counts, joined to my own observations, I am inclined to coincide with the judgment of captain Pierie, who made an actual survey, and describes the height to be one hundred and forty-six feet, and the width one thousand and forty, which proves that the accounts of Father Hennepin and La Salle were erroneous, who both agree in calling the perpendicular height six hundred feet. The distance from Fort Niagara to Fort Stanwix[1] is about two hundred and eighty miles, through the Jenesee country, which I travelled with great ease in about eight days. This post therefore is of the most essential importance to protect the Indians who are in alliance with Great Britain, and to secure the valuable and undivided advantage of their trade.
The Détroit is so called from being a strait between Lake Erie, and Lake Huron, and commands the trade from the Ohio, Illinois, Mississippi, and the Upper Lakes, which post is resorted to by the Uttawas, [16] Hurons, Miamis, Ohio, Mississippi, Delaware, and Tuscorora Indians, besides the Messesawgas.[2]
These five posts are situated at the back of the three
states of New England, New York, and Pennsylvania,
and at a very small distance from the Loyalist settlements.
————
- ↑ Fort Stanwix was built by the British at the head of navigation on the Mohawk River (where the city of Rome, New York, now stands), in 1758, at a cost of $266,000. Here was held the treaty of 1768, by which a general purchase of Indian lands was made, and the Iroquois boundaries settled. Early in the Revolution it fell into American hands, and was re-christened Fort Schuyler, which withstood the siege of St. Leger and his Indian braves in 1777. It is claimed that the present national flag, as adopted by Congress in 1777, was first raised over the battlements of Fort Schuyler. After the Revolution, the fort was rebuilt, and reverted to its original name. Here were held important treaties with the Iroquois in 1784 and 1788, in the latter of which much land in the Mohawk Valley was ceded to the whites. The settlement about the fort was made in 1785, by Connecticut emigrants.—Ed.
- ↑ For history of Detroit see vol. i of the present series, p. 55, note 18.—Ed.
