Stratagem of a young Frenchman. Escape of the French. Early Explorations. Monumental Stone. Silver-bottomed Lake.

acquired great influence over the tribe. By their customs an adopted son had all the priv. ileges of a son by birth. When Dupuys had a sufficient number of bateaux finished, this young man went to his foster-father, and in a solemn manner related that he had dreamed, the previous night, that he was at a feast, where the guests ate and drank every thing that was set before them. He then asked the old chief to permit him to make such a feast for the tribe. The request was granted, and the feast was spread. Many Frenchmen were present, and with horns, drums, and trumpets, they kept a continual uproar. The French, in the mean while, were diligently embarking and loading their bateaux, unobserved by the feasting savages. At length the guests, who had been eating and drinking for hours, ceased gormandizing, to take some repose. The young Frenchman commenced playing upon a guitar, and in a few minutes every red man was in a profound slumber. He then joined his companions, and before morning the whole colony were far on their way toward Oswego. Late the next day the Indians stood wondering at the silence that prevailed in the dwellings of the whites, and when, at evening, having seen no signs of human life through the day, they ventured to break open the fastened dwellings, they were greatly astonished at finding every Frenchman gone; and greater was their perplexity in divining the means by which they escaped, being entirely ignorant of their having any vessels.'

Ten years afterward another French colony settled in what now is called Pompey, about fourteen miles from Syracuse, and for three years it prospered, and many converts were made to the Catholic faith from the Onondaga tribe. A company of Spaniards, having been informed of a lake whose bottom was covered with brilliant scales like silver, arrived there, and in a short time the animosities of the respective adventurers caused them to accuse each other to the Indians of foul designs upon the tribes. The Onondagas believed both parties, and determined to rid themselves of such troublesome neighbors. Assisted by the Oneidas and Cayugas, they fell upon the colony on All-Saints' day, 1669, and every Frenchman and Spaniard was massacred.'

Evidences of much earlier visits by Europeans have been found in the vicinity, among which was a sepulchral stone that was exhumed near Pompey Hill. It was of an oblong

SEPULCHRAL STONE.

figure, being fourteen inches long by twelve wide, and about eight inches in thickness. In the center of the surface was a figure of a tree, and a serpent climbing it; and upon each side of the tree was an inscription, as seen in the cut: "Leo X., De Vix, 1520. L. S. tn." This inscription may be thus translated: " Leo X., by the grace of God; sixth year of his pontificate, 1520." The letters L. S. were doubtless the initials of the one to whose memory the stone was set up. The cross denoted that he was a Roman Catholic, but the meaning of the inverted U is not so clear. It has been supposed that the stone was carved on the spot by a friend of the deceased, who may have been one of several French or Spanish adventurers that found their way hither from Florida, which was discovered by the Spaniards in 1502. They were amused and excited by stories of a lake far in the north, whose bottom was lined with silver, and this was sufficient to cause them to peril every thing in searching it out. De Soto's historian speaks, in the course of his narrative of the adventures of that commander in the interior of America, of extreme cold at a place called by the natives Saquechama. It is supposed that this name and Susquehanna are synonymous appellations for the country in Central New York, and that the silver-bottomed lake was the Onondaga, the flakes and crystals of salt which cover its bottom giving it the appearance of silver."

See extracts from a MS. history of Onondaga county, by Rev. J. W. Adams, of Syracuse, quoted in the Historical Collections of New York, p. 398.

2 Dewitt Clinton's Memoir on the Antiquities of Western New York.

3 See Clinton's Memoir, &c.; also, Sandford's Aborigines, note on page 114. The crystals of salt on the bottom of the lake, into which the salt springs flow, were, like the scales of mica discovered on the eastern coast by Gosnold and his party, mistaken for laminae of silver. There are not many salt springs near the

Rome.

Site of Fort Stanwix.

Forts Newport and Ball.

The Portage and Canal.

The Mohawk Valley.

We have already noticed the expedition of the French, under Frontenac, as far as the Onondaga Valley. From that time nothing but Indian feuds disturbed the repose that rested upon Onondaga Lake and the beautiful country around, until business enterprise within the present century began its warfare upon the forests and the rich soil.

