were places of comparative elegance, and the country appeared like a beautiful and flourishing garden.
     A better illustration of their advancement in the arts of civilization, cannot perhaps be given, than that presented in Stones "Life of Brant," wherein he pictures the destruction wrought by the invading army. "The axe and the torch," he says, "soon transformed the whole of that beautiful region from the character of a garden to a scene of drear and sickening desolation. Forty Indian towns, the largest containing one hundred and twenty-eight houses, were destroyed; corn, gathered and ungathered to the amount of one hundred and sixty thousand bushels, shared the same fate; their fruit trees were cut down; and the Indians were hunted like wild beasts, till neither house nor fruit-tree, nor field of corn, nor inhabitant remained in the whole country. The gardens were enriched with great quantities of useful vegetables of different kinds. The size of the corn fields, as well as the high degree of cultivation in which they were kept, excited wonder; and the ears of corn were so remarkably large, that many of them measured twenty-two inches in length.
     "So numerous were the fruit-trees, that in one orchard they cut down fifteen hundred of them."
     Several towns were destroyed on the return of the army by detachments sent into the region of Cayuga lake and elsewhere. That detachments of the army were sent up the Chemung, above Elmira, both on thier arrival at Newtown on August 31, 1779, and after their return - September 27 and 28 - is evident from several published documents.
     The late Gen. John S. Clark, of Auburn, N.Y., who had voluminous collection of papers pretaining to the campaign of Sullivan, and who had studied that subject as well as the Indian antiquities of this state, believed there were three villages destroyed on the Chemung above Elmira - one at or near Big Flats, another near the present site of Corning, and the third at Painted Post.
     Gen. Sullivan in his official report says:
     "From this place, - Elmira - Col. Dayton was detached with his regiment and the rifle corps up the Tioga about six miles, who destroyed several large fields of corn."
     The following is from Canfield's Journal: "August 31, Col. Dayton was detached to follow the enemy up the Chemung, but could not overtake them, but came to an Indian town which he destroyed, and also the corn."
     Col. Hubley says under date of September 27, "The detachment ordered to march yesterday moved this morning up the Tioga branch to an Indian village about twelve miles from this place, with orders to destroy the same. At dark this evening the detachment which moved this morning returned, after destroying a considerable quantity of corn, beans, and other vegetables, sixteen boat-loads of which they brought with them for the use of the army. They also burned a small village."

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     James Norris says: "Sept. 28, the same party that was sent yesterday was sent again to-day farther up the river to destoy a Tory settlement that a small party discovered yesterday."
     Speaking of this "Tory Settlement," General Clark says: "This last place, according to the accounts, appears to have been at Painted Post where was also a considerable village in 1764, called Assinnisink, a Monsey town near the confluence of the Canisteo and Tioga. It was the residence of Jacheabus, the leader of the war party that committed the massacre of the Mahoney in 1755. The exact location of this most ancient town is somewhat uncertain. The Pennsylvania Historical Map places it in the forks of the two rivers in the town of Erwin."
     There can be no doubt but that some one of the detachments sent up the Chemung penetrated this country as far as the confluence of the Canisteo and Tioga rivers, and destroyed all crops, buildings and orchards, which were in their way. When the first white settlers came into the Chemung valley, the only Indian orchard that remained standing was on an island about two miles above Painted Post, and which was probably overlooked by the devastating soldiers. The last of these apple trees was cut down only two years since, and was said by the late Charles Erwin, to have measured four feet in diameter.
     It is claimed by some local writers, chiefly on traditional authority, that a detachment of Maxwell's brigade came up the Chemung and had an engagement with the Indians at the mouth of a little creek, since called Bloody Run, about two and a half miles below Corning, on the north side of the river, on September 4 and 5, 1779. Others again deny this, chiefly on the ground that no allusion is made to any such battle or engagement in any published account of the expedition.
     The Canisteo and Conhocton rivers were first made known to geographers near the close of the French war, by a map called "Pouchot's map," found in a collection of documents pertaining to colonial times in America, and known as the "Paris Documents." Pouchot prepared this map in 1758, showing the English and French possessions and giving therein a very accurate description of the country which was furnished him by the Indians.
     The "Kanisteo" was frequently alluded to in official correspondence and was well known at Fort Niagara. One of the great trails much traversed by the Iroquois Confederacy, led from the Genesee river to the head of the Canisteo, thence down the valley to the Susquehanna. The map indicates an Indian village on the present site of the village of Canisteo, and another at Painted Post. At that time the Canisteo flowed through a trackless wilderness. A solitary Indian trail passed along its banks, which was intersected by a north and south trail from the head of Lake Keuka. At that time the territory west of Lake Keuka was unexplored by the whites.

