HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK IROQUOIS 207 



probably never knew of the existence of a grant so absolute, 

 and to which their consent had never been asked. The grand 

 seneschal of New France was enjoined to put the Jesuits in pos- 

 session. The governor had also ** caused a fort to be erected on 

 Lake Gonontaa, and granted to sundry private persons some Iro- 

 quois lands, for which deeds have been executed." This was 

 dated at Quebec, Ap. 12, 1756, five weeks before the colony left. 

 The French ideas were much like those of Governor Winthrop 

 of Massachusetts : " If we leave them sufficient for their use, 

 we may lawfully take the rest, there being more than enough 

 for them and us." 



The mission buildings were erected on the east shore of Onon- 

 daga lake, south of the present village of Liverpool, the site 

 being described as at a distance from any salt springs. A work 

 supposed to mark the spot was probably that made by Frontenac 

 40 years later, and does not agree in outline with what we know 

 of the mission which probably stood there. Regarding that, too, 

 the Relations definitely speak of but one house, possibly a term 

 for the whole stockade, including several houses, the circum- 

 stances seeming to require this in order to build and remove 

 several large boats unseen, with their lading. On the other hand, 

 Charlevoix distinctly speaks of the Jesuits' own house as the 

 largest of all. In De Nonville's memoir of 1688 it is also said 

 that the colonists cleared and planted fields, and also ** built 

 many large houses." For lodging over 60 men it could hardly 

 have been otherwise. 



More specifically, the mission seems to have been on lot 106, 

 Salina, near the large spring where Frontenac's fort was in 1696 

 and which he left to camp for a night at the salt springs, all the 

 early ones known being south of the marsh. A passage in the 

 Relation of 1656 has been misapplied. In this we are told : 

 " The fountain of which one makes very good salt, intersects 

 a beautiful prairie, surrounded by a grove of high forest trees. 

 At 80 or 100 paces from this salt spring is seen another of fresh 

 water, and these two opposites take ])irth from the bosom of the 

 same hill." 



