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A BRIEF HISTORY

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OLD FORT NIAGARA

PETER A? PORTER.

Photographs by ORRIN E. DUNLAP.

NIAGARA FALLS.
1896.

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PE ! l.k \ PORTER.

THIS SKETCH
OF THE

HISTORY OF OLD FORT X I A CAR A

IS INSCRIBED T<> THE MEMORY O!

Orsamus H. Marshall,

THE HISTORIAN OF THE NIAGARA FRONTIER,
AT WH ION

HIE AUTHOR COMMENCED THE STUDY
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A BRIEF HISTORY OF OLD FORT NIAGARA.

L.IAGARA is without exception the most importanl

post iii America and secui I r nun.

communications, through a more extensive coun-
try, than perhaps any other pass in the \
wrote Mr. Wynne in 1770.' and he undoubl
expressed the opinion which both the French ai
the English then held and had held for th
ing hundred years.
I- >r probably no one spot of land in North America, the Heights
of Quebec and the lower end of Manhattan Island alone
had played so important a part, been so coveteil and exerted
an influence, both in peace and war, on the control, on th 'th,

on the settlement and on the civilization of the country, as th:
point of land at the mouth of and on the eastern sh the N

ara River, bounded on one side bythat river ami on the oth by

Lake Ontario.

And both Quebec and Manhattan Island had been settl hall

a century before La Salle first saw this spot, whose im;
stragetic point, in peace, in war, and in the inten I the fur ti
he at once recognized; and as from La Salle came the firsl
of a fort here, with his name must its earliest
linked.

And for nearly one hundred years after La Salle's fi -it. the

ministers and statesmen of both Fran md, backed t>\

the power of their respective king aided by th mies, t:

^reat generals and all their experienced colonial in the

highest to the lowest, made the poss< ition of this

small piece of land one of the main objective points of their 1
tive policies regarding their American ;

The Niagara River " Onguiaahra, tin- famous river of the N
Nation," had been well known to the Jesuit missionary
British Empire in America, vol. II, page 102. Note

i o OLD FOR T NIA GA RA IN HIS TOR ) '.

1640/ and by hearsay since at least 1626; and the fact that a
great fall interrupted the passage of the Indians on their westward
journeys had been announced by Lescarbot in his " Histoire de la
Nouvelle France," published in 1609, 2 in his description of Cartier's
second voyage to America, made in 1535.

And it was the knowledge of a carrying place around these falls
that pointed out to those engaged in, and ambitious to control, the
fur trade with the Western Indians, in which list La Salle stands
out prominently, that a fortified store house at or near the end of
this portage would be a priceless advantage to its possessors.

And during the long period above referred to when France and
England were making every effort to gain control of this locality, the
fur traders rendered valuable services in furtherance of the ambitions
of their respective nations, although, of course, these fur traders' object
was a purely mercenary one.

But the Indians, prompted thereto partly by the always enduring
feuds between the Huron and Iroquois stocks, but mainly by their
keen insight into the real ambitions of the white men — faithful and
friendly to the French and the English alternately, but only as fear
of their strength or benefits to be derived from them impelled —
clearly foresaw the danger to their race if a stronghold was ever
obtained at the portage, and persistently refused to allow one to be
erected ; and it was only after a struggle of 50 years that France
succeeded in getting near this spot a fortified structure, that prom-
ised to be, and though soon after removed seven miles distant to the
mouth of the river, proved to be, a permanency.

THE INDIAN TITLE TO THE LAND.

In tracing the history of Fort Niagara, it is desirable for us, es-
pecially so far as the earliest claims of ownership of the territory
in which it is located by France and England, are concerned, to look
first at the Indian title to the land and their disposition thereof.

As far back as we can get any authentic knowledge whatsoever
the Neuter Nation owned and occupied this spot. They were prob-
ably a powerful offshoot from the great Huron-Iroquois stock,
and occupied all the territory north of Lake Erie from near the
Detroit River eastward until their lands met those of the Iroquois
near the Genesee River.

1 Jesuit Relation, published 1642, page 49. 2 Page 382.

OLD FORT A ARA IN HISTORY. n

The Neuters derived their name from the fact that, while often at
war with other tribes, they never warred with cither the Iroquoi

Hurons, between whom they were located. They counted 36 vill I
west of the Niagara River and four east of it,' and w ere a well-built and
populous nation.

Such a neutrality could not last, and while we do not know when
the Neuters first became recognized as an independent nation >
tainly before 1600. for in 161 5 Champlain refers to them as an estab-
lished tribe), we do know that it was in [651 that the Senecas, the
most westerly, the strongest numerically, as well as the most bio
thirsty of the Iroquois, attacked them on a slight pretext, and in a
short and bloody campaign wiped them out of existei 1 nation,

the remnant that was spared being incorporated among their 1

The Senecas thenceforth, although it was over a hundred y<
before they occupied the Neuters' territory, claimed title to it by
reason of this conquest, and among the Indian tribes the Sen< •
claim seems to have been full)- recognized.

For, as we shall see later on, the Senecas granted La Salic im-
portant rights on the Niagara River in 1679.

In 1 7 19 the_\- gave Joncaire, a Frenchman who had been adopt
their nation, certain rights on this river, which were of direct bei
the French, and refused equal rights to the English ; and, in 1725, they
consented to the French building a stone fort at the mouth of the ri

The Senecas, in common with all other Indian tribes, seem to 1
regarded their land deeds and their treaties as binding only so i
as it suited their convenience. Again, some of their deeds embi
huge tracts of land, occupied by several tribes, the sachems or ch
of which all joined in the deed of the whole territory cifying

what portion each tribe owned.

Those deeds that embrace the locality we are treating of, of
course, bear on the subject in hand.

CONFLK riNG CLAIM

Both France and England at an early date set up am . dis-

claimed title among other territory to this special locality.

France, by reason generally of early discoveries and occupation

by Champlain (who never was on the Niagara Riven, by Com
Bois, by Jesuit missionaries and later by La
1 Jesuit relation, published 1642, pages 48 arv :

12 OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

England claiming the whole continent by reason of its discovery
by her early navigators, (who were not the first discoverers of the con-
tinent,) maintaining a claim by the grant from James I. to Gorges, in
1620, of the land from ocean to ocean, and from 40 to 48 degrees of
latitude, and by other, though conflicting grants, none of them made
good by occupation or actual sovereignty, and by her conquest of
the Dutch at Manhattan.

Parkman, writing of the period (1687) when French and English
came in contact in the Senecas' territory, and set up their rival claims,
says, " It is clear that the claim of prior discovery and occupation
was on the side of the French." 1

Both the French and English claimed the Iroquois as subjects,
but the Senecas especially always claimed independence,

DEEDS FROM THE SENECAS.

In 1684, the five nations gave England a protectorate over their
lands, 2 and in 1686 the English governor at New York set up the
Duke of York's arms in all the castles of the Five Nations "as far as
Oneigra." In 1687 the Five Nations assented, when James II. of
England agreed to accept them as his subjects. 4

In 1701, the Senecas and other tribes deeded to William III., King
of England, in trust a territory 800 miles by and 400 miles broad,
"including, likewise, the Great Falls Oakinagaro." The deed is
signed by the totems of sachems of all the Five Nations.

In 1726, the Senecas again deeded in trust to the English king a
large tract of territory, including "all along the River of Oniagara."

But all these deeds seem to have been regarded even by the Eng-
lish grantees as of little value, and it was not till 1764, as noted later
on, that a specific deed of a comparatively small area of country,
being that along both banks of the Niagara River, was regarded as
perfect, and was recognized as finally transferring to the English the
Indian title to this famous region.

While Parkman, as above quoted, maybe right as to the superior-
ity of the French claims, by reason of prior discovery and occupation,
if there was any right of title to this land in the Senecas, (and I
believe there was,) by conquest, the English certainly seem to have
acquired at an early date, by deeds from the Indians, what they after-

1 Parkman, Frontenac and New France, page 161. 2 Col. Docs. N. Y. , vol. Ill, page
50S. 3 Col. Docs. N. V , vol. Ill, page 396. 4 Col. Docs. N. Y., vol. Ill, page 503
"Col. Docs. N. Y., vol IV, page 909. e Col. Docs. N. Y.. vol. V, page 800.

OLD FORT NIAGARA IN Hi Y.

wards acquired by arms from the French, namely, the title to the

land where Fort Niagara now stam

HISTORIC PERIOl

Recognizing, therefore, the title to the spot whei F >r1 N
stands as vested in the Senecas after their conquest of the Neuters

i, we may divide its history into the following pei

Indian ownership, 1651-1669; Indian ownership, French influ*
predominating, 1669-1725 ; Indian ownership, French oerupat.
[725-1759; Indian ownership, English occ

lish ownership and occupation, \jy, [783; American ownership.
English occupation, the " Hold-over Period,' Ameri

ownership and occupation, (excepting December 19. to M 1

27, 1 Si 5. 1 1796-1S96.

Let us now take up this history in chronologic. d order.

LA SALL1 'S FIRS! \ IS

In 1669, La Salle, in company with Dollier de Casson and Rene de
Gallinee, set out from Quebec for the Mississip] nd in his j
Gallinee tells of their passing near the mouth of the N
and speaks of the Falls whose roar they heard,' this being the 1
known description of our Cataract. This d it nerall)

as that of La Salle's first visit to this section.

Opposed to this, however, is the official .statement of the Marquis
de Nonville, dated July 31, 16S7, that " La Salle had erected
at Niagara in 1668, which quarters were burnt by the S is 12 y

ago," " that is in 167;.

To my mind De Nonville, writing iS ye fter La Salle's

made an error of one year, and should have written 1 We k:

that La Salle was here in [669, and a few da) - later was with h

companions above named at an Indian village near the present 1 I

of Hamilton, Canada, and here he met Joliet, who was on his w.u

back to Ouebec from Lake Superio

oarating from his t-. mpanions at this vil 130,

1669, we next hear of La Salle ••continuing h n a ri

which goes from east to west, and passes to 1 l, then to si>

seven leagues below Lake Erie,'' * conceded to be ti >.

1 O. H. Marshall's writings, page 219, he quotes Gallir.
N. V.. vol. I. pages 150-I. 'O. H Marshall's writings, . 3 ihea, Bun

of Margry's Babble, page 16, he refers to Ma-.

i 4 OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

In order to reach the Ohio La Salle must have retraced his steps
eastward, and thus either crossed or passed the mouth of the Niag-
ara River.

He had several men with him; he may have tarried on the Niagara;
he may have visited the Falls ; he probably built the quarters of which
De Nonville tells. If he did build them, there is no reason why the
Senecas should not have burnt them as stated.

Certain it is that when La Salle returned to this locality in
January, 1679, as described later on, he knew the country thoroughly;
he knew just where to land ; he intended to build a fort here ; he
knew about the Falls, and he came with the intention, and fully
prepared to build a vessel above them. It is, therefore, I submit,
possible, and even probable, that in this unrecorded interval above
referred to La Salle made a careful study of the surroundings
here, and built the house to which De Nonville refers.

LA SALLE'S SECOND VISIT.

In 1678, La Salle projected an expedition to the far West, and
on November 1 8th, of that year, La Motte, Hennepin and fourteen
others started from Fort Frontenac in a brigantine of 10 tons for
Niagara, and on the 6th of December they rounded the point where
Fort Niagara now stands, and anchored their vessel in " the beauti-
ful River Niagara, which no bark had ever yet entered." '

On this point of land was a fishing village of the Senecas, white
fish then, as now, being abundant in the river at this spot/ All the
land was covered with a dense thicket. On this point of land, on
December 11, 1678, Hennepin said the first mass that had ever been
celebrated in this territory. 3 In a letter written by him to the Prince
de Conti, dated October 31, 1678, just before Hennepin and his com-
rades sailed, La Salle wrote that Tonti, who was to accompany him.
was setting out to build a new fort 200 leagues away, near Niagara
Falls, to which he (La Salle) had taken the liberty to give the name
of Fort Conti.'

The vessel and crew remained at this spot from the 6th to the 15th
of December, and the carpenters were at work.'

" It is at the mouth of Lake Frontenac (Ontario) that a fort was

begun," wrote Hennepin, 6 "but the Iroquois took umbrage, so that, as

1 Hennepin, Louisiana, 16S3. page 23. - Hennepin. Louisiana, 1663, page 32. 3 Henne-
pin, Louisiana, 1683, page 24. 4 Parkman. Discovery of the Great West, page 118.
Hennepin, New Discovery, i6gS, page 50. Hennepin, Louisiana, 1683, page 30.

OLD FOR I' NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

we. were not in a position to resist them, we contented then

with building there a house defended by ; . which is i

Fort Conti, and the is naturally del it thei

a very fine harb< barks to retire to in security."

he adds that it was built on the east stide of the N at it --

mouth/ Prevented from erecting a regular fort at the mouth of the

River, La Motte, acting probably under explicit instruction La

Salle, took his vessel and crew up the ri\ where 1.

stands, where he wanted to erect a store-house, i idently

were to try and build a fort at the mouth of the river; failing in that —

as he had — to build a store-house at the ; the p

would aid him in the fur trade, which the Indians might p rmit,

which would give a foothold, and could be used as trading-

gradually fortified, till such time as a real fort could be and in.

tained at the river's mouth. If these were 1 d I

believe they were, he only anticipated history by some fifty

as will be seen later, it was by this very plan and on this

that the French ultimately built a fortified store hou

tentions, which served all their pur; military and commen

till they obtained permission to build a stone fort on the coveted p

of land.

On the site of Lewiston La Motte's men built their <
with palisades,' using hot water to thaw the froze:', Here

La Salle soon joined them. He had left Fort Front time

after La Motte's departure, f or the site of his
the mouth of the Niagara River, but, narrowly <
landed at the mouth of the Genesee River. He \ chief

Seneca village, met the chiefs, and obi from them the nt,

(which, but a few days before, they had refused to La M I
pin,) to the building of a vessel above the cataract
Iishing of a fortified warehouse at th th of the riv<

His first work was the building of his vessel a
after having located the place of building, and havin n the !

laid, he led a sergeant and a num the mouth

liver, in order at once to tak

'Hennepin, Louisiana, 1653. page 31 - llenne
I'arkman. La Salle and I I Great

1684, Margry, vol. I. page 573 ToDti, La s

4 I'arkman. La Salle and Discovery of the Great er de

La Salle. Margry, vol. II. f

OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

his building a fortified warehouse there — a project specially dear to
his heart.

Here on the famous point of land, in February, 1679, La Salle
marked out the foundations of two block-houses, 1 set his men to work,
and started on foot for Fort Frontenac.

In accordance with his promise to that Prince, he called these block-
houses FortConti. They seemed to have been finished and occu-
pied, but after a few months — probably about July,— through the
carelessness of the sergeant in command, were destroyed by fke. 2

Let us note the date, December, 1678, when La Motte commenced
a fort and January, 1679, when La Salle himself started the work
on his block-houses on this historic spot.

When La Salle arrived again at Niagara, in August, 1679 his fort
was in ashes; his creditors and his enemies had well nigh ruined
him. His vessel, the Griffin, however, was ready to sail west-
ward. In the money he hoped to get through trading for furs on
her voyage, lay his only immediate hope of financial aid. He aban-
doned everything else in order not to delay this enterprise. Under
-such circumstances even his much-cherished plan of a fort at the
mouth of the Niagara River was forgotten, for he had neither the
heart nor the means to rebuild the burnt block-houses.

For the next few years, Niagara, meaning both the point at the
mouth of the river and the store-house at Lewiston, the two bein-
closely connected in the plans of the French for their ownership"
often appears in the official correspondence of both France and Eng-
land, the former being much the more closely identified with the
locality.

DE XOXVILLE'S FORT.
In 16S5 the Marquis de Nonville became governor of New France
In an official letter from Quebec, dated May 6, 16S6, urging the hum-
bling of the Iroquois, he says : - What I should consider most effect
ual to accomplish this would be the establishment of a right eood
post at Niagara. s

"The manner in which the English have managed with the Iro
quois hitherto, when desirous to establish themselves in their neigh
borhood, has been to make them presents for the purchase of the soil

OLD FORT NIAGARA IX HISTORY. i;

and tlie property of the land they wish to occupy. What I sec n
certain is. whether we act so by them, or have peace or war with
them, they will submit with considerable impatience to see a fort at
Niagara." 1

He wanted a " fort sufficiently large to contain a force of four or
five hundred men to make war on them ; enclosed by a simple ordi-
nary picket fence to place it beyond all insult,"" but to this suggest
he received from France no favorable reply.

Early in 1686 Dongan, the English Governor at V \ Y irk, had
also suggested to his government the erection of an English fori
the spot. 3

During the winter of 1686-7 De Nonville made his preparation-;
to attack the Senecas, partly to punish them for having burnt La
Salle's house at Niagara in 1675, 4 and generally because of their
unceasing hostility to all French plans. He sent word to the western
Indian allies of France and the French troops in the West to n
him at Niagara in Jul}-, 1687.

It is not within the scope of our title to treat of that part of this
expedition that chastised the Senecas in the Genesee Valley. After
that he assembled his French forces and Indian allies at Irondequot
Bay, and on July 24, 1687, he embarked for Niagara, reaching there
on July 30th; and he at once set his troops to work to build th
which he had so strongly advocated. The fact that France an I
land were at peace, and that England claimed the Senecas under her
protection, counted for nothing with De Nonville.

He selected for the location of the fort "the angle of the lake
the Seneca side of the river; it is the most beautiful, the most pi
ine and the most advantageous site that is on the whole of this
lake." 6

He also states in an official letter, "The post I have fortified at
Niagara is not a novelty, since Sieur de La Salle had a house there
which is in ruins since a year." So De Nonville's fort must have i
on the site of La Salle's blockdiou<cs, and it was the first real defen-
sive work erected here.

Baron La Hontan was among the officers of De Nonville's com-
mand, and he describes the work as " a fort of pales, with four bas-
tions," and says it " stands on the south side of the Streights of Heme

1 Doc. Hist. N. Y , vol. I , p. 127. ''Doc. Hist N. V., vol. I., page 127.
Docs. N. Y.,vol III , page ?Q4- 'Doc. Hist, of N. V., vol. I., p... Doc. H I

of N. Y . vol I., pate 147. 6 Col Dors, of N. Y . vol. IX . page

i8 OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

Lake, upon a hill, at the foot of which that lake falls into the Lake
of Frontenac." 1

De Nonville, in his report, says : " The inconvenience of this post
is that timber is at a distance from it." 2 So the pales had to be cut
some ways off, floated to the point and drawn up the steep banks, all
involving much labor, and as it took but three days to complete the
entire fort it must have been a rather weak affair. 3

On July 31, 1687, De Nonville, in presence of his army, took for-
mal possession of the fort in the name of the French king, and issued
a proclamation, signed by himself and officers, to that effect. 4

This fort was called after its builder, Fort De Nonville, but the
earlier name, Niagara, clung to it. " De Nonville " had no designa-
tion of locality attached to it, " Niagara " had, and Fort Niagara it
has been ever since. De Nonville started for Quebec on the com-
pletion of the fort, leaving a garrison of 100 men, under command of
De Troyes, with an eight months' supply of provisions.

Misfortune brooded over the fort from its completion. No
sooner had the main body of the French departed, and their Indian
allies scattered, than the Senecas, more angered than crippled by
De Nonville's crusade against them in the Genesee Valley, appeared
before the fort in large numbers and vented their rage on the
unhappy garrison. Eight hundred of them laid siege to the place
and no Frenchman " dared venture out for hunting, fishing or fire-
.

Besides the misery of being thus cooped up in a small fort, and
always on the alert for assaults, scurvy set in among the French.
The provisions, though plentiful, were of a bad quality; many of the
men died. " The fort was first a prison, then a hospital, then
a charnel house," till by spring but 12 men out of the 100 sur-
vived.

No sooner did Dongan, the English Governor at New York,
hear that De Nonville had built a fort at Niagara than he entered
a most vigorous protest against such a step, and demanded its
destruction. 7 A long and spirited correspondence between these two
representatives of France and England followed, in which the
claims of priority of discovery, the ownership of this particular

1 La Hontan, English ed., 1703, vol. I., page 78. - Doc. Hist. N.Y., vol. I., page 148.
3 Col. Docs. N. Y., vol. IX., page 368. 4 Doc. Hist, of N. Y., vol. I., page 149.

5 Parkman, Frontenac, page 166, he quotes De Nonville Memoire, 10th August, 1686.

6 Parkman, Fontenac, page 166. 7 Col. Docs. N. Y., vol. III., page 516.

OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

territory, and the allegiance of the Iroquois, particularly the Sen< i
were set up by both sides and the claims of each ridiculed by
the other.

De Xonviile's recent attack on the Senecas made it easy for
Donsan to obtain their adherence to his views. De Nonville v.
extremely anxious for peace with the Iroquois just now, at almost
any price. Dongan shrewdly referred some of the points in dispute
to a meeting of the Iroquois chieftains.' and these warriors di
they would make no peace, nor even a truce, until certain conditions,
one of the most prominent of these being the destruction of all the
French forts on the lakes, were complied with. 5

In November, 16S7, James II. of England consented to take the
Iroquois, or Five Nations, as his subjects. 3 and conferences v.
opened at London to adjust the many differences between France
and England.

While their masters were negotiating, Dongan was materially
strengthening his position and his relations with the Iroquois, until
De Nonville, fearful of losing both Fort Frontenac ami Fort Niagara,
decided to abandon Niagara, as demanded by the English and Iro-
quois, and so expressed his intention to Dongan, as his letter 5
"in order to contribute to a permanent peace." '

The garrison of 100 men, left by De Nonville at Fort N
July 31, 1687, had been reduced to about a dozen by the end of April,
168S, when a large party of Miamis, allies of the French, arrive. 1, en-
tered the fort, and defended it and the little garrison till a company
of French soldiers came to its relief. 6

On July 6, 1688, De Nonville issued the promised order for the
abandonment of Fort Niagara. What a pang it must haw cost him!
He sacrificed Niagara in the expectation of saving Frontenac. A
turned out he lost that also soon afterwards

On September 15, [688, Desbergeres, who on De 1

had succeeded him as commandant of Niagara, assembled his

men in the fort, read De Xonviile's order to them, and gave

directions for obeying it. The palisades were torn down, but the

cabins and quarters were left standing, according to the order. "A

written memorandum of the condition in which we leave

quarters, which will remain entire to maintain the p on His

'Col. Docs. N. V.. vol. III. page 533. "Col. Docs. N. V., vol. III., 534- Hoi.
Docs. N. V.. vol III , page 503. * Col Docs. N. V.. vol. III., page 556. - Parkman.
Frontenac, page 166. ' Doc. 1 1 1st. N. V., vol. I . pa^e 168.

OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

Majesty and the French have for a long time had in this Niagara dis-
trict " was prepared.

In this memorandum it appears there was, first, in the centre of
the square a large wooden cross, eighteen feet in height, erected on
Good Friday, 1688, solemnly blessed by Rev. Father Millet, on the
arms of which in large letters were inscribed :

REGN. VINC. ^) IMP. CHRS.
(Regnat, Vincit, Imperat Christus — Christ reigneth, conquereth, ruleth.)

R E (?/V-V/Afc -G / M P- C /■/ RZ

gMjS^^Jlgjaass-gi^'-rr ■■,'. uZ#f

Among the buildings mentioned was a cabin for the commander,
with a good chimney, a door and windows with fastenings.

Another with two rooms, a chimney, and window in each, etc.

Father Millet's cabin, with chimney, windows and sash.

A cabin opposite the Cross, with a board ceiling.

Still another cabin, a bake-house and an apartment at the end
thereof.

A large and extensive frame building, with a double door, three
windows, no chimney, floored with planks, and clapboarded outside.
No doubt, the chapel.

A large store house, and a well with a cover.

OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

This interesting document will be f<>un<l in full in Documentary
History of New York, volume [..page 1 68, and in Colonial Documents
of New York, volume IX., | $87.

A waiting vessel conveyed the garrison to Fort Fronten
So ends one chapter -De Nonville had succeeded in fortifying
Niagara, as France desired; but Indian cunning and ferocity, stin
on by English intrigue, and backed by England's demand, had com-
pelled its demolition as England wanted.

[I 88— 1 7 19.

De Nonville was soon after recalled, and French policy hereafter
was more of a cultivation of good will towards the Senecas especially,
and the Iroquois generally. Always at variance with the five nations,
because of the latter's leaning toward the English, hem eforth, in tim<
of peace, France cajoled them, and in time of war awed them by
attack.

As for the English, they did not cultivate the Indians' friendship,
henceforth, as successfully as did the French.

The regaining of Niagara was one of the main reasoi
more conciliator}' attitude towards the Iroquois, from this time
and while over 30 years elapsed before she again h there, its

possession to her was worth the delay.

It was of more importance to her each year. Her fur trade-
being directed to New York, and her p ion of Ni mid
largely restore it t 1 Quebec. Niagara was the key to the
the four upper lakes, as well as to the Valley ot the < ) 1 1 i - > . and it
the most important link in that great chain of fortifications she
building to connect her Canadian domain with that great w
territory, which she claimed, and which v lied Louisiana.

During the next thirty years, the attention of both Frani
England was constantly turned to Niagara. Several pi
made by the respective Governors at Quebec and New York to tl
Governments for the erection of a fort at Niagara, some of tl.
proposals being made when the two countries were .it war, • ime

while they were at peace.

The peace of Ryswick, [6 17, found Prance in p sion of I

Lawrence and Mississippi vallej I 11 without the fort at Ni

ara. But France was losing no cha gthen hi 1 tion

with the Iroquois, who were still friends of England, and, as I

22 OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

ratified a treaty with them in 1701, when England declared war in
1702, the neutrality of the Iroquois was secured and the war con-
fined to New England.

A French plan to seize Niagara was submitted to the Court in
1706, but the alternative and elaborate suggestion of " having recourse
to peace and mildness" seems to have better met the royal view. 1

Article 15 of the peace of Utrecht, 1 7 1 3, declared the five nations
" subject to the dominion of Great Britain ; " but as this, literally con-
strued, would have been an acknowledgment that the land on the
Niagara was under England's rule, the French diplomats claimed a
decided distinction between the " five nations being subject to, and
their lands being subject to England." Indeed, it was contended
that Niagara was in the Province of New York under this treaty
clause, 2 and a protest was made by Clinton against the French trying
to occupy it.

In 17 16 another recommendation for a fort at Niagara was sent
from Quebec to France. 3

It was through the influence of Chabert Joncaire, a Frenchman,
that France was soon to obtain on the Niagara at Lewiston, a foot-
hold which was merely a stepping-stone to the fort at the mouth
of the river. This lad, taken a prisoner by the Senecas, his life
spared, adopted into the tribe, and marrying a Seneca squaw, ob-
tained great influence with the warriors. In 1700 he entered the
French service, and continued therein till his death, forty years
after, and this does not seem to have lessened the fondness of the
Iroquois for him; for, in 1706, in the "proposal to take possession
of Niagara," it is stated " the Iroquois actually suggest to him to
establish himself among them, granting him liberty to select on
their territory the place most acceptable to himself for the pur-
pose of living there in peace, and even to remove their villages to
the neighborhood of his residence, in order to protect him." 4

In 171 8 orders came from France to extend the French trade
and to erect magazines therefor.

JONCAIRE.'S CABIN AT LEWISTON.

In the fall of 1719 the French were on very friendly terms with
the Senecas, and the time had come to test Joncaire's popularity

r Col. Doc. of N. Y., vol. IX., page 773. 2 Col. Docs. N. Y., vol. IX., page 1061.
a Col. Doc. of N. Y., vol. IX., page 874 4 Col. Doc. N. Y., vol. IX , page 773.

OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

with them, and he was sent to "try the minds of the S
see if they would consent to the | French > building a h<

land, and to maintain that settlement in case thi En lish would
oppose it." '

It is more than probable that he was instructed in case the
Senecas refused this French request, to take up their old offei
him of a location of a cabin for himself, and to locate it neai
the foot of the portage. In any event, his influence and his pi
ents obtained the desired consent, and early in [720 h ted a hark

cabin at Lewiston, on the river, hoisted a flag over it and called it
" Magazine Roval." '

The English at first used every means to have it destroyed,
pealing to the Senecas; but Joncaire's influence prevailed against
that of Peter Schuyler and Philip Livingston, and it remained.

Joncaire seems promptly to have enlarged it, for it is referred
to as a blockdiouse, forty feet long and thirty feet wide, enclo
with palisades, " musket proof, with portholes for firing with small
arms," in November, 1720, 3 and Joncaire was its commandant.

Failing to have this house demolished, the English demanded
permission to have a similar house at the same place, ami this, |
the Senecas refused. *

Thus France again secured an entering wedge to the erection ,.t
a fort at the mouth of the river. These locations of Lewiston
Fort Niagara, both referred to in the correspondence of these early
days as " Niagara," must not be confounded. Lewiston w the

exact foot of the portage, and at the head of navigation on the river,
so the excuse of "a store-house " could be made- for erecting a
fensive work there, that could not be made concerning such a build-
ing where Fort Niagara now stands, seven miles awa;

Charlevoix, in 1721, visited Joncaire's house, which he calls
cabin to which they have aln ady given the name of a fort, for ti
say with reason that in time it will become a veritable fortre
Charlevoix's work- was not published till 1744. and in a note on tin-
same page he adds: "The fort has since been built at the moutl
the Niagara River, on the same side and at tin M.

de Nonville had built one."

•Col. Docs. X V., vol. V.. page 588. -Col. I. V., page 588.

Doc. N.Y., vol. V., page 577. 4 Charlevoix Histoire de la Nouvcl
III., page 227. 5 Charlevoix, Histoire de la Noavelle France, vol III

24 OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

A later traveler, at the time a guest of Gov. Simcoe, at Niagara,
says of the fort : " It was originally constructed by Mr. de la Ton-
quiere (Joncaire), three miles nearer the Falls, but was some years
afterwards transferred to the spot where it now stands and where
Mr. de Nonville threw up an entrenchment." 1

La Salle's palisaded store-house at Lewiston, built 1679, had no
doubt disappeared when Joncaire's cabin was erected.

This fortified trading post of Joncaire's was a most important
center for the next five years. It was the headquarters of French
influence in this section. A few soldiers were maintained there under
the name of " traders," the trade in furs was brisk, the Indians from
the north, west and south coming there to barter. The chain of friend-
ship with the Senecas was kept bright by friendly intercourse with
their warriors, who constantly came there, French trading vessels
often anchored at its rude wharf, bringing merchandise from Fronte-
nac and returning laden with furs.

Thus the English for the first time failed to overcome the French
influence with the Senecas and could not succeed in ousting them
from their foothold on the Niagara.

In 1 72 1, Gen. Hunter again recommended the erection of an
English fort at Niagara 2 , supplementing the same suggestions made
in 1720 by the authorities of Albany and Governor Burnet. 3

STONE FORT AT THE MOUTH OF THE RIVER.

Thus matters progressed in the interest of the French till 1725,
when the Marquis De Vaudreuil gave notice that he proposed to
build a stone house at Niagara 4 , and in the fall of that year Longueil
met the deputies of the five several Iroquois Nations at Onontague,
and got them to consent to the erection of a stone house at Niagara,
the plan of which he designed, and which was to cost 29,295 livres, 5
equal to $5,592. Acting on this consent, he at once sent 100 men to
hurry on the work/'

The Senecas made no serious opposition to the work, though it
is probable it required all Joncaire's influence to induce them to
reject the demands which the four other tribes of the five nations,
appealed to and instigated by the English at New York, made, first

1 Rochefoucault's Travels, 1799, vol. I., page 257. 2 Col. Doc. N. Y., vol. V., page 561.
:, Col. Doc. N. Y., vol. V., page 572 and 579. 4 Col. Docs. N. Y., vol. IX., page 952
: Col. Doc. NY., vol. IX , page 953 and 958. 6 Col. Doc. N. Y., vol. IX., page 958.

OLD FOR T NIA G. I A\ / IN HIS 1 < >R ) .

for the stoppage and later for the destruction of the structure.
although they had previously given them consent, undi nch

influence, to its erection.

This consent of the Iroquois (Sene( I th French ei
house at Niagara was ratified July 14. [726, at a council held at
Niagara. 1

This house, commonly called the "Mess II
begun in 1725, was not fully completed till along in [721

Samuel DeVeaux, a resident of Niagara Falls, wrote in I

"It is a traditionary story that the Mess House, which is a
strong building and the largest in the fort, was erected by m.

A considerable, though not powerful, bod)- of French t: had

arrived at the point. Their force was inferior to the surround
Indians, of whom the}- were under some apprehensions. Th
tained consent of the Indians to build a wigwam, and induced th
with some of their officers, to engage in an extensive hunt. !
materials had been made read)' and while the Indians were absent the
French built. When the parties returned at night the)- had advan
so far with the work as to cover their faces ami to defend then
against the savages in case of an attack." 1

Report says that the stone was brought from Frontenac. DeWitt
Clinton wrote in 1810: "Considering the distance and themon ti

-s of stone one would think this impossible. As the stones ab
the windows are different and more handsome than ti:
pose the building, the probability is that the former only were bi
from Fort Frontenac and that the latter are the common stone of the
country." 1 He gave the dimensions of the house as 1.5

Whether openly or by a ruse the French built the first, story of the
Mess House, the largest and strongest of the buildin silt on

the point of land up to this time, and the Indians, who had promi
that the French should not be molested while they were o< I in

the work of building the house the\- had obtained permission for,
seem to have kept their word. Thus we come to the first permanent
fort at this spot, and a fort has been maintained here continuou
ever since.

Joncaire's blockdiouse at Lewiston seems to have been allowed to
fall into decay. Early in 1727 Louis XV., Kin;., ol France, a]

'Col. Doc. N, Y.. vol V.. page 80; Hist, of N. V.. vol. I 'The

Falls of Niagara, 1839. page uo. A Life of DeWitt Clinton,

IS)

=>
O

<n
>/>

<
o

OLD FORT NIAGARA IX HISTORY.

plans for having it rebuilt that fall, at the same time approvi
location of the house at the mouth of the river, t> >uld

prevent the English from trading on the north shore of Lake I mtario
and seizing the Niagara River, which was the pas upper

countries. 1 Still, as it did not command the portage, he was willi
to expend 20,430 livres to repair the house that did.'

No doubt his wiser counselors advised differently, for the order
was revoked 8 and Joncaire's block house was abandoned in [728.

That building had done good service; it had given the French the
desired foothold on the Niagara River; it had held and
trade in furs; it had established French supremacy in this region, and
furnished them with the key to the poss n of the Upper La

and the Ohio Valley; and last, and most important of all.it had 1.
the means of France obtaining a real fortress at the point where her
diplomats and armies had been waiting to erect one for over ha
century. It had served its purposes, a fort had been built at the
mouth of the river, its usefulness was ended and it was abandoned
for ever.

[725- [744.

This new French fort, Fort Niagara, from this time on wa
ually improved and strengthened, from time to time. Some work
defense must have been constructed at once, for,in September. 1
an official report says: ••Niagara is well fortified. It had only
guns, but Choueguen (Oswego) has furnished 24 of the Iarg< I
which are now mounted. People are busy supplyin
Niagara and Frontenac with provisions."

Still, even the possession of the long coveted fort did not give the
French that absolute control of the fur trade that they had
From 1727 to 1736 England obtained by far th the

Indian traffic by means of a liberal sale and distribution of brandy,
the "fire water" of the Indians, at the trading post she had built a:
Oswego in 1722. The French authoritu ingontheira

of location had made decided efforts to discontinue this liq
largely, no doubt, through the influence of the priests ami n
aries of the Catholic Church, and at Niagara the supply mdy

furnished was very limited.

' Col. Docs. X V., vol. IX.. page 964. ; Col. Do,:,. N. V .
Docs N. V., vol. IX., page 1003. 'Col. Docs. N. V.. vol. X.. p

28 OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

In October, 1736, an official report by Beauharnois and Hocquart to
France, says : " As for the commerce now carried on at Fort Frontenac
and Niagara it becomes every year more inconsiderable in comparison
to the expenses the king incurs there. These two posts, which pro-
duced some years ago as much as 52,000 lbs. of peltries, have these
four years past returned only 25,000 to 35.000 lbs. This falling off
has occurred merely since the discontinuance of the distribution of
brandy to the Indians, whereof it is the king's pleasure that Messrs.
de Beauharnois and Hocquart be very sparing. ' . . . We admit
that it is difficult, and perhaps impossible, to sell brandy to the
major portion of the Indians without their getting drunk. But it
is equally certain that nothing deters them from trading with the
French in these posts, and anywhere else in the upper countries,
more than the refusal to sell them any of this liquor for which they
entertain an inexpressible fondness. They find plenty of it at
Choueguen (Oswego), where they repair from all the posts of the
upper countries without any means of stopping them at Niagara.
Sieurs de Beauharnois and Hocquart perceive, unfortunately, no
means of destroying or interrupting the commercial relation this
drink keeps up between the Indians and the English." '

Thus it is clear that as between the obtaining and the not obtain-
ing of drink, the extra travel of over 100 miles made no difference to
the Indians of this early date, and the English took full advantage of
the commercial benefits thus to be derived over their more con-
scientious French adversaries.

In 1739, the pickets of the fort were falling down and were
repaired. 2

In 1 74 1, the Governor of New York reported that he held the
Five Nations only by presents, and that it would be absolutely
necessary to take Fort Niagara. 3

In 1745, there were 100 men and four cannon at Fort Niagara.
Later, the French policy of not selling brandy to the Indians was
reversed.

In 1750 Sir William Johnson wrote that a friend of his had seen

a letter from the Lord Lieutenant at Quebec to the Commander at

Fort Niagara, authorizing him to hold the Indian trade, " even if it

cost the Crown 30,000 livres a year, and also to supply them with

what rum and brandy they wanted."

'Col. Doc. N. Y., vol. IX., page 1049. "Col. Doc. N. Y., vol. IX., page 1068.
3 Col. Docs. N. Y., vol. VI., page 186.

OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

France saw the growing power of England, and recognized thai

the great contest for supremacy in North America was near at hand,
and tried every conceivable effort to strengthen herself.

In 1751, Fort Niagara was further strengthened.'

In 1751, Father Picquet visited the fort, lie describes it "as
well located for defence, not being commanded from any point.
the rain was washing the soil away by degrees, notwithstanding the
vast expense which the king incurred to sustain it.

During the French possession of Fort Niagara, beginning in 1.
and ending in 1759, that fortress served man}' purposes and yea
increased in importance.

As the most important military post on the la aid-

ing means of overawing the Indians, as the gi trading ;.

in the country, and as a center of French influence, it held such
a commanding position that England was determined ultima!
own it.

Rumor says, and what circumstantial evidence we have tend
prove it, that during French rule it was also used as a Si prison.
as were many of the French fortresses, distant from France, in ti
days.

S. DeVeauxsays, "The dungeon of the Mess I [< iuse, called the b
hole, was a strong, dark and dismal place, and in on er of the

room was fixed the apparatus for strangling such unhappy wretches
as fell under the displeasure of the despotic rulers of tho
walls of this dungeon, from top to bottom, had engraved upon th
French names and mementoes in that language. Th I
were no common persons was clear, as the letters and ei
chiseled out in good style. In June, [8l2, when an attack
momentarily expected upon the fort by a superior British
merchant, resident at Fort Niagara, deposit d some valuables in this
dungeon. He took occasion one night to visit it with a light. I [1
amined the walls and there, among hundreds of French nam
saw his own family name engraved in large lett

This dungeon is a room 6 by l8 feet in size, and 10 feet high,
whose stone walls and arched stone roof contains no ap
light or air. It is on the first floor, and is to-day perfectly a
The well of the castle was located in it.

1 Winsor, Nar. and Crit. Hist, of Am . vol. V.. page 490. '' Doc. Hist. N. V., W>1 I..
page 203. 3 The Falls of Niagara, 1S39, P a g e I2 °-

3 o OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

Deveaux was of French descent, born in the latter part of the
18th century, and during the early years of this century lived
at Fort Niagara.

Another statement of his that " this old fort is as much noted for
enormity and crime as for any good ever derived from it by the
nation in occupation " is probably not far from the truth.

As improvements and extensions were made in the fortifications,
Fort Niagara became a place of great strength, and was, and had been
for some years when England captured it, the most important spot
in North America south of Montreal or west of Albany.

The fortifications at one period are said to have covered a space of
nearly eight acres. It was a little city in itself, and the commander
was the most important man in, and the practical ruler of, a vast
tract of country.

Included within this acreage were the various buildings and forti-
fications directly connected with the fort proper, and the buildings
required for a vast trading post. The gardens, which were main-
tained by the officers, were located east of the fortifications on
the bluff overlooking the lake.

The cemetery, outside the fortifications, was " a few rods from
the barrier gate, and filled with the memorials of the mutability
of human life." Over the portal of its entrance, in large letters, was
the word " Rest," which, if the fort was used as a state prison, must
have been full of significance to the unhappy prisoners, at least.

Its location was probably the same as that of the garrison
cemetery of to-day, beneath whose sod doubtless lie the bones of
many Frenchmen, who, in times of peace and war, " for the good of
their country," gave up their lives — some as soldiers in their country's
service, others as prisoners of state. Here, too, no doubt, lie the
bones of many Englishmen, whose lives ended at this historic fort,
far from their native land, but serving her interests.

1/44— 1759-

By 1744, the time had come when if England ever expected to
own more than the Atlantic slope of the continent she had to arouse
herself to greater efforts than mere intriguing with the Indians and
sending continual remonstrances to Ouebec.

In March of that year war was declared between France and Eng-
land, and the colonies of New York and New England, in 1745 and

OLD FORT NIAGARA IX HISTORY.

1746, made united efforts to conquer Eastern Canada;

failed to aid them to the extent promised, and in 1748 the war

ended by the treaty of Aix la Chapelle.

In 1754, though these two nations were nominally at • the

frontier was desolated by the Indians at the instigation of the
French, and in 1755 four expeditions were planned by the I 1
against French territory— one of these, under Braddock, being
the recovery of the Ohio Valley. Braddock's army was amb
and routed, and among the spoils captured was his artillery train,
which was subsequently taken to, and used in, >1 thening !

Niagara, which was then garrisoned by y >o men. 1

To another of these expeditions, under Gov. Shirk}-, of Ma
chusetts, was assigned the duty of capturing Fort Niagara.
after leaving Albany, news of Braddock's defeat was received, and
many of the men deserted. The troops were delayed at < >swego for
various reasons, till the season was too late, and Shirley led his
back to Massachusetts.

War between France and England, though it had 1 ted in
America for nearly two years, was officially declared in 17- I in

that year another attempt to capture Niagara w nned. Chan

in commanders bred internal army troubles, and when the I
Loudon finally assumed command, he abandoned the plan th
been formed to attack Niagara.

In 1757, fifty Senecas, headed by one of the principal chiefs "f the
Five Nations, came to Niagara and held a council with Pouchot, who
was earnestly intriguing to detach the said Fi from their

friendship toward the English. 3

In 1758, none of the three expeditions sent out b)
directed against Niagara.

In 1759, three more expeditions were sent out by tin English, one
of them, under Gen. Prideaux, to capture Niagara.

The English reverses of latter yens in America had aroused tin-
English Government to the need of a more able management; and
under William Pitts' Premiership was commenced tin
1759 tnat was to retrieve England's honor and 1
the absolute victor over her great rival on this continent.

The contemplated attack on Fort Niagara, in 1755. under Shi:
had told the French that that fort must be further strengthened, and
1 Col. Doc. N. V., vol. X., page 326 'Col. Doc. N. V.. vol. X., page 586.

32 OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

Pouchot, a captain in the regiment of Beam, and a competent
engineer, was sent to reconstruct it. He reached the fort with a
regiment in October, 1755. Houses for these troops were at once
constructed in the Canadian manner. These houses consisted of
round logs of oak, notched into each other at the corners, and were
quickly built. Each had. a chimney in the middle, some windows
and a plank roof. The chimneys were made by four poles, placed
in the form of a truncated pyramid, open from the bottom to a
height of three feet on all sides, above which was a kind of basket
work, plastered with mud. Rushes, marsh grass or straw rolled in
diluted clay were driven in between the logs, and the whole plas-
tered.'