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    During the colonial period there was a noted settlement of Indians at Canisteo. The time of their settlement here is unknown, but it was many years before the revolution, and after the Delawares had been subjugated by the Six Nations, who held them in utter contempt. "We have made you women; we have put petticoats on you," was the uniformly insulting language of their victors. Hence, cowering with fear under the hand of the oppressor, the widespread tribes of the Delawares are supposed to have given the white men a less jealous reception than their masters - they lingered in the neighborhood of the whites, and sought their society more.
     The clan of Indians which dwelt in the region of "Kanisteo" at the time when written history first alludes to them, were of Delaware extraction we are told; and are said to have been reduced to a low state of degredation. To them had joined themselves a few deserters from the British army, with a sprinkling of fugitive slaves, escaped convicts, and refugees from various Indian tribes, making altogether a class fitly designated by the great council at Onondaga as "stragglers from all nations."
     In 1762, two of these Kanisteo brigands murdered, somewhere in the Seneca country, two British subjects, Dutch traders from Albany, whose goods were confiscated by them and probably carried to their village at Kanisteo. Sir William Johnson, the English governor on the Mohawk, made prompt requisition of the head men of the Iroquois league to have the murderers brought to justice. Negotiations continued through many months. A council was held and the answer was to the effect that the Confederacy ought not to be charged with a breach of friendly relations with the English on account of the acts of a pair of miscreants from a village like Kanisteo. Failing to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion of the matter, Sir William Johnson determined to be trifled with no longer. A party of one hundred and forty Indians, with a few white men, under the command of Captain Montour, a half-breed war-chief, was dispatched to break up the nest.
     The inhabitants fled at Montour's approach, but he destroyed their villages and property. The first was Kanhaugton, at Tioga Point, Pa. It consisted of thirty-six good houses built of square logs and having stone chimneys. The next point was a village on the "Cayuga Branch," (the Chemung), where thirty houses of the same kind were destroyed. Thence the party marched to Kanisteo, which the report in the colonial records describes as "the largest of the Delaware towns, consisting of sixty good houses with three or four fire-places in each." The emissaries of justice spared nothing. The village was burned and the miscellaneous inhabitants plundered. They even found in this secluded retreat horses, horned cattle and swine, which, however, were

PAGE 17

in such poor condition after the winter, that few were fit to be driven away. It appears that no effort was made by the Kanisteos to defend their town.
     Two forts, exhibiting considerable engineering skills were discovered here by the early settlers. One was situated on the bank of the river, just in the neck of the defile as it opens into the valley on the east. It occupied about an acre of ground, with four square corners, and was enclosed by palisades or pickets. The embankment remaining when the first settlers came to the place was about two feet long. At the mouth of a similar opening into the valley from the south, on Colonel Bill's creek, was another fort of about the same size and construction, which seems to have been designed as a place of retreat in case the first fort was taken by the enemy.
     Although no mention is made of a fort in the brief record of the expedition, and it is stated, or at leas implied, that the Kanisteos made no resistance; yet the forts, or the main fort below the town, may not have been garrisoned at the time of the invasion, and may have been passed by unnoticed, as it stood about fifteen rods from the bank of the river. At all events, these forts were here when the early settlers came to the country and the most reasonable supposition is that they were built by the band of outlaws destroyed by Sir William Johnson's expedition in the sprint of 1764.
     Very soon after the establishment of the independence of the states in 1683, the enterprise of American citizens was directed to the development of the natural advantages of the country. Before the war of the revolution, the inhabited parts of the colony of New York were limited to less than a tenth of its possessions. A narrow belt of country, extending for a short distance on either side of the Hudson, with a similar occupation on the banks of the Mohawk, together with the islands of Manhattan and Staten, and a few insulated setlements on chosen lands along the margins of streams, composed the country which was then inhabited by less than two hundred thousand souls.
     As late at 1786, the march of civilization had halted at the eastern line of the Indian territory, subsequently known as the pre-emption lands of the state of New York. After the revolution the state of Massachusetts by virtue of the charter granted by James I. to the Plymouth Colony, and because of the alleged fealty of the confederacy to the British, claimed the entire Indian territory of the state.
     This charter was granted in 1620, and embraced a tract extending along the Atlantic coast from 40 degrees to 48 degrees north latitude, and extended across the continent to the Pacific ocean. It comprised almost half of the entire territory embraced at present in the United States and was called New England.

