Lakes, one of which con- 
 tains above 700 acres of clear Rock Water well 
 stored with Red Perch, Sun Fish and other Fish 
 with a gravelly Bottom and no visible Outlet, and 
 that there is likewise on that Mountain a Spring 
 from which oozes out a Scum being when burnt a 
 good red or brown Paint according to the degree of 
 burning and that great Quantities of it are taken 
 away and used as such by the Indians. He thinks 
 this comes from a large bed of copper ore and that 
 there are now many Cartloads of that Paint on the 
 Spot. We remarked today that the Descent of the 
 Waters in the River is visible in divers Places owing 
 to the considerable Fall or Slope of the Country. 
 
 10 th We engaged one Newman, Son in Law to 
 Marshal, to pilot us down to Trenton; went orf at 
 5 oCloc and breakfasted at Corryels Ferry. We 
 gave Bazileel Tyler 6 Dollars for bringing us down 
 
 from 
 
 1 A reference to the Walking Purchase, already described 
 in the Introduction. 
 
 79 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 from Cushietunk to Marshals. We learn that the 
 Freight of a Bushel of Wheat from Marshals to 
 Philad 2 is j A from Easton to Philad a o d and from the 
 Minisinks i/. For a Barrel of Flour from Marshals 
 2/. from Easton 2/6. (the Freight of a Bushel of 
 Wheat from Sussex to Burlington used to be 6 d ). 
 Before 1 2 oCloc we came to Trenton and from 
 thence M' Wells and myself continued our Course 
 to Burlington where we arrived in the Afternoon, 
 having come today 51 Miles and we had the Satis- 
 faction to find our Families in good Health. 
 
 80 
 
V 
 
 A TABLE OF DISTANCES 
 
 Rout taken by Mess r . 3 Welles and Smith Biddle 
 Ridgway and Hicks in May and continued by the 
 Two Former in June 1769. 
 
 Miles 
 
 From Burlington to New York over Paulus 
 
 Hook Ferry 75 
 
 To Albany by Water 164 
 
 (By land 157) 
 To the Mouth of the Mohawk River ... 7 
 
 To the Cahoes 5 
 
 To Schenectady 16 
 
 (From Albany to Schenectady along the 
 
 usual Road 17) 
 To Sir John Johnson's, Knight & Bar 1 . . . 17 
 To Col. Fry's on the Mohawk River . . .21 
 To Major Wells's in Cherry Valley . . . .12 
 To Cap c Prevoost's at the Head of Lake Otsego . 9 
 
 A Waggon Road all the Way. 1 326 
 
 From Cap c Prevoost's to Col. Croghans the 
 
 Foot of Lake Otsego 8 or 9 
 
 To the Upper Corner of the Otego Tract 
 
 down the River Susquehannah . . . .20 
 
 To 
 
 1 By this the author only means all the way from Albany to the 
 head of Lake Otsego. 
 
 8l 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 To the Mouth of Otego Creek 24 
 
 To the Mouth of Unadella 16 
 
 (Here was a small village of Mohiccons.) 
 To Cunnahunta on the Great Island . . .16 
 (Here was a small Oneida village.) 
 
 To Ahquhaga 12 
 
 (an Oneida Town of 140 souls) 
 Here we crossed over along a blind Indian 
 Path to Cookooze on the Mohawk Branch 
 of Delaware. Cookoose is a Settlem* of 
 Two Families of the Delaware Nation, 
 the only Indians remaining on the River 
 
 Delaware 
 
 From Cookoose to Shehawkin or the Mouth 
 
 of Popaghton Branch 15 
 
 To Cushietunk or Station Point as measured 
 
 lately by the Jersey Surveyors . . . 3 1 % 
 To Peter Kikendahl's the Upper End of 
 
 Minisinks as measured by do 43^ 
 
 Length of the Minisinks 40 
 
 To Easton 30 
 
 To Edward Marshals on an Island .... 27 
 
 To Trenton 35 
 
 To Burlington 16 
 
 238 
 In all 
 
 Round to the Lake Otsego 326 
 
 down that Lake and the Susquehannah . 97 
 from Susquehannah across to Delaware . 1 5 
 
 down the Delaware 238 
 
 Total Miles, 676 
 
 82 
 
 
VI 
 
 NOTES ON THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE 
 INDIANS 
 
 Lower down on and near the Susquehannah there 
 are yet remaining several Towns of various Tribes 
 as Onondagoes Tuscarora's Nanticokes Delawares 
 Shawanese and others but these will all doubtle^ be 
 wormed out in a few years by the Whites and the 
 Indians obliged to retire beyond the Lakes. The 
 Indians settled in the Neighborhood of the English 
 are Known, from whatever cause, to decrease fast 
 and probably distant Posterity will peruse as Fables 
 the accounts which may be handed down of the 
 present Customs of the Aborigines of North Amer- 
 ica. I was desirous of procuring some Intelligence 
 of their Manners and Usages but had little oppor- 
 tunity and less Time and Leisure to learn any Thing 
 very material. 
 
 They are extremelv lazy and indolent, take little 
 care today for the sustenance of Tomorrow and are 
 therefore often in want of Food and other N 
 saries for which their Idleness makes them always 
 dependent on their more provident Neighbors. 
 Cloathing they use but little, sometimes a Shirt or 
 Shift with a Blanket or Coat, a Half-Gown and Petti- 
 coat, and sometimes the latter only without Linen. 
 Woolen Boots and Leather Moccisons compleat the 
 
 83 Dre>s 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 Dress of the common sort unless, which is rare, they 
 possess a Hat or some other Covering for the Head. 
 Some of the Chiefs, however, imitate the English 
 Mode and Joseph Brant was dressed in a suit of blue 
 Broad Cloth as his Wife was in a Callicoe or Chintz 
 Gown. They frequently sleep naked & divers of the 
 younger sort drefs gaily in their Way, some of both 
 sexes using Bobs and Trinkets in their Ears and 
 Noses, Bracelets on their Arms and Rings on their 
 Fingers. Every Man and Woman are Physicians 
 for themselves or give their Advice gratis to others. 
 
 As they raise no Sheep or Flax and make no Iron 
 so they weave no Cloth but rough drefs Deerskins 
 for their Moccisons and depend upon the Whites 
 for Metallic and other Manufactures. They subsist 
 chiefly by their Indian Corn, esculent Vegetables and 
 by their Deer & Beaver Hunting, and last Year the 
 Corn failing in great Measure they lived thro the 
 Winter and Spring on the Money received at the 
 Treaty of Fort Stanwix last October for the sale of 
 their Lands. They were continually passing up to 
 the Settlements to buy Provisions and sometimes 
 shewed us money in their Bosoms. 
 