I arrived at Rome, upon the Mohawk, toward noon. It is a pleasant village, and stands upon the site of old Fort Stanwix, on the western verge of the historical ground of the Mohawk Valley. Here was the outpost of active operations in this direction, and here was enacted one of the most desperate defenses of a fortress that occurred during our struggle for

area.

independence. The village, in its rapid growth, has overspread the site of the fortification, and now not a vestige of antiquity remains, except a large elm-tree by the house of Alvah Mudge, Esq., which stood within the southwest angle of the fort. Mr. Mudge kindly pointed out to me the area comprehended within the fort, and the portion of the village seen in the picture covers that The mason-work in the foreground is a part of the first lock of the Black River Canal, at present an unproductive work. The large building in the center of the pic ture is the mansion of John Striker, Esq., president of the Rome Bank, and stands near the site of the northeast angle of the fort. The whole view is only a few rods northwest of the Mohawk River, and a mile eastward of Wood Creek, the main inlet of Oneida Lake. Here was a portage of a

mile, and the only interruption of water communication between Schenectady and Oswego. This inconvenience was obviated by the construction of a canal between the Mohawk and Wood Creek, in 1797.

Fort Stanwix was built in 1758, under the direction of General Stanwix, after the defeat of Abercrombie at Ticonderoga. It was a strong square fortification, having bomb-proof bastions, a glacis, covered way, and a well-picketed ditch around the ramparts. Its position was important in a military point of view, for it commanded the portage between the Mohawk and Wood Creek, and was a key to communication between the Mohawk Valley and Lake Ontario. Other, but smaller, fortifications were erected in the vicinity. Fort Newport, on Wood Creek, and Fort Ball, about half way across the portage, formed a part of the military works there, and afforded not only a strong post of resistance to French aggression in that direction, but also a powerful protection to the Indian trade. The works cost the British and Colonial government two hundred and sixty-six thousand four hundred dollars, yet when the Revolution broke out the fort and its outposts were in ruins.

From the commencement of hostilities the Mohawk Valley was a theater of great activity, and all through the eventful years of the contest it suffered dreadfully from the effects of partisan warfare. Every rood of ground was trodden by hostile parties, and for seven years the fierce Indian, and the ofttimes more ferocious Tory, kept the people in continual alarm, spreading death and desolation over that fair portion of our land. So frequent and sanguinary were the stealthy midnight attacks or open daylight struggles, that Tryon coun

surface, but under the marshes that surround Onondaga Lake, and beneath the lake itself, there seems to lie a vast salt lake, and shafts are sunken from the surface above into it. The water or brine is pumped up from these shafts or wells, and vast quantities of salt are manufactured annually in the neighborhood of Syracuse. A great number of men find employment there, and the state derives a handsome revenue from the works.

Sir William Johnson and his Associates.

Effect of Political Movements upon the People.

Formation of Parties.

ty' obtained the appropriate appellation of "the dark and bloody ground," and, long after peace blessed the land, its forests were traversed with fear and distrust. Here was the seat of Sir William Johnson,' agent for the British government in its transactions with the SIX NATIONS. He was shrewd, cunning, and licentious, having little respect for the laws of God or man, and observed them only so far as compliance was conducive to his personal interest. By presents, conformity in dress and manners, and other appliances, he obtained almost unbounded influence over the tribes of the valley, and at his beck a thousand armed warriors would rush to the field. He died before the events of our Revolution brought his vast influence over the Indians into play, in active measures against the patriots. Yet his mantle of power and moral sway fell, in a great degree, upon his son, Sir John Johnson, who succeeded to his title, office, and estates. The latter, his cousin Guy Johnson, Thayendanegea (Brant) the Mohawk sachem, Daniel Claus, and the Butlers were the leading spirits of loyalty in Tryon county, and the actors and abettors of scenes that darken the blackest page in the history of our race. These will be noticed hereafter. For the present we will confine our thoughts to the most prominent local events immediately antecedent to the siege of Fort Stanwix, or Schuyler, upon the site of which, at Rome, we are standing. The excitement of the Stamp Act reached even the quiet valley of the Mohawk, and implanted there the seeds of rebellion, and the people were eager listeners while the conflict of power and principle was going on upon the sea-board, during the ten years preceding the organization of the Continental army, a The meeting of the general Continental Congress caused opinions to take a definite shape and expression, and in the autumn of that year the demarkation line between patriots and Loyalists was distinctly drawn among the people of this inland district.

WJohnson

1765.

a 1775.

In the spring of 1775, just before the second Congress assembled at Philadelphia, at a court holden at Johnstown, the Loyalists made a demonstration against the proceedings of

1 Tryon county then included all the colonial settlements in New York west and southwest of Schenectady. It was taken from Albany county in 1772, and named in honor of William Tryon, then governor of the province. The name was changed to Montgomery in 1784. The county buildings were at Johnstown, where was the residence of Sir William Johnson (still standing).

