Niagara Falls 



1792 war with them. An Indian becomes a miserable being when 

 Ingraham deprived of his hunting ground, and surrounded with cellars of 

 rum or whisky. The whole Six Nations live on grounds called 

 the State Reservations, and are intermediate spaces settled on 

 both sides by white people; this has a tendency to drive off the 

 game, and if by chance they kill a bear, or a deer, his skin goes 

 at once for rum; in this way they are become poor enervated 

 creatures. They cannot keep together a great while, and I expect 

 they will quit all this part of the country, and retire over the lakes 

 Ontario and Erie. Their whole number is about 6,000, of which 

 1,000 are warriors — how contemptible compared with their 

 former greatness! The leading men of these Six Nations, or 

 what they call Chiefs, were on the road with me going to Buffaloe 

 Creek, to hold a council ; their object I was informed was to use 

 their influence with the hostile tribes to make a peace. . . . 



Col. B. told me that the only way to make a peace with the 

 Indians was to apply to Lord Dorchester, or the commander in 

 chief at Quebec, and let him appoint some of the Commanders 

 of the garrisons, say Detroit, Niagara, &c, to meet on the part of 

 the British, to draw a line that shall be deemed right and reason- 

 able between the Americans and Indians, and have the treaty 

 guaranteed to the Indians by the British. I spurned at the idea, 

 and told Col. Butler, that it was my wish, whenever Americans 

 became so contemptible, that the whole country might be 

 annihilated. 



I visited the great curiosity, the Falls, and must refer you to 

 Mr. Ellicott's account of them in the Columbian Magazine for 

 June, 1 790. 



1798 

 1798 WELD, Isaac. Travels through the states of North America, and 



Weld the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, during the years 1 795, 1 796, 



and 1797. Lond.:Stockdale. 1799. Pp. 308-329. 



For fuller extract, see chapter II. 



After we had gratified our curiosity in regard to the wondrous 

 objects in the neighbourhood, at least as far as our time would 



1182 