The work of strengthening the fort was pushed on all winter, 300
men being in the garrison, and in March, 1756, the artillery taken from
Braddock arrived. 2

By July, 1756, the defenses proposed were nearly completed, and
Pouchot left the fort.

Vandreuil stated that he (Pouchot) "had almost entirely superin-
tended the fortifications to their completion, and the fort which was
abandoned, and beyond making the smallest resistance is now a place
of considerable importance in consequence of the regularity, solidity
and utility of its works."

Pouchot was sent back to Niagara, as commandant, with his own
regiment, in October, 1756, and remained there for a year. He still
further strengthened the fort during this period, and when he left he
reported that " Fort Niagara and its buildings were completed and
its covered ways stockaded." '

On April 30, 1759, he again arrived at Niagara to assume com-
mand and " began to work on repairing the fort, to which nothing had
been done since he left it. He found the ramparts giving way, the
turfing all crumbled off and the escarpment and counter escarpment
of the fosses much filled up. He mounted two pieces to keep up
appearances in case of a siege." 1 A plan of Fort Niagara in 1759,
from Pouchot's own work, " Memoires sur la derniere guerre," etc.,
published in 1781 is given herewith.

From the general laudatory tone of his own work we are led to

feel that Pouchot overpraised his own work of fortifying Niagara in

1 Hough's Pouchot, vol. I., page 53. 2 Col. Docs. N. Y., vol. VII., page 282. 3 Col.
Doc. N. Y., vol. X., page 411. 4 Hough's Pouchot, vol. I., page 94. 5 Hough's Pouchot,
vol. I., page 142.

OLD FOR T NL I G. I A\ I IN JUS 1 1 'A' ) .

A*— Gattariu UwUA j \f* nvr . r»T/\

tbatviorvork*. u>u - UiN l-UUU

•tici.
C. — Harraeli, Stores and vcttiyei
of the old Fort.

B H at the Gait of ihr

/T« Xutiont. -^ __^-

Battery if

I
» (Tata.

POUCHOT'S PLAN OF FORT NIAGARA, i.

With the addition of the three parallels built by the I
the siege. Inside the fortifications is shown thr -
the Old Fort, namely, that built by I >>• Nonville in

is no doubt retained after 1725, when t
'which is shown in this cut in dotted 1
fort with bastions around it.

34 OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

1756 and 1757, when no immediate attack was looked for, otherwise it
could hardly have been in so poor a condition eighteen months after-
wards (1759, as first quoted), unless, as is very likely, he foresaw defeat
when attacked, as he was advised it would be, and wanted to gain special
credit for a grand defense under very disadvantageous conditions.

By July Pouchot had finished repairing the ramparts. He gives
this description of the defense :

" The batteries of the bastions which were in barbette had not yet
been finished. They were built of casks and filled with earth. He
had since his arrival constructed some pieces of blindage of oak, four-
teen inches square and fifteen feet long, which extended behind the
great house on the lake shore, the place most sheltered for a hospital.
Along the faces of the powder magazine to cover the wall and serve
as casemates, he had built a large storehouse with the pieces secured
at the top by a ridge. Here the guns and gunsmiths were placed.
We may remark that this kind of work is excellent for field-forts in
wooded countries, and they serve very well for barracks and magazines,
a bullet could only fall upon an oblique surface and could do little
harm, because this structure is very solid." '

Pouchot says that the garrison of the fort at this time consisted of
149 regulars, 183 men of colonial companies, 133 militia and 21 can-
noniers.

A total of 486 soldiers and 39 employees, of whom 5 were women
or children. These served in the infirmary, as did also two ladies,
and sewed cartridge bags and made bags for earth."

There were also some Indians in the fort, and the officers may
not have been included in this number. The fort was capable of ac-
commodating 1,000 men.

A corvette, called the Iroquoise, fully manned and carrying ten or
twelve guns, arrived at Niagara July 6th, and, during the early part
of the siege at least, its commander placed himself under Pouchot's
orders.

THE BRITISH BESIEGE THE FORT.

On July 6th an English army, which had been collected at Oswego,
under command of Gen. Prideaux, consisting of 2,200 regulars and
militia, and 750 Indians under Sir Win. Johnson, arrived at the Little
Swamp, about four miles east of Fort Niagara, and threw up an
entrenchment.

' Hough's Pouchot, vol. I., page 161. ■ Hough's Pouchot, vol. I., page 161.

OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

Prideaux had hardly gotten out
of Canadians and Indians under La Come arrived I intend

surprise and capture the place, and cut off the ' from joining in

the attack on Niagara. But the French did not make the n

their opportunity for a surprise, and the English threw up I
works, and on two successive days repulsed the attacks of the
French.

Pouchot says of this attack on ( >swego, " If all our t
lowed the first detachment, we might have taken t
very easily, because they were surprised and much dis I tin-

first moment. Had this bed)- been defeat* d Niagara would ha>
saved, as their army could not have received the troops and
that were sent for them." '

In which view, considering the history of the si<
I think Pouchot is entirely wrong.

On the evening of July 6th one of the garrison, who had been
hunting, rushed in and told Pouchot that he had seen an Indian
party. A reconnoitering force was sent out. which learnt the truth
of the hunter's report, by encounterir »lley that

the fort.

Fully satisfied that a siege was about to be begun. Pouchot, while
communications were still open, sent am er to the French p

in the south-west, calling on their garrisons ami the friendly Indians
to come to his aid.

In spite of warnings Pouchot seems to have been tal.
unawares, or he would have had all needed available t r • ■■ - ; »-, .it F
agara, instead of having to send for them at the very last p
moment.

Pouchot's messenger stopped first at Fort de Porl r litl Ni-

agara, a dependency of Fort Niagara, which had been erected by the
French at the upper end of the Portage, a mile or m< the

Falls, about 1750. This was now commanded by Chabert J
younger son of that Joncaire who secured th ' ' for 1

agara's ultimate erection through the Sene< aim fo

cabin at Lewiston. Pouchot ordered him to retreat I
the Canada side of the river, and just opj
peared, the dependency being in a weak condition. Joncain
all the movable property to Chippawa Creek, burned tin- buildii

1 Hough's Pouchot. vol I., page 209

3 6 OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

Fort Little Niagara, and hastened to Fort Niagara, where his brother
had preceded him. 1

Prideaux's army consisted of the Forty-fourth and Forty-sixth
regiments, the Fourth Battalion of Royal Americans, two battalions
of New York troops, a detachment of the Royal Artillery and a large
body of Indians, many of whom had till recently been hostile to the
English, under Sir William Johnson, 2 whose success in this campaign
added to his already great reputation of being the best Indian
manager that England ever had on this continent. His name must
forever be closely associated with the history of Fort Niagara.

It is impossible in this article to treat of the details of this
memorable siege. For these, from the French side, I refer the reader
to Pouchot's " Memoires sur la derniere guerre, etc.," published in
1 78 1, a very rare book. Hough's translation, 1S66, is obtainable with
greater ease.

For the English view I refer him to Mante's History of the late
War in North America, 1772. That part of the Journal of Sir Wil-
liam Johnson published by Stone in his life of the Baronet is also
an authentic record of events soon after the surrender and as to his
dealings with the Indians at that time and later.

On July 8th the English leconnoitered, and on the 9th Prideaux
sent a captain of the Royal Americans, Blaine by name, with a letter
to Pouchot, demanding his surrender, which was refused ; and that
night the English, who had already sent a force to occupy the river
bank and the roads south of the fort, thus completely hemming Fort
Niagara in by land, began opening a trench east of the fort, and on
the nth they erected batteries. Parleys between some Indians in
the fort and the Indian chiefs in the English army were held outside
the fort, firing on and from the fort being suspended meanwhile.

Several other parleys followed during several successive days, but
Sir William Johnson's influence proved strong enough to keep the
great majority of his Indian allies from abandoning the English and
suddenly becoming neutral, and thus Pouchot's hopes and attempts to
detach the large body of Indians from the besiegers proved futile.

The English, working especially at night, slowly but steadily, built
three trenches, all east of the fort and each one nearer than the
former, the last one being only about one hundred yards from the
outworks. They kept adding new batteries, from which showers of

1 Hough's Pouchut, vol. I , page 166. - Hough's Pouchot, vol. I., page 159.

OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY,

hot shot and shell were poured upon the fort night and day. Th
in the fort replied almost continuously, and each morning battel
those new works which the English had built during the night. 1
cannonading on the part of the besiegers, howc ith

the most vigor.

On the 17th the English had occupied the west haul, ol th
at its mouth, and thrown up works and mounted batti n the then

called " Montreal Point," and attacked the fori from that sid<
This caused much alarm and danger to those in th
pelled them to erect defenses, as that side of the fort was
only by an entrenchment.

On the i()th General Prideaux was killed in 1
by the bursting of a shell from a cohorn, before which he was p
ing. The command of the English forces devolved on Sir William
Johnson, who carried on the siege with even greater vigor. The
continued firing had on the 22d made a large breach in the walls
of the fort, the battery and parapet of the flag bastion being com-
pletely demolished, and into tin-- breach grape and musketry v.
continuously poured in a way that one of the garrison
terrific.

On the 22d hot shot was poured into the fort from bo!
fires were started by them in several places, but, by great pr< <. tuti
and risk, the fires did no great damage, although many of the fort
buildings were of wood.

By the 23d the garrison were in straights. Sacks t- be filled with
earth and used to repair the damage by shells were all u*ed. Tl
were no cannon wads left, and even hay, used in their p] not

on hand — and the mattrasses on the beds, both thi tnd tin-

straw, had been used up. The arms were also in such bad condition,
that scared)- one gun in ten was of service.

On the morning of the 23d, under a white
to the fort. They brought two letters from D'Aubrey and De Ligm
the French commanders at Venal nd Pr< •. Isle, in

Pouchot's summons for aid — the earlier one saying they v.
starting, and the other telling of their arrival .it Navy Island, just
above Niagara Falls, and asking for information a;

Pouchot had sent word that the English t num

5000, besides 4000 Indians, and the replies said [600 French and 1
Indians were coming to his aid.

38 OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

Pouchot sent four copies of his answer, one by each of the messen-
gers, hoping, as proved to be correct, that one might reach its destina-
tion.

On the 29th firing was heard south of the fort and an Indian later
brought in word to Pouchot that the French relieving party had been
routed. Trembling for the safety of this important post, D'Aubrey and
DeLignery had sailed with their forces and coming down the Niagara
River (appearing like a floating island, as the river was covered with
their bateaux and canoes) had first landed on Navy Island, then crossed
the river to Fort Little Niagara, and hurried along the shortest
route to Fort Niagara.

Sir William Johnson, apprised of their movements by his Indian
scouts, on the 23th, leaving a large force in the trenches, to prevent the
garrison of Fort Niagara from co-operating with D'Aubrey, marched
south, and, early in the morning of the 24th, met them an eighth of a
league from the fort, at a place then called " La Belle Famille," in the
present village of Youngstown, in sight of the fort, whose garrison,
owing to Johnson's foresight, were prevented from making a sortie,
as had been planned, as the relieving force approached. His regulars
occupied the road leading from the falls to Fort Niagara, along which
the French were advancing, while his Indians were posted on his flanks.
The French being thus caught in an ambush, and seeing the English
forces lightly entrenched, opened fire on them at short range.

The English Indians poured a galling fire into their ranks, the Brit-
ish regulars charged with great fury, and at the end of half an hour the
French broke and fled in confusion. They were pursued for over five
miles, one hundred and fifty of them were killed, and ninety-six pri-
vates and twenty-seven officers, among them the commanders D' Aubrey
and De Lignery, and the famous Marin, were taken prisoners. The
Indians of the English force behaved uncommonly well.

Sir William Johnson soon after sent Major Hervey to Pouchot, de-
tailing the above events, and demanding his surrender. Pouchot sent
an officer to the English camp, who saw and talked with the prisoners,
and returned with the statement that all was true as reported.

An examination of their fortifications, etc., having been made, a
conference of the fort officers urged a surrender, and the garrison it-
self clamored for an end to the siege.

Pouchot had left but 135 men fit and equipped for duty ; there
were only 140 guns left that were in condition for service; 24000

OLD FORI' NIAGARA IN HIS LORY.

pounds of powder had been burnt, and 54,ex>o pounds were yet led . i
men had been killed or wounded, 37 were sick, and under th
favorable conditions the fort could not hold out r than two d

it being in a battered and exposed condition on all

Pouchot assented to a surrender and contended for the I
ble terms.

SURRENDER AND I V v- UA 1!< IN.

These terms stipulated that the garrison should m it with

arms and baggage and one cannon, lay down their arms I | tain
their baggage, be transported in vessels, furnished by the British, to
New York, and that the}- should be protected from attacks by the
Indian allies of the English.

These articles were signed on the night of the 24th, and between
ten and eleven o'clock on the morning of July :•;. 1759, a ;
the English forces occupied the fort. Johnson had posted I
on every side of the fort to prevent the Indians from entering it,
but an hour after the English troops had entered the Indians
it on every side, and in half an hour after more than 500 of them
were inside the ramparts, but they remained quiet.

The English had asked Pouchot to have the garrison deliver up
their arms under the pretext that they would then be in a
condition to defend the Frenchmen. Pouchot steadily refusi

ured them that if it were done they could not restrain their
Indian allies. His judgment was undoubtedly 1
turned out, the English could not prevent the Indians I
the fort, it is not probable that they could have .
from assaulting the French had th en unarmi

Pouchot dined Johnson and some officers, and the
the dinner, helped themselves to all movables in the room.

The Indians took everything they could reach, even t<
they pillaged the King's stored) md br< ien all I

flour.

The French officers had taken the precaution I their

belongings in the powder magazine; these wen I, but everyth

else was carried off by the vi

The English officers probably took first pick the

soldiers had the next chance at what was left, then the India:
allowed to pillage the foit. which they did most thoroughly.

40 OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

The garrison was drawn up in line of battle on the parade ground,
their arms in their hands, their haversacks between their legs. Their
officers were with them, and in this position they remained for
30 hours, or until the time for embarkation.

FRENCH MAGAZINE AND BARRACKS.

The Indians at first tried to take the arms from the men as they
s^ood in line. Pouchot had warned his men not to use their weapons
against the Indians, but, if attacked by them, to kick them or strike
them in the stomach with their fists, for it was of no consequence to
an Indian to be struck in this way, nor would other Indians take his
part, as they would, were he struck with a sword or a gun. The men
obeyed their orders, struggled for and retained their arms.

Had the wind permitted the bateaux in which the English had
come from Oswego to be gotten out, it was Pouchot's intention to
send a part of the garrison away before giving up possession of the
fort, but this proved impossible.

On the afternoon of July 26th, the garrison, with guns on their
shoulders, drums beating, and with two cannons at the head of the
column, marched out of the fort and down to the beach. Here they
laid down their arms, entered the boats that were in readiness, and
started for Oswego.

SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON.

Good diplomat that he was, with such an unruly crowd as his
Indians were likely to be, Sir William Johnson seems to have been
willing to grant as favorable terms of surrender as he consistently
could.

OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

He had established for himsell a new lin<
commander, lie wanted to have the glorj tpturin

Fort Niagara; he did not want any delay that v
successor, who proved to be Gen. G

command at the surrender. His one aim

He succeeded; and as the last of the French g 1 put pff in the

bateaux on their journey to New York, he must have stood on the
broken ramparts, his mind filled with pleasant thoughts.

He had won for England, and won by his own energy and di]
maey, that spot which she had craved for full}- I Innun

able times had the suggestion for the election oi a fort h i
force been made to her by various ones of her colonial offic
Seventy-one years before she had caused France to abandon the I
that that nation had erected here; but for the last 33 j that

hated rival had maintained here a center of commercial and milil
power.

Now all was changed. The English flag floated over ti.
coveted spot, and the credit of its capture, at the time and for all
time, belonged to him — Sir William Johnson.

BRITISH CONTROL.

Sir William Johnson's diary gives the number of pi
garrison as 607 men and 11 officers, besides women and children. I I
the relieving force which he routed, he captured j; out of 30 offi)
whom he ransomed. Ninety-six prisoners, and [50 scalps, taken in
the rout of this relieving force, he divided anion- the several nati
of his Indian allies.'

The English losses during the siege, including th< in of July

24th against the relieving force, he stat 1 killed and 1

besides three Indians killed and five wound

The ordnance stores captured in the fort were 43 iron 1
various >i/es, 1,50x3 round shot, 40,000 lbs. musket balls, -
grenades, besides axes, hatchets, pick-, shovels, et
ing fortifications — also tomahawks, scalping kniv<

Let us here note the presence, in the
whose names will appear again later on in this narrati

Joseph Brant, the great Mohawk chieftain, later one of tl
Indians of history (in some particulars one of the I

1 Stone's Life of Sir Wm Johnson, vol. II, p :r NVm

vol. II, page 3

42 OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

far from it), was with Sir William Johnson's Indian allies at the siege,
then a iad only seventeen years of age.

John Butler, noted later on as commander of Butler's Rangers,
father of the notorious Walter Butler, was second in command of the
Indians, until Johnson became commander of the army at Prideaux'
death, when he succeeded him as leader of the Indian contingent.

After the capture John Butler was a member of the council estab-
lished at Fort Niagara for the trial of civil cases.

In view of this successful siege, as well as the conquest of Quebec
and Ticonderoga in this campaign, it is interesting, and even amusing,
to read the criticisms on Pitts' plans for 1759.

"The Niagara expedition was a mistake in the judgment of some
military critics, since the troops directed to accomplish it had been
used more effectively in Amherst's direct march to Montreal
More expedition on that general's part in completing his direct march
would have rendered the fall of Niagara a necessity without attack.
Perhaps the risk of leaving French forces still west of Niagara,

ready for a siege of Fort Pitt, is not sufficiently considered in this

» ' 1
view.

Parkman also considers this siege an error. 2

But Niagara had been captured, to the glory of the British army.

Johnson at once set to work to put Niagara in a defensible condi-
tion, and remained there for ten days.

On July 28th, Gen. Prideaux and Col. Johnson of the Provincial
troops were buried in the fort chapel with great ceremony. Sir Wil-
liam himself being chief mourner. 3

This reference to the chapel, and the fact that a priest was among
the prisoners taken, shows that the French always paid attention to
the spiritual need of their soldiers, though probably not purely for
religious reasons ; and, further, that the priestly influence in state
councils was still powerful.

Johnson made plans, also, for the building, at Niagara, of two ves-
sels, of from 16 to 18 guns each, considering them necessary for the
military protection of Fort Niagara and Oswego. He also sent for a
number of carpenters to repair Niagara.

In the fort there remained a few French officers and privates, pris-
oners who were not able, by reason of wounds or sickness, to be

1 Winsor Narrative and Crit. Hist, of Am, vol. V., page 600. 2 Parkman, Montcalm and
Wolfe, vol. II., page 253. "Stone's Life of Sir William Johnson, vol. II., page 395, he
copies the latter's diary.

OLD FORT NIAGARA IX HISTORY

moved. Orders were given by Johnson to have allpossib taken

of them, not to allow any Indians to have any communication what
ever with them, and when they were recovered to have them s
safely to Oswego.

As to the Indians found friendly to the 1 rem h th<
be civilly treated ; inducements to trade, at prices better than the
French had given, were to be held out to them ; I t more I

twenty of them at a time were to be admit: irt.

The artillery and stores were to be put in proper order and the
artillery placed to the best advanta

On August 4th Johnson embarked for 1 it Nia-

gara in charge of Col. Farquhar of the 44th Regiment, with a garri
of 700 men, which was afterwards reduced to a ] O.

For several years after the capture of Fori Niaj
Johnson was — so far as the Indians living within a radius
of that fort were concerned — the most important and the m
trusted man in America. He hail held that position f"
toward all the tribes east of the Senecas, and now that tl. I 1
were beaten he logically and naturally extended his influence over
those who sided with the French, and now looked for favors from the
victors.

The real seat of his influence, though he resided much farl
east, was at Niagara. There after the capture he had met m
warriors and some sachems of recently hostile tribes, and 1
the way for bringing them under English influent His

orders to Col. Farquhar as to his treatment of 1
plicit. He was in frequent communication with the oflfi
and it was on his advice and through his personal influence thai
extended and maintained her power over the tribes in all di

In the fall of 1760, Major Robert K I by G< n. Amh

to officially visit several of the former French
companies of his Rangers, in whale at Niagara

brief visit, taking 80 barrels of provisions from t:
ceeded on his way W<

In 1761, Sir William Johnson sta;
way to, and also on his return from, Deti
directions as to the Indian trade, and I
examine his old encampment of [75
' Journal of Major Robert Rogers.

OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

In 1 761, the English re-established a dependency of Fort Niagara at
the upper end of the portage above the falls.

Near where Fort Little Niagara, burned in 1759 as noted, had
stood, they erected a fortification, and named it Fort Schlosser, after
Captain John Joseph Schlosser, who had charge of its erection. He
was a German, who had served in the English army at the capture of
Fort Niagara. 1

Shortly before the siege the French had prepared the frame work
for a chapel at Fort Niagara. It is uncertain whether it was set up
or not, but probably it was. The English, in 1761, took this frame
work over the portage to Fort Schlosser, set it up there and used
it for a mess house.

In 1762, the English built the present "bake house."

THE BAKE HOUSE.

In 1762, the Indians became dissatisfied, because some of the
English traders had commenced building dwelling houses along
the portage, which was in violation of existing agreements, and later
on in that year the commandant at Fort Niagara was ordered to put
a stop to any settlement on the carrying place.

1 Col. Docs. N. Y., vol. X , page 731.

OLD FORT N 7.1 OAR. I IN HISTORY.

Fort Niagara was -till the spot when-, and its comm the

man to whom, all Indian grievances wei it, ami thro

him all such disputes were settled, and by him all decision
enforced.

