and Champlain on the east to lakes Cayuga, Seneca and Erie on the west.

Major Abraham Schuyler, son of Peter Schuyler, was at the head of an expedition establishing a settlement at Tirandaquat (Irondequoit) creek in 1721, which was said by Governor Burnet to be the "beginning of a Great Trade

with all the Indians upon the Lakes." Durant's Memorial relative to the French post at Niagara contains information as to the elder Joncaire's journeys to and about Niagara and the beginnings of extensive trade relations in Western New York, and an account of transportation on its lakes and rivers.

It will thus be seen that there were numerous trading stations within and without the territory of the Five Nations and that several of them were in water communication with each other, but the tonnage over the waterways was not large in the western part of the Province. Still the Senecas occasionally journeyed as far east as the Hudson, making their journeys in canoes through the natural water-courses of Central New York. The Iroquois canoes were heavy and more or less awkward, but large enough to accommodate thirty men, but so shallow as not to enable them to venture upon the lakes in storms. Some of them were large enough to carry six thousand pounds in addition to the Indians necessary to paddle them. They moved rapidly along the lakes, rivers and streams of the State and were easily convoyed over portages where necessary.

There was a rivalry between the Dutch inhabitants and the French Canadians on the north to control the fur trade with the Indians resident in this Province. Peter Stuyvesant as early as 1667 wrote to the Duke of York on behalf of the Dutch inhabitants in regard to this trade as follows:

"Since the Trade of Beaver, (the most desirable comodity for Europe) hath allwayes been purchased from the Indyans, by the Comodities brought from Holland as Camper, Duffles, Hatchetts, and other Iron worke made at Utrick &c much esteemed of by the Natives, It is to be fear'd that if those comodities should fail them, the very Trade itself would fall, and that the ffrench of Canada, who Ib. 632, 633.

1.

are now incroached to be too neare Neighbours unto us (as but halfe a days journey from the Mohawkes) making use of their Necessities and supplying them, they will in time totally divert the Beaver Trade, and then the miserable consequences that will ensue, wee shall not have one shipp from Europe to trade with us."1

This instinct of the Dutch to control all the trade of this territory and the West against the efforts of those in the province of Canada who have sought to divert it passed to later generations and has dominated the policy of New Yorkers since that time.

After the Province passed under the dominion of Great Britain and underwent a change in name as well as in government, by a special Act of Parliament free trade was granted to the Dutch settlers for a period of seven years after the surrender of New Amsterdam to the English, to the extent of "three shipps onely." This was to enable those resident in the colony to continue their commercial relations with the Netherlands whither they obtained many things in common use that could not be supplied by the English.

The loss of New Netherlands to Holland resulted in the cessation of power to the Dutch West Indies Company and it no longer continued to control trade in the province of New York. It took some time for the English, however, to possess themselves of the trade relations which had existed between the Indians and the Dutch for half a century. The English looked with disfavor upon the seven years' privilege extended to the Dutch to carry on trade relations with the settlers in the Province, lest it have "an unhappy influence by opening a way for forrainers to trade with the rest of his Matys [majesty's] Plantations, and preventing the exportation of the manufactures of England, and thereby destroy his Matys Customs and the trade of this Kingdom which is in a great measure upheld by the plantations." Accordingly the grant was modified by an order in Council made on November 18, 1668, which virtually put an end to the further trading between the Netherlands and the inhabitants of New York.

Wherever grants of land were made and settlements established under Governor Fletcher and others along the Hudson and the Mohawk rivers, local trade became active. Commerce was carried on in canoes and batteaux from the Genesee country as far east as Fort Orange and New Amsterdam. The Provincial Governors were alive to its importance and recommended measures from time to time to preserve it. Their official reports to the Lords of Trade contained much valuable information on this and other matters, which show the progress in colonization under the British rule and to which reference is made in this paper. Not only did the aborigines of Central New York utilize the natural waterways of the State extensively in carrying on commerce among themselves and with the whites along the Hudson and Lake Champlain, but the early Dutch and English traders pushed their canoes and batteaux up the Mohawk, transported them from the Mohawk to Wood creek, and through Oneida lake and river into the Seneca river and west to Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca lakes; or from Oneida river into Lake Ontario and thence westward to the Niagara and Lake Erie. All this was done as early as the last half of the seventeenth century.

