SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON

of land in Johnstown a more ambitious, and, it is
to be hoped, a more cheerful mansion known as
Johnson Hall. This house was built of wood with
wings of stone, pierced at the top for muskets.
On one side of the house lay a garden and nursery
described as the pride of the surrounding country.
Here Johnson lived with an opulence which must
have amazed the simple settlers around him, es-
pecially those who remembered his coming to the
colony as a poor youth less than thirty years
earlier. He had in his service a secretary, a physi-
cian, a musician who played the violin for the
entertainment of guests, a gardener, a butler, a
waiter named Pontiach, of mixed negro and Indian
blood, a pair of white dwarfs to attend upon him-
self and his friends, an overseer, and ten or fifteen
slaves.

This retinue of servants was none too large to
cope with the unbounded hospitality which John-
son dispensed. A visitor reports having seen at the
Hall from sixty to eighty Indians at op.e time lodg-
ing under tents on the lawn and taking their meals
from tables made of pine boards spread under the
trees. On another occasion, when Sir William
called a council of the Iroquois at Fort John-
son, a thousand natives gathered, and Johnson's