Such was Fort Niagara when tin- English Inst con; it. It

was the head centre of the military life of the entii ion, the guar-

dian of the great highway and portage to and from the west; and
hereabouts, as the forerunners of a coming c;\ tion and frontier

settlement, the traders were securing for themselves th<
advantages.

To the rude transient population — red hunters, trappers, Indian-
i/.ed bush rangers — starting out from, this center, <>r returning from
their journeys of perhaps hundreds <>f miles t<> the West; t:
down the portage to the fort, bearing their load- •>•' peltri<
assisted by Indians, who here made a business <>f carrying
for hire. Fort Niagara was a business headquarters. There the
traders brought their guns and ammunition, their blanket
jewelry, to be traded for furs; there the Indians purchased, at fabu-
lous prices, the white man's "fire water," and many, yes, numl
were the broils and conflicts in and around the fort, when th
under orders, tried to calm or ejected the savage element which
predominated in the life of the garrison.

On February 10, 1 763, peace between France and England was
formally concluded, and by it France ceded t »land all her

Canadian possessions.

Tin: devil's in »le mass \' re.

In the fall of 1763, Pontiac had organized hi
and the Senecas, whose hostility to the English ha.! been noted by
Sir William Johnson two years before, and which was partly due 1
their bitterness at their loss of the business at the porta, sh-

men now monopolizing that bus - 1 employing <

Indian carriers — were rea ,anddid,co operate with him, urj

thereto, no doubt, by French influence and intri in whal I

hoped would prove the means of driving the i
Niagara. This hostility of the Senecas had made it 1 y to

maintain a garrison at the foot as well as at the h<
and for large or valuable trains, guards furnisl

from the fort.

46 OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

On September 14, 1763, a new portage road had been finished
between Lewiston and Schlosser, and a train of 25 wagons and 100
horses and oxen, guarded by troops from Fort Niagara, variously stated
at from 25 to 300, set out for Schlosser. 1 At the Devil's Hole, the
Senecas, to the number of 500, ambushed and pillaged the train,
threw the wagons and oxen down the bank, and slew all but three of
the escort and drivers. Hearing the firing, the garrison at Lewiston,
consisting of two companies, hastened to help their comrades. But
the Senecas had prepared an ambush also for this expected action,
and all but eight of this force were killed. Some of these eight
carried the news to Fort Niagara, whence the commander, with all
the soldiers, leaving a sufficient guard for the fort, hastened to the
scenes of the slaughter. The Senecas had fled, but over 80 scalped
corpses, including those of six officers, bore bloody witness to their
hatred of the English. 2

In November, 1763, these savages still haunted the neighborhood,
and killed two of the garrison at the lower end of the portage, as
they were cutting wood in sight of their quarters.

Fort Niagara needed to be maintained and well garrisoned.

On the collapse of Pontiac's bold and partly successful scheme,
the Senecas, fearful of receiving at the hands of the English the
punishment they so richly deserved, sent, in April, 1764, four hundred
men to Sir William Johnson at Johnson Hall to beg for peace. 3

Now was the time for England to make the Senecas pay off the
Devil's Hole debt, and Sir William Johnson was the man to force
the settlement.

Yet he was too shrewd to think of demanding life for life, or any
galling condition that would have involved England in a war for
the extermination of the Senecas.

No, he desired most of all that the Senecas should be the
friends of the English, and so he made them pay for their past
misdeeds in land.

England already had the occupation of this territory along the
Niagara River. She wanted also the unquestioned fee. Here was
Sir William's chance, and he improved it. He insisted that, beside
other conditions, the Senecas should cede to England (as if they
had not already deeded it to her three or four times) all the land

1 Holland Land purchase, page 229. Narrative of Mary Jemison, 1826, page 142.
2 Stone's Life of Sir William Johnson, vol. II., page 208. 3 Stone's Life of Sir VVm. Johnson,
vol. II., page 215.

OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

on both sides of the Niagara River from Lak I >n1 n Schlo

thus taking in Fort Niagara and her two dependenci

which was really only a camp, and at Fort Schlosscr) and the ;

age. The Senecas assented, provided the land b

priated to the king's sole use, and provided that .1 be

had within three months, and that the lines be run in of Sir

William Johnson and the Senecas, so as to preclude an) lent

misunderstandings. Eight chiefs signed the agreement, which, by

the way, they never intended to keep, alth tugh they left three of

their chiefs with Johnson as hostages. 1

THE GRE \ I' TREA I V I -I 1;

Before this visit of the Senecas, arrangements had already b
completed by the British to prevent the recurrem
spiracy like that of Pontiac. All the tribes whose friendship, with .»
reasonable expectation of its permanency, could be obtained by p
ents and good treatment were to be secured in this way.

Against all others, armies were to be sent to crush and overawe
them.

The occasion when the above treaty with the S I 1 be

ratified was a general meeting of all Indian tribes who desil
at Fort Niagara in July, 1764, to which Johnson had already invil
them, in order to readjust their relations with the Englis
ment.

Two military expeditions were planned, one for the West, ui
General Bradstreet, 1,200 strong, which assembled al I June.

1 -' .4, where it was joined by Sir William Johnson, with 5 50 Iroq
They reached Niagara July 3. 1764, and found there su
life and activity as one can hardly conceive of to-day.

In this expedition was Israel Putnam, a lieutenant-colonel of the
Connecticut Battalii

Over one thousand Indians, representing many trib ling

from Nova Scotia to the he. id waters of the Mississippi, whose n
bers but a few ^\a\> Liter were increased to 2,o6o, were assembled
meet and treat with Johnson.

Such a representative concourse of Indians had m
seen.

•Col. Docs. N. V . vol. VII., pages 621. 622, 623. ; Timer's II il
page 234 :i Stone's Life of Sir William Johnson, vol. II., page 21 |

48 OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

Their wigwams stretched far across the fields and to this pictur-
esque scene were now added the white tents of Bradstreet's men.

Many reasons had induced this great assemblage of Indians.
Some came to make peace because the aid expected from the French
had not been forthcoming; some because they were tired of war;
some because they needed clothing, ammunition, etc., and could
get them in no other way; some to protest their friendship for
the English; some by an early submission to avert retribution for
past offenses ; some came as spies, and some, no doubt, because
they knew that at such a time "fire water" would be easily
obtainable.

Alex. Henry, the trader, tells how the Great Turtle, the Spirit that
never lied, on being consulted as to what course the Ojibways should
pursue, told them the English soldiers were on the war-path already,
and also said, "Sir William Johnson will fill your canoe with presents,
with blankets, kettles, guns, gunpowder and shot, and large barrels of
rum, such as the stoutest of the Indians will not be able to lift, and
every man will return in safety to his family."'

The Ojibways accepted Johnson's invitation and were present.

Henry himself came to Niagara at this time, and accompanied
Bradstreet westward.

Though this assemblage consisted of peace-desiring savages, their
friendly disposition was not certain. Several straggling soldiers were
shot at, and great precautions were taken by the English garrison to
avert a rupture. " The troops were always on their guard, while the
black muzzles of the cannons, thrust from the bastions of the fort,
struck a wholesome awe into the savage throng below." 2

But among all the throng the Senecas were not represented, in
spite of their promise to ratify their agreement at this time.

They were at home, considering whether they would keep it, for
they had already made an alliance with other tribes against the Eng-
lish. Notice was sent to them, that unless they at once fulfilled their
agreement, the army then at Niagara would forthwith march against
them and burn their villages. A large body of this war-like tribe,
overawed by this menace, at once went to Niagara.

It took all the diplomacy, shrewdness and influence of Sir William
lohnson to preserve order and peace among the savages, many who
had been hostile to each other, and but lately fighting against the

1 Henry's Travel, iSoq, page 171. 2 Parkman, Pontiac, vol. II., page 170.

OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

English, and the business of the assemblage detained him at the fort

for a month.

The council-room (which was located in the castle) was crowded

from morning till evening; but the tiresome formalities which had to
be observed on such occasions, the speeches made and the replies
thereto, the smoking of pipes, the distribution of presents, the judici-
ous serving out of whiskey, the terms of each treaty, the tax on the
memory of remembering what each belt of wampum given by and
received from each tribe meant, while fatiguing, were finally suco
fully brought to an end.

One point of policy was rigidly adhered to. Johnson would
hold no general conference ; with each tribe he either made a separate
treaty, or where satisfactory treaties were already in existence he
merely brightened the chain of friendship. By this course he made
the best of terms, by promoting a rivalry among the tribes. 1 le also
thus discouraged a feeling of union and of a common cause among
them.'

First of all he met the Senecas, and, till their agreement had been
ratified and the lines of the land to be deeded to England had been
settled, Sir William would transact no other business.

The Senecas ratified their former agreement, and on August
they deeded to the English crown a strip of land four miles wide on
each bank of the Niagara River from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario,
thus adding to their former agreement all the land from Schlosser to
Lake Erie, on both sides of the river. Gen. Bradstreet had asked
Johnson to try and get this extra cession, in order that England
might have title to the land where Fort Erie, .it the source of the
Niagara River, on the Canada side, now stands. He was anxious to
build a depot for provisions there. Johnson asked for it. I he
Senecas were ready to do anything asked of them while that English
army was on the ground, so they readily assented. They specially
excepted from their grant, and gave to Sir William Johnson person-
ally, as a gift, all the islands in the Niagara River, and he promptly
gave them to his Sovereign."

This was the first tract of land in the limits of the present
Western New York to which the Indian title was absolutely extin-
guished, and this remarkable land deal, so vast in the amount of ter-
ritory involved, so beneficial to the whites in the power it gave them

1 Parkman, Pontiac, vol. II., page i 7 4- ' : Col. Doc. N. Y.. vol. VII.. pa ? e '-47-

5 o OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

for trade, and the settlement of the country, and of such enormous
subsequent value in view of very recent developments along this
frontier, was closed 132 years ago, within the historic fortifications of
Fort Niagara.

From this time on, for fully 30 years, especially during the
Revolution, the Senecas were allied with and espoused the cause of
the English.

The treaties with the many other tribes were then arranged with-
out difficulties. On August 6th, Sir William Johnson seems to have
completed the formalities by having a separate treaty with each tribe,
with which a new treaty was desired, officially signed.

So fearful was Johnson that some unforeseen occurrence might
prevent the successful carrying out of this stupendous negotiation,
and so anxious was he about rumors of an attack on Fort Niagara by
this savage assemblage, that Gen. Bradstreet's army, now increased to
over 2,000 English and Canadians and 1,000 Indians, was detained at
Fort Niagara till August 8, 1764.

By that date the Indians, having made theii peace and secured their
presents, had started for their homes, the great assembly had melted
away, the danger of any attack, that the garrison was not strong
enough to resist, was past ; and Gen. Bradstreet, leaving an addition
to the garrison at Fort Niagara, marched his army to Fort Schlosser,
there to embark for the west. 1 The cost of this Indian congress at
Niagara was considerable. The expense of provisions, for the Indians
only, was ,£25,000 New York currency, equal to about $10,000, while
£38,000 sterling, or Si 90,000, was expended for the presents made to
them." It was money well spent by England.

1764— 1776.

During Sir William Johnson's administration of Indian affairs after
1759, the Common, now the Military Reserve on the Canadian side,
was used as an Indian camping ground, and there annually the Six
Nations and the Western tribes congregated within gunshot of the
fort, to receive their annual gifts and allowances from the British
government.

Let us note that when the French built the first stone house at
Niagara, in 1725, they did not build it close to the water, either of the

; Mante, History of Late War in N. A., page 511. - Montresor Journals, N. Y. Hist.
Soc , 18S1, page 275.

OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

river or the lake. In those days, all through the eighteenth century,

and during the first third of this century, a large tract <>f land, th.it
has now been washed away, existed at the foot "f the bluff, ling

to the northwest for some thirty rods right out into the lake ; and in
the memory of men now alive 1 a fruit orchard stood on this land,
where now is a depth of ten or twelve feet of water. Quite a stri]
land also extended out beyond the present shore line into the river.
opposite the castle and above it.

As evidence of this, turn to Pouchot's plan of th on

P a g e 33' where this large area is shown as existing in [759, The
French Mess House, or Castle, was originally built, not on the 1
the bluff, but probably one hundred feet from both the lake and river
side.

A further evidence of the existence of this, now washed-away land
is the fact that on the lake side of the fort, just opposite the an
of the wall, where stand the three poplar trees, plainly visible when the
water is low, and generally visible from the wall, though overgrown
with water moss, are the perfectly traceable remains of a half-moon
battery used in those early days, undoubtedly part of the north demi-
bastion, which was re-established in 1789, and used in 1; The
English are said to have added a story to the " Castle."

The first story was built by the French in 17-5, as noted bet
and the second was probably built by them soon afterwards.

It is not certain, but probable, that the roof of the Castle had
been adapted to defensive purposes, and the stone walls carried
up beyond the roof, to serve as a breastwork for gunners there.
The extra story that the British added to tin I >ably

the present timbered roof through which so many chimneys pro-
trude.

The two square stone block-houses now standing within the forti-
fications were built by the French, 4 and the walls carried up beyond the
roofs. Sheltered by these walls, batteries were placed on the roofs,
and were used as late as the War of 1812. The present roofs on th
two block-houses are modern affairs.

The present roof over the old French magazine is also a modern
one, being merely a cover over the great stone arch, which is ti
roof of the building.

•Notably Mr. Thomas Brighton of Youngstown, N. V. -Hough's Pouchot, TO [.,
page 16S. 3 Turner's Holland Purchase, page 1S9 4 Kochefoucault's Travels, 1779, vol.
I., page 257.

52 OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

In 1767 Captain Jonathan Carver, a well-known English traveler,
visited the fort, which, he said, "was defended by a considerable gar-
nson.

One of the traditions that has clung to the fort, and that started
in the days of English occupation, is, that in the dungeon of the Mess
House, before referred to, where there is a well, now boarded over,
at midnight could be seen the headless trunk of a French general,
clothed in his uniform, sitting on the curbstone of this well and moan-
ing, as if beseeching some one to rescue his body from the bottom of
the well, where, after his murder, it had been thrown. This well was
subsequently poisoned and its use necessarily discontinued. The
well inside the earthworks, and near the sallyport, is possibly the well
referred to in the list of buildings left by the French when they dis-
mantled the fort in 1688, though I think this is improbable, and that
it belongs to a much later period.

From 1767 on till the opening of the war of the Revolution one
finds but little public history in connection with the fort, though its
importance was in no way diminished, but rather increased.

DURING THE REVOLUTION.

While the war from 1 776-1 783 never reached this spot in actual
hostilities, Fort Niagara was the spot where heartless Britishers and
still more blood-thirsty savages studied, planned and arranged those
tesrible attacks on defenseless settlers that on so many occasions
spread death and devastation through prosperous settlements and
.regions, and carried off, most frequently to this fort, wretched cap-
tives whose term of captivity in the hands of the savages was usually
only a living death. The history of Fort Niagara during its entire
existence has no blacker nor fouler page, nay none nearly so black nor
inhuman, as that which embraces the years 1776-1783.

Far away from the actual seat of war, feeling perfectly safe from
attack, its British Commandants seem to have given free scope to
every form of Indian warfare that, regardless of its inhumanity, would
in any way aid in crushing out the colonists.

During this period portions of several regiments of British Reg-
ulars in succession garrisoned the fort. It was necessary for England
to maintain it with a strong garrison, in order to impress the savages
by show of force, and to keep them continually aroused to the
'Carver's Travel, 1781, page 170.

OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY

necessity oi aiding the English by constant expedit
and sent out from here, of d I tion and death.

Sir William Johnson had lost a part of his in;' the

Indians duringthe few years prior to his death, whi( irred i

Had he been alive, I would do his memory the ju
that the inhumanities planned at and executed from Fort N
during the Revolution, would never have been allowed, to the extent
at least that they attained.

In all his domination over the Indians, and li rcised man

power for man}-, many years, he recognized that a n, to be thor-

oughly successful, must not forfeit the public confidei
by too great atrocities.

The atrocities perpetrated from Fort Niagara during th >lu-

tion only added to the determination and exertion-, ..f the color
to throw off the British yoke; and the stories of these atrocitii
France an extra excuse to extend the friendly and needed aid that she
furnished, at first secretly, afterwards openly, to those who v.
struggling for their freedom from the rule of her hated rival and her
recent conqueror in North America.

On the commencement of hostilities in 1776, a great council of
Indian tribes was called to meet at Fort Niagara, and here
tember gathered representatives of the Six Nations and ten other
tribes, favorable to the English. The assembled chiefs all si
manifesto in favor of the Crown, and appealed to the < Ineidas and 1
caroras, who were not fully represented, to join them. Some of tin
afterwards complied. Then, after the customary distribution of pi
ents and " fire-water," the braves were sent back to gathei I ther
their tribes for the war-path, to put on the war-paint and to shai
their tomahawks.

JOHN BUTLER AM' i' >S1 III BRAN
John Butler and Joseph Brant both made Fort Niagara their •
headquarters during the Revolution.and.no matter who was in actual
command of the fort, these two were the recognized le
tively, of the English and the Indian force-, th

The former recruited from all over the country, but in
from Western New York and Northern Pennsylvania, the fan
band known as Butler Rangers, and their headquarters w< the

1 Stone's Life of Brant, vol. IT., page 4. note.

54 OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

Fort. Thayendanegea or Brant, the great captain of the Six Nations,
gathered his Indians from all sides, and Fort Niagara was their ren-
dezvous.

Each of these two great leaders had many great and good qualities-
There was no international code of warfare actually recognized at that
time, particularly so far as regarded Indian warfare, and they were, no
doubt, influenced to many atrocities by the customs of the age.
Many barbarities committed by troops under their immediate com-
mands, were in violation, it is claimed, of their orders and in spite of
their influence; while those perpetrated by parties sent off from their
commands and outside of the orders given, should not be charged
against them. They both repeatedly issued orders for the sparing and
protection of women and children, and both on many occasions, by
their personal influence, saved many lives. Yet both were regarded
as death-dealing and devastating foes, and with good reason.

Walter Butler, a son of John Butler, was also a leader of these ex-
peditions sent out from Fort Niagara to kill, rob and destroy, and in
unsavory memory he outranked his more famous father and even Brant.

It should be here noted that just prior to the revolution Brant had
led a band of the Mohawks to Lewiston, where he lived in a block
house, which stood near what was called Brant's Spring. The huts
of his followers were located along the Ridge road, east of Lewiston. 1
A little log building near by was built and used as a chapel, and here
the episcopal service was read occasionally by the fort chaplain or
traveling ministers. This was probably the first building, outside of
Fort Niagara, erected for a church in this section. A good-sized bell,
hung in the crotch of a tree near by, called the Mohawks to service.
John Bulter, who was superintendent of Indian affairs, lived in a com-
modious house in Fort Niagara.

On these foraging parties, largely planned by Brant and Butler,
during the Revolution, Fort Niagara to a very large extent relied for
means of subsistence, and on every raid, from far and near, cattle
and supplies were regularly sent back to the fort, their base of
operations.

In each and every year, from 1778 to 1782, these foraging parties,
and still larger expeditions, were regularly sent out from the fort, and
as regularly as provisions were sent back, just as regularly were pris-
oners and scalps brought back within its walls.
'Turner's Holland Purchase, page 265.

OLD FORT NIAGARA IX HISTORY.

The fearful massacre of Wyoming in Pennsylvania in i;;
planned at and the expedition set out from i. Th

attack on Cherry Valley in the same year was the result of anol

expedition sent out from the same fort.

From the commencement of the war. the colonists had end<
by every means to secure, if not the aid, at least the neutrality <>f tin-
savages, and, while they kept up their efforts in this direction.
emissaries sent among them, they proved to be futile.

The desire to capture Fort Niagara was continually in the minds
of the Colonial leaders, but not till late in 1 77S. when the atn
perpetrated by bands from that far-off stronghold made its reduction
seem a matter of necessity, was an expedition planned for it ire.

The Senecas were faithful to the English, and urged incessant
on the Colonial settlements, and in 17,"'* Gen. Washington sent Gen.
Sullivan with a small army to chastise them, even as De Nonville
had done eighty-seven years before, and ordered him then to pi
to and capture Fort Niagara.

Sullivan entered the Seneca^* territory with 4,000 men, bun
their villages, provisions and crops, and defeated them in several small
engagements. They fled westward to the protecting guns <,f \
and Sullivan, for some reason, the ostensible ones being lack of [
for his army and lack of boats to transport his tro up the

rest and the most important part of his projected expedition.
Fort Niagara was saved.

Had he pushed on, he would have found a horde of nearly 5,000
famished savages around the fort, and a weak and sickly garrison
within, and he could have easily captured it. Hut he lacked tin- abil-
ity to seize the great chance offered him. and Niagara rei I in
British hands, a scourge to the colonists for tin ome. Ili-^
expedition merely prepared the way for the famine and want the
Senecas soon felt.

The winter of 1779 was very inclement and man}- of tl
around the fort died from exposure and starvation.' In the early
spring of 1780 some disposition had to be made of these hundi
Senecas. They could not be tolerated around the fort ai
from there, and they refused to go back to their lands from
Gen. Sullivan had driven them. Brant durin
urged the Mohawks and the Sen
Turner's Holland Purchase, page 2$.

56 OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

Mohawks and a few from other tribes agreed to this, and went. But
the Senecas, under the lead of one of their chiefs, refused, and decided
to settle on Buffalo and Tonawanda creeks, where they claimed to
own the land through their ancestors' conquest of the Neuters in
165 i. They had deeded this to England, as mentioned in 1764, but
that nation made no objection. These Senecas and their descendants
subsequently became allies of the United States, and fought in our
army in the war of 181 2.

Some of the Oneidas and Tuscaroras, who had been allies of the
English, and had fled to Fort Niagara before Sullivan's advance in
1779 were also about Fort Niagara. In the spring of 1780 part of
them returned to their own land and a part settled on a square mile
of land some four miles southeast from Fort Niagara, near the Ridge
Road, where their descendants to-day reside. This land was given to
them by the Senecas. In 1804 the Holland Land Company gave
them two square miles more, — these and over 4000 more acres
bought for them, constitute the Tuscarora Reservation of to-day.