PAGE 18

     Sir Henry Roswell and several other gentlemen who dwelt about Dorchester, petitioned for a royal charter under the impression that their power would be thereby increased. A charter of incorporation was granted by King Charles I., constituting them a body politic by the name of "the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, in New England," with as ample power as was possessed by any other corporation in the realm of England. The patent recited the grant of American territory to the council of Plymouth and re-granted Masachusetts Bay to Sir Henry Roswell and others, and accordingly, on March 19, 1627, the Plymouth Company deeded to these gentlemen a part of the original grant, extending in breadth along the Atlantic coast one hundred and forty miles and continuing the same breadth across the continent to the Pacific ocean. Under this grant the colony of Massachusetts was established.
     Henry Hudson, an Englishman, in the year 1609, under a commission from the King of England, discovered Long Island, Manhattan, and the river which bears his name, and afterward sold the country - or his interest therein - to the Dutch. The Dutch writers contend that Hudson was sent out by the East India company in 1609, to discover a northwest passage to China; and that having first discovered Delaware Bay, he penetrated up Hudson River as far north as the latitude of 43 degrees. It is said, however, that there was a sale, and that the English objected to it, though they for some time neglected to oppose the Dutch settlement of the country.
     In 1664, Charles II. of England, having ascended the throne, disregarded the Dutch claim on New Netherland, and made a grant to his brother, the Duke of York and Albany, which included all the mainland of New England, beginning at St. Croix, extending to the rivers Connecticut and Hudson "together with the said river called Hudson's river, and all the lands from the west side of Connecticut river to the east side of Delaware Bay." This constituted the province of New York.
     As before stated, Massachusetts, by virtue of the King James grant to the Plymouth Colony, clung to the title thus obtained. In view of the bad feeling engendered among the settlers in Pennsylvania on account of a similar claim made by the state of Connecticut and which ultimately resulted in bloodshed and war, the differences between the states of Massachusetts and New York were compromised by representatives of these two states, assembled in convention at Hartford, Conn., in 1786, commonly called the "Hartford Convention." * By action of

*A convention which met at Hartford in December, 1814, is also denominated the "Hartford Convention." The war of that period was the cause that induced the New England States to call this latter convention.

PAGE 19

this body the pre-emption right of soil was ceded to Massachusetts and the sovereignty of territory to the state of New York.
     Massachusetts was ceded the right of pre-emption of the soil from the native Indians to about 230,000 acres of land north of Pennsylvania between the Chenango and Owego rivers, commonly called the "Massachusetts Ten Townships," and also to all lands of New York west of a line beginning at the center of the 82d mile stone on the north boundary of Pennsylvania and running due north and terminating at Sodus Bay on Lake Ontario, except one mile in width along Niagara river. This tract became known as the "Genesee Tract."
     In April, 1787, Messrs. Nathaniel Gorham, of Massachusetts, and Oliver Phelps, of Connecticut, purchased the pre-emption right to all that part of the state which lies west of this meridian or pre-emption line. *
     Having made this purchase, they immediately set about making preparations for the extinguishment of the Indian title to the lands. Accordingly, in the summer of 1788, Mr. Phelps left Granville, in the state of Massahusetts, with men and means proportionate to the hazardous undertaking, as it was then supposed to be. Such was the apprehension of danger to this expedition in the minds of many of the community, that, it is said, on setting out of the party from Granville, the neighborhood assembled to bid them adieu, and as many of them believed, a final adieu, supposing it very improbable that any of them would live to return.
     In due time, however, they arrived at "Canadarque," as Canandaigua was then called, accompanied by a commissioner on the part of the state of Massachusetts, and Rev. Samuel Kirkland, the missionary to the Six Nations, who was employed as interpreter in the negotiations with the Indians. On July 8th, 1788, a treaty with the Seneca tribe was concluded, which is known as the "treaty of Buffalo creek," whereby the whole territory known as the Massachusetts pre-emption was ceded to Messrs. Phelps and Gorham by the Indians.
     Within the year Messrs. Gorham and Phelps ceded back to Massachusetts, all this territory on the west side of the Genesee river, except twelve by twent-five miles above the mouth and parallel with the river.
     After perfecting their title, Messrs. Gorham and Phelps immediately

*It must be understood that Messrs. Gorham and Phelps, although acting in their own names only in this transaction, were merely the representatives of a company consisting of themselves and a number of others, who had formed an association for the purchase of these lands.