He was a nephew of Sir Peter War

2 Sir William Johnson was born in Ireland, about the year 1714. ren, the commodore who was distinguished in the attack on Louisburgh, Cape Breton, 1745. Sir Peter married a lady (Miss Watts) in New York, purchased large tracts of land upon the Mohawk, and about 1734 young Johnson was induced to come to America and take charge of his uncle's affairs in that quarter. He learned the Indian language, adopted their manners, and, by fair trade and conciliatory conduct, won their friendship and esteem. He built a large stone mansion on the Mohawk, about three miles west of Amsterdam, where he resided twenty years previous to the erection of Johnson Hall at Johnstown. It was fortified, and was called Fort Johnson. It is still standing, a substantial specimen of the domestic architecture of that period. In 1755 he commanded a force intended to invest Crown Point. He was attacked by Dieskau at the head of Lake George, where he came off victorious. For this he was made major general and a knight. He commanded the assault upon Niagara, after the death of Prideaux, and was successful there. He was never given credit for great military skill or personal bravery, and was more expert in intriguing with Indian warriors, and sending them to the field, than in leading disciplined troops boldly into action. (Johnstown) on the 11th of July, 1774, aged 60 years.

FORT JOHNSON.

He died at Johnson Hall

Violence of Loyalists. Assault upon Jacob Sammons.

Caughnawaga Church. Meeting at Cherry Valley. John Johnson.

the National Council, by drawing up and obtaining signatures to a declaration disapproving of the acts of that body in the preceding autumn. This proceeding of the Tories aroused the indignation of the Whigs, who composed a considerable majority of the whites in Tryon county. Committees were appointed and public meetings were called in every district in the county. The first was held at the house of John Veeder, in Caughnawaga,' where patriotic speeches were made, and a liberty pole, a most offensive object to the eyes of the Loyalists, was erected. Before this was accomplished, Sir John Johnson, accompanied by Colonel Claus, Guy Johnson, and Colonel John Butler, with a large number of their retainers, armed with swords and pistols, arrived upon the ground and interrupted the proceedings. Guy Johnson mounted a high stoop near the old church and harangued the people. He expatiated upon the strength of the king and government, and the folly of opposing the authority of the crown. He had not a conciliatory word for the people, but denounced their proceedings in virulent and abusive language, so irritating, that Jacob Sammons, a leader among the Whigs, could no longer restrain himself, but boldly pronounced the speaker a liar and a villain. Johnson leaped from his tribune and seized Sammons by the throat; one of his party felled the patriot to the ground by a blow from a loaded whip-handle, and then bestrode his body. When Sammons recovered from the momentary stupor, he hurled the fellow from him, and, springing upon his feet, stripped off his coat and prepared to fight, when he was again knocked down. Most of his Whig friends had fled in alarm, and he was carried to his father's house, " bearing upon his body the first scars of the Revolutionary contest in the county of Tryon." A spirited Whig meeting was held soon afterward, in Cherry Valley, where the conduct of the Tories at Johnstown was strongly condemned; but in the Palatine district and other places the threats and the known strength of the Johnsons and their friends intimidated the Whigs for a while.

CAUGHNAWAGA CHURCH."

In the mean time, Colonel Johnson fortified the baronial hall by planting swivels around it. He paraded the militia, armed the Scotch Highlanders (who lived in the vicinity of Johnstown, and were Roman Catholics), and by similar acts, hostile to the popular movement, the suspicions of the Whigs were confirmed that he was preparing for the suppression of all patriot demonstrations in the county, and was inciting the Indians to join the enemies

1 Caughnawaga is the ancient name of the Indian village that stood a little eastward of the present vil lage of Fonda. Its name signifies coffin, and was given to the place in consequence of there being in the Mohawk, opposite the village, a black stone (still to be seen) resembling a coffin, and projecting above the surface at low water.-Historical Collections of New York, p. 281.

This old church, now (1848) known as the Fonda Academy, under the management of Rev. Douw Van Olinda, is about half a mile east of the court-house, in the village of Fonda. It is a stone edifice, and was erected in 1763 by voluntary contributions. Sir William Johnson contributed liberally. Its first pasfor was Thomas Romayne, who was succeeded in 1795 by Abraham Van Horn, one of the earliest graduates of King's (now Columbia) College, in the city of New York. He was from Kingston, Ulster county, and remained its pastor until 1840. During his ministry he united in marriage 1500 couples. The church was without a bell until the confiscated property of Sir John Johnson was sold in the Revolution, when the dinner-bell of his father was purchased and hung in the steeple. The bell weighs a little more than one hundred pounds, and bears the following inscription: "S. R. William Johnson, baronet, 1774. Made by Miller and Ross, in Eliz. Town."-Simms's Schoharie County, &c.

