hv_sansomj_letters_1796_042

seven years, dined with us, and we went in the afternoon to the Town consisting of the Council House and 5 or 6 bark cabbins, but the Indians were generally out fishing, hunting, &; there Corn being already spent. Ten or a dozen of them however came together after a while, to whom we opened our business, and learned from them that they were about 130 in number and received 125 Dollars a year from the Government of New York, which will be doubled by a late sale of the greatest part of their Land, leaving them an excellent Tract extending four miles by five. They seemed unwilling to hear us in the absence of the rest, having evidently formed great expectations of something to be done immediately: but we thought it best to proceed so they could not readily be got together; and to make them easy left our speech in writing, to the effect that they should be furnished with some implements of husbandry next Spring, and that we would bring up some of their Children to useful learning and trades if they would send them down to us. The next afternoon we reached Frederick Gerhart's near the Cayuga settlement, walked over to one of the hovels in the evening, and appointed a Conference for Second day, by sunrise. This Tribe lives principally by fishing, the Cayuga Lake 40 miles long, and 2 or 3 wide, abounding in Trout, Catfish, and particularly Eels. There are but about eighty of them here upon 4000 acres of land, they having lately sold all the rest for an annuity of about 1500 Dollars, including 500 they had before. They appear to be irreclaimably sunk into the lethargick