paring, entitled "An Inquiry into the Origin and Antiquity of the Indian Race." I have never yet found an Indian drawing or signature of his totem that could be at all compared to the outline of the amulet; and as there are two holes neatly drilled and rimmed for the reception of a thong or cord, I am inclined to think that no Indian made it, and that it belonged to a people of superior taste and skill. He who made and polished it was an expert workman, and could not have been a hunter or a warrior of the Indian kind. I have a stone gouge of admirable construction, which was plowed up in the town of Sheridan and given to me by Mr. Griswold. Like the amulet, it must have been made by an expert. The stone is hard enough to carry quite a fine edge, and the tool gives evidence of having been much used on wood. It is supposed that it was used for tapping the maple tree. I have some other implements found in this county, one in the shape of a celt, which, a Seneca Indian told me, was used by his people for skinning animals.
Chautauqua Lake lies within this county, and many relics have been found along its shores. At one place Long Point juts out into the lake, forming a long, narrow neck of land, which used to be fringed with bushes and covered with stately trees. On this point, near its outer extremity, there had been a canal and basin excavated. A party or a person could easily double the point in a canoe, part the bushes and paddle through the canal and into the basin, where they were perfectly hidden from view. I saw the remains of this canal and basin about seventeen years ago; the outlines were then quite distinct. These works, however, are not proofs of a settled population.
The Iroquois knew all about our territory; indeed, they gave the name to the lake, Cha-tau-quah, or "bag tied in the middle." In a written speech, prepared by Corn-planter, Half-town, and Big tree, Seneca chiefs or sachems, and presented to President Washington, they ask their "father" if he is determined to crush them, and say, in case he is: "In this case one chief has said he would ask you to put him out of his pain. Another, who will not think of dying by the hand of his father or his brother, has said he will retire to the Chataughqua, eat of the fatal root, and sleep with his fathers in peace." This speech was answered by the President, and these chiefs replied as follows: "Father, we see that you ought to have the camping place from Lake Erie to Niagara, as it was marked down at Fort Stanwix, and we are willing it shall remain to be yours. And if you desire to reserve a passage through the Canawauga, and through the Chataughquah (Lake), and land for a path from that to Lake Erie, take it where you like best. Our nation will rejoice to see it an open path for you and your children while the land and water remain, but let us pass along the same and continue to take fish in those waters in common with you."
There was, at an early day, a path or road from Lake Erie through the towns of Portland and Chautauqua to Chautauqua Lake, and thence to Pittsburgh, which the French and Indians traveled; but, except a
