56 AGRICULTURAL Ma.M'AL 



tion growing among the Indians, he made a treaty with more than 

 3,000 of them at Fort Stamvix in 1768. Just before the Revolu- 

 tion. July 7, 1774, he gathered 600 Indians at Johnstown in an 

 effort to hold them loyal to the colonies. His death occurred a 

 few days later, when his son, Sir John Johnson, was given charge 

 of [ndian affairs. From that time, through the influence of Sir 

 John and other prominent Tories, the colonists were deprived of 

 the pence that they had previously enjoyed. After the war the 

 estate of the Johnsons was declared forfeited to the state. It was 

 sold in small portions to settlers who were mostly of Dutch extrac- 

 tion, residents of Albany, Schenectady, and the lower Mohawk 

 valley. 



Despite a promise made the provincials by chiefs of the Six 

 Nations in a council held at German Flats, Herkimer County, at 

 the beginning of the Revolution, to remain neutral during the 

 war, the Iroquois, with the exception of the Oneidas and Tusca- 

 roras, were merciless in their ravages among the frontier settle- 

 ments. An attempt to check these depredations led to the expedi- 

 tion of Sullivan, through which the colonists became acquainted 

 for the first time with the fertile lands of central New York. 

 Sullivan's forces defeated* the enemy near Elmira ; then, march- 

 ing northward through the villages in Livingston County to 

 Canandaigua, they destroyed everything belonging to the Indians 

 on the route. 



As the grant of land made by the English Government to New 

 York covered a portion of the grant made to Massachusetts, a 

 compromise was effected in 1786 which gave Massachusetts the 

 right of purchasing from the Indians practically the whole of 

 New York west of Seneca Lake with the exception of a strip one 

 mile in width along Niagara River. The Genesee country, as it 

 was called, included more than 6.000.000 acres. This immense 

 tract was sold by Massachusetts to Messrs. Phelps and Gorham 

 for $1,000,000. Being unable to meet their payments, they sur- 

 rendered the greater part of the purchase and sold the remainder, 

 1,200.000 acres, to Robert Morris of Philadelphia, the great 

 financier of the Revolution. Tin's tract included the present coun- 

 ties of Ontario, Yates, and Steuben, and large portions of Wayne, 



