The Genesee Country. 207 
and after six more days of fatigueing traveling, arrived at the junc- 
tion of the Canaserago and Genesee rivers, a little north of Ge- 
neseo, they found that this route shortened the distance from 
Pennsylvania at least one hundred miles; they determined imme- 
diately to open the road, and by the month of November 30 miles 
of it had been opened sufficiently wide to admit of the passage 
of wagons, and by the month of August, the following year, the 
road was completed to Williamsburg, near the mouth of the Ca- 
naserago, a distance of 170 miles from the Susquehanna. It is 
from this period alone, which opened a communication with 
Pennsylvania, that we can trace the dawnings of that extraordi- 
nary progress in population and improvement which has so hap- 
pily distinguished the Genesee country. The opening of a road 
over mountains heretofore deemed impassable, northward from 
the Pennsylvania settlements, naturally excited that most lauda- 
ble of human passions, curiosity, and tempted the inhabitants to 
examine the unknown regions beyond them. The great obstacle 
had been measurably removed, and the facility of a road induced 
many to purchase who would, under other circumstances, never 
have thought of it; the traveler who now passes over those moun- 
tains, and observes the course of the old road, where the tide of 
immigration once passed, must be struck with the patient indus- 
try and perseverance that could enable the hardy pioneer, with 
his family, furniture and wagon, threading the narrow path 
through the beds of the mountain streams, crossing and recrossing 
at frequent intervals, to gain the summit, and then to descend in 
the same manner, edging precipices, and winding through wind- 
falls and fallen timber, to reach a wilderness, if possible, more 
unbroken, and meet privations and hardships of every kind. 
To many of the settlers, during the winter of 1792-3, a little 
coarsely pounded corn and venison was a luxury eagerly sought 
for. The march of General Sullivan, with his large army, car- 
rying ammunition, baggage, provisions, &c., for so many men, 
had left an important road from Elmira to the head of lake Sene- 
ca. This lake afforded a water communication for about forty 
miles, through a rich country, and in the course of a few years 
became one of the routes of immigration from the south. 
In the spring of the year 1793, the scarcity of provisions which 
the previous winter had been severely felt, was much increased 
by the number of families that immigrated during the spring into 
the county of Ontario, to protect against the evils of starvation, 
provisions, such as flour and pork, were procured from Philadel- 
phia and Northumberland, in Pennsylvania. By means of this 
supply, several settlements were commenced in the south part of 
the county; in this place, then the centre of a wilderness of 
900,000 acres, the town of Bath was laid out, and before the end 
