Niagara Falls 



1759 The above quotation is an interesting illustration of the backwardness 



Brice of knowledge concerning Niagara even as late as 1 759. 



1759 The annual register ... of the year 1759. 4th ed. Lond.: 

 J. Dodsley. 1765. 2:32. 



A little above the fort is the cataract of Niagara, which is 

 esteemed the most remarkable in the world, for the quantity of 

 water and the greatness of the fall. This fall would interrupt 

 the commerce between the lakes, but for a road which the French 

 have made up the hilly country that lies by the streight; so that 

 there is here a good carrying-place, and not very tedious ; for after 

 a portage of about eight miles, you reimbark again, and proceed, 

 without any interruption to the Lake Erie. 



As the great communication of those who go by water is along 

 this streight, and carrying-place, so those who travel by land are 

 obliged to cross it. The lakes are so disposed that without a 

 somewhat hazardous voyage, the Indians cannot any otherwise 

 pass from the north-west to the south-east parts of N. America for 

 many hundred miles. 



1760 



1760 O'CALLAGHAN, E. B. The documentary history of the state of New 

 O'Callaghan York. Albany. 1849. 1:155, 157. 



Governor Dongan asks permission to erect a " compayne Fort " " at 

 Oneigra near the great lake in the way where our people goe a Beaver 

 hunting or trading or anywhere else where I shall think convenient it 

 being very necessary for the support of Trade, maintaining a correspond- 

 ence with the further Indians, and in securing our rights in the country 

 the French making a pretence as far as the Bay of Mexico, for which 

 they have no argument than that they have had possession this twenty 

 years by their fathers living so long among the Indians. . . 



". . . . also I [Gov. Dongan] sent the arms of His Royal Highness 

 now His Majesty to be put up in each castle as far as Oneigra." 



O'CALLAGHAN, E. B. The documentary history of the state of New 

 York. Albany. 1849. 1:201,203,232. 



On page 201 Niagara is cited as a good place for a rendezvous against 

 the Indians, on page 203 the Niagara post is recommended as a strategic 



370 