III. TRADE ROUTES AND TOPOGRAPHY.

While considering the trade routes and the topography of this Province, it may be well to consider in this connection those of Western New York, notwithstanding that it necessitates our passing over a century in time so to do. Ontario county as originally erected had several navigable streams, such as the Genesee river and its tributaries, the Irondequoit river and bay, Flint, Mud and Salmon creeks, all leading to Lake Ontario, the Susquehanna with its tributaries flowing southward into the Chesapeake bay, and the Alleghany, flowing through the south-western part of the territory and emptying into the Ohio river at Pittsburg. All these were navigable during some months of the year in the latter part of the eighteenth and the early part of the nineteenth centuries, when primeval forests still pro

tected the sources of water supply in this territory. These were utilized extensively by the early settlers in carrying their products to the markets and in bringing into the territory supplies for their use. Accordingly they served a most important purpose at a time when there were few highways and no railroads and when it was necessary to transport to and from the interior of the State the necessaries of life, and agricultural and other products.

This picturesque Genesee country, comprising a large part of Western New York, with its rolling hills, fertile valleys, charming lakes and rivers, was brought into navigable water communication with the sea by means of several rivers.

By the Susquehanna river, whose tributaries are the outlet of beautiful Otsego lake; the Chenango river, the Tioga or Chemung river, receiving in turn as tributaries the Cawanisque, Canisteo, and Conhocton rivers emptying into the Chesapeake bay at Fort Deposit, formerly called Havre de Grace.

By the Allegheny river flowing through the southwesterly part of the State for a distance of forty-six miles and thence southwesterly into the Ohio river and by that into the Mississippi.

By the Genesee river, once navigable for fifty miles of its length between the Pennsylvania line and Lake Ontario, except as interrupted by its falls, where there were carrying places.

By the outlet of Canandaigua, Seneca, and Cayuga lakes and Mud creek, forming Seneca river, that flows into the Oswego river at the Three River Point. The Oswego river empties into Lake Ontario, whose outlet is the St. Lawrence river. Or, by ascending the Oneida river and lake, and Wood creek and over the portage at Fort Stanwix (after 1797, through the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company's canal), into the Mohawk and thence over the portage at Schenectady into the Hudson river. The distance from the head of navigation on the Canisteo to Chesapeake bay was approximately 350 miles. The distance from the navigable waters of the Canisteo to the navigable waters of the

Genesee river was only nine miles, which, it was said, might easily be reduced to a portage of five miles; indeed, the two rivers with but little expense might be connected by a canal as were those of the Mohawk and Wood creek.

The head of Seneca lake, which is thirty-five miles long, was within twenty-two miles of the navigable waters of the Chemung river. Crooked lake, which is twenty miles long and eight miles west of Seneca lake, is within seven miles of the navigable waters of the Conhocton river. Mud, Honeoye, Hemlock and Conesus lakes, all west of Seneca lake, and from six to ten miles long, were within short distance of the navigable waters of the tributaries of the Tioga river.

The distance between the navigable waters of the Alleghany river, to which Chautauqua lake, emptying into the Conewango creek, is tributary, and those of Seneca river, does not exceed fifty miles. The Conewango, flowing into the Alleghany river, was navigable through Chautauqua lake and within nine miles of Lake Erie, where there was a carrying-place for the transportation of merchandise, salt and other commercial products passing between Buffalo creek and Pittsburg. This route was utilized by early traders and afforded reasonably cheap transportation from Niagara to the Ohio river. In 1791 some of the boats on the Ohio river were made of two-inch oak plank and were forty feet long, sixteen feet wide and had a draft of eighteen inches when loaded. They were propelled by four oars, each requiring three men. These boats were roofed like a building as a defense against the attacks of the Indians.1

The Tonawanda creek was navigable and reduced the land carriage materially between the Genesee river and Lake Erie. All these natural waterways were navigable in the latter part of the eighteenth and the early part of the nineteenth centuries by canoes and small river boats carrying in some months of the year ten tons. Boats carrying 1200 bushels of wheat descended the Tioga and Susquehanna rivers to Baltimore. In 1804 it is said that fifty or sixty