Cataraqui, or Fort Frontenac, is built near to the place where Lake Ontario discharges itself into the River St. Laurence. It was erected by Le Comte de Frontenac, governor general of Canada, to stop the incursions of the Iroquois, and divert the channel of the commerce in peltry, which that people carried on with the inhabitants of New York, and which they bartered for with the Savages by merchandize, at a cheaper rate than the French could supply them.
This fort was at first built of wood and turf, and surrounded with high pickets, but during the mission of Father Hennepin, it was faced [12] with stone, by the direction of the Sieur Cavelier de la Salle, and enlarged to a circuit of more than seven hundred yards. The bason in which it stands is capable of holding a number of vessels of considerable burthen. There is a small garrison at present, and a commanding officer, to examine all boats which pass either to the new settlements or the upper posts.[1]
The Oneidoes, or Oneyouts, the Onondagoes, Cayugas,
Senekas, or Tsonontouans, and the Tuscororas, who live
with the Oneidoes and Onondagoes, are settled about
thirty leagues distant from each other, and none of them
exceeding two hundred and fifty miles from the Mohawk
River. All these nations express peace by the metaphor
of a tree, whose top they say will reach the sun, and whose
branches extend far abroad, not only that they may be
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- ↑ This is a good résumé of the history of Fort Frontenac, which was built in 1673, abandoned during the Iroquois War in 1689, but restored in 1695. La Salle was for several years proprietor of the fort, the revenues from which passed afterwards to the royal treasury. In 1758, Fort Frontenac was captured and destroyed by a British expedition, after which it fell into disuse, until the Loyalists re-garrisoned it about 1784.—Ed.
