Peter Penet among the Oneida Indians. 



283 



We have put faith in every adventurer, who pretended to 

 have influence here, and who when he arrived, had none 

 but what your appointment gave him." 1 



The next trace we find of this adventurer, is in 1783, 

 when his name appears in the Albany county clerk's 

 records, 2 as a purchaser of " a certain messuage and lot (in 

 his actual possession now being), in the city of Schenec- 

 tady," which he purchased of John Cuyler, for <£1,050, and 

 which from other accounts, appear to have been a dwelling 

 and store. This property was in 1788, still known as the 

 "Penet place," and afterwards passed into the hands of 

 Charles Martin. It was on the north side of State street, 

 one lot west of Church street. There were at one time, 

 two lots owned by Penet adjacent, and with 35 and 45 

 feet fronts respectively, Amsterdam measure. In these 

 conveyances, Mr. Penet is mentioned as a merchant of 

 Philadelphia. 



In 1787, we find him mentioned as a trader with the 

 Oneidas, in their village near Oneida Lake, and among a 

 portion of these people he acquired a great ascendency. 

 Upon the appointment of commissioners by the state of 

 New York, to determine the territorial claims of the 

 Oneidas, in 1788, Mr. John Tayler agent for settling pre- 

 liminaries, found it expedient to consult with him, and to 

 ask his aid in promoting these measures. 3 Messrs Lebon 

 and Paroche, were then his mercantile agents at Oneida. Mr. 

 Penet was one of the witnesses of the Onondaga treaty 

 signed at Fort Schuyler (now Rome), on the 12th of Sep- 

 tember, 1788. At the same time and place where this treaty 

 was concluded, the commissioners held a treaty with the 

 Oneidas, 4 whose claims upon the favor of the state, were 



x Sparks's Writings of Franklin, ix, 448. 



2 Deeds, x, 387, Oct. 7, 1783; also Deeds Schenectady, C, 512, June 7, ' 

 1788. 



3 Indian Treaties of New York, i, 132, 139. 

 *Ib. i, 233. 