PAGE 20

arranged for putting these lands upon the market, and opened an office for their sale at "Canadarque." *
     In the spring of 1789, engineer Hugh Maxwell sub-contracted the southeastern portion of the purchase, to Messrs. Augustus Porter, Frederick Saxton and others, who laid it out into ranges of six miles square townships, the ranges numbering from the east to the west, and the townships of each range numbering from south, northward, commencing at the eighty-second mile stone of the Pennsylvania state line.
     It was plain to see that the noblest forest of the Six Nations was soon to be destroyed. "This magnificent woodland, enclosed on three sides by lakes Erie and Ontatio, and that chain of rivers and small lakes which divides our state into Central and Western New York, was already invaded by the forerunners of civilization. Traders had established themselves on the great trails. Explorers had marked cascades for the mill-wheel, and council groves for the axe. Tribe after tribe had first wavered and then fallen before the seductions of the merchant and the commissioner; amidst the temptations of rifles and red rags and silver dollars, the expostulations of the native orators, who besought the clans to hold forever their ancient inheritance, were unavailing. Uneasy immigration was already pressing the borders of the whole western country, and like water about to flood the land, was leaking through the barriers of the wilderness at every crevice. Wyoming rifles were already ringing in the woods of Onondaga and Genesee, and most fatal of all signs, the land-ogre from Massachusetts sat in his den at Canadarque, carving the princely domains of the Senecas into gores and townships, while the wild men could but stand aside, some in simple wonder, others with Roman indignation, to see the partition of their inheritance." +
     By legislative enactment, the "First Purchase," or pre-emption lands, were taken from Montgomery county and made a separate county called Ontario, in March, 1789. ++ Canadarque was designated its capitol. By the same act the justices of the Court of Sessions of the new county were authorized to make, as they saw fit, the civil divisions.
     After selling out to actual settlers and speculators about one-third of the tract of which they had become possessed, Mssrs. Gorham and Phelps, on November 18, 1790, conveyed by deed to Robert Morris,

     *This is said to have been the first land office in America, and for the first time land was here conveyed by "article." This was a new devise, of American origin, wholly unknown to the English system, of granting possession without fee.
     +McMaster.
     ++The Seneca name is Ga-nun-da-gua, "a place selected for a settlement."

PAGE 21

the patriot merchant of revolutionary memory, nearly all that remained, amounting to about one million, two hundred and sixty-four thousand acres. The price of the land was eight pence per acre. Mr. Morris sold his contract to Col. Charles Williamson, who held this estate in secret trust for Sir William Pulteney, and English Baronet, and others. In March, 1801, Mr. Williamson conveyed the estate formally to Sir William Pulteney, an act having been passed by the legislature of New York in 1798, authorizing conveyances to aliens for the term of three years. This conveyance was made three days before the expiration of the act by its own limitation.
     The property thus conveyed has been generally known by the designation of "the Pulteny estate."
     The freeholders of Steuben county generally, except in the towns of Hornellsville, Canisteo, Erwin, Campbell, Corning and Lindley, which were purchased direct from Phelps & Gorham, derive their titles from Sir William Pulteney or his heirs.
     To facilitate the sale of the lands, offices were early established at Geneva and Bath.
     The rapidity of the settlement of western New York, and the uninterrupted prosperity attending it, constitute a circumstance which finds no parallel in the previous history of new settlements. Formerly, new regions were ordinarily settled at great expense to the government or to the individuals, in a very slow and gradual manner, and almost always with the loss of many lives by the incursion of hostile foes. How many new settlements were, after a long period of toil and suffering, and the loss of many valuable lives, entirely broken up by these circumstances! The settlement of the Genesee country has not been wholly exempt from these trials. At times, particularly in the summer 1794, the white inhabitants felt alarmed in view of some hostile demonstrations on the part of the Seneca Indians. These Indians claimed that they had been cheated in the sale of their land, and were undoubtedly more exasperated in the recollection of the severe chastisement which they had received by the expedition of General Sullivan into their country. They manifested a strong feeling of hostility, and used threatening language toward the white settlers. In this crisis a council of the Indians was convoked at Canandaigua by the government of the United States, in the month of November, 1794. Some of the Indians on their way to the council told the white people, that, on their return, if their grievances were not redressed, they should take off the scalps of the whites. At this council the Six Nations were represented. Timothy Pickering appeared as commissioner from the government of the United States. On November 11, a treaty was concluded by which the United States acknowledged the lands reserved to the Oneida, Cayuga and Onondaga

PAGE 22

nations, in thier several treaties with the State of New York, to be the property of the said nations, and that the United States will never claim these reservations, nor disturb the Indians, nor their friends in the possession or enjoyment of them. They also acknowledged that all the lands included within the Stae of New York, lying west of the west line of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, with the exception of the small territory along the Genesee river, before mentioned, belonged to the Seneca nation of Indians, and they engaged never to disturb that tribe, nor any of the Six Nations, in the quiet possession of the same.
     The Six Nations on thier part agreed never to claim any other lands within the limits of the United States, nor to molest the people of the United States in any manner. They also ceded to the United States the privelege of making roads through their lands and navigating the rivers, occupying the harbors, landing places, etc.
     In consideration of the peace and friendship thus established, and the engagements entered into by the Six Nations, and with a view to render the peace perpetual, the United States delivered to the six nations $10,000 worth of goods, and contracted to pay them annually the sum of $4,500, to be expended for their benefit, under the direction of a superintendent, to be appointed by the President of the United States.
     The establishment of this treaty calmed the hostile feelings of the Indians, and completely removed the fears of the white inhabitants. From this period no serious trouble with the Indians existed, nor was the settlement of the country at all retarded through fear of Indian hostility.*

*Hodgkin.

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