 Their government is known to be democratic, 
 deviating but little from a State of Nature. Courts 
 and Ministers of Justice they have none, to Law and 
 Lawyers they are strangers, nor are Crimes often 
 committed. Debts and Theft seem to be almost un- 
 known among them, Property being in some Degree 
 common to all. I had the Curiosity to ask an In- 
 dian what was their Method of recovering Debts ; 
 he answered " We go to the Debtor and take away 
 his Gun or any Thing we can find belonging to him." 
 
 84 In 
 
INDIAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 
 
 In their Towns they are generally sober and quiet, 
 but among the white People their Propensity to 
 Drunkenness is too well known ; in that state they 
 are noisy and troublesome. 
 
 The authority of the Chiefs is said to descend to 
 the Eldest Son, but they are deposed at the pleasure 
 of their Townsmen for Insufficiency or Absence or 
 other cause. The Chief of Ahquhaga in Civil Affairs 
 when I was there, had removed to another Town 
 and was therefore deprived of his Post, but happen- 
 ing to return he was reinstated. Pride and Envy 
 are to be found here as elsewhere for some of the 
 Townsmen being piqued at the Authority exercised 
 by the Chief Priest refused to attend divine service 
 under his Administration tho his Conduct and De- 
 portment appeared to be regular and inoffensive. 
 
 The Domination Civil or Ecclesiastical seems 
 not to be of the Coercive kind, the Custom being 
 for those who have rec d an injury to complain to the 
 Chief who represents to the Agressor the Hein- 
 ousness of his Crime and generally procures Satisfac- 
 tion to the Party injured, but if he cannot succeed 
 then the Party redresses Himself in the best Manner 
 he can. And in cases of Murder if the Murderer is 
 killed ever so many years after or ever so treacher- 
 ously it is esteemed by the Nation as an Act of Jus- 
 tice & applauded accordingly. 
 
 Marriage is performed by a Clergyman either 
 White or Indian where there happens to be one. 
 Whilst we are at Ahquhaga a young Mohawk and 
 his handsome Bride about 15, were there on a visit 
 to her Relations. They had been married but Two 
 Weeks and the Courtship was thus as we were informed 
 
 85 by 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 by M r Dean the Interpreter: the young Fellow had 
 been there, saw the Girl and liked Her, but said 
 Nothing then. After he got home to Conejoharie 
 above an ioo miles distant, he sent her a Letter, for 
 some of the Indians tho they cannot speak English 
 can write their own Language very well; the Sub- 
 stance of the Letter was that he fancied her for a 
 Wife and if she approved the Proposal she might 
 come to Him at such a Time and be married, and 
 she and her Friends accepted the Offer accordingly. 
 I did not hear what is the Mode of Burial but pre- 
 sume it differs not much from ours. 
 
 Their chief amusement seems to be Smoaking, 
 Conversation & Hunting. They use long Pipes 
 with Wooden Stems & Stone Boles large & clumsy. 
 They are ingenious at making Belts, embroidering 
 Moccassons & Garments with Wampum. As they 
 work little they consequently demand high Prices for 
 their Labor. 1 * 
 
 1 The illustration showing Indian relics on the adjoining page, was made 
 from objects collected by Willard E. Yager, of Oneonta. Mr. Yager has 
 what is perhaps one of the most important Indian collections in the state. 
 Several years ago he formed another large collection, but it was entirely de- 
 stroyed by fire in I 894, when the State Normal School buildings at Oneonta 
 were burned. Mr. Yager began the present collection in 1903, his purpose 
 being to illustrate Indian life on the headwaters of the Susquehanna from 
 Otsego Lake to Great Bend, and including the adjacent hillsides to the divide 
 between the Susquehanna and the Delaware on the east and the Chenango 
 on the west. This territory, which was occupied in the historic period by 
 the Iroquois, in earlier times jwas the home of other Indians of the same 
 family who are classed as Conestogas or Susquehannas. 
 
 Mr. Yager's collection now numbers about 2,500 objects, selected from 
 four or five times that number as brought to light and preserved by various 
 persons during the last thirty or forty years. Care has been taken by him 
 to identify and fix the history of each specimen. Nearly every kind of In- 
 dian artefact known to students is well represented. The collection is par- 
 ticularly rich in specimens of flint and pottery and is housed in a building 
 especially built for the purpose. 
 
 86 
 
- = - / 
 
 - : = ~ 
 
 z 
 
 < •= 
 
 I 
 \ 
 
 z 
 
 z 
 
 - .- ■ 
 ... ■- : 
 
 
 
 
 ^ ._ 
 
 
 
INDIAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 
 
 At Ahquhaga & other Towns seen by me, they 
 have Horses, Cows, Hogs, and Poultry, make Butter 
 and Maple Sugar, bake their Bread in the Ashes with- 
 out yeast and have the Discretion to keep Rum by 
 them in their Houses and take it in moderation. 
 They are faithful in what they undertake, have sharp 
 Eyesight, susprising Knowledge of the Woods, are 
 expert in hunting, fishing, managing Canoes, and in 
 whatever else they have been conversant. 
 
 They know Nothing yet of Hours or Miles but 
 point to the Sun as to say they will perform such a 
 Journey by that Time the Sun is in such a Position 
 counting their Fingers for Days and using notched 
 sticks for Almanacs, and cannot therefore express 
 with any Accuracy the Distance of Time or Place. 
 
 Of their Origin I never could learn any satisfac- 
 tory Account. Some Authors and W m Penn among 
 the rest, misled by theological Prejudices, have sup- 
 posed them to be descended from the Ten captivated 
 Tribes of Jews, an absurd Chimaera unworthy of the 
 American Lycurgus ; others with more Probability 
 adopt the Idea of a Passage from the N. E. Parts of 
 Asia to the N. W. Regions of America thro which 
 some Tartars may have transmigrated in remote Ages, 
 whose Posterity in procefs of Time became dispersed 
 throughout this immense Wilderness. But Writers 
 are not wanting who reject this Hypothesis and con- 
 tend that the Africans, Americans and Whites were 
 originally created upon their own Soil. 
 
 For Religion, the distant Savages unconnected 
 with Christians are said neither to profess or practice 
 anv. And it may well be doubted notwithstanding 
 all that has been written whether any Form of W or- 
 
 87 ship 
 
FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
 
 ship was in use or any clear Ideas of the Deity im- 
 pressed on their minds anterior to the Arrival of 
 Europeans here. Those of Ahquhaga follow the 
 Presbyterian Mode of Worship because a Minister of 
 that Persuasion has happened to be established there. 
 They understand Psalmody very well, and tho they 
 attend very seriously to the Preacher, English or In- 
 dian, yet the Matter of the Sermon makes as little 
 Impression on their Lives and Conversations as Ser- 
 mons usually do on politer Congregations. 
 
