206 The Genesee Country. 
country, that very serious apprehensions were entertained for their 
safety. Even at this gloomy period, the country gave evident 
signs of future wealth. Wherever the plow furrowed the ground 
an ample harvest overspread the spot, and through the wildness 
of the winter, the cattle which were brought into the country the 
year before, with very slender provision for their sustenance, were 
thriving well; the clearing of land for spring crops was going on 
with spirit, and the settlers were supplied with venison from the 
forests; but still the winter closed upon the inhabitants with much 
to dishearten and dismay; few and scattered, amidst the gloom of 
a wintry forest, they could communicate but little with each other; 
far removed from the abode of civilization, and from their early 
homes and friends, surrounded by savages who but a few years 
before were in deadly hostility with the whites, and who in the 
process of the war in return had ravaged, burnt and destroyed 
every article that would afford the Indian sustenance; add to this 
the fact that the western Indians were in active hostility, and tri- 
umphing in the defeat of St. Clair the previous year, were active 
in their efforts to enlist the vindictive feelings of the Six Nations 
in their quarrel, it is not to be wondered at that the gloom of that 
winter was long remembered by the settler, when in happier days 
he could look back upon the dangers and privations he had expe- 
rienced. 
When in the same year, 1792, the purchaser from Mr. Morris 
arrived in the country, he became quickly aware of the advan- 
tages the country would derive from a communication with the 
settlements in Pennsylvania, he immediately determined to explore 
the country to the south of the county of Ontario, with a view of 
examining the practicability of opening a road from the west 
branch of the Susquehanna at Williamsport, to which point the 
settlements in Pennsylvania had already extended. Although the 
information obtained on this subject was of a very discouraging 
nature, notwithstanding which, upon the 3d day of June, 1792, 
taking leave of the inhabitants on the west branch of the Susque- 
hanna, with his party of attendants, he entered the wilderness. 
Steering a northerly course, where passing gorge, ravine, and 
mountain top, now tracing the course of some wild torrent, that 
dashed, like a mad courser, down some precipitous bed, or shoot- 
ing in a wild cascade, sought to mingle its waters with the parent 
stream; nqw passing a mighty gorge, where mountain peak rose 
over mountain peak in solemn majesty. He at length touched the 
head waters of the Tioga river, where Blossburg now stands, one 
of the branches of the Susquehanna river, and which runs north 
into the then county of Ontario. After ten days' exertion, he 
arrived within the boundaries of the state of New York, upon the 
banks of the Cawanesque creek ; he then proceeded N. N. West, 
