76 CLINTON ON THE ANTIQUITIES 
The following statement, received from a respectable source, may throw 
considerable light on this subject. 
The public have made many inquiries respecting certain remains, appear- 
ing to be those of houses, &c. &c. at Pompey-hill; but as far as I am able to 
learn, have hitherto been unsuccessful. 
At the early settlement of the country by the English, there was to be 
seen the apparent remains of a small village, with evident vestiges of a 
black-smith’s shop, &c. &c. the origin of which no one could tell. Yet, 
strange as it may seem, | believe that the following statement, collected par- 
tially from the sachems of the Six Nations, and partially from the manuscript 
journals of one of the French Jesuits, will fully and satisfactorily account 
for this long hidden mystery. 
From the Jesuit’s journal it appears that in the year 1666,* at the request 
of Karakontie, an Onondaga chieftain, a French colony was directed to repair 
to his village for the purpose of teaching the Indians arts and sciences, and 
endeavour if practicable to civilize and christianize them. 
We learn from the sachems that at this time the Indians had a fort a short 
distance above the village of Jamesville, on the banks of a small stream near ; 
a little above which, it seems, the chieftain, Karakontie, would have his new 
friends set down. Accordingly they repaired thither and commenced their 
labours, which being greatly aided by the savages, a few months only were 
necessary to the building a small village. 
This little colony remained, for three years, in a very peaceable and flou- 
rishing situation, during which time much addition was made to the establish- 
ment, and among others, a small chapel, in which the Jesuit used to collect 
the barbarians and perform the rites and ceremonies of his church. 
But the dire circumstance which was to bury this colony in oblivion, and 
put their history in secret, was yet to come. About this time (1669) a 
party of Spaniards, consisting of twenty-three persons, arrived at the village, 
* This colony has been confounded with the one under Monsieur Dupuys, established in 1566, and 
abandoned in 1568.—But the history of his establishment is on record. 