 Some other Particulars with their Manner of Build- 
 ing Towns and Houses have been occasionally men- 
 tioned in the foregoing Notes which were taken on 
 the Spot Currente Calamo. As to the rest, having 
 often visited the Whites their Manners seem to differ 
 little from those of our lower Class of People. 1 
 
 1 The manuscript from which Mr. Smith's Journal has here been put into 
 type — the same, as already stated, being the George H. Moore copy — has at 
 this point the following memorandum: 
 
 " (Copy taken for the use of M. Du Simitiere in October, 1780.) [by 
 the hon. Richard Smith, of Burlington, Esquire.]" 
 
 The modern character of the paper on which the Moore copy was written 
 indicates that it is not identical with the Du Simitiere copy, but that it is a 
 transcript from it. The comparison made by the editor between it and 
 the original first draft, now owned by Mr. Coad, however, has fully 
 authenticated the text of the Journal as printed here. 
 
INDEX 
 
INDEX 
 
 Adaquetinge River, the, 58 
 
 Addison, Joseph, 37 
 
 Afton (N. Y.), 63 
 
 Aikin (N. Y.j, 25 
 
 Akery (N. Y.), 31 
 
 Albany, settlement of, xxvii ; 
 trading post at, xl ; a ren- 
 dezvous for troops, 1 ; sloops 
 that sail to and from, 4 ; 
 sloops at, 9; road to 
 from New York, 9 ; meadow 
 lands near, 15; the town 
 described, 16-18; departure 
 from, 19; lands and timber 
 near, 21, 62, 81 
 
 Albany County, xxxii, xlviii, 
 
 11,17 
 Allegheny River, the. xyi 
 Allegheny Mountains, the, 47 
 Allen, John, 68 
 "American Military Pocket 
 
 Atlas." the, lxix.' 78 
 Amsterdam (N. Y.), xlix, 17 
 Andrews, William, xlii 
 Andros, Governor, xliii 
 Anthony's Nose, xxxv 
 Anti-rent war, 21 
 Arnold, Benedict, 24 
 Atlantic City 1 X. T.). lxiv 
 Auriesville ( X. Y.), xli 
 
 Bacon. E. M., xxix 
 Banyar, Gouldsborough, 62 
 Barclay. Henry, xhii 
 Batavia (N.Y.), 31 
 
 Battery, the. xxyi 
 
 Bear's Island, 14 
 Beekman, Colonel, xxxii 
 Beekman Manor, xxxv 
 Belcher, Governor, Ixviii 
 Beletre, — , 1 
 Bellomont, Earl of, Governor, 
 
 xxxii, xliy 
 Bethlehem (Penn.), road to 
 
 from Wyoming, 57 
 Biddle, Joseph, 3 ; and the 
 
 Otego survey, 40, 44, 50, 
 .58. 81 
 Binghamton (X.Y.), 57. 65 
 Border Wars, the. on the New 
 
 York frontier, xviii, lix, lx, 
 
 53. 60 
 
 Boston, xxiv 
 
 Bowling Green, xxiii 
 
 Braddock, General Edward, 1, 
 hi ; defeat of, lx\iii 
 
 P.radstreet. General John, 1 5 
 
 Bradt. Arent, Ivii 
 
 Brainard, David, l\'i 
 
 Brant, Joseph; his father, xyii, 
 22: ami Colonel Glaus ; de- 
 stroys German Flats, 27 ; 
 destmys Springfield, 20: at 
 the Cherry Valley massacre. 
 30-31 : his early li I 
 Sleeper's nous 
 
 by Mr. Smith as guide, 4- : 
 builds a hark cai 
 finds a rattlesnake. 
 starts with Mr. Smith down 
 the Susquehanna, 58: his 
 farm at Canajoharie, 60; ill- 
 
 91 
 
INDEX 
 
 ness of, 62 ; at Oghwaga, 56, 
 
 84 
 Brant, Mrs. Joseph, 49, 58; 
 
 her silver ornaments, 69 
 Brant, Molly, 22 
 Break Neck Mountain, 7 
 Brekabean (N.Y.), 37 
 Bressani, Joseph, xli 
 Broadhead, John H., xxxi 
 Broken Neck Hill, 7 
 Brown, John, xix 
 Brunswick (N. J.), 3 
 Bruyar, the missionary, liii 
 Bucks County (Penn.), 78 
 Buell, Augustus C, liv, lxiii, 
 
 lxv 
 Burlington (N. J.), home of 
 
 Mr. Smith, xiv; founded, 
 
 lxiii ; lxiv, 3, 30, 36, jy ; 
 
 arrival at, 80, 81 
 Burlington Creek, 39, 40 
 Burnet, Governor, xlv; sends 
 
 men to Oghwaga, lv 
 Burns's Tavern, 3 
 Butler, John, a grant of land 
 
 to, xvii, lx 
 Butler, Walter N., 30 
 Butler, Colonel William, 72 
 Butter Hill, 7 
 Butternut Creek, grant of land 
 
 on, xvii, 42 
 
 Callicoon (N.Y.), 73 
 Camden (N. J.), lxii 
 Campbell, Mr., 60 
 Canada Creek, li 
 Canadurango Lake, lvii, 38, 48 
 Canajoharie, li, 28; Brant's 
 
 farm at, 60 
 Carr, Percefer, lix 
 Carryel's Ferry, 79 
 Cartwright's Tavern, 16 
 Castle Philipse, 5 
 Castleton (N.Y.), 7 
 
 Catawbas, the, 47 
 Catskill Creek, xxx, 12 
 Catskill (N. Y.), 6, 31; wagon 
 
 road to, 37 
 Catskill and Susquehanna 
 
 Turnpike, 40 
 Catskill Landing, 12 
 Catskill Mountains, 7, 9, 13 
 Chamberlain, Theophilus, 60 
 Champlain, Samuel de, xl 
 Charlotte Hall (Md.), xviii 
 Charlotte River, the, liv, lvi; 
 land on, lvii; head of, 31; 
 trail along, 52 ; name of, 58 
 Charlotte, Queen, 58-59 
 Chehocton (N. Y.), 73 
 Cheonadilla (N.Y.), 56; see 
 
 Unadilla 
 Cherry Valley Creek, lvii 
 Cherry Valley (N. Y.), settle- 
 ment of, lix, lxix, 12, 14; 
 distance to from Albany, 16, 
 23 ; on the road to, 28 ; the 
 start for, 29; arrival of the 
 author at, 30; Massacre of, 
 30, 46; church at, 31 ; a sul- 
 phur spring near, 32; indus- 
 tries at, 33, 35, 36; pearl ash 
 works at, 41 ; men obtained 
 at, 47; trail to, 52, 55; sup- 
 plies from, 56, 60, 64, y2, 81 
 Chesapeake Bay, 52 
 "Chronicles of Cooperstown," 
 
 the, 36 
 City Hall, of New York, xxiii 
 City Hotel, 3 
 Clarendon, Earls of, 32 
 Clarke, Lieutenant Governor, 
 
 xxxiii, xlvii, xlviii, 32 
 Clarke, George Hyde, 32 
 Claus, Colonel Daniel, 24; his 
 
 home, 25, 27 
 Clench's Hotel, 22, 27 
 Clinton, Governor George, 72 
 Clinton, General James, 49 
 
