22 



HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



enemy. The population of this town was predominantly 

 Iroquois, although in later times the inhabitants were con- 

 siderably mixed. Weiser reached this town March 29, 

 1737. In his journal he says : " There are many Indians 

 living here, partly Gaiukers (Cayugas), partly Mahikanders 

 (Mohicans). We went into several huts to get meat, but 

 they had nothing, as they said, for themselves. The men 

 were mostly absent hunting ; some of the old mothers asked 

 us for bread. We returned to our quarters with a Mahik- 

 ander, who directed his old gray-headed mother to cook a 

 soup of Indian corn. She hung a large kettle of it over 

 the fire, and also a smaller one with potash, and made them 

 both boil briskly. What she was to do with the potash 

 was a mystery to me, for I soon saw it was not for the pur- 

 pose of washing, as some of the Indians are in the prac- 

 tice of doing, by making a lye and washing their foul and 

 dirty clothes. For the skin of her body was not unlike the 

 bark of a tree, from the dirt which had not been washed 

 off for a long time, and was quite dried in and cracked, and 

 her finger-nails were like eagle's claws. She finally took the 

 ash-kettle off the fire and put it aside until it had settled, 

 and left a clear liquor on top, which she carefully poured 

 into the kettle of corn. I inquired of my companions why 

 this was done, and they told me it was the practice of these 

 and the Shawanos, when they had neither meat nor grease, 

 to mix their food with lye prepared in this manner, which 

 made it slippery and pleasant to eat. When the soup was 

 thus prepared, the larger portion was given to us, and out 

 of hunger I quietly eat a portion which was not of bad 

 taste. The dirty cook and unclean vessels were more re- 

 pulsive. . . . The Indians eat so much of this soup that 

 they became sick." 



In 1743, this Indian settlement was visited by John 

 Bartram, the celebrated English botanist, in company with 

 Lewis Evans, Conrad Weiser, and Indian guides. They 

 were on their way from Philadelphia to Onondaga and Os- 

 wego. The Indian house, or house of the viceroy, at which 

 they were welcomed by the beating of drums, after the 

 manner of the English, is described " as about thirty feet 

 long, and the finest of any among them." The Indians 

 cut long grass and spread it on the floor for their guests to 

 sit upon. Several of them sat down and smoked their 

 pipes, " one of which was six feet long, the head of stone, 

 and the stem of a reed." After this they brought victuals 

 in the usual manner.* 



The town of " Diahoga" continued, until the French 

 war, inhabited partly by Mohicans and partly by Cayugas. 

 During the French war, in which both the Delawares and 

 the Iroquois were involved, it was the place of rendezvous 

 for the forces which laid waste the whole northern frontier 

 of Pennsylvania. Here Tee-dy-as-cung plotted and planned 

 those expeditions by which he exacted the price in blood 

 for the land on the forks of the Delaware, from which he 

 had been so haughtily driven a few years before. For a 

 time the town was temporarily abandoned. In 1758 it is 

 reported, "All the houses in this town are in ruins ; no 

 Indian lives there." After the treaty of Easton it was re- 

 built, and in 1760 is spoken of as a flourishing town. 



* Observations, etc , by John Bartram, London, 1751. 



CHAPTER IV. 



INDIAN OCCaPANCr OF STEUBEN COUNTY. 



Pouchot's Map of 1758 — Indian Trails and Villages — The Senecas — 

 The Canisteo Castle — Expedition of Sir William Johnson — Mon- 

 tour and Brant — Treaty with the King of Canisteo — Battle be- 

 tween the Canisteos and Senecas. 



The French explored this region from the west, prob- 

 ably from Fort Niagara, a post which, throughout the border 

 wars which raged occasionally till the close of the Revolu- 

 tion, was the headquarters in the West. Near the close 

 of the French war, the Conhocton and Canisteo Rivers 

 were first made known to geographers in a map known as 

 Pouchot's map, found in the " Paris Documents," a collec- 

 tion of reports, etc., made b}^ the French officers and others 

 during colonial times in this country. Capt. Pouchot was 

 a veteran engineer officer of the French army, stationed at 

 Fort Niagara. He prepared, in 1 758, from information re- 

 ceived chiefly from the Indians, a map of the English and 

 French possessions in North America, and transmitted it to 

 the war minister at Paris. In doing so he warned the 

 latter, that '' the outlets which the English possess by way 

 of the Mohawk River and Canisteo, will tempt them always 

 to come and settle on the south shore of Lake Ontario. 

 The country being very fine and fit for cultivation, they 

 will make large settlements. Placing the Five Nations and 

 the Delawares in their rear, they would be masters of them, 

 and would attract other nations by their commerce." 



The Canisteo on this map is made to extend clear to the 

 Susquehanna, the true outlet of which is given in the 

 Chesapeake Bay. The map shows a pretty good idea of 

 the country, and how wide and generally accurate was the 

 geographical knowledge of the Indians. The French, too, 

 had a special reason for studying the geography of the 

 country thoroughly, and seizing upon all its most import- 

 ant strategical points in order to circumvent the plans of 

 the English colonists, and confine them to a narrow strip 

 of country on the Atlantic coast. All the principal rivers 

 leading into the interior and opening an avenue into the 

 rich valleys south of the lakes, were looked upon as avenues 

 for their rivals, and their situations were well understood 

 and jealously guarded in the establishment of most of their 

 military and trading posts. 



The Kanestio was well known at Fort Niagara, and is 

 frequently alluded to in official correspondence. One of the 

 great trails which traversed the Iroquois Confederacy led 

 from the Genesee River to the head of the Canisteo, thence 

 down that valley to the Susquehanna and to the head of 

 Seneca Lake. The map indicates an Indian village on the 

 site of the present white settlement of Canisteo, and an- 

 other where Painted Post now stands. ... At that time 

 the Conhocton flowed through a trackless wilderness. One 

 solitary Indian trail passed along its banks, and was inter- 

 sected by a north and south trail from the head of Crooked 

 Lake. The chief Indian paths at that time ran from 

 Oneida through Onondaga to the Seneca River, at Cayuga, 

 thence to Canandaigua, Geneseo, and to Fort Schlosser, on 

 the Niagara River. From Geneseo a path ran south to the 

 Allegany River, and thence north to the Canisteo, at the 

 confluence of Bennett's Creek. At that time the territory 