The Tuscaroras thus became the first permanent settlers in this
region, settling here 17 years before the Holland Land Company
opened up the territory. 1

In 1780 and 1781 expeditions were sent out from Fort Niagara with
the same deadly purposes and results ; notable among them being
two expeditions to the Mohawk Valley in 17 So, and two others
to the same district in 1781, in the last of which Walter Butler was
slain.

Opposite Fort Niagara, on the Canada side, each winter Butler's
Rangers lived, and at one time six companies of them were quartered
there. Outside of and near the fort a few wretched savages built
huts each winter and eked out a precarious existence, subsisting on
what they could obtain from the scant remains of the garrison's
rations. Two sons of Sir William Johnson, Sir John and Guy, both
leaders of and agents in the British Indian Department, were promi-
nent during the Revolution, and both were frequently at Fort Niagara
during this period.

During the winters of the war-period the garrison of the fort were
often on short rations, and the necessity of provisioning it for a long
period was frequently represented to the British Ministers, but with-
out any favorable reply.

1 Turner's Holland Purchase, page 183.

( )LD Ft )R T NIAG. I A'. I /.V H/STt 'A' ) .

Let us now look at the moral and social life within Fort N
during the period of the Revolutionary War.

DeVeaux says, "During the American Revolution it was the
headquarters of all that was barbarous, unrelenting and cruel. 1!
were congregated the leaders and chiefs of those bands of mui
and miscreants that carried death and destruction into t ;
American settlement. There civilized Euro] 1 with

America, and ladies of education and refinement mil in the -

of those whose only distinction was to wield th ly tomahawk

and scalping knife. There the squaws of the forest were raised to
eminence, and the most unholy unions between them and
highest rank smiled upon and countenanced. There in their stroi
hold, like a nest of vultures, securely for seven j lied forth

and preyed upon the distant settlements of the Mohawk and I
Susquehanna. It was the depot for their plunder; ti,
planned their forays," and there they returned to feast until the hour
of action came again.'

Many men, including especially Butler's Rangers, obtained during
their service in the Revolution a training for war that c
to render efficient aid to Great Britain against the United Stated in
the war of 1812.

The Revolution ended in victory for the Colonies in 1 783.
Canadian side opposite Fort Niagara then became the object
point of many of those colonists who sided with the British tin:
the war, many of whom had here enlisted in Butler's R li and

many of them settled there; such settlements having been especi
encouraged hereabouts by the British officials during the war.

Among the clauses in the Treaty of Peace at Pari . was one

that provided protection to and time for those colonists who had
sided with England, United Empire Loyalists, as they w< led,

and who were then living in the colonies, in order that they mi
dispose of their property; and the English commissii •■> that

treaty, appreciating how unpopular these U. E. Loyalist-, would
while the\- remained among their victorious neighl
that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to get all the
colonies to ratify such a clause .^ the American commh
agreed to, insisted on retaining po of five western for:

ceded to be an American territory, until such time ,1. the conditi

1 The Falls of Niagara, 1839, page 119

58 OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

named were fulfilled. This also was agreed to by the American com-
missioners. Fort Niagara was one of these forts. So, in 1783, we
entered into what is called in history " the hold-over period," which
lasted for 13 years, a much longer time that any of the commis-
sioners on either side had contemplated. ^

THE HOLD-OVER PERIOD.

The treaty of peace in 1783 only suspended hostilities, and when
soon after Gen. Washington, sent to arrange for the evacuation
of the posts still held by the British, he found no such instruc-
tions had been given to their commanders. A full consideration of
England's real reasons for delay in this matter is not a part of our
subject, but it is pretty certain that even till after the war of 1812
England hoped, for one reason and another to be able to hold these
forts forever, and ultimately to regain the vast empire she had just
surrendered by compulsion to her American colonists. 1

Gov. Simcoe, formerly colonel of Simcoe's Rangers, a noted British
regiment in the Revolution, often and openly expressed this view
while holding the high position of Governor of Upper Canada. 2

As many of the U. E. Loyalists as could do so prepared as
speedily as possible to remove to Canada, and the majority of those
who went westward, in distinction of those that went to northeast
Canada, came by Niagara, and all of them who were in need were fed
during their stay here, from the fort.

It is estimated that during 1783 and 1784 no less than 5,000 of
the United Empire Loyalists emigrated to Canada, at this point, and
this emigration continued up to 1790, by which time fully 10,000 had
passed by and received aid at Fort Niagara.

In 1784, John Butler, who was the Indian superintendent at the
fort, convened a great Indian council on the Niagara plains, in Canada,
opposite the fort, where the Six Nations met the Mississaguas. The
commons were covered with their wigwams and the shore was lined
with their bark canoes.

The summer of 1788 was an almost rainless one. There were no
crops raised, and that year is known as the " Hungry Year." Stores
were issued liberally from the fort during 1789 and 1790 to all in
need, otherwise many would have starved.

1 Rochefoucault's Travels, 1799, v °l- *•'» pages 240 and 241. '' Read's Life and Times of
Gov. Simcoe, page 251.

OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

In 1790. II. R. II. the Duke of Kent paid a \;>it to Fort Niagara
and personally interested himself in the distribution of t" • • « » * 1 and

clothing to the needy Loyalists.

During the first half of the hold-over period the English kept the
strictest surveillance over this whole frontier, and persons travel
hereabouts were more than liable to be arrested and taken to |
Niagara by the Indians, unless they could exhibit a pass from the
commandant, which pass, as the Indians could not read, was a thick-
piece of card having on it a large wax seal bearing ticular im-
pression.

A trader, stopping at Fort Niagara, called on the commander, who
asked where he was going. "To Chippawa," he replied. "G
and be damned to you," was the answer and verbal passport he
ceived.

A fine specimen of British civility during the " hold-over peri

In the fall of 1789, Gother Mann commanding the Royal Engim
made a report on Fort Niagara. After referring to the re-establishing
of the north demi-bastion, which had been greatly damaged and part-
ly washed away by the fury of the lake, he goes on to spe.ik of a
survey of the heights on the Canada side of the riverabo - y Hall,
later Gov. Simcoe's residence, with a view of establishing .1 p< rma-
nent fort there, "which might counteract the designs of an enemy in
his attack on the Fort of Niagara." In 1790, in anoth it, In-

stated "that the space on which Fort Niagara stands is diminishing,
from the depredations of the lake" and speaking of tin- pr<
fort said, "it will be about 1600 yards distant from tin- Fort .it
Niagara, which, though within the distance of annoying an 1
could not prevent his carrying on operations against the Fort."
Thus we see that Fort George, which was built at a time when
England never expected to be obliged to surrender Fort Niagara,
originally designed, not as an opposition to. but as .1 defens that

fort.

In [791, Patrick Campbell was here and wrote. "It is .1 pi
strong stockade fort with regular bastions, palisades, picl nd dry

ditches, sufficient against the attack of any irr army."

By the act of 1 791 , Upper Canada was formed in:
government and Col. J. Graves Simcoe was made its n

1 Read's Life and Times of Gen. Simcoe. page I ' Travel- i Ameri.

page 169.

60 OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

He selected the village opposite Fort Niagara as the capital of the prov-
ince. It had been called West Niagara, as distinguished from the
British-controlled fort on the East, Loyal Village, Newark and
Butlersburg.

On British soil, yet a border town, his selection of the site was
much criticized. But Fort Niagara controlled it, the British con-
trolled Fort Niagara, and he wanted to be near that famous fort,
and he then expected England would always retain it. 1

Here on September 17, 1792, he convened the first Parliament of
Upper Canada. It has been claimed, yet not substantiated, that this
body met in the fort itself.

However, the garrison took part in the ceremonies, a guard of
fifty men from the Twenty-sixth Cameronians from the fort formed
part of the military escort, and the guns of the fort fired a salute at
the hour of assembling.

The fort was under the Governor's control and his guard of four
men at Navy Hall was drawn each day from Fort Niagara's garrison. 3
He had the garrison also as his guard on all occasions. From the
fort was fired a royal salute in honor of his Majesty's birthday, June
4, 1793, and no doubt on other similar occasions, and it was as much
a British fort during this period as if it had stood on British soil. In
1792 the York, the first Canadian Merchant vessel 3 on Lake Ontario
was built just east of Fort Niagara.

In 1793, Gen. Lincoln, Col. Pinckney and W. Randolph, United
States Commissioners, arrived at the fort on their way to a great
council with the Western Indians, and were handsomely entertained,
both at the fort and on the Canadian side, by Gov. Simcoe.

In 1794, the fort was strengthened by the erection of some new
works, " especially covered batteries, designed for its protection on
the side of the lake and river." 4

Eleven years had now passed since the Revolution closed, and
England yet held the five American forts. This caused much dis-
satisfaction. Yet the United States neither wanted to, nor could they,
afford to, risk another war with the British over their occupation.

So, in Jay's Commercial Treaty of 1794, Article 2, provided, that

the British garrisons in all the forts assigned to the United States by

the Treaty of Peace of 1783, should be withdrawn by June 1, 1796.

1 Rochefoucauk's Travels, 1799 ; vol. I., page 229 - Rochefoucault's Travels, 1799 ; vol.
I., page 241. 3 Read's Life and Times of Gov. Simcoe, page 271. 4 Rochefoucault's Travels,
1799, vol. I., page 257.

OLD FORI' NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

This was a better way at that time of gaining ■ »hts than

war, especially as the United States Acre not free from blame in
rying out the terms of the Treaty of [783.

In 1795 the Duke de Liancourt visited this section, and the Gover-
nor entertained him on the Canada side; also dining him at the f
which he told him " he was very loath to visit, since he is sure that he
shall be obliged to deliver it up to the Americans."'

The garrison consisted then of thirty artillery men and eight com-
panies of the Fifth Regiment. All the breastworks,
were lined with timber. On the land side it had a curtain flanked
by two bastions, in each of which a block house has been construc-
ted, mounted with cannon." The Duke adds: " Although this fort,
in common with all such small fortified places, cannot long with-
stand a regular attack, yet the besiegers cannot take it without a
considerable loss." "

In 1796, in anticipation of their total withdrawal from Ameri
soil, the British transferred their patronage over the portage to a
similar road built for that purpose on the Canadian side, between
Oueenston and Chippawa.

Work was also commenced in that year, and rapidly pushed,
a new block-house located up stream diagonally opposite Fort
agara, on the Canada side, on land that commanded Fort Niagara,
being nine feet higher than the roof of the Castle in that fort.

This block-house was designed to receive the British garris
from Fort Niagara" and Fort George, an earth fort, was built'
around it at once.

In less than seventeen years Fort George was destined to ex-
change an extensive cannonade with Fort Niagara in the War of
1 S 1 2.

During all this "hold-over period" the British officer- al I
Niagara exercised a certain sort of civil jurisdiction in the neighb
hood. From the capture of the fort in 1759 the seat of civil jurisdic-
tion of all this territory was at the fort; and the evacuation,
there being no Federal Courts here, the British ofl ty.
continued to exercise this jurisdiction, and they exer< it wisely.

At last June 1, 1796, the day set by treaty for the evacuation

arrived, but none of the five forts were evacuated. Wh B

1 Rochefoucault's Travels, 1799, vol. I., page 257 ' Kochefoucault's Tn vol.

I., page 257. Weld's Travels. 1799, page 300. ' Read's Life and Times of Gov. Simcoe,
page 268.

6z OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

the United States were not ready to occupy them, not even Fort
Niagara, the most important of the five.

So badly indeed had the United States' army been supplied with
provisions that, when notice was sent to the Federal general by the
British officers that they had received orders to deliver up their
respective posts pursuant to the treaty, and that they were prepared
to do so whenever he was ready to take possession of them, an
answer was returned that unless the British officers could supply his
army with a considerable quantity of provisions on arriving at the
lakes, he could not attempt to march for many weeks. 1

A British statement, but in general substantiated by fact.

The United States Government had sent no soldiers to garrison
these forts and had sent no provisions for a garrison. Hence the
delay was really at their wish. 2

THE EVACUATION.

On August i ith, the order having been duly presented, the British
evacuated Fort Niagara and transferred the garrison consisting of
fifty men, guns, ammunition, stores, etc , across the river. As the
banner of St. George came down from the flag pole at Fort Niagara
on that day, the British emblem floated over but one spot on Ameri-
can soil, Millimachinac, which was not surrendered up to the United
States until the following October.

So Niagara was the next to the last post evacuated in America.

Gov. Simcoe had arranged to remove the capital of Upper
Canada to York, now Toronto, and it was so removed in 1796.

ISAAC WELD'S VIEWS.

Soon after the evacuation in September, 1796, an English traveler

of note, Isaac Weld, Jr., visited Fort Niagara, and wrote:

" Toward the water it is stockaded, and behind the stockade, on the river side, a
large mound of earth rises up, at the top of which are embrasures for guns. On the
land side it is secured by several batteries and redoubts, and by parallel lines of
fascines at the gates and in various parts there are strong block-houses, and facing
the lake within the stockade stands a fortified stone house. The fort and outworks
occupy about five acres of ground and a garrison of 500 men, and at least from 30 to
60 pieces of ordnance would be necessary to defend it properly. The federal garrison
consists, however, of only 50 men, and the whole cannon in the place amounts
merely to four small field pieces, planted at the four corners of the fort. . . .

1 Weld's Travels, page 302. " Howard L. Osgood, Rochester, N. Y.

OLD FORT NIAGA R. I IN HIS I ( W ) .

Great additions were made to the works after the fort fell into the hands of the British
( l 7S9)- • • • Every part of the fort now exhibits a picture of
neglect, and the appearance of the soldiers is equally devoid of neatness with th
their quarters." '

Later he adds :

"The chief strength of the old fort is on the land side. Towards th
works are very weak, and the whole might be battered down by a single 12-pounder
judiciously planted on the British side of the river

Referring to the " hold-over period," he says :

"The American prints, until the late treaty of amity was ratified, teemed with the
most gross abuse of the British Government, for retaining possession of Fort '
and the other military posts on the lakes. After the independence of the States had
been acknowledged and peace concluded, it was never taken into coi ition that

if the British Government had thought proper to have withdrawn its troops from the
posts at once immediately after the definite treaty was signed, the works would, in
all probability have been destroyed by the Indians, within whose territories they were
situated, long before the people of the States could have taken possession of them.
for no part of their army was within hundreds of miles of the posts, and the country
through which they must have passed in getting to them was a mere wilderness ; but if
the army had gained the posts the States were in no condition immediately after the
war to have kept in them such large bodies of the military as would have been abso-
lutely necessary for their defense whilst at enmity with the Indians, and it is by no
means improbable but that the posts might have been soon abandoned. The reten-
tion of them therefore to the present day was in fact a circumstance highly beneficial to
the interests of the States, notwithstanding that such an outcry was raised against the
British on that account, inasmuch as the Americans now find themselves possessed of
extensive fortifications on the frontiers in perfect repairs, without having been at the
expense of building them or maintaining troops in them for the space of 10 years."

This was also a British view but there was a great deal of justice in it.

On the evacuation of the fort the American public papers paid
some nice compliments to the English officers for their friendly atten-
tions, their extensive gardens being left in full bearing/ A plan of
Fort Niagara made in 1S01 shows these gardens extending along the
lake front east of the earthworks, so that they then covered that part
of the ground where the English dug their parallels and planted their
batteries during the siege of 1759. which had not been washed
away by the encroachments and the storms of Lake Ontario. Tin-
comparatively small matter of leaving the iron shutters on the win
dows of the castle was overlooked, and these were all taken down and
carried to the new British blockhouse/

1 Weld's Travels, 1799, pages 300 and 301. a Weld's Travels, 1799, page 306.
Travels, 1799, pages 302 and 303. 4 Weld's Travels, 1 ; , ,, pages 302 and 303. fe of

DeWitt Clinton, 1849, page 124.

6 4 OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

The British, however, generously left fifty barrels of pork for the
use of the new Federal garrison. 1

The British commandant at the evacuation was Col. Smith, who
led the British in the fight at Concord in 1775. It has been said "Col.
Smith may with propriety be said to have participated in both the
opening and the closing acLs of the American Revolution."

1 796-1 8 1 2.

The advantages which the Americans, particularly those in any
way interested in the carrying trade between the east and west,
expected to derive from United States control of Fort Niagara
were overestimated.

Soon after the evacuation, in September, 1796, Captain Bruff,
the commandant at Fort Niagara, called an assemblage of the
sachems and warriors of the six nations at that place, to exchange
sentiments of peace, friendship, and mutual aid.

At the close of the Revolution (the " whirlwind " as they called
it) these warriors finding they were left by the British under the
control of the United States naturally felt alarmed as to what
treatment they might expect, as they had been hostile to the
colonists — the Thirteen Flames as they called them.

Finding that the conquerors were ready to overlook the past and to
treat them with justice, they buried the tomahawk and became good
friends and peaceable neighbors of the Americans.

So when the British finally evacuated Fort Niagara, which had
been the great headquarters of England's influence so far as the Six
Nations were concerned, it was fitting that at that spot the chain
of friendship between these savage warriors and the United States
should be brightened and vows of continued friendship interchanged.

Among the gifts bestowed on this assemblage, besides provis-
ions, clothing and a barrel of rum, was a large United States flag. 3

From 1796 to 1812 there is but little public history in connec-
tion with the fort.

In 1799, the United States Customs District of Niagara was cre-
ated by act of Congress. It included the American shores and
waters of Lakes Erie and Ontario, west of the Genesee River, and
of the Niagara River.

'Weld's Travels, 1799, page 302. 2 Lossing History of War of 1S12, page 408.
3 Turner's Holland Purchase, page 347.

OLD FORT NIAGARA IX HISTORY.

Fort Niagara was the port of entry, and remained so till i
when the port was removed to Lewiston.

In 1799, m anticipation of another Indian outbreak, the garri
was reinforced.

In May, 1S01, General Wilkinson, who was in command on the
frontier, was directed to open a military road between \
and Lake Erie, and, at his direction, Major Porter, commandanl
Fort Niagara, commenced operations. Th c road was n
promptly, for in 1802 the United States mail was still carried fi
Utica to Fort Niagara via Buffalo and the Canadian the

river.

In 1804, Tom Moore spent some time with General Brock
Fort George, and doubtless visited Fort Niagara.

In 1805, it became necessary to clear out an old sink attac
to the mess house. In it were found the bones of a woman, no
doubt the victim of a murder in days gone by.

In 1S06, George Heriot, Deputy Postmaster-General of British
North America, visited the fort, of which he wrote : "The ramparts
are composed of earth and pickets, and contain within their, a lofty
stone building. The Americans seem to take no measures either
its repair or enlargement, as the waters of the lake make progressive
encroachments on the sandy bank, whose summit it occupies, the
foundations of the buildings will in a short time be undermined.'*

In 1 8 10, the commissioners appointed by the State of New York
to explore the whole route of the projected Erie and connecting
made a digression on their journey to visit Fort Niagara.

In De Witt Clinton's journal of the trip he says, "We were receh
with a national salute and other military honor-.'' I tinner was sen
in the castle, which, he said, measured 105x47 feet, and was a com;
fortification, with prisons, a well and only one door. The fort was in
a ruinous condition, the only pleasant thing to the feelings of an
American being the new barracks then in course of construction.'

Among the troops at the fort during this period was one Carroll,
the band leader, said to be a relative of the famous Irish harper of
that name, and devoted to music and whiskey. One evening he
peared on parade drunk, and, when reprimanded by the commandant,
became so abusive that he was confined in the "black hole" in the
castle. Here, in the middle of the night, in answer to hi- ; he

Heriot"s Travels, pages 149 and 150. ; Life of De Witt I ii:iton. 1 - 124

66 OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

was found in a piteous condition of fright, declaring all the hob-
goblins and devils in existence had visited him, and begged for
a light, a fife, and pen, ink and paper, which were granted him. In
the morning he presented to the other musicians the notes of a tune
he had composed in the dungeon, and which he called "Carroll's
Thoughts on Eternity." He composed at the fort several marches
and waltzes, etc., which delighted the garrison and guests on many
occasions.

From 1796 till the war of 1812 there was a constant interchange
of civilities between the garrison of the Fort Niagara and the inhab-
itants of the Canadian village opposite, including the garrison of Fort
George. Many ties of friendship and, no doubt, of relationship, were
severed hereabouts by that war.

When it commenced, there was a yard on the north side of
the castle, between it and the pickets, some forty feet wide, and
beyond the pickets a space wide enough for two people to walk on
abreast. 1

The fort was then surrounded on three sides with strong pickets
of plank, firmly planted in the ground and closely joined together, a
heavy gate in front of double plank, closely studded with iron spike.
This was enclosed by a fence, with a large gate just on the brow of
the hill, called the Barrier Gate. 2 The fourth side was defended by
embankments of earth, under which had formerly been barracks.
These had been safe, but gloomy, and had been abandoned, and the
entrances closed before this date; as they had become infested with
rattlesnakes. So numerous had these vipers become in this breeding
place, that the soldiers not only did not dare to enter these barracks,
but it was impossible to cross the parade ground without meeting
them.

war OF 1812.

The official declaration of the war, made June 1 8th, reached Fort
Niagara June 26th, a day after the news had reached the Canadian
Frontier by private messengers sent to his agents hereabouts by John
Jacob Astor, who had vast commercial interests at stake.

According to the commandant's private admission, the fortifications
were out of repair, there was scarcely any arms or ammunition, and
only one company of soldiers in the fort, showing great negligence on
the part of the War department.

1 Turner, Holland Purchase, page 191. ■ Turner, Holland Purchase, page iSS.

0L1> Fi. m T NIA G. I RA IN JUS 1 1 'A' } .

Work was immediately commenced t<> repair the picket and earth
fortifications, and the well in the mess house was uncovered
cleaned out.

A heavy cannon was drawn into the porch of tli new

embankments were thrown up and cannon mounted; company after
company of militia soon came pouring in from the east and -nth.
raw and undisciplined recruits, gay with any and every sort of uniform
and armed with any available weapon.