 92 
 
INDEX 
 
 Coad, J. Francis, xviii, xix, 
 xxi, 88 
 
 Cobleskill (N.Y.), 35 
 
 Cochecton (N. Y.), lxiv ; vil- 
 lage of, 73, 74 
 
 Coeymans (N. Y.), 14 
 
 Cohoes (N.Y.), meaning of 
 the word, 19; arrival at, 19; 
 the falls of, described, 21, 81 
 
 Colden, Cadwallader, xxiii, li, 
 lv 
 
 Columbia County (N.Y.)i 17 
 
 Connecticut, xxx ; population 
 of, xxxiii ; people from, in 
 Pennsylvania, lxx 
 
 Cookooze (N.Y.), Ixxii, 57, 
 63 ; path to from Oghwaga, 
 71, 73; departure from, 73, 
 
 74 
 
 Cookooze-Sapoze, 70 
 
 Cornwall (N.Y.), 7 
 
 Cook House, 70 
 
 Cooper, Fenimore, xvii, lxii, 26 
 
 Cooper, William, xx, 36 
 
 Cooperstown (X. Y.), xviii, 6; 
 a bridge at, 49 
 
 Council Rock, 36 
 
 Craig, Andrew, 36 
 
 Cranbury (N.J.)»3 
 
 Croghan, Colonel George, his 
 grant of land on Otsego 
 Lake, xviii. lx. 20; his bat- 
 teau, 35 : builds a house on 
 Otsego Lake, 36; his patent, 
 40; at his home, 44, 47. 48; 
 talks of building a sawmill, 
 40. 59. 81 
 
 Crosby, Aaron, xxiii 
 
 Crosswicks 1 X. J.), 3 
 
 Croton Bay, 5 
 
 Croton River, xxxviii. 5 
 
 Cunnahunta ( X. Y.), 63, 64, 73 
 
 Cushietunk 1 X. Y.),bdv,lxvii; 
 settlement at, lxx. 57. 71. 73; 
 road from. 73. 74: departure 
 
 from, 75 ; no settlement be- 
 low, 76, 78, 80 
 
 Cushietunk Mountain, 74 
 
 Cuyler, Henry, 15 
 
 Dartmouth College, 47 
 
 Davies, John, 47 
 
 Dean, James, 65, 67; goes to 
 
 Cookooze, 71, 86 
 Dean, Joseph, xv 
 Decker, 59, 74 
 De Curcelles — , xlii 
 De Kay, Thomas, lxvii 
 Delaware Bay, lxiii 
 Delaware Company, lxx 
 Delaware County (X.V.), 22. 
 
 39 
 
 Delaware Indians, the, lvi. lxi, 
 lxv ; activity of, lxviii, lxxi; 
 at Cookooze, 80, 83 
 
 Delaware River, the. xvi ; name 
 of, lxi; called the Fishkill. 
 lix. lxxi ; coming of white 
 men to, lxii; west branch of, 
 lxii ; forts on, lxiii ; Indian 
 troubles on, Ixix : settlements 
 on west branch of, lxxii ; 
 head of. 31; source of. 45; 
 at Cookooze. 63 ; east branch 
 of. 67; the road to from 
 Oghwaga. 71; lands on, 71. 
 ~2\ a start to descend. 73; 
 two branches of, 74: lands 
 on, ~^\ at Minisink. 70 
 
 Delaware Water Cap. lxvi. 
 lxxi. 50. :: . 79 
 
 Dellius, Doctor, xliii. xliv 
 
 Denton's Ferry, 8 
 
 Denton's Mill." S 
 
 Deposit 1 X. \.). lxxii. 70: set 
 
 Cool: 
 
 Depuis, Nicholas, lxvi : ;~ 
 Dongan. Governor Th 
 his "Report on tin- Province" 
 
 1 t Xew York, xxvii ; on the 
 
 93 
 
INDEX 
 
 immigration to New York, 
 xxxii, xxxv ; and the mis- 
 sionaries, xlvi ; and traders 
 on the Susquehanna, lv 
 Dorn, a Dutchman, 56 
 Dunlop, Samuel, lviii, 31 
 Dutch, the, in New York, xxv ; 
 
 on the Delaware, lxiii 
 Dutchess County (N. Y.), xxxii, 
 
 6,9 
 Dunfy — , 77 
 Durham boats, 57 
 Durham Creek, 78 
 Dyer, John, 13 
 
 Easton (Penn.), lxiii, lxiv,lxv, 
 lxxi, 77, 78; the Delaware 
 below, 79 
 Edmeston, Colonel, lix 
 Edwards, Nathaniel, xv, xix 
 Elizabeth (N.J.), 3 
 Erie, Lake, xxii 
 Erie Railway, the, lxiv, 70 
 Esopus (N. Y.), trading post 
 at, xxix, xxx, xxxi, lxvi, 
 lxxii ; meaning of the word, 
 8, 56; road to, 73 
 Essex County (N. J.), 77 
 Evans, Captain, xliii ; his tract, 
 xliv; his map, 29 
 
 Ferguson, Edward, xix 
 
 Finns, the, lxii 
 
 Fishkill (N.Y.),9 
 
 Fishkill Creek, xxxv 
 
 Fiske, John, xxv 
 
 Fitch, Jonathan, xix 
 
 Fletcher, Governor, xliv 
 
 Fonda, Major, 24 
 
 Forbes, Eli, lvi 
 
 Forks of the Delaware, the, 
 
 lxiv 
 Fort Aurania (N. Y.), xxvii 
 
 Fort George (N. Y.), xxiv, 
 
 xxvi 
 Fort Hunter (N. Y.), xli, 
 
 xlvii, xlviii, li, 24, 26 
 Fort Johnson (N. Y.), li, 25; 
 
 the Mohawk at, 26 
 Fort Nassau (N. J.), lxii 
 Fort Niagara (N. Y.), xliii; 
 
 siege of, 37 
 Fort Orange (N. Y.), xxvii, 
 
 16, 17 
 Fort Penn (Penn.), lxxi 
 Fort Schuyler (N.Y.), xv 
 Fort Stanwix (N.Y.), treaty 
 
 of, xv, xvi, xviii, lix, lxix, 
 
 Hi ; and George Croghan, 36 ; 
 
 line of at Unadilla, 63 
 Forty Fort (Penn.), lxxi 
 Franklin, Benjamdn, at the 
 
 Fort Stanwix Treaty, xvii, 
 
 36 
 Franklin, William, xix, 36 
 Fraunces' Tavern, xxiv 
 Fredericksborough, 5 
 Freehold (N. J.), 14 
 Freeman, Bernardus, xlvi 
 Fry, Colonel, 28, 81 
 Frontenac, Count, xxvi ; at- 
 tacks Schenectady, xliii 
 
