[ 46 ] 
$4th. Lewis and I hired a guide to go with 
us to Ofwego for i6j. Our intention was more 
to get provifions for our journey home, than 
to gratify our curiofity. In the mean time, 
Conrad ftayed at Onondago , to treat with the 
Indian chiefs about the skirmifh in Virginia ; 
with a view to incline them fingly in favour of 
our application, before they affembled in coun- 
cil : and here I cannot help obferving, it was 
fcarcely ever known, that an Indian Chief or 
Councellor , once gained fo far as to promife 
him intereft, did break his promife, whatever 
prefents have been offered him from another 
quarter. 
We travelled on foot to the Onondago lake, 
whence we had fetched the fait water the day 
before, there we procured a bark canoe at half 
an hour after eleven, then paddled down 
the lake, and reached the lower end in two 
hours courfe, N. W. This lake the French 
call Ganentaha ; hence we went down the 
river a mile N. big enough to carry a large 
boat, if the trees fallen into it where but car- 
ried away, this brought us to the river from 
the Cayuga country, near ioo yards wide, very 
ftill, and fo deep we could fee no bottom, the 
land on both fides very rich and low to with- 
in a mile of the Oneido river, whence the river 
began to run fwift, and the bottom became 
vifible, tho’ at a good depth. At three o’clock 
we came to the laft mention’d river, down 
which the Albany trader come to Ofwego , half 
a mile 