Over the door of the church is a stone tablet, with this inscription in Dutch: "Komt laett ons op gaen tot den Bergh des Heeren, to den huyse des godes Jacobs, op dat hy ons leere van syne wegen, en dat wy wandel in syne paden." English, "Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord; to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths."

Stone's Life of Brant, i., 53.

Indian Councils. Rev. Samuel Kirkland.

Attempted Removal of Mr. Kirkland. Hostile Movements of the Johnsons.

of liberty as soon as actual hostilities should commence.1 Another circumstance confirmed these suspicions. Brant was the secretary of Colonel Guy Johnson, the superintendent of Indian affairs after the death of Sir William, and his activity in visiting the tribes and holding secret çonferences with the sachems was unceasing. Suddenly his former friendly intercourse with Mr. Kirkland, the faithful Christian missionary, was broken off in 1774, and, at Brant's instigation, an Oneida chief preferred charges against the pious minister to Guy Johnson, and asked for his removal. It was well known that Mr. Kirkland was a Whig,' and this movement of the wily sachem could not be misinterpreted. But the Oneida nation rallied in support of the minister, and his removal was for a time delayed.

held at Guy Park in May, 1775. which was attended by delegates from the Albany and the Tryon county Committees. Little Abraham, brother of the famous Hendrick who was killed near Lake George, was the principal chief of the Mohawks, and their best speaker on the occasion. Guy Johnson, the Indian agent, was in attendance

3

During the summer of 1775 the Johnsons were very active in winning the Six Nations from their promises of neutrality in the coming contest. A council of the Mohawks was at the council, but the result was unsatisfactory to both parties. The delegates, cognizant of the disaffection and bad faith of the Indians, could not rely upon their present promises; and Guy Johnson, alarmed by the events at Lexington and Concord, and by intimations which he had received that his person was in danger of seizure by order of the General Congress, broke up the council abruptly, and immediately directed the assembling of another at the Upper Castle, on the German Flats, whither himself and family, attended by a large retinue of Mohawks, at once repaired. But this council was not held, and Johnson, with his family and the Indians, pushed on to Fort Stanwix. sojourn there was brief, and he moved on to Ontario, far beyond the verge of civilization. Brant and the Butlers attended him, and there a large council was held, composed chiefly of Cayugas and Senecas.

GUY PARK.

His

Thus far no positive acts of hostility had been committed by Guy Johnson and his friends, yet his design to alienate the Indians and prepare them for war upon the patriots was undoubted. His hasty departure with his family to the wilderness, accompanied by a large train of Mohawk warriors, and the holding a grand council in the midst of the fierce Cayu

1 See letter of the Palatine Committee to the Committee of Safety at Albany, dated May 18th, 1775. 2 Samuel Kirkland was son of the pious minister, Daniel Kirkland, of Norwich, Connecticut. He learned the language of the Mohawks, was ordained a missionary to the Indians at Lebanon in 1766, and removed his wife to the Oneida Castle in 1769. The next spring he removed to the house of his friend, General Herkimer, near Little Falls, where his twin children were born, one of whom was the late Dr. Kirkland, president of Harvard College. The very air of Norwich seemed to give the vitality of freedom to its sons, and Mr. Kirkland early imbibed those patriotic principles which distinguished him through life. His attachment to the republican cause was well known, and, after the battles of Lexington and Concord, the provincial Congress of Massachusetts, desirous of securing either the friendship or neutrality of the Six Nations, sent a letter to him inclosing an address to the Indians, and requesting him to use his influence in obtaining the ends in view. Mr. Kirkland succeeded in securing the attachment of the Oneidas to the patriot cause, and continued his religious labors among them during the war, when the other tribes, through the influence of Brant and the Johnsons, had taken up arms for the king. He officiated as chaplain to the American forces in the vicinity of his labors, and accompanied Sullivan in his expedition in 1779. The state of New York, in consideration of his patriotic services, gave him the lands of the "Kirkland patent," in the town of Kirkland. After 40 years' service for his God and country, he fell asleep at Paris, Oneida county, on the 28th of March, 1808, in the 67th year of his age.

3 General Schuyler had held a conference with the chiefs of the SIX NATIONS during the previous win. ter, and, setting before them the nature of the quarrel that had led to hostile movements, received from them solemn promises that they would remain neutral.

This was the residence of Guy Johnson, and is still standing, on the north side of the Mohawk, about a mile fnom the village of Amsterdam, in Montgomery county. It is substantially built of stone, and may stand a century yet. Embowered in trees, it is a beautiful summer residence.