 George III, xvii, 59 
 German Camp, the, 12 
 German Flats (N.Y.), 1, 27 
 Germans, settle near Cherry 
 
 Valley, 30 
 Gilbert's Lake, 42 
 Golden Hill, battle of, xxiii 
 Gordon, Dowager Duchess of, 
 
 13. 37- 52 
 Goshen, country of, 7 
 Gould, Jay, lxix, lxxiii 
 Great Bend (Penn.), 65 
 Great Western Turnpike, the, 
 
 30 
 
 94 
 
INDEX 
 
 Green Hill (N.J.).xiv 
 Guest, Henry, xviii 
 
 Halsey, Edward, xix 
 Hamilton, Alexander, xxx 
 Hamilton College, 37 
 Hancock | X. V. ). lxxi. 57, 75 
 Hardenburg patent, the, 21 
 I [arlem River, the, 4 
 I tarper family, the, lix, 35 
 Harper Patent, the, 60 
 
 Harper's Sawmill, ^5 
 Harpersfield (N. V*.), 35 
 Harper, William, 60 
 Hartwick, Tohn C, lix, ^8, 42, 
 
 48 
 Hawley, Gideon, hi, lxix 
 1 [edge, A., 29 
 
 Herkimer settlement, the, xix 
 Hicks, John, xix, 3, 29, 44, 8t 
 Highlands, the, 6, 7; range of, 
 
 8, 9 
 Hiokatoo, 31 
 Hooper, Adam, 78 
 Howe, Lord, 1 
 
 Hudson, Henry, liii, lxii 
 
 Hudson Valley, the settlement 
 of, xxii : land holdings in, 
 xxxiii ; Palatines in, xxxvii ; 
 want of ministers in, xxxvii ; 
 course of from New York, 
 6; lands cultivated in, 7. 8, 
 0: fish in the river. T2 : near 
 Albany, 15: lands in above 
 Albany, 10-20: the river 
 open in winter for ships. 23 
 
 Huguenots, on the Hudson, 
 xxxi, lxvi, lxxii 
 
 Hunter, Governor, xxvii 
 
 Hunterdon County (N. J.), 78 
 
 Hurley (N.Y.), xxx 
 
 Hvdc family, the, \2 
 
 Hyde Hall, 32 
 
 Indians, at the Fort Stan- 
 
 wix Treaty, xvi ; forts for 
 defence against, xxvii; hos- 
 tilities from in the Hudson 
 Valley, xxix ; almost depopu- 
 late the province of New 
 York, xxxi; and Father 
 
 Jogues, xli ; and the Van 
 
 Rensselaer estate, xxxiv; 
 on the Delaware, lxiv; how 
 they carry their children, 5-': 
 not troubles, ime, 56; a vil- 
 lage of, ()2. 63, 64; houses of 
 at Oghwaga, r >5- () j: at 
 Cookooze, 70; on the 
 quehanna. 85 ; their manners 
 and customs, 84! their 
 chiefs, 85; their origin, 87 
 
 Iroquois kings, the. 37 
 
 Isaac, an Indian. I .7. 68 
 
 James, an Indian, 58, 71. 73 
 
 Jesuits in New York, xlvi 
 
 Jogues. Isaac, describes New 
 York, xxv. xli. 29 
 
 Johnson, Colonel Guy, 23 : his 
 home, 25 
 
 Johnson, Sir John, 24, 8l 
 
 Johnson, Sir William, and the 
 Fort Stan wix Treaty, xv-xvi : 
 arrival of in the Mohawk 
 Valley, xlviii ; at Warren's 
 Bush, xlix : at Oghwaga, 
 hi : his lands on the Susque- 
 hanna, lvii : plans a fort at 
 Oghwaga, lxx, tt. 22: his 
 home at Johnstown 
 36; and Joseph Brant, \y 
 : his lands on the Susque- 
 hanna, 69, 
 
 Johnston, Rev. William, be, 1' 
 
 Johnstown | N. Y. >. 24 
 
 Jones. Thomas, xxiv 
 
 Kaatskill : see CatskiU 
 Kalm, P( ter, i" 
 
 95 
 
INDEX 
 
 Kayaderosseras, grant of, xlv 
 Kennedy, xxiv 
 Kidd, Captain, xxxiii 
 Kieffer, H. M., lxv 
 Kikendahl, Peter; his house, 
 
 76, 77, 78 
 Kincaid, his house, 24, 25, 28 
 King William's War, xlvii 
 Kingsbridge (N. Y.), 4 
 King's College, xxiv 
 Kingston (N. Y), settlement 
 
 of, xxx, xxxii, lxvi 
 Kingston, Ont, xliii 
 Kirkland, Samuel, lvi, 37 
 Kithanne River, the, lxi 
 Kittatinny Mountains, the, 77, 
 
 7 8 
 Kleynties — , xl, liii 
 
 Kortright, Lawrence, lx 
 
 Lackawaxen (Penn.), 75 
 Lake George, 1 ; battle of, 37 
 La Salle, the explorer, xlii 
 Laurens (N. Y.), town of, 
 
 xviii 
 "Leather Stocking Tales," 
 
 the, 36 
 Lebanon (Conn.), 37, 47 
 Lehigh River, the, lxiv 
 Lenni-Lenapes, the, lxi; see 
 
 Delazuare Indians 
 Lenox Library, the, xxi 
 Lindesay, John, lvii, lviii 
 Little Egg Harbor (N. J.), 
 
 lxiv 
 Little Sopus (N. Y.), 9 
 Livingston's Manor (N. Y.), 
 
 xxxv, xxxvi, xxxvii, II, 12 
 Livingston, Richard R., the 
 
 Chancellor, 11 
 Londonderry (N.H.), lviii 
 Lowe, Nicholas, lix, 54 
 Lull, Benjamin, 40 
 Lynn (Mass.), xxx 
 