To make room for these welcome defenders, the officers' families
were obliged to vacate their quarters in the fort and were sent away
into the country. '

Soon there appeared at the fort about a hundred young power-
ful and active Tuscarora Indians, from their Reservation near by,
decorated with war paint and armed with tomahawks and hatch.
Headed by the chief, they had hurried down to offer their assist-
ance to the United States. At this their first opportunity they
promptly proved their appreciation of the fair treatment that the
newly organized Federal government had extended to their race at
the close of the Revolution.

Between the declaration of war and the battle of Qu<
regulars and ammunition and ordnance were sent to Fort Niagara

On August 13, IS 12. Gen. Van Renssalaer, who had been
appointed to the command of the New York militia, a: rived at
Fort Niagara, but at once proceeded to and pitched his camp near
Lewiston.

It was believed that Gen. Brock, then in command of the British
troops along the frontier, contemplated an attack on !
and an invasion of the United States, and Gen. Van Ren
begged for more troops. At this time there were 300 light artillery
and icoo infantry of the United States army at tra.

When Gen. Brock returned to Fort G after the capture

of Detroit, many of the American prisoners taken th
panied by women and children, were brought to that fort. In
September Gen. Van Renssalaer wrote to Gen. Brock relative to
their condition, to the end that they might be relieved from 1
Niagara, and offering to receive the women and children at that
fort, and by order of Gen. Brock these women and children v
landed at Fort Niagara."

1 Turner's Holland Furchase. page 190. - Tupper's Life of Sir Isaac Brock. 1845, pagi

OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

Responding to Gen. Dearborn's insistance that Upper Canada
should be conquered before winter, Gen. Van Renssalaer planned
the capture of Oueenston Heights, opposite Lewiston, and prepara-
tions were made for the attack on October 13th. The flying artillery

■U— ^-l **

L ■

— . ■ : M.

JUTHWEST block house.

under Lieut.-Col. Fenwick, as well as most of the garrison at Fort
Niagara, were sent to Lewiston. It is not necessary to our subject to
discuss the details of this battle.

Gen. Brock was at Fort George expecting an attack, but under
the belief that it would be made from Fort Niagara. Hearing the
cannonading he hastened to Queenston, only to see the heights carried
by the Americans under Lieut. Wool. He at once sent word to Fort
George for reinforcements and also an order for an immediate bom-
bardment of Fort Niagara.

His instructions were obeyed and Fort Niagara was .again under fire.
The south block-house in this fort promptly replied and occasionally
turned its guns on the Canadian village of Newark, where, by reason of

OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY

the hot shot used (for there was a furnace in Fort N tally

built for heating cannon balls', many of the buildings w< on fire.

The cannonading lasted for several hours; shells also were thrown
from Fort George, and from these the men in Fort Niagara had no
protection. This fact, and the bursting of a cannon decided Capt.
Leonard, who was in command, to abandon Fort Niagara, and with the
small garrison of about twenty men he started for Lewiston, leaving
the fort empty. lie had proceeded but a short distance when he
saw the British putting off in boats from near Fort George to occupy
it. Reconsidering his action, he hurried his nun back into it .

v—

THE NORTHEAST BLOCK HOUSE.

held it unmolested till the regulars returned very early the next
morning from Oueenston.

In rallying his forces to recapture Queenston Heights Gen.
Brock was killed. Had he learnt that Fort Niagara v.
garrisoned he was too good a soldier not to have ordered its attack,
and why Major Evans, who was in command of Fort Ge plainly

;o OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

seeing the small number of men in the garrison, and Leonard's
cowardice, as evinced by his retreat, did not promptly storm it, for
it would have been captured with ease, is unexplained.

After the battle of Queenston, many of the wounded Americans
were conveyed to Fort Niagara and lodged in any available place,
even the cellars of the castle being converted into a hospital.

The British army after its success at Queenston marched back
to Fort George — at once a column of victory and a funeral train, for
it carried the body of its late commander.

Gen. Brock was buried in a cavalier bastion at Fort George on
October 16th. Col. Scott, who had been captured at Queenston,
was then a prisoner at Newark, and at his suggestion, Gen. Van
Renssalaer issued orders that immediately after the funeral was
over minute guns should be fired from Fort Niagara, ''as a mark of
respect due to a brave enemy." x

Early in the morning of November 21st hostilities were renewed.
The British had prepared mortars and planted a long train of battering
cannon behind breast-works on the margin of the river, under Fort
George. Five of these batteries and the guns of Fort George bom-
barded Fort Niagara from sunrise to sunset.

The garrison of that fort had been reinforced after the 13th of
October by the 13th Regiment of U. S. troops, but was not yet sup-
plied with a sufficient quantity of artillery or ammunition. Col.
George McFeeley was in command. During November 21st, 2,000
cannon balls and 180 shells were discharged against Fort Niagara.

The shells did little harm, but many of the cannon balls, having
been heated, set fire to several buildings in and about the fort. Thanks
to the ceaseless efforts of the garrison, none of the buildings were
burnt. Fort Niagara returned the fire of the British with alacrity and
vigor. A six-pounder had been mounted on top of the mess house, a
twelve-pounder on the southwest block-house, other cannon on the
north block-house. There was an eighteen-pounder in the south-
east battery, and an eighteen and also a four-pounder on the west
battery. The Salt Battery, a dependency in the present village of
Youngstown, mounting an eighteen and a four-pounder, also did
effective work, and, when their gun wadding gave out during the worst
of the bombardment, the officers and men tore up their flannel waist
coats, shirts and trousers to supply their guns. Several houses in
1 Tupper's Life of Sir Isaac Brock, 1845, page 333.

OLD FORT NIAGARA IX HISTORY. -i

Newark were set on fire by hot shot during this bombardment, but
were saved. The mess house at Fort George and some buildings near
it, however, were set on fire by hot shot and were burn

An instance of female bravery at Fort Niagara on this day must
also be chronicled. A private in the U. S. Artillery, Doyle by name,
who had been stationed at the fort, was among the prisoi iken

at Queenston. His wife had remained in the fort and, resenting the
refusal of the British to parole her husband, she insisted on filling his
place and doing his duty against the enemy. She accordingly, during
the bombardment, attended the six-pounder on the Mess hou
served it with hot shot, regardless of the shells which were falling
around her, and never quitting her post till the last gun n,a\ b
discharged.

The bombardment effected nothing of great moment on either
side of the river. Buildings in both forts were set on fire and I
works of both were damaged. American marksmanship silenced one
of the Canadian batteries for a time. The loss of life, fortunately,
was small on both sides, two being killed and seven wounded on t he-
American side, and more on the British side. 1

During the winter of 1812-13 there were no events of note at the
fort. It was fully garrisoned, for it was by no means improbable that
the British might, at any time, attempt its capture, and more than one
of the officers at Fort George across the river formed plans for its
assault, each hoping thereby to win for himself military fame: but
none of these plans were ever attempted. Early in 1X13, Col. Scott,
who was among the prisoners exchanged, arrived at Fort Niagara.

At the breaking out of the war the Mohawk Indians had sided
with the British, but the Senecas, located near Buffalo, had promi
not to engage in the war, unless on the side of the United Stat

When the British took possession of Grand Island, which the
Senecas claimed as their territory, which claim the State of New
York had recognized, the young Seneca braves could no longer be
restrained, and they made a declaration of war in writing, said to be
the first instance of its kind in Indian history. The United States
had been reluctant to employ savages, but the action of the British
in securing the aid of the Mohawks, caused Gen. Lewis, who com-
manded Fort Niagara in 181 3, to invite the Senecas to the fort and to
seek their aid.

1 Official Report of Col. McFeeley's The War, page 109.

72 OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

Three or four hundred Senecas in their war paint came, but or*
learning that they were expected to exert rather a moral influence
than to use the tomahawk they went away in disgust.

Their friendly attitude, and later on their active service along the
frontier, however, were of great benefit to the Americans.

On April 27th the Americans captured Little York (Toronto), and
the tremendous explosion of the powder magazine there was plainly
heard at Fort Niagara.

On May 8th Commodore Chauncey's fleet brought Gen. Dearborn
and his victorious army from York to Four-mile Creek, east of Fort
Niagara, where they landed. As many as possible were quartered
in Fort Niagara — every available room being occupied and the
parade ground being covered with their tents. The balance
encamped at Four-mile Creek. All of the wounded were also
brought over and cared for at the camp or in houses in the neigh-
borhood.

CAPTURE OF FORT GEORGE.

Gen. Dearborn established his headquarters in Fort Niagara, Col.
Scott being his adjutant ; and plans were at once made to capture
Fort George. Being confined to his bed by sickness, Gen. Dearborn's
orders were issued from his sick room.

On May 26th, a number of boats which the Americans had built
at the " meadows," five miles up stream from Fort Niagara, were
launched. The British battery opposite opened fire on them, and
as they came down stream the batteries and Fort George cannonaded
them. Fort Niagara, its batteries and dependencies replied vigorously.

When night came the boats were safely taken past Fort George,
and around Fort Niagara to the lake shore, to Four-mile Creek.

Early on the morning of May 27th the troops were embarked
from the fort and the camp on the vessels and boats, and at once
proceeded to the attack.

The guns of Fort Niagara and its batteries were turned on Fort
George. The warships took their assigned positions, some to bom-
bard Fort George and its batteries, some to silence the batteries on
the lake near where the troops were to land.

Amidst a terrific bombardment, the men led by Col. Scott, landed,
drove back the British, captured Fort George, and by noon were in
quiet possession of every battery on the river, the British fleeing with
precipitation.

OLD FORT NIAGARA f.\ HISTORY.

A storm coming up, the fleet sailed up the riv< '..inch'

nearly opposite Fort George.

From May 27th till December, 181 3, Fort George was in tin-
possession of the Americans, and the headquartei the Army ol
the Center was here, and thus on British soil. General Dearborn,
General Wilkinson, Colonel Scott, General Harrison and General
McClure of the New York Militia were successively in comm
and were frequently at Fort Niagara.

FORT GEORGE ABAND< >NED.

On December 10th, word came to Fort George that 1,500 British
regulars and 700 Indians were advancing toward it, with a view to
its capture and the expulsion of the Americans from Canadian
soil hereabouts.

McClure's garrison was not a large one; only sixty effective men.
He was not a man of courage. He decided to abandon Fort Geo
and to concentrate all his troops in Fort Niagara.

For about two months he had had in his possession the follow-
ing, sent from Sackett's Harbor:

War Department, October 4, 1813.
Sir, — Understanding that the defense of the post committed to
your charge may render it proper to destroy the town of Newark,
you are hereby directed to apprise the inhabitants of this circum-
stance, and invite them to remove themselves and their effects t<>
some place of greater safety.

JOHN ARMSTR( »NG

Brigadier-General McCLURE, or officer commanding at Fori
George.

McClure had never carried out this order. All of a sudden, in the
middle of a most rigorous winter, he decided to abandon Fort '
Most of the guns were spiked, and all movable stores put on boat^.
Then, falling back on this old order from the war department (which
had been sent to him long before winter set in, and with the very i
of preventing unnecessary hardship), he gave notice to the inhabitants
of New. irk that in a few hours the town would be burnt. This order
of his own he carried out. The village was set on fire i;
places, and 150 houses were consumed. While it was burning tin
American troops crossed to Fort Niagara.

74 OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

It was a sorry day for that fort (and for the frontier) when it be-
came the headquarters of Gen. McClure.

In such haste was he to get away from the rapidly advancing
British troops, and to get behind the guns of Fort Niagara, that he
did not even try and demolish any of the works of Fort George ; and
his excuse for the burning of Newark, " that it might not be left as a
shelter for the enemy," was nullified by the fact that he left the
barracks on the river bank intact, and serviceable tents for 1500 men
in Fort George. 1 Several good cannons and a quantity of shot were
also left behind.

When the British took possession of Fort George and the ruins of
Newark it was toward Fort Niagara, behind whose walls McClure, the
destroyer of Newark, had taken refuge, that their thoughts at once
turned for revenge.

Gen. McClure, possibly appreciating this, promptly, on Decem-
ber 1 2th, moved his headquarters to Buffalo, from whence, on
December 18th, he issued a proclamation warning the people of the
preparations of the British to make a descent on the American side
of the Niagara. 2

But he made no provision against it, not even sending a special
message to the officers in Fort Niagara, trusting solely to his general
order to them of some days before. 3

Capt. Leonard had been left in command of that fort, and warned
that an attack might be expected. It was this same officer, I believe,
who a little over a year before had evacuated this same fort ; but, on
seeing the British starting to occupy it, had plucked up courage to
return and hold it.

Whether he was a traitor, as was strongly suspected, but not con-
clusively proven, or merely without courage, military ability and fore-
sight, like too many of the American officers who held commissions
on this frontier during the War of 18 12, his negligence was criminal.

FORT NIAGARA CAPTURED.

On their arrival, as they stood gazing on the ruins of Newark,

Colonel Murray said to General Drummond, " Let us retaliate by

fire and sword." " Do so," replied that commander, " swiftly and

thoroughly."

1 British Official Report, Niles Register, vol. V., No. 21. 2 McClure's Proclamation,
December 18, 1813. ''McClure's General Order, December 12, 1813.

OLD FORT NIAGARA IX HISTORY.

So intense was the feeling of the Britishers that preparations were
rapidly made. On the night of December [8th, a cold, dark night,
Colonel Murray crossed the river at the " Meadows,'' five miles ab<
Fort Niagara, with one thousand men, British and Indians. Carrying
axes, scaling ladders and other implements for assault, shielded by
the darkness, they pressed on to Fort Niagara. The advance pic
of the Americans were captured in silence, and the force placed i-
simultaneous attack at several points — five companies of the iooth
Regiment were to assail the main gate, three companies of the same
regiment were to storm the eastern semi-bastion, the Royal Si
Grenadiers were to assault the salient angle of the works, and the
Forty-first Regiment was to support the principal attack. 1

These preparations were unnecessary. At four o'clock in the morn-
ing of Sunday, December 19th, when the assailants reached the main
gate of the fort, they found it wide open and unguarded. They rushed
in and seized the sentinels, who, in fright, gave up the countersign.
There were about 400 men in the garrison, some of them in the hos-
pital; but enough, had the fort been properly patrolled and the most
ordinary precautions been taken against a sudden attack, to have tie-
fended it. Rut the evening before, Leonard, their commander, without
notice to his officers or instructions to them, had quietly slipped away
to his home, which was at the meadows, where the assailants lain!

The occupants of the southwest block-house and the invalids in
the red barracks jumped from their beds on hearing the noise, and made
a determined stand, killing half a dozen, and wounding more, of the
assailing party.

This resistance was overcome, and the fort was in poss >sion of the
British before the rest of the garrison were full}' awake. Few shots
were fired; the bayonet was the weapon" and revenge the watchword.
Little if any attempt was made to curb the British soldiers' thirst
for blood, and many of the garrison, especially hospital patients, were
bayoneted after all resistance had ceased.

The loss of the Americans was 80 killed. [4 wounded (these figures
tell the story of British revenge), and 244 made prisoners; and only
about 20 escaped.

Col. Murray was wounded early in the attack, and resigned the
command to Col. Hamilton, "under whose superintendence, it is stated,

1 Lossing's History of War of i5i2, page 633, he quotes Colonel Murray's official report.
■ Gen. Drummond's Oliicial Report, December 19, 1S13.

y6 OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

the women of the garrison were stripped of their clothing and many
of them killed, and the persons of the dead officers treated with shock-
ing indignity." ' "v

The spoils of war, captured in the fort, consisted of 27 cannon, 3,000
stands of arms and many rifles, a large amount of ammunition and
commissary stores, clothing and camp equipage of every description.

DEVASTATION OF THE FRONTIER.

When in full control of the fort, the British fired one of the largest
cannon as a signal of victory, and Gen. Riall, who, with his blood-
thirsty soldiers and Indians, was waiting at Oueenston for the news,
at once crossed his forces to Lewiston, there to commence the devas-
tation of the frontier.

Thus inside of 10 days the control of both Fort Niagara and Fort
George, which included the control of the river, passed, amid scenes
of slaughter and devastation, from American to British hands, and
once more the flag of England floated over the ramparts of Fort
Niagara.

Bloody as was the vengeance wreaked on the surprised garrison, it
was not so bad as that inflicted by the British troops and their Indian
allies, the latter led by British officers in war paint, on the defenseless
inhabitants living between Fort Niagara and Tonawanda. Almost
every house in that territory and all movable property was burnt, and
men, women, children and even babes were slain and scalped.

Marauding parties from Fort Niagara were sent out and burnt all
buildings to the eastward for a distance of 18 miles.

Gen. McClure blamed Capt. Leonard for the loss of the fort,
charging him with gross neglect. Leonard, within a few days, gave
himself up to the enemy, retiring with his family to Canada. 2 Later
he returned and surrendered himself. He was tried by court-martial
and dismissed from the army.

The British held undisputed possession of the fort from its capture
until the close of the war.

Its occupation was of no direct benefit to England. The entire
American Frontier was desolate and in ruins. The rest of the war so
far as this section was concerned, was carried on on Canadian soil ;
and the rumored and expected attacks, to be made from Fort Niagara
on the settlement at Batavia and elsewhere, never occurred.

'J L. Thompson, History of the War, 1816, page 186. ' Fay's Official Reports, page 167.

OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HIS TDK).

On March 27, 1S15, under article 1 of the Treat Ghent, the

fort was surrendered to and occupied by the United States, and
flag has floated over it ever since.

On August 8, 1S17. James .Monroe, President of the United
States, paid a brief visit to the fort.

In the summer ^\ [825 the Marquis de Lafayette, th
the nation, paid a visit to Fort Niagara. Major Thomson, at the
head of his officers, met him outside the fort, and as he entered tin-
gate a salute of 24 guns was fired. He dined at the fort, which he
was told had been much repaired since the war of 1812, so that no
traces of the damage then done remained. 1

OPENING OF THE ERIE CANAL.

As already noted, all British goods shipped to the West had b
carried over the Canadian portage since 1796: but the great high
for American commerce to and from the rapidly settling West was
from Oswego to Lewiston, to Schlosser, and Buffalo; and as the
vessels rounded the point where Fort Niagara stood it gave their
crews a feeling of pride, and a sense of security, to see on every trip
the national flag floating over a national fort, garrisoned by national
troops.

But the fall of 1825 brought the completion and official opening
of the Erie Canal, and the large commerce which had passed this
way took the new route. The increase of a population, which had
been largely dependent on the business of the portage, was stopped,
and Buffalo, the terminus of the Erie Canal, rapidly increased at tin-
expense of the territory on the lower Niagara.

Thus another reason why Fort Niagara should be maintained
as a defensive work, namely, the protection of an important inland,
and yet a frontier commerce, which passed under its gun
removed.

The projection of the Welland Canal, which was completed in
1829, took away another though a directly opposite reason for lout
Niagara's maintenance. Canadian commerce, on taking this new
and abandoning the Niagara way westward, could no i in the

event of war, be harassed by Fort Niagara's guns.

So in May, 1826, the troops were withdrawn and the historic
in its entirety left in charge of one man.
1 Lafayette in America, 1S29, vol. II., p

OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

ANTI-MASONIC AGITATION.

In September, 1826, Fort Niagara was called to the attention of the
nation and the civilized world, even more prominently than it had
ever been in all its history, by the Anti-Masonic movement. William
Morgan, a resident of Batavia, and a Free Mason, had threatened to
divulge the secrets of that body in print. It is generally credited that
members of that order, failing to get control of Morgan's manuscript
revelations, had him arrested on some petty charge and jailed at
Canandaigua. On being liberated he was thrust into a closed carriage

WILLIAM MORGAN.

in waiting and, always accompanied by three men, with relays of
horses, taken through Rochester, along the Ridge Road to Lewiston,
and thence to Fort Niagara, where the driver was told to stop near
the graveyard. Here the four men got out, the carriage was sent

OLD FORT NIAGARA IX ///STORY.

away, and the party proceeded to the water's edge, got into a I
and crossed to Canada, whence, after a two hours' absence, t;
turned, and entered the fort. This was after midnight, September 13,
1S26. Preparations had been completed .it Fort Niagara for the recep-
tion of the kidnapped man. He was at once placed in confinement, but
tradition differs as to where he was confined. The old French
magazine, the dark cell in the "castle," and the respective dark cells
in the two block-houses, being all pointed out as the location. A
iron key, nearly eleven inches in length, kept in the office of the
Quartermaster, is shown as the key of "Morg mi," but it

throws no light as to that dungeon's location. The magazine seems
to be the probable location. On September 14th a steam boat, con-
veying a number of Masons to a meeting at Lewiston, stopped at the
fort's wharf, and several of those on board went into the fort and
saw Morgan; others of the party refused to enter it. On the same-
day it was reported at Lewiston "that there was trouble at the fort."
Morgan remained in confinement for six days, often visited by Mas* ms,
none others being allowed to see him. He was quite "noisy" at
first, and his visitors tried to "quiet" him. He refused to give up
his manuscript, or to tell where it could be found. He begged to see
his wife and children, and is reported to have said several times that
he would rather stay in the magazine than be bled to death by the
doctor. He made ineffectual attempts to break through the heavy
doors of the building.

Frequent consultations were held as to what disposition 1 be

made of him. One plan was to settle him on a farm in Canada;
another, to hand him over to a Masonic commander of some Brit-
ish war ship ; and another, to drown him in the lake. Masons who
mitted having participated in these consultations said the}- strenu-
ously opposed the last, even to a point of quarreling with their com-
rades.

William Morgan was last heard of in confinement in the fort on
September 19, 1826. He disappeared, and all trace of him wa
lutely lost.

A tremendous excitement, of course, followed his disappearance.
Popular tradition said he was taken blindfolded by m men from

the fort, forced into a boat, which was rowed out into the lake, and
that he was dropped overboard, heavy weights being attach his

body.

8o OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

Investigating committees were appointed everywhere, and Fort
Niagara thoroughly examined by many of them. The bed of the
Niagara River near the fort and far out into the lake was dredged for
weeks, but without result.

A little more than a year afterwards a body was found on the lake
shore over twenty miles east of Fort Niagara. A coroner's jury said
"unknown," but the anti-Masons thought it was Morgan; had it
exhumed, proved its identification as Morgan and had it removed to
Batavia and buried. It was " a good enough Morgan for them till
after election." Additional information having subsequently been ob-
tained, another inquest was held, and it was proved to be the body
of one Timothy Monroe.

