SW_IC1799_Page_33

of the undertakers attending. I discovered it to bean excellent seat, and it appeared to be a strong mill; but upon trial in our presence it was far from answer-ing our expectations according to the contract, by not sawing half as fast as we believed such a stream-head and fall would do if the workmanship had beeneffectually executed. The chiefs said they wereready to pay off the contract if we would say it waswell done, according to contract; and on our confer-ring with the rest of our company the next day, we advised them not to pay off the contract until it wascompleted. As I rode this twelve miles up the creek and back again through the Indian reserve I think agreat part of it is equal if not superior to any piece of land of equal quantity I ever saw. I believe thereare more than a thousand acres upon which theremight have been more than two tons of hay to theacre mowed and made the present year. 2d, and first of the week. In the morning we setoff and arrived at the Indian village, in their councilhouse, about eleven o'clock; but we had to wait untilnear four in the afternoon before what we thought acompetent number collected. They generally appearto be a more indolent, careless, and some of themintemperate people than those at Allegheny and Cat-taraugus, a few instances excepted, particularly onecalled the Young King and another called Pol-lard, who are sober, temperate men, and as intent upon being farmers as any we have seen. The YoungKing having cleared and plowed a good deal of land,has several horses, a very good yoke of oxen, andseven milch cows; and it is said Pollardrather ex-ceeds him. I hope their example may induce manymore to follow them, there being the greatest num-ber on this reserve of any in the Seneca nation.When the Young King, Red Jacket, Farmer's Brother,Pollard, Jack Berry, and five or six other chiefs were collected with some young men and women, we pro-posed either going back or opening the council. Theythen went in the council house and after sitting ashort space, Thomas Stewardson in a brief mannerinformed them the reason of our coming into theirsettlement; and although there did not appear to be the same desire of improvement in many of the In-dians in this settlement as those we have been at be-fore, which I believe is much owing to the opportu-nity they have of being corrupted by the example ofwhite people at New Amsterdam, which is a very dis-sipated place, yet he felt encouraged to endeavor tostimulate them to industry and to refrain from spirit-uous liquors. It was not a very comfortable, animat-ing time as yet with them, yet I was not easy to omitopening divers matters to their consideration in asummary way, which contained a good deal of theheads of what I mentioned at the other places; whichseemed to attract their attention. I also informedthem I had seen a good deal of the land contained in their reserve that is excellent; and if they wouldbe industrious they might live well; but if they wouldnot, but followed the practice of drinking, they wouldlose the little good land they now have, their wivesand children would have to lie down under the snowand go to sleep without anything to eat or to keepthem warm. John Shoemaker advised them to settle farther up the creek, where the land is so very good, and notstrive to huddle together so close; which adviceseemed to please them very well. Red Jacket then addressed us in a polite and mas- terly manner in which he displayed his talents as anorator in a methodical and flowery style near half anhour. He took in every part of the advice commu-nicated to them by us, in regular order, and para-phrased upon it, with the frequent expression ofthanks to the Quakers, recounting their kindness tothe Indian from the first settlement of Pennsylvania;and concluded with endeavoring to assure us if wewould come and see them two years hence, we shouldfind them much improved in farming, and also inthe disuse of whiskey. And notwithstanding I be-lieved his speech was calculated to endeavor to pleaseus, and that there was much less sincerity or realityin his intentions than in those of whom we haveconferred with before, yet I could have sat, I think,patiently two or three hours to hear him exert hissmooth, oily, oratorical abilities. We then left them. Young King and Pollard ina particular manner parted with us very affectionate-ly. Returned to our lodging at a tavern in New Am-sterdam, this being the third night. 3d. Thomas Stewardson and Jacob Taylor set offfor Batavia in order to see J. Ellicot, in order to agreeupon Tunesasa Creek, and also to pay a visit to theIndians at the Tonnewanto. John Shoemaker andmyself rode down to the ferry on the great river Ni-agara, and crossed in six minutes. There I saw three Mohawk Indians carry a bark canoe a considerabledistance and put it in the river, then five of themgot in it and rowed across in five minutes; said riveris said to be above a mile wide. We then rode to themouth of [the] Chippewa, fed our horses and took asnack, at which place there was a British officer whowas formerly stationed in the neighborhood of thegreat Falls, but is now fixed at York, over Lake On-tario. He being on his way up to Long Point on theGrand River, he was so much pleased to be in com-pany with a couple of Quakers that he politely offeredto accompany us to the Falls and show us the waydown. As we rode down the river in view of the rapids we met I. Bonsal and G. Vaux who had beentaking an upper view. They turned back with usand we all went to the ladder where the curious areaccustomed to go down, the officer leading the way; but the tremendous appearance of the way downdiscouraged John Shoemaker from attempting it.The rest of us followed the officer down and then upthe craggy, slippery way to the edge of the greatshoot of water; which together with returning is alaborious task, for a believe there were but very few dry threads, either linen or woollen, upon any of uswhen we returned. I having four years ago had aview and given some description of this amazing cat-aract, need not write much now. While I was view-ing this superlatively grand and most astonishingnatural curiosity of the kind in the known world, my curiosity would have been fully satisfied had it notbeen for one reflection or consideration, which wasthat I knew my wife had a great desire to enjoy the