The Genesee Country. 205 
dividuals who were in the country, including travelers, and sur- 
veyors, with their attendants, amounted to only 9b0 souls. 
In 1792 a stage could be obtained from Albany to Whites- 
town, a recent settlement on the Mohawk, a few miles beyond 
Utica, provided no accident prevented its running, and the tra- 
veler had the courage to undertake the journey; and when we 
consider that the road passed through the valley of the Mohawk, 
the greater portion of which, a few years previously, had been 
periodically devastated by the Indians and hostile whites, we can 
readily conceive that a journey to Whitestown was at least for- 
midable. From Whitestown to the Genesee river, a solitary In- 
dian path marked the devious way; upon this route lay the then 
formidable marshes of Cayuga, where, to wade to the arm-pits for 
half a day, with an Indian guide, was considered as merely a 
change from the monotony of the endless trail, amidst the weep- 
ing boughs of the cypress and hemlock. At this period the coun- 
try towards Canandaiqua from Geneva was improved for a few 
miles; there had been a large Indian settlement called Cananda- 
saga, by which name was also distinguished the present lake upon 
whose banks Geneva now stands. This settlement had been de- 
stroyed by General Sullivan in 1779, who laid the axe to every 
tree, and the fire to every wigwam that could be of any service to 
the Indians. Many of the fruit trees had sprouted up at this time 
and afforded assistance to the settlers of Canandaiqua, or as now 
written, Canandaigua, was the county town, where two small 
frame houses, and a few huts, surrounded with thick woods, lay 
in undisturbed solitude; here the traveler was feasted on excel- 
lent venison, and fish fresh from the waters of the Canandaiqua. 
From Canandaiqua to the Genesee river, 26 miles, only four fami- 
lies could be found residing on the road; the country exhibited 
in many places openings free of all timber, appearing to contain 
200 or 300 acres beautifully variegated with hill and dale, and 
wearing a park-like beauty, which needed but the artificial orna- 
ment of an enclosure. At the river, near Geneva, stood a small 
Indian store and tavern, where a piece of tobacco and a drink of 
whiskey was to be had, but comfort was not to be purchased, un- 
less you could snore upon a bear skin, amidst the din, the whoops 
and howls of drunken Indians, while the owls from the thick re- 
cesses of the scayace, joined in the dreadful concert, to make night 
hideous. At this time there were no settlements of any import- 
ance in any part of the Genesee country. The most considerable 
one was formed by the followers of Jeraimah Wilkinson, on the 
west side of Seneca lake, near a jutting promontory of land, called 
the Miniseta, but by that society. City Hill. So numerous 
were the Indians at this time, in comparison with the few and 
scattered inhabitants, who had courage sufficient to winter in the 
