[ i« ] 
We had many advantages from the company 
of thefe guides, were perfectly acquainted 
with that part of the country, and be- 
ing of the fix Nations they were both a 
credit and protedlon ; and, alfo as we went 
to accommodate the differences, and allay the 
Heart-burnings that had been raifed by a late 
skirmish on the back of Virginia between fome 
of thefe nations and the Englifh , we could not 
but derive a confidence from the company of a 
chief. 
We coafted the river near a mile to the ford, 
where we had a good bottom not above 3 
feet deep ; this brought us to an Ifland near 
2 miles long and a quarter broad, pretty rich 
at the lower end, and near the river, but the 
higher end fandy, from the drift left there by 
the floods, it therefore produces little but pitch 
pine. After leaving the lower end where we faw 
feveral cabbins, we once more took water for 
the oppofite fhore, but the bottom is lefs e- 
ven, though not above half as wide as the laft, 
which is about 400 yards. 
Hence leaving the weft branch about half 
a mile on our left, and rich low ground be- 
tween with gravel, oak and pitch-pine land 
on our right, we reached a pretty fpring of 
good water, fituated between the fwamp and 
dry ground. This, fince our paffage over the 
Blue Mountain was the only one we met 
with till we came near Onondago , for on that 
fide 