 Mabie House, the, xlii 
 
 Manhasset, xxx 
 
 Manhattan, origin of the name, 
 lxii 
 
 Manunka Chunk (N. J.), 78 
 
 Marbletown (N. Y.), 30 
 
 Marlborough (N.Y.), 8 
 
 Marshall, Edward, 79, 80 
 
 Martiler's Rock, 6 
 
 Martin's^ Patent, 35 
 
 Mathews, Alfred, lxx 
 
 Maryland, population of, 
 xxxviii, 31 
 
 Matteson — , xx 
 
 Megapolensis, Rev. Dr., xl 
 
 Meynall, Joseph, xix 
 
 Middlefield (N.Y.), lix 
 
 Milet, the missionary, liii 
 
 Miller, Godfrey, 35 
 
 Miln, John, xvii 
 
 Minisink (N. Y.), settlement 
 of, xxxi, xxxii, lxvi ; growth 
 of, lxvii ; trouble in, lxvii ; 
 on the road to Pennsylvania, 
 lxxi, 8, 73 ; first house in, 
 75 ; no settlement above, 
 76 
 
 Mohawk River, the; Indians 
 of, at Fort Hunter, 24; up- 
 per Indian castle on, 28; 
 Indians following husbandry 
 on, 60; first knowledge of, 
 xl ; Palatines arrive on, 
 xxxvii ; grants of land on, 
 xliii, xlv; settlement of, 
 xlv, xlvii ; Indian's mission 
 of, xlvi; Indians from set- 
 tled at Oghwaga, liv; 
 mouths of, 19; lands on, 
 21; at Schenectady, 23; and 
 the Border Wars, 24; near 
 Fort Johnson, 26; families 
 from going to Pennsylvania, 
 56 
 
 Mohicans, devastate the Hud- 
 
 96 
 
INDEX 
 
 son Valley, xxx ; a village 
 
 of, 62, 11 
 Mongaup River, the, 76 
 Montcalm, General, xxxix 
 Montgomery, General Richard, 
 
 11,24 
 Moodna Creek, 7 
 Moore, George H., xxi, 87 
 Moore, General Sir Henry, 4, 
 
 11 
 Morgan's Riflemen, 72 
 Morris, Governor, lxviii 
 Morris, General Jacob, 42 
 Morris, Lewis, 13 
 Morris, Richard, 13 
 Morris, Colonel Roger, xxxv 
 Morris, Colonel Staats Long, 
 
 13, 37, 42, 52, 56 
 Morrisania (N. Y.), 13 
 Moseley, Eleazer, lvi, 64; his 
 
 work at Oghwaga, 65, 67, 68 
 Murderer's Creek, 7 
 Musconetcung Mountains, the, 
 
 78 
 Musconetcung River, the, 78 
 Mount Vision (X.Y.), xix 
 Meyers — , 35 
 
 Narrows, the, 4 
 Natchez (Miss.), xx 
 Newark (N.J.), lxxiii, 3 
 Newberrv, Tohn, xix, 8 
 New Beverly (X. J.), lxiii 
 New England, men from, 
 crossing to the Susque- 
 hanna, 8 
 New Hampshire, population 
 
 of. xxxviii 
 New Jersey, Smith's history 
 of, xiv: population of, 
 xxxviii ; troubles of. with 
 New York. Ixvii 
 Newman — . 70 
 New Netherlands, map of, 
 xxvii 
 
 New Paltz (N.Y.)i xxxii 
 New Windsor (N. Y.), 7 
 New York, population of the 
 province of, xiii, xxiii, 
 xxxviii ; its northern fron- 
 tier, xxvi ; population of, 
 xxxii; a penal colony, xxxiii ; 
 in the French War, xxxix ; 
 Figurative Map of, xl 
 New York City, in 1752, de- 
 scribed, xxiv, xxix ; freight 
 to, from Albany, 6; roads 
 from, to Albany, 9 ; Niagara, 
 xliii 
 Non-Importation Agreement, 
 
 xxiii 
 North Carolina, population of, 
 
 xxxviii 
 North Station Point, lxvii 
 Nbtt, Rev. Eliphalet, 31 
 
 Oaks Creek, 37; sec Oaksncc 
 Oaksnee, 37; lands on, 38, 44 
 Oghwaga, trade at, xlix; an 
 old town, liii : missionaries 
 at, lvi ; Gideon Hawley at. 
 lxix ; Indians from. 37 ; the 
 Indian town at. 47 ; path 
 of the Indian- to, 5". 
 arrival at, 64; Indian 
 houses at. 65-66; services 
 at. 67; described. 68; a ser- 
 mon at. 68 ; path from to 
 Cookooze, 70 ; destruction 
 
 of. 72. 73 
 
 Ohio River, the. xvi 
 
 "i 'Id New York Frontier," 
 
 the, lvi 
 ( meida County (N Y.)i xv 
 I hieida Indians, the. 71 
 Oneida Lake, xvi, liv 
 Oneonta | X. Y.)« in ^ H ' 0\ 
 
 patent, xvii. 6; store 1 
 near. 57 ; village of. s~ : the 
 creek. '59. 60. 
 
 97 
 
INDEX 
 
 Onondaga Indians, the, 83 
 Onoyarenton ; see Oneonta 
 Ontario Lake, xl 
 Orange County (N. Y.), xxxi, 
 xxxii, lxvii; the line of, 5, 
 
 6,7 
 Oriskany, Battle of, xv 
 Oswego (N.Y.), xlv, 1 
 Otego, the patent, survey of, 
 xv ; location of, xvii ; lands 
 purchased on, 3 ; settle- 
 ments on, 6, 31, 38, 39; is- 
 lands in the creek, 42, 49; 
 ascent of the creek, 50, 51; 
 timber on, 53-55 ; a mill on, 
 60; length of the creek, 60, 
 72, 81 
 Otego, the village of, 40 
 Otsdawa Creek, the, xviii 
 Otsego County (N. Y.), xvii 
 Otsego Lake, grant of land on, 
 xvii, xx, lvii ; settlement on, 
 lx ; white men at, xl, li ; 
 Indians at, liv; the only 
 wagon road to, 8, 34; the 
 patent, 40 ; lands near, 45 ; 
 a canoe built on, 46; trail 
 to, 52, 57, 81 
 Otseningo (N. Y.), 55, 64 
 Otter's, 77-78 
 Ouleout Creek, the, lx 
 
 Palatine Bridge (N. Y.), 28 ^ 
 Palatine Germans, the, xxxvii; 
 on the Susquehanna, lv; on 
 the Delaware, lxv; at Liv- 
 ingston Manor, 12; at Scho- 
 harie, 33 
 Palisades, the, 4 
 Parkman, Francis, xli ; quoted, 
 
 16 
 PaulusHook (N.J.),3, 81 
 Peace of Utrecht, the, xlv 
 Pennamite Wars, the, 56 
 
 Pennsylvania, population of, 
 
 xxxviii 
 Pennsylvania Dutch, the, lvi 
 Penn, William, growth of his 
 
 colony after he made his 
 
 treaty, lxii ; founds West 
 
 Jersey, lxiv, 87 
 Peter, an Indian, 67, 68 
 Philadelphia, xxiv, lxiii 
 Philipse, Colonel, xxxvi 
 Philipse, Frederick, xxxv 
 Philipse, Mary, xxxv 
 Philipse Manor, xxxviii; 
 
 lands at described, 5 
 Picken, Robert, 37; his map, 
 
 43 ; and the survey, 44, 45, 
 
 46 
 Pocono Mountains, lxxi, 56 
 Pohatkong, 78 
 Polopel's Island, 6 
 Pondicherry, siege of, 13 
 Pontiac, conspiracy of, li 
 Popaghton, the, branch of the 
 