Several men, including the Sheriff of Niagara County, the Keeper
of Fort Nragara, and several citizens of the neighborhood, were ar-
rested and long afterwards tried. No proof of Morgan's death could
be produced. None of those sworn at the trials for his abduction
were at the magazine when Morgan left it, nor could they learn his
fate. Some witnesses refused to testify, three men plead guilty, and
one was convicted of complicity in Morgan's abduction. The Sheriff
of Niagara County was removed from office.

Thus, within the historic walls of old Fort Niagara, where William
Morgan was last seen alive, occurred the birth of the Anti-Masonic
party, which, for years afterward, in New York and several other
states, exercised such a great political influence.

Fort Niagara at this time was a desolate place, without a garrison.
The only house near it was a small ferry house, occupied by the man
who had charge of the fort.

No matter what their intentions in regard to him were, it was just
exactly the kind of a place for Morgan's abductors to confine him in
while they were deliberating as to what should be their final step in
their unlawful course ; — being a lonely, uninhabited spot, whose owner
in those days of slow communication could not interfere with their
proceedings; located a mile away from any human habitation, on
this side of the river, and out of the jurisdiction of the people across
the river.

MODERN FORT NIAGARA.

Since 1826 Fort Niagara has not been considered as a really
defensive work. Indeed, in the early part of that year it was con-
sidered of so little importance that, as already noted, the garrison

OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY,

was withdrawn, and for about ten years it remained an abandon
and deserted post. About [836 it was re-occupied and garri
and has been occupied without interruption ever sim

In old days in the first story of the Castle was the large m
room, used also as an assembly room on all occasions, a large spacious
apartment from whose windows one looked out on the broad wal
of Lake Ontario. This famous apartment, wherein the French and
English commandants at the fort, as representatives of their respective
sovereigns, met and treated with the various sachems of the Indian
tribes — wherein were held military and commercial councils and
social gatherings — has long, long ago been partitioned off into
several small rooms. Somewhere within the fort, in an unmarked and
unknown grave, rest the remains of General Prideaux, to whom l'itt
entrusted the responsible duty of capturing the fort in 1

Somewhere also within the ramparts tradition says sums of gold
and silver, buried at various times and for various reasons, lie con-
cealed. Many applications have been made for permission to dig
for and unearth these treasures, but all have been refused.

In 1839 the stone wall towards the river was constructed.

The " Patriot War" in 1837 came very near involving this country
in another war with England along this frontier; in which case Fort
Niagara would again have been brought into prominence. Put
England's apology for the Caroline episode prevented such a thing.

In 1861 the present brick walls were constructed, outside the line
of the old earthworks.

In 1865 a lighthouse was established here, the light being
on top of the "castle."

In 1873 the present comely lighthouse was erected.

The entire post has been rebuilt, a icw buildings at a time, offi<
quarters, barracks, hospital, etc., within the past twenty years, all
cated south of the "old" fort, leaving that as a hallowed memory ol
the past.

In 1880, the present rifle range was construct, d, and i- used annu-
ally by the Department of the East.

In 1S93, a life saving station was established hi

The land embraced in the fort reserve amounts to 288 an id is

in latitude 43 15' X., longitude 2° wast from Washington.

And so we come down now to the Centennial of the evacuation
of the "old" fort by the British in [796.

OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

PLAN OF OLD FORT NIAGARA, 1896.

1
2

■y

5
6

7-
8.

9
10.

The Castle, or Mess House ; commenced 1725.

The Bake House; built 1762.

Modern Wooden Houses.

Hot Shot Furnace; built before 1S12 ; rebuilt later.

French Magazine; built before 1759.

French Barracks; built 1757.

Southwest Block House; built 1756.

Northeast Block House; built 1756.

Life Saving Station.

Cemetery.

OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

Part of the 13th Infantry, who came to this place and were in the
battle of Oueenston, in [812, arc n<>w garrisoning Fort N t; and

by a singular coincidence, this centennial finds in command of this
fort an officer of the same rank, and bearing the same name, though
serving under a different flag, as he who commanded it 100 j
Col. Smith ; at this date Col. Alfred T. Smith, U. S. A.

A BRIE! SUMMARY.

Such is "a brief history of old Fort Niagara.*' The spot where it
stands has been the scene of many contests, beginning with the d
when the redmen resisted the erection of any sort of a fortificat
here.

It has seen a fort erected and demolished ; it has seen rival
European nations plotting, striving and contending for its ownership;
it has seen, during French rule, the reflection of Parisian life and
manners and the horrors of a political prison ; it has seen the
savages sacking the fort, thieving not butchering, for there was p<
between the French and Indians at the time; it has seen the horrors
of a siege, and a surrender.

It has seen the ascendency of the English and the unbridled license
that their officers of that day gave to their lust and pas-ions. It
was during the ownership of both these nations the gre I market
for Indian trade — especially in furs and brandy — in the country.
To this spot the savages continually flocked, often, yes, very often,
bringing with them wretched white prisoners, many of whom, to the
credit of both the French and the English, were ransomed by the
officers of the fort.

It has seen the most shameless plans prepared here by British
leaders and Indian chiefs, the natures of both being as much that
of fiends as of men formed in the image of their Maker.

It has seen marauding parties sallying out from here to rob.
murder and destroy. It has witnessed bloody strife between the
great English-speaking nations of the old and new world respectively.

And to-day the old fort remains, as a relic, but bearing within its
ramparts and in the earthworks outside, the standin
history for at least 150 years back. And with a record back of that,
which is somewhat traced in this article for over another hundred
years; and back of that still, is an unknown history when thi
of land was owned by the Neuter nation.

OLD FORT NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

It is sincerely to be hoped that the United States will forever guard
and preserve these buildings and the earthworks of the old fort, and
not allow them to be razed or restored. They should be allowed to
remain intact, as memorials of the history of former generations.

And so, in the belief that I have proved the statement, I close sub-
stantially as I began, by asserting that no one spot of land in North
America has played a more important part, been more coveted, and
exerted a greater influence, both in peace and war, on the control, on
the growth, on the settlement, and on the civilization of the country,
than the few acres embraced within the limits of old Fort Niagara !

^4~~£T k

HOT SHOT FURNACE.

THE

Niagara Region

History

b> Peter A. Porter

Reprinted from the Niagara Power Number m Custer'* M..-../,...

NEW YORK AM) LONDON

1895

Copyrighted by the

CASSIER MAGAZINE CO.

1895

■^J ^y^PrrU^

Peter A. Porter is prominently identi-
fied with the interests of the city of Niagara
Falls. As a member of the New York State
Legislature in 1S86, he introduced the Niagara
Tunnel Bill, under which the Niagara power
is now being developed.

- m

THE NIAGARA REGION IN HISTORY.

By Peter A. Porter.

N [764 Sir William John- the two great nations of North Amer-

son, commander of the ica. In it arc locatedthe Falls of Ni-

English forces in the agara, the ideal waterfall of the univ<

Niagara region, supplement- in it arc found the two government

ing the treaty of the preced- parks or reservations, established, 1

ing year between England spectively, by the State of New York

^ and France, assembled all and the province of Ontario, in order

1^ the Indian warriors of that the immediate surroundings

- that region, some 2000 agara might be pn

HK , in number, comprising possible, in their natural state ami be

chiefly the hostileSen- forever free to all mankind. In it 1

ecas, at Fort Niagara. meets with many an 1 won, Irons .

and acquired from of natural scenery ; in it one finds g<

them, for the English lo irds, laid bare along the riv<

the or.., stoke chimney at Cr own, toother with chasm by the force of the water th(

niagaua, built in 1750. other territory, a strip sands of years ago, and which hold so

of land, four miles high a place in that sci hat among
wide, on each bank of the Niagara river its classifications the name Niagar
(the islands being excepted) from Lake applied to one ol thegroups. In it are
Erie to Lake Ontario. The Senecas also found botanic specimens of beauty and
ceded to him, personally, at this time, rarity, and it is stated that on G
" as proof of their regard and of their Island, embracing So
knowledge of the trouble which he had found a greater number of S] and
had with them from time to time," all flora than can be found in an equal area
the islands in the Niagara river, and he, anywhei In it are to be fund,
in turn, as compelled by the military also, the development of hydraulic en-
law of that period, ceded them to his terprises which are regarded as stuj
Sovereign. dons even in thisage ofm irv< Is ; while

It is ot the territory included in as to places noted for historic intei

the above two grants, a region now one may truly say that it is all hist

popularly known as "the Niagara ground.

frontier," that the writer proposes to Within sight of the spray of th< 1
treat. And a famed and famous terri- the red men, in ages long gone by,
tory it is, for it would be difficult to find lived, held their councils, waged tl
anywhere else an equal area of country inhuman warfares and offei I up tl
(36 miles long and 8 mil< d, be- human s To this Niagara re-
sides the islands) around which cluster gion long ago came the adventun
so many, so important and such varied French traders, the forerunners ol the
associations as one finds then . " coureurs de bois," believed to 1
Through its centre flows the grand been the first white men who ever gi
Niagara river, between whose banks the upon the Falls, though the name ol tin-
waters of four great lakes, — the water- man to whom that honour belongs, and
shed of almost half a continent, — find the exact date at which he saw them
their way to the ocean; and through will probably forever remain unknown.
the centre of the deepest channel of this Across Niagara's rapid stream went
river runs the boundary line between several of the early missionaries of the

NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

THE FIRST KNOWN" PICTURE OF NIAGARA FALLS.

(From Father Hennepin's " Xouvelle Decouverte," 1697.)

Catholic church as they carried the gos-
pel to the various Indian tribes in the
unknown wilderness. To this region
came the French, first officially in the
person of La Salle; afterwards, by their
armies, seeking conquest and the con-
trol of the fur trade. At the mouth of
the Niagara river the French established
one of their most important posts.
There they traded with, conferred with
and intrigued with the Indians, making
firm friends of some of the tribes and
bitter enemies of others ; and during
the fourscore years that France held
sway on the American continent, this
region was a famous part of her domain
in the new world.

Later on, steadily but surely driving
the French before them, and finally
totally depriving them of their posses-
sions, came the English. Shortly after
England became the undisputed owner
of the region, the American Revolution
began, and within twenty years after
England had dispossessed France of
this famous territory, she herself was
compelled to recognize a new nation,

formed by her own descendants, and to
cede to it one-half, or, counting the
islands, more than one-half of the lands
bordering on the Niagara river. From
thai time on, the United States and
Great Britain have held undisputed
possession of all this wondrous section.

Looking back in history for the first
references to the Niagara region, we
find them derived from Indian tradition
or hearsay, and that, almost entirely
by reason of the Falls and Rapids.
However, it was not their grandeur,
but the fact that the Indians were com-
pelled to carry their canoes so many
miles around them that impressed them.
Thus, the existence of a great fall at this
point was known to the Indians all over
the North American continent, we know
not how far back ; certainly as early as
the arrival of Columbus at San Salva-
dor.

In 1535 Jacques Cartier made his
second voyage to the St. Lawrence,
and the Indians living along that river
narrated to him what they had heard
of the upper part of that stream, and of

NIAGARA l.Y HISTORY.

the lakes beyond, mentioning, in
nection therewith, a cataract and a por-
tage. Lesearbot, in his "History <>i
New France," published in 1609, tells
of this in his story of Carrier's voj
This is the earliest reference I [535) t"
the Great Lake region and Niagara's
cataract.

Champlain, in his " Des Sauvages,"
published in 1603, speaks of a "fall,"
which, clearly, is Niagara,
and on the map, in his
"Voyages," published in
5, he locates a river
with such approximate ex-
actness as to be the Niagara
beyond doubt, and in that
river he indicates a " sault
d'eau," or water- fall.

In 1615 Etienne Brule,
who was Champlain's inter-
preter, was in that vicinity.
in the territory of the Neu-
ter nation, and may have
been the first pale-face to
have seen the Falls. In
1626 the Franciscan priest
Joseph de la Roche Dallion
was on the Niagara river in
the course of his missionary
labors among the Neutrals.
It is more than probable
that at this date the Ni-
agara route westward, as
distinguished from the Ot-
tawa route, was known and
had been traversed by white
men — the French traders or
"coureurs de bois " previ-
ously mentioned. In the
1632 edition of his "Voy-
ages," Champlain again,
though inaccurately, lo-
cates on his map a river
which cannot be any other
than the Niagara, and quite accurately
locates also a "waterfall, very high.
at the end of Lake St L< »uis < mtario),
where many kinds of fish are stunned
in the descent.''

In 1640 the Jesuit lathers Brebeuf
and Chaumonot undertook their m
sion to the Neuter nation, the existence
of the famous river of this nation having
been familiar to the Jesuits before this

(.late. Th< m the ■

■
river, r< again, near u here the

village of ]
their missii in pi ful. In

lit Rel.n 1 1

this region. In that of 1641, publis
in \<- \ 2, I ather I .' Allement sp<
" the Neuter nation, I
ing the same name as the river," and

FATHER HENNEPIN.

in that of 1648, published in
Father R of ' Lake

Erie which is form* d by the wat<
from the M< r 1 >ou< e Huroi

and which di 1 third

lake, call.d < mtario
fearful height."

m in his map ol Canada, 1 r > 5 7 ,

correctlv locates t! - re-

and calls the Falls " Ongiara

NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

Sault." In Davity, 1660, Le Sieur
Gendron refers to the Falls in the
exact words of Father Ragueneau
above. In his " Historian Canaden-
sis," De Creuxius very nearly cor-
rectly locates this region and the
Niagara river, and calls the Falls " On-
giara Cataractes." In 1669 La Salle
made a visit to the Senecas who dwelt
in what is now known as Western New

RENE ROBERT CAVELIER, SIEUR DE LA SAI

(From an Edition of 1688 )

York. With him went Fathers Dollier
de Casson and Rene Gallinee, traveling
as far as the western end of Lake On-
tario, whence La Salle returned east-
ward. Gallinee' s journal of that jour-
ney includes the earliest known descrip-
tion of Niagara Falls, which is as fol-
lows :

"We found a river, one-eighth of a
league broad, and extremely rapid,
forming the outlet or communication

from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. The
outlet is 40 leagues long and has, from
10 to 12 leagues above its embrochure
into Lake Ontario, one of the finest falls
of water in the world, for all the In-
dians of whom I have inquired about it
say that the river falls at that place from
a rock higher than the tallest pines, —
that is, about 300 feet. In fact, we
heard it from the place where we were,
although from 10 to 12
leagues distant ; but the fall
gives such a momentum to
the water that its velocity
prevented our ascending the
current by rowing, except
with great difficulty. At a
quarter of a league from the
outlet where we were it
grows narrower and its chan-
nel is confined between two
very high, steep, rocky
banks, inducing the belief
that the navigation would
be very difficult quite up to
the cataract.

"As to the river above
the foils, the current very
often sucks into this gulf,
from a great distance, deer
and stags, elk and roebucks,
that suffer themselves to be
drawn from such a point in
crossing the river that they
are compelled to descend the
falls and are overwhelmed in
the frightful abyss. I will
leave you to judge if that is
not a fine cataract in which
all the water of that large
river falls from a height of
e. 200 feet with a noise that

is heard not only at the
place where we were, 10 or
12 leagues distant, but also from the
other side of Lake Ontario."

Neither Gallinee, Champlain, nor any
of the other writers quoted heretofore,
ever saw the Falls. In 1678 Father
Hennepin visited the Falls and in 1683
published his first work, " Louisiana,"
in which he tells of the Niagara river
and of the Falls themselves, calling them
500 feet high. On Coronelli's map of
1688 the word Niagara first appears in

NIAGARA IN HISTORl

u X

H S

< -

■J —
< "

-
5

NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

cartography. In 1691 Father Le
Clercq,,, in his "Establishment of the
Faith in New France," uses the words
"Niagara Falls." In 1697 Father
Hennepin published his ' ' New Dis-
covery," in which he gives the well
known description of Niagara Falls,
commencing "betwixt the lakes On-
tario and Erie there is a vast and pro-
digious cadence of water which falls
down after a surprising and astonishing
manner insomuch that the universe
does not afford its parallel." Later
on, in the same work, he describes
them again, giving their height as 600
feet. He also gives in that work the
first known picture of Niagara Falls, re-
produced on page 6. Hennepin's two
works as above, and a third, entitled
" Nouveau Voyage," were translated
into almost all the languages of Europe
and by means of this, as well as by the
work of Campanius Holm, published in
1702, who reproduces Hennepin's
sketch of Niagara, and by the works of
La Hontan, published in 1703, and of
others later on, this region and Niagara
Falls became familiar to all Europeans.
It was reserved for Charlevoix and
Borassow, each independently of the
other, in 1721, to aceurately measure
the height of the Falls.

Hennepin was the first to use the
modern spelling "Niagara," and he
was followed by De Nonville, Coro-
nelli and by all French writers since
that time. English writers, on the
other hand, did not uniformly adopt
this spelling until the middle of the 18th
century. The Neuter nation of Indians
occupied all the territory now called
"the Niagara Peninsula," by far the
larger number of their villages being on
the western side of the river. It was
the Indian custom to give their tribal
name to, or to take it from, the chief nat-
ural feature of, the country which they
inhabited ; hence, they were called
" Onguiaahra, the same name as the
river," as noted by Father Ragueneau.
The Neuter nation were so called, be-
cause, living between the Hurons on the
west and the Iroquois on the east, —
two tribes which were sworn enemies, —
they were at peace with both, and in

their cabins the warriors of these two
nations met without strife and in safety.
The Neuters, however, were frequently
at war with other tribes, and eventually
even their neutrality towards the Hu-
rons and the Iroquois disappeared and
about 1643 the Senecas, the most west-
erly and also the most savage tribe of
the Iroquois confederacy, attacked and
annihilated the Neuters, their remnant
being merged into the Iroquois.

There are numerous ways of spelling
the Indian name of this Neuter nation,
thirty-nine of them being given in the
index volume of the Colonial History
of the State of New York. The forms
most commonly met with in early days
were Jagara, Oneagerah, Onygara,
Iagara, Onigara, Ochniagara, Ognio-
gorah, and those previously noted in
this article. The word Niagara, ac-
cording to Marshall, was derived by the
French from Ongiara. The Senecas,
when they conquered the Neuters,
adopted that name as applied to the
river and region, as near as the idiom
of their language would allow ; hence,
their spelling, Nyah-ga-ah. The word,
thus derived through the Iroquois and
from the Neuter language, is said to
mean the "thunder of the waters,"
though this poetic significance has been
questioned by some who claim that it
signifies "neck," alluding to the river
being the connecting link between the
two lakes. The Iroquois language had
no labial sound and all their words were
spoken without closing the lips. They
seem to have pronounced it ' ' Nyah-ga-
rah," and later on " Nee-ah-ga-rah,"
while in more modern Indian dialect,
all vowels being still sounded, " Ni-ah-
gah-rah " was the ordinary pronuncia-
tion. Our modern word " Niagara "
should really be pronounced Ni-a-ga-ra.

Many were the superstitions and
legends which the Indians, living along
the Niagara river and in the whole re-
gion, held as sacred. To the Neuter
nation, naturally, the Falls of Niagara
appeared in the nature of a divinity.
From them they had taken their tribal
name, and considered them the em-
bodiment of religion and power. To
them they offered sacrifices of many

NfAGARA IN HISTORY. u

kinds, often journeying long distano inks pi ind the nearer to I

for the purpose. In the thunder of the Falls, tin the honour. G

Falls they believed they heard the Island is said to ha\

voice of the Great Spirit In the spray ground i and

they belicwd they saw his habitation, brave warriors, and tl i I many

To him they regularly and religiously an Indian brave

contributed a portion of their crops and beautiful

of the results of the chase, and exult- Priorto [678 France laid claim 1
ingly offered human sacrifices and vasl ana, now embraced by Canada
trophies on returning from such war- and the northern portion of the Unit
like expeditions as they were compelled States, east of the Mississippi, includ-
to undertake. To him each warrior ing the Niagara region, by
frequently made offerings of his personal early explorations and discoveries by
adornments and weapons, and as an her seamen, traders and missionary
annual offering of good will from the From that date, when La Salle I
tribe and a propitiation for continued his westward journeys of exploration, 1
neutrality, and therefore < >1 nee, they eighty years, she was a paramount
sacrificed each spring the fairest maiden inthatregion, though during the last I
of their tribe, sending her over the years of that period her pi
Falls in a white canoe, which was tilled supremacy were waning and were s\\
with fruits and flowers and guided solely away in 1 759 by the capture of ' )
by her own hand. The honour of be- and Fort Niagara, the latt< r the
ing selected for this awful death was last of the important posts that she h
earnestly coveted by the maidens of in the long line of fortifications wh
that stoical race, and the clan to which connected tin- great tract, known as
the one selected belonged, held such Louisiana, with her eastern Canadian
choice to be a special honour to itself, possessions. From 1759, by occupa-
Tradition says that this annual sacri- tion, and from 1763, by treaty, England
fice was abandoned, because, one year, ownedall this territory until 1776, when
the daughter of the great chief of the the Colonists demand* nition;
tribe was selected. Her father betrayed separate nation* This England con-
no emotion, but on the fateful day, as ceded in 1783, and thus relinquished all
the white canoe, guided by his daugh- ownership of that portion of t:
ter's hand, entered the rapids, another agara region that li I of the n\
canoe, propelled by a paddle in her although it was not until after the ratifi-
father's hand, shot swiftly from the cation of Jay's treaty, in [796, that
bank, followed the same channel and England relinquished Fort Niagai
reached the brink and disappeared into nor until the treaty of < ihent. in
the abyss but a moment after the one was it itely conceded that mosl
which bore his daughter. The tribe the islands in the Niagara river
thought the loss of such a chief in such longed to the United S
a wav to be so serious a blow that the On December 6, La S
sacrifice was abandoned in order to pre- anchored his brigantine "t ten tons in
vent the possibility of a repetition. A the Niagara river, just above its mouth.
more likely, but less poetic, reasonforits lie saw the value, from a military stand-
abandonment lies in the belief that on point, of the point of land at the mouth
the extermination of the Neuter.-, their of the river and straightway built ti.
conquerors, having no such inherent a trading post. Proceeding up the
adoration for the Great Spirit of Xi- river to where Lewiston now stai
agara, and for many years not even he built there a fort of palisades, and
occupying the lands of their victims, carrying the anchors, cord. etc.,
failed to continue the custom. The which he had brought with him for that
Neuter warriors also wanted to be bur- purpose, up the mountain side and
ied beside their river, as many exhumed through the forest to the mouth of Cay-
skeletons at various points along : miles above the halls on

NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

THE WHITE MANS FANCY.

