INTRODUCTION. 83 



and Fort Stanwix, " occasioned by the falls of Canajoharie," under which de- 

 scription was undoubtedly meant the rapids at Little Falls ; and he suggested 

 that " the obstructions could easily be obviated by the use of sluices upon the 

 plan of the great canal of Languedoc." 



In 1784, Christopher Colles, of New- York, submitted to the legislature pro- 

 posals for removing obstructions to the navigation of the Mohawk river, so that 

 boats of burthen might pass the same. That body mingled considerations of eco- 

 nomy with those of enterprise in their views of the subject, and offered to secure 

 to the projector and his associates, the perpetual profits to be derived from the 

 navigation of the river, if improved by them. At the next session the legislature 

 granted to Mr. Colles one hundred and twenty-five dollars, to enable him to pro- 

 secute his examination of the river. He appeared again before that body, and 

 before the public, with a proposition to form an association to improve the inland 

 navigation between Oswego and Albany ; and the publication is said to have ex- 

 hibited good foresight of the advantages which would result from the proposed 

 connection, as well as a right understanding of the facility with which it could 

 be accomplished. But no public action crowned his labors. The plan he pro- 

 posed was thought quite too visionary. He died in obscurity, and was interred 

 in "the burying ground of strangers," about 1820, while the project he had pro- 

 mulgated was, on a vastly more extended scale, proceeding to its consummation.* 



George Clinton, governor, in 1791, stated to the legislature that the frontier 

 settlements, freed from apprehensions of danger, were rapidly increasing, and 

 must soon yield extensive resources for profitable commerce, and that this con- 

 sideration forcibly recommended the policy of continuing to facilitate the means 

 of communication with them, as well to strengthen the bands of society, as to 

 prevent the produce of those fertile districts from being diverted to other mar- 

 kets. The senate and assembly thereupon appointed a committee to inquire 

 what obstructions in the Hudson and Mohawk rivers ought to be removed. The 



* C. D. Colden's Memoirs. 