 Delaware, 73 ; forks of, 73 ; 
 
 surveyors at, j6 
 Port Jervis (N. Y.), lxiv, lxvi, 
 
 lxx, lxxii 
 Post Office building, the, in 
 
 New York City, xxiii 
 Potter, Bishop Henry C, 31, 
 
 49 
 Poughkeepsie (N. Y.), 9 
 Prevost, Captain Augustine, 
 
 lx, 29, 33 ; arrival at his 
 
 house, 34, 35 ; sells land, 49, 
 
 81 
 
 Quakers, the, xxx, lxiii 
 
 Quebec, fall of, xxvi ; battle 
 of, xxxix 
 
 Queen Anne and the Palatines, 
 xxxvii, xlvii ; visited by Iro- 
 quois kings, 37 
 
 Queen Anne's Parsonage 
 xlvii 
 
 98 
 
INDEX 
 
 Red Kill (N.Y.), 31 
 Rensselaer County (N. Y.), 
 
 Rensselaer wvck, manor of, 14, 
 
 Riche, Thomas, 78 
 
 Richfield (N.Y.), lvii, lix, 34; 
 
 the lake at, 38 
 Ridgeway, William, 3 ; helps 
 
 make the Otego survey, 40, 
 
 44, 49, 60, 61, 81 
 Rogers's Island, 13 
 Rome (N. Y.), xv 
 Romboudt manor, the, xxxv 
 Rondout, trading post at, 
 
 xxix 
 Rosecrantz — , 76 
 
 St. Paul's Church, in New 
 York City. 30 
 
 Saratoga, xlvii 
 
 Schenevus Creek, lix, 55 ; a 
 start for, 51 ; trail to, 55, 58 
 
 Schenectady, grant of land at, 
 xlii ; destroyed, xliii ; mission- 
 aries at. xlvi ; condition of, 
 li ; distance of from Al- 
 bany, 19 ; route to from Co- 
 hoes, 20; described, 22, 23, 
 30; the Mohawk at, 25, 27, 
 80 
 
 Schodack. xxx, 14 
 
 Schoharie, xxxvii. lv : dis- 
 tance to from Catskill. 12; 
 route to from the Hudson, 
 13; the river, 24, 31; set- 
 tlers at. 33, 35; trail to, 52, 
 
 55 
 Schoharie Crook-, the, lvii 
 Schoonhoven, Richard. 4 
 Schuyler, David, lvii, 38 
 Schuyler. Colonel, xxxvi 
 Schuyler's Lake, 38 
 Schuyler. Colonel Peter, xlvii 
 
 Schuyler, General Philip, 15 
 Scotch Irish, on the Susque- 
 hanna, lviii, 30 
 Scotoc's Island, 14 
 Scramlin's, 28, 29, 30 
 Scutter's Island, 14 
 Sergeant, John, lvii 
 Shackamaxon, treaty of, lxiii 
 "Shades of Death," the, lxxi 
 Sharon Springs (N.Y.), 32 
 Shamokin (Penn.), lxix 
 Shawnee Indians, 83 
 Shohola (Penn.), 75 
 Sidnev < X. Y. ), village of, 40, 
 
 Simitiere, P. E. du, xxi ; his 
 
 copy <>f this journal, 88 
 Skeneves : see Schenevus 
 Sleeper, John, 46, 54 
 
 Sleeper, Joseph, 46 
 Sleepy Hollow (X.Y.), 5 
 Smack's Island, 17 
 Smith's Lake. 42 
 Smith. Colonel, xxxii 
 Smith Hall, xviu 
 Smith. Captain John, liii 
 Smith. Richard. importance 
 of his journal, xiii-xiv; his 
 family, xiv : his t< >ur. xv ; be- 
 gins to settle his tract, xiv ; 
 scribes his house, xix ; re- 
 moves to Smith Hall, xx : or- 
 iginal manuscript of his 
 journal, xxi : changes he 
 made in his nfanuscript, 
 xxvi. xxvii ; his visit to the 
 Hudson Valley, xxvii: when 
 he visited the Susquehanna 
 Valley, be; his journey from 
 New York 
 City. 3 : from New York to 
 Albany, 4-t8 he lands at 
 -ton's Mill. S: at Peek- 
 man's Manor, 10; meets 
 Hans, an Indian, 11; lands 
 
 99 
 
INDEX 
 
 on the Catskill shore, 13 ; de- 
 scribes Albany, 16-18; leaves 
 Albany for Cohoes, 19; de- 
 scribes Cohoes Falls, 20; 
 podges in Schenectady, 22- 
 23; visits the Johnsons, 23- 
 25; at Kincaid's, 26-27; at 
 Canajoharie, 28; starts for 
 Cherry Valley, 29; Cherry 
 Valley described, 30-31 ; 
 reaches Otsego Lake 35 ; 
 meets Colonel Croghan, 36; 
 starts to make his survey, 
 37; dines on his own terri- 
 tory, 39; describes the Ot- 
 ego country, 40-43 ; returns 
 to Croghan, 44; describes 
 lands about Otsego Lake, 
 45-46; launches a canoe, 46; 
 engages Joseph Brant as a 
 guide, 47; describes a bark 
 canoe, 48; describes lands on 
 the Otego Patent, 50-51 ; 
 starts for Schenevus, 51-52; 
 describes his course, 53-54; 
 meets Dorn, a Dutchman, 
 56; starts for Oghwaga, 58; 
 passes the Charlotte, 58 ; ar- 
 rives at the mouth of the 
 Otego, 60; at a village of 
 Mohicans, 62 ; engages 
 another guide, 63 ; arrives at 
 Cunnahunta, 63 ; reaches 
 Oghwaga, 64 ; describes that 
 town, 65-67 ; attends ser- 
 vices, 67-68 ; leaves for Cook- 
 ooze, 70; at Cookooze, 72, 
 73 ; at Cushietunk, 75 ; 
 reaches Fort Jervis, 76 ; at 
 the Delaware Vater Gap, 
 J7\ at Easton, 78; at Tren- 
 ton, 70 ; reaches Burlington, 
 80: his table of his tour, 
 81-82 ; his notes on the man- 
 ners and customs of the In- 
 
 dians, 83-88; copies of his 
 
 journal, 88 
 Smith, Richard R., xx 
 Smith River, lxi 
 Smith, Samuel, xiv 
 Smollett, Tobias, xxi 
 Sopus ; see E so pus 
 Sopus Kill, 12 
 Southampton (L. I.), xxx 
 Speir, Archibald W., lxix 
 Spencer, Rev. Elihu, lvi 
 Spencer, Thomas, 72 
 Springfield (N. Y.), 29, 35 
 Spuyten Duyvil (N. Y.), 4 
 Stamp Act Congress, the, 
 
 xxiii 
 Stamford (N. Y.), lxxii, 31 
 Station Point, the north, 73, 74 
 Steele, O. W., 22 
 Steele, Richard, t>7 
 Stone, W. L., xxxi, 24 
 Storm King, 7 
 Stringer, Doctor, 31 
 Stroudsburg (Penn.), lxxi 
 Stuyvesant, Peter, xxix 
 Sub-Treasury, the, in New 
 
 York, xxiii 
 Sullivan County (N. Y.), 22 
 Sullivan, General John, 24; his 
 
 expedition, 49, 72 
 Summit Lake, 31; trail to, 52; 
 
 Van Valkenburg killed on, 
 
 53 
 Susquehanna River, the, xvi ; 
 traders on, lv ; first white 
 men on, liii ; first title to, 
 lvii ; settlers on, lx ; trouble 
 on, lxix ; settlers on, 8 ; Mor- 
 ris patent on, 13; lands on 
 owned by General Brad- 
 street, 15 ; settlements on, 
 29; sources of, 36; arrival 
 on, 43-44: course of, 49; 
 trail on, 52; lands on, 61; 
 widening of, 64, 81 
 
 IOO 
 
INDEX 
 
 Sussex County (X. J.), lxii, 78 
 
 Talleyrand, Prince, 42 
 Tamanend, lxii 
 Tammany, lxii 
 Tappan (N.Y.), 4 
 Tarrytown (N. Y.), 5 
 Teyonadelhough (N. Y.), 56; 
 
 see Unadilla 
 Thayendanegea, 37; see Brant, 
 
 Joseph 
 Tioga Point (Penn.), 49 
 Treaty of Paris, the, xxvi 
 Trenton (N. J.). 79, 80 
 Tribes Hill (N.Y.), 24,25 
 Trumbull, John, 67 
 Trvon County, population of, 
 
 xiii ; militia of, lviii, lx, 24, 
 
 28 
 Tryon, Governor William, 24, 
 
 25 
 Tunaderrah ; see Unadilla 
 Tunadilla ; See Unadilla 
 Tunnicliffe, family of, lix 
 Tuscaroras, the, liv 
 Tuscarora Town. 67, 83 
 Tyler, Bazilael, 75, 79 
 
 Ulster County (N.Y.), xxxii. 
 6, 22 
 
 Una, an Indian, 63, 71, 75 
 
 Unadilla. origin of the name. 
 39; village of. 40; trail at. 
 56; Mohicans at, 63, 72: de- 
 struction of, 72 
 
 Unadilla River, the, xvi. liv. 
 lvii. lix: tributaries of. 39, 
 42; trail along, 52; mouth 
 of, 62, 64 
 
 Utica, xliii 
 
 Van Camp. Colonel. 77 
 Van Cortlandt, Colonel, xxxvi 
 Van Cortlandt Manor, the 
 xxxv, 5 
 
 Van Cortlandt, Oliver, 5 
 Van Cortlandt, Stephanus, 5 
 Van Curler, Arent, xlii 
 Van der I kmck, \I 
 Van Rensselaer, Colonel John, 
 
 15 
 Van Rensselaer, Killien, xxxiv, 
 
 17 ; his lands, 21 
 Van Rensselaer, Stephen, 17 
 Van Rensselaer Manor, the, 
 
 beginnings of, xxiv, xxxvi, 
 
 xlii 
 Van Rensselaer, Mrs. Schuy- 
 ler, xxxiv 
 Van Valkenburg, Joachim, lix, 
 
 53 : see )' oleum's 
 Vastric Island, 13 
 Verplanck Manor, the, xxxv 
 Virginia, population of, 
 
 xxxviii 
 Visscher Map, the, xxvii, liv 
 
 Waggoner's Patent, 35 
 Walkill (N.Y.), 9 
 Walking Purchase, the. lxv, 79 
 Wall Street (N. Y. City). 
 
 xxiii, xxxiii 
 Wallace Patent, the, lvii 
 Wallace. Alexander, 62 
 Wallace. Hugh, 62 
 Walloons, settle on Manhattan 
 
 Island, xxvi ; in Albany. 
 
 xxvii : on the Hudson, xxxi, 
 Walpack, 78 
 Walton, William, lx 
 Walton House, the, xxiv 
 Wappinger Creek, xxxv 
 Warren's Bush (N.Y.), xlviii 
 Warren. Sir Peter, xlviii 
 Washington. I I XXV, 
 
 IT 
 
 Wautcgbe ; see 
 Waywayyonda (N. Y.), ** x 'i 
 Wells. Robert, on the tOUT with 
 Afr. Smith. 20. 20, 44. 5°. 
 
 IOI 
 
INDEX 
 
 60; observes transit of Ve- 
 nus, 64; on his way home 
 with Mr. Smith, 71, 78, 80, 
 81 
 
 Wells, John, 30 
 
 Wells, Major, builds a fort at 
 Oghwaga, lxx; arrival at 
 his house in Cherry Valley, 
 30; at service with, 31; his 
 farm, 32; his store, etc., 33, 
 35, 65, 81 
 
 West Indies, flour sent to, xiv 
 
 West India Company, the, 
 xxxiv 
 
 West Jersey, lxiv 
 
 West Kill, 35 
 
 Westmoreland County (Penn.), 
 lxxi 
 
 Wheelock, Doctor Eleazer, 37; 
 his school, 47 
 
 Wicwise — , 68 
 
 Wilkes Bar re (Penn.), lxxi 
 
 Wiltwick (N.Y.), settlement 
 of, XXX 
 
 Windsor (Conn.), 35 
 
 Wise, Thomas, xix 
 
 Wolfe, General James, xxxix 
 
 Woodbridge (N.J.), 3 
 
 Wyalusing (Penn.), lxix 
 
 Wyoming (Penn.), John But- 
 ler at, xvii, lxv; people from 
 Connecticut in, lxx ; Massa- 
 cre of, 24; road from to 
 Bethlehem, 57; settlers 
 bound for, 56, 68 
 
 Yager, Willard E., 86 
 
 Yale University, 57 
 
 Yates, Christopher, 40 
 
 Yokum's, arrival at, 52; his 
 settlement, 53, 55 ; road 
 from to Cherry Valley, 57 
 
 Yonkers, xxxv, xxxviii, 5 
 
 I02 
 
 
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