SALT IN NEW YORK STATE 1 5 



were found to be salines and the Indians were shown that 

 the demons could be exorcised by means of fire. In the 

 "Relations" of the Jesuit fathers we find the earliest records 

 of these salt springs. 



Father Jerome Lallemant says in his relation 1646 : " The 

 fountain from which very good salt is made, springs up in a 

 beautiful plain surrounded by a fine wood. At eighty or a 

 hundred paces from this salt spring is another one of fresh 

 water, and these two take their birth from the bosom of the 

 same hill." 



Charlevoix says (1646) : "The Canton of Onondaga has 

 a very beautiful lake called Ganentaha around which are 

 several salt springs and of which the borders are always 

 covered with very fine salt." 



Creuxius says (1655) speaking of the shores of Lake 

 Ganentaha: "The meadow is intersected by two fountains 

 situated about a hundred paces from one another : of the 

 one the salt water furnishes an abundance of the best salt ; 

 the pure water of the other is good to drink, and what is 

 remarkable, is that both spring from one and the same hill." 



Father Simon Le Moyne says in his relation of the return 

 voyage from the Iroquois nations August, 1664: "We ar- 

 rived at the inlet of a small lake, in a great basin half dry. 

 We tasted the water of a spring which they (the Indians) 

 dared not drink, saying that there was in it a demon which 

 rendered it fetid, and having tasted it I found that it was a 

 fountain of salt water ; and in fact we made from it salt as 

 natural as that from the sea, of which we carried a specimen 

 to Quebec." 



This discovery of salt by the Jesuits led to its manufacture 

 by Indians and traders. In 1770 salt was in common use 

 among the Delaware Indians. The traders were, at that 

 time, in the habit of bringing it to Albany along with their 

 furs. 