NIAGARA IN HISTORY

THE RED MAN S I ACT.

NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

THE BUILDING OF THE GRIFFON, 1679.

(Fac-simile reproduction of the original copper-plate engraving, first published in
Father Hennepin's "Nouvelle Decouverte," Amsterdam, 1704.D

the American side, where to-day is a
hamlet bearing his name, he there built
and launched the Griffon, the first ves-
sel, other than Indian canoes, that
ever sailed the upper lakes, and the
pioneer of an inland commerce of un-
told value.

In 1687, the Marquis de Nonville,
returning from his expedition against
the Senecas, fortified La Salle's trading
post at the mouth of the river, but it
was abandoned during the following
year. It was, however, rebuilt in stone
in 1725 by consent of the Iroquois, and
thereafter maintained. The site of the
present village of Lewiston, named in
honour of Governor' Lewis of New
York, — the head of navigation on the
lower Niagara, — was the commence-
ment of a portage of which the upper
terminus was about a mile and a half
above the Falls, the road traversed
being, even now, called the "portage
road." The upper end of this portage,
at first merely an open landing place
for boats, necessarily grew into a fortifi-
cation, which was completed in 1750
and was called Fort de Portage, or, by
some, Fort Little Niagara. A short
distance below the site of this fort the
French built their barracks. These and

the fort itself were burnt in 1759 by
Joncaire, who was in command, to pre-
vent their falling into the hands of the
victorious English, and he and his men
retreated to a station on Chippewa
creek, across the river. An old stone
chimney, believed to be the first stone
structure built in that part of the coun-
try, and around which were built the
French barracks, stands to-day solitary
and alone, the only reminder of the
early commercial and military activities
at this point.

It was in 1759 that the English com-
menced that short, memorable and de-
cisive campaign which was forever to
crush out French rule in North America.
General Prideaux was in charge of the
English forces thereabouts, and, carry-
ing out that part of the plan assigned
to him, collected his forces east of Fort
Niagara on the shore of Lake Ontario.
That fort had been strongly fortified,
and this fact, coupled with its location,
made its capture necessary for English
success. Prideaux' s demand for its
surrender having been refused, he laid
siege to it. He was killed during the
continuance of the siege, and the com-
mand devolved on Sir William John-
son, who pushed operations vigorously

NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

and captured the fort before French re-
inforcements could arrive.

These reinforcements had been sent
from Venango, on Lake Erie, and,
coming down the Niagara river, had
reached Navy Island (Isle de Marine),
then held by the French, when they
heard of the fall of Fort Niagara. The
certainty that the two vessels which had
brought the troops and ammunition
from Venango would be captured by
the English, induced the French to take
them, together with some sma vessels

ed with tli
li>h struggle. Champlain's early]
tilitv t>> tin- Iroquois, when hi
with the Sen< them, had

made the Iroquois the firm friends ol
the English during all the i<nt

years, and it had also endeared the
French to the Sene en though

the latter had subsequently joined the
[roq so mfederacy

After the total < i the F rench

and their practical surrender of all their

itory in 1759, the old hatred of the

-7t

1 E

•

THE CAPTURE Ol FORI GEI

m an Old Kngravi

which had recently been built on Navy
Island, over to the northern shore of
Grand Island, lying close by, into a
quiet bay, where th< them on fire

and totally destroyed them. As 1
as the middle of the present century.
portions of these vessels were clearly
visible under water in the arm of the
river, which, from this incident, has
become known as " Burnt Ship Bay."
One more historical point, the scene
of the Devil's Hole massacre, is con-

English on the part of the -
abetted, nodoubt, by French influen* 1
!.-d them to comnv Moody 1 am-

paign against the English in
They knew the English on a

certain day, to send a long train of
wagons, filled with supplies and ammu-
nition, from Fort Niagara to Fort
Schlosser, a station, built in 1761 by
Capt. Joseph Schlossi r of the English
army, to replace Fortde Portage, which
had been destroyed two years pre-

NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

viously. They knew also that the
military force accompanying the train
was to be a small one. At a point,
known as the Devil's Hole, about three
miles below the Falls, and at the edge
of the precipice, they ambushed this
fated supply train and destroyed it,
forcing both train and escort over the
high bank, and killing all but three of
the escort and drivers. They then cun-
ningly ambushed the relief force, which
at the sound of the firing had set out
from Lewiston where the English main-
tained a slight encampment, and killed
all but eight of these. It was a striking-
example of Indian warfare and of Indian
shrewdness. Shortly after this, in 1763,
the treaty between France and England
was signed, whereby England became
the absolute owner and master of the
northeastern portion of the North
American continent.

No serious conflict marked England's
rule in her new territory, acquired by
so long and fierce a struggle and at
so great a cost of lives and money. But
thirteen years after the above treaty was
signed, the American Revolution com-
menced. Had Gen. Sullivan's expedi-
tion against the Senecas in 1779, been
successful, as planned, he would have
pursued the dusky warriors who fled to
Fort Niagara, and would have attacked
and probably captured that fort, then
in possession of the English ; but mis-
fortune befel him on his westward
march, and the Niagara region j was
never the scene of actual hostilities dur-
ing that war. When it closed, England
had lost and relinquished to the United
States all that portion of this region that
lies east of the Niagara river.

The Niagara region, especially that
part lying along the banks of the river,
felt the full burden of the three years of
border warfare between American and
English forces, each with their Indian
allies, known in history as the war of
18 1 2. In the fall of 181 2, about four
months after the declaration of war,
Gen. Van Rensselaer established his
camp just east of the village of Lewiston,
and collected an army for the invasion
of Canada. After some delay and one
unsuccessful attempt to cross the river,

many of his men reached the Canadian
shore and promptly and easily occupied
an advantageous position on Queenston
Heights. Gen. Brock hastened from
Fort George, at the mouth of the river,
with English reinforcements, and, in
endeavoring to recapture this point of
vantage, was killed at the head of his
troops. Other English reinforcements
having arrived, the Americans were
defeated and dislodged from their posi-
tion, many being forced over the edge
of the bluff. Most of these and many
on the brow of the mountain were taken
prisoners. Meanwhile, directly across
the river, on the American side, in full
view of the battle, were several hundred
American volunteers who basely refused
to go to the aid of their companions.

The results of this first battle were
most depressing to the American cause.
At the foot of Queenston Heights an
inscribed stone, set in place in i860 by
the Prince of Wales with appropriate
ceremonies, marks the spot where Gen.
Brock fell, and on the heights above a
lofty column was erected to his memory
in 1826, as a monument of his country's
gratitude. This was blown up by a
miscreant in 1840, but was replaced in
1853 by the present more beautiful
shaft, within whose foundations Gen.
Brock's remains lie buried.

It was in November, 181 2, that Gen.
Alexander Smythe, of Virginia, com-
manding the American army on this
frontier, issued his famous bombastic
circular, inviting everybody to assemble
at Black Rock, near the source of the
Niagara river and to invade Canada.
' ' Come in companies, half companies,
pairs or singly ; come anyhow, but
come," was its substance, and about
4000 men responded. But Smythe
proved incapable, and having made
himself a laughing-stock in many ways,
among others in challenging Gen.
Porter, who had questioned his courage,
to a duel (which challenge was ac-
cepted and shots were exchanged on
Grand Island), the contemplated in-
vasion was abandoned.

In May, 1813, the Americans cap-
tured Fort George and the village of
Newark, both on the Canadian shore

NIAGARA IN HISTORY

near the mouth of the river, and held
them until December of that year.
effectual was American supremacy .it
this time, that the English Fort Erie, at
the source of the river, and Chippawa,
just above the Falls, together with all
barracks and store houses along the
river, were abandoned, and the English
evacuated the entire frontier. Fori
Erie was promptly occupied by the
Americans. Several minor attacks w<
made by small parties of English at
points on the American side during
1S13, one at Black Rock, where the
English were badly repulsed, being the
most important.

In December, 1S13, the British as-
sumed the offensive on their side of the
river and soon Gen. McClure. who v.
in command of the American forces
holding Fort George, determined to
abandon it and cross to Fort Niagara.
He blew up Fort George and applied
the torch to the beautiful adjoining
village of Newark. This was the oldest
settlement in that part of Canada, v.
atone time the residence of her lieu-
tenant-governor, and was further noted
as the place where the first Parliament
of Upper Canada was held in 1792. Its
destruction was in the line of military
tactics which leaves nothing to shelter
an enemy when they occupy evacuat<
ground ; but it was re winter, the

snow was deep, and the sufferings of
those whose homes were thus burnt,
were excessive.

The burning of Newark raisi >rm

of wrath throughoutCanadaand England
which stimulated the English to

make great efforts for victory and ;
taliation. In these they w< lly

successful, for ten days later, at tin-
o'clock in the morning, Col. Murray,
of the British Army, surprised and cap-
tured Fort Niagara. Had Capt. Leon-
ard, who was in charge of the Fort
while Gen. McClure was at his head-
quarters in Buffalo, been vigilant, the
Fort would have, probably, been suc-
cessfully defended. As it was, it fell
an easv prey. Lossingsays: "Itmight
have been an almost bloodless victory
had not the unhallowed spirit of re-
venge demanded victims." As it was,

many of die

lids, w< re b 13 onetted

ance had The Bi

Riall, with a

Indians was waitin nston

thi

the cannon's roar announced th<

torv. he hurried them the rh

to the village of I ewiston, whi< h w

1 and destroyed in spit ich

opposition as the fi a Ami 1 ins in 1 1
< uav on 1 ild mak

ter a temporary cl
Heights the British pushed on to Man-
chester ' that name having

it in anticipation 1
becoming the great manul
1 ige of Ami

the Falls was then /

the settlement at s

and the country
back shared the fate of L<
same w is meted 1 >ut to Y< >u
near Fort Niag ira. The 1
the bridg
wanda saved I
but only for a feu
crossed the river at Q

v d iys later a
Rock whi I

promptly attacked and captured. I
hastily gathered ami un
American fi >r es nol ly • fTered li"

sistance, but hund

burnt, only four 1.
■
were killed.

Tli

ind an Ami
on July • !

th<

and, after a I

• ie Bi tish in the m

of Chippawa. on t'

■

the British
1 ) a, followed by I

is undi
mined

but learning that tl

could nol with him,

changed his p] irned I

Chippawa. Gen. Scott, j

from this place in the ' rnoon

July 25. found < ien. Riall with 1.

NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

inforced army drawn up in line of battle
at Lundy's Lane. Gen. Scott, with a
nominal force, but with the hope of
gaining time for the advent of Gen.
Brown's army, immediately gave battle.
Of the details of that battle, fought
mainly by the glorious light of a sum-
mer moon, and continued until after
midnight, with the spray of Niagara
drifting over the heads of the opposing
armies and the thunder of the Falls
mingling with the roar of the cannon, it
is not possible to recount much. The
central point on the hill was held by a
British battery, and it was in response
to an order to capture it that Col.
Miller made his famous reply, " I'll try,
Sir." He did try, and successfully,
and the battery, once captured, was
held by the Americans against oft-
repeated and brave attacks by the
British.

When at last the British army re-
treated, the Americans fell back to
their camp at Chippawa, and before
they returned the next morning, the
British had once more, owing to the
American General Ripley's negligence,
occupied the field and dragged away
the cannon which had been captured
from them. The battle of Niagara
Falls, Lundy's Lane, or Bridgewater as
it is variously called was claimed as a
victory by the British, and is still annu-
ally celebrated, on the battlefield, as
such. The Americans, too, regarded it
as a substantial victory, and the United
States Congress voted to Generals
Scott, Brown, Porter, Gaines and Rip-
ley gold medals for their services in this
and other battles of the war.

The American army now returned to
Fort Erie which they strongly fortified,
and where they were besieged on
August 3, by the British. For ten days
both armies were busy preparing for
the inevitable and decisive contest. Just
after midnight on August 14, the British
attacked the fort, but were finally re-
pulsed. From this time to September
17, there was frequent cannonading, but
on that date a sortie from the fort was
made by the Americans, and was so
boldly planned and so faithfully exe-
cuted, that the British were completely

routed, and Buffalo and Western New
York saved from invasion. Lord Napier
refers to this sortie as the only instance
in modern warfare, where a besieging
army was totally routed by such a
movement. A few more desultorv en-
gagements occurred along the Canadian
bank of the river, Gen. Izard having
assumed command of the American
army ; but the season was too far ad-
vanced for any further offensive opera-
tions on this peninsula, and Canada was
abandoned. Fort Erie was mined, and
on November 5, 18 14, was laid in ruins.
It still remains so, — a picturesque spot.
Some space has been devoted to this
war, although not a fraction of what its
importance demands. During its con-
tinuance almost every foot of land along
both banks of the Niagara river was the
scene of strife, of victory and defeat, of
triumphs of armies and of bravery and
heroism of individuals.

The treaty of Ghent restored peace
to both countries, to the delight of all,
especially of the inhabitants along the
frontier. The commissioners appointed
under that treaty to settle the question
of the boundary between the United
States and Canada agreed subsequently
that that line, " between Lake Erie and
Lake Ontario should run through the
centre of the deepest channel of the
Niagara river, and through the point of
the Horse Shoe Fall." Later years
proved this to be a variable line as far
as the point of the Fall is concerned,
though this fact will never impair the
validity of the boundary line. By the
above decision Grand Island and Goat
Island became American soil, and Navy
Island fell under British rule. The
frontier, especially on the American
side, recovered rapidly from the effects
of the war, for it was a section sought
by settlers, and many who reached the
Niagara river on a projected journey to
lands farther west, became residents of
the locality.

Prior to 1825, all heavy goods were
sent westwards by Lake Ontario vessels
to Lewiston ; thence, were carted over
the well-known "Portage road" to
Schlosser, and there again reloaded into
vessels which went up the Niagara

NIAGARA IN HISTi

river, past Black Rock and 1

the source of the river, and then out

into Lake Erie. Freights from the wi

followed the opposite com r the

same route ; and this carrying tra

along the frontier, controlled .1 en-

tirely by one firm, was a source of pi
sonal wealth to its members, a means
of livelihood to many a family, and a
prominent factor in the speedy develop-
ment of the region. On October 26.
a cannon in the village of Buffalo, at the
source of the Niagara river boom
forth its greeting, followed, a few sec-
onds later, by another cannon, near
Black Rock ; and thus thundered can-
non after cannon, down the ra
river, toTonawanda; thence, easterly t<>
Albany, and south, along the Hudson
river, to New York city, announci;
the glad message that, at the source < i
the Niagara river, the waters of Lake
Erie had just been let into that barely
completed water-way, the Erie Canal.
The completion of the canal built up
Buffalo, but at the same time, checked
the rapid growth of the northern portion
of the region, by causing a total sus-
pension of traffic over the old port ig< /
Two events, entirely dissimilar and
in no way connected with warlike ope:
tions, occurred in this region in the year
i>26, and each attracted the attention
of the whole world. The first was the
proposal of Major Mordecai M. Noah
to create a second City of Jerusalem
within clear view of the 1 ' Niagara,
by buying Grand Island, comprising
some iS.ooo acres, and there building
up for the Hebrew race an ideal com-
munity of wealth and industry. 1 I
even went so far, in his assumed capa-
city of the Great High Priest of the
project, as to lay the corner stone of
the future city of Ararat. This he did,
not even within the boundaries of 1
proposed city, but some miles away, on
the altar of a Christian church in Buffalo,
to which church, clad in sacerdotal
robes, attended in procession by mili-
tary and civic authorities, local societi-
and a great concourse of people h
impressively escorted. The Patriarch
of Jerusalem, however, refused his
sanction to the project, money did not

mat*

.
monument at V
< irand Island 1
is now in the
11

The oth- r
mur liam Morgan,

who had thr<

the 1:

print. 1 !■• was quietly
away from his home, and was 1 1 . ■
in the hands of his
n, to F< irt

in wh
•' Morgan's 1 >unge< »n," a w ii
cell that was

: him w
he entered t ;
he was taken from his
by night, placed in a
as hi I, to C

on Lak

tried for his tnurd

no proof of their

cerned in the matl r, in f

direct pn >of of M

introduced, they were dischar$

n-. h<> I

to imprisonment for <

n with th Tli

11 which the farm
ful and wid 1 anti

tion was based, 01 cun
an integral part of N
In the

1 on a
■
ment of it

mote as it was then. Y
ject which has a national imj
which, in the

Unil

of il
ami one which has, on num<

nd in t'
the United St : nan

•he largest \\ »und

the Falls of N

from two to f< >ur mil- the I

to the deep and quiet v

NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

Lewiston, has been the route most
generally approved for such a canal, of
which the cost would be enormous. The
resulting benefits, however, especially
as the population and wealth of the
United States increase, might be ines-
timable, especially in the event of a war
with England and Canada.

The Niagara region again became the
theatre of war in 1837, when the
Patriots undertook to upset the Govern-
ment of Canada. While the first revolt
occurred at York, now Toronto, the
entire Canadian bank of the Niagara
river was kept in a ferment for several
months. Navy Island was at one time
the principal rendezvous of the Patriots,
and from there, on December 17, 1837,
William Lyon Mackenzie, the leader,
signing himself "Chairman pro tern of
the provincial (a printer's error, which
should read provisional) government of
the State of Upper Canada," issued his
famous proclamation to the inhabitants
of the Province.

Without reference to the various in-
trigues carried on all along the frontier
by the Patriots with their American
sympathizers, of whom there were,
doubtless, a goodly number, the writer
would mention only the crucial event of
the war, the Caroline episode. It was
openly charged by the Canadians that
substantial aid was being rendered from
the American side to the Patriots, both
by private individuals in various ways,
and especially by reason of the non-in-
terference of the national and New
York State authorities when informed,
on credible testimony, that arms and
amunition were being shipped and other
aid was being furnished from American
soil to the Canadian rebels. This feel-
ing was so bitter on the part of the
English that it is not surprising that
they seized the first opportunity for
retaliation.

A small steamer, the Caroline, had
been chartered by some people in
Buffalo to run between that city, Navy
Island where the insurgents were en-
camped, and Schlosser, on the Ameri-
can side, where there was a landing
place for boats and a hotel. They
maintained that it was a private money-

making venture, transporting the sight-
seers to the Patriot's camp ; but from
the Canadian's view the real object was
to convey provisions and arms to their
enemies. On the night of December
29, 1837, the Caroline lay moored at
Schlosser dock. The excitement of the
rebellion had drawn many people to
this locality, the little hotel was filled
and some persons had sought a night's
lodging on the boat.

At midnight, six boats, filled with
British soldiers, sent from Chippawa by
Sir Allan McNab, silently approached
the Caroline. The soldiers promptly
boarded her, drove off all on board,
both crew and lodgers, cut her adrift,
set her on fire, and again taking to
their boats, towed her out to the middle
of the river and cast her loose. And a
glorious sight, viewed merely from a
scenic standpoint, it was. The clear
dark sky above and the cold dark body
of water beneath. Ablaze all along her
decks, her shape clearly outlined by
the flames, she drifted grandly and
swiftly towards the Falls. Reaching
the rapids, the waves extinguished most
of the flames ; but, still on fire, racked
and broken, she pitched and tossed
forward to and over the Horse Shoe
Fall, into the gulf below. The whole
affair, the incentive therefor, the
methods employed, and the manner of
the attack caused intense excitement,
and once again the Niagara frontier was
threatened with war, and the militia
along the border were actually called
into the field.

Long diplomatic correspondence fol-
lowed, the British Government assum-
ing full responsibility for the claimed
breaches of international law and the
acts of her officers. During the melee
at the dock, one man, Amos Durfee,
was killed. A British subject, Alex-
ander McLeod, claimed to have been
one of the attacking force, was soon
after arrested on American 5oil and was
tried for the murder in New York State,
but was finally acquitted. War was
wisely averted, but another fateful chap-
ter had been added to Niagara's history.

With the exception of the Fenian
outbreak on the Canadian side of the

NIAG \RA IX HIS TOR)

river in 1866, the region has been free
from war's alarms since the days of the
Patriots. The Fenian outbreak was
one of the results of the plan of the
revolutionary Irishmen to oppose Un-
English Government, and to compel
that government t<> restore Ireland's
rights. The Fenian hostility to Canada
was solely because of the fact that the
latter was an English dependency. The
special time was selected, because of tin-
actual service that many loyal Irishmen

In
an agitation by pn iminent m
era! purchased the land 1

American side, including I

and all the smaller i

the Falls, and and below t!

for a State I the

Province "t 1 mtai 1
similar action. The C G

ment, many \ ■■ w ith 1

sight had reserved a strip of land, si
>ix feet wide, along the water'

U.yf.

THE STEAMER CAROLINE Bl RN1

i Prom an Old En( i

had just then seen in the United Stai
army during the Rebellion. Of actual
hostilities on this frontier there was but
one occurrence during the brief agita-
tion, fought On the Canadian side
iposite Buffalo, from which city the
Fenians invaded Canada. It was
known as the battle of Ridgeway, the
main contest having been at that point,
with a subordinate engagement at a
hamlet called Waterloo, cl to the

water'sedge. The Fenians were tempo-
rarily successful, but were ultimately
entirely defeated and their invading
force quickly dispersed.

above the I

the high hank from I

to I • a military

rhis is now under tl
of tl Cai idian I I
and, together with the additional lands
acquired near the I alls, and the land
around Br< Monument, forms an

id, ' rnmeni »n.

e honour of first - the

ition of t' out the

Falls has I many per-

Otl later on, suggested it

officially : others still, advocated it

more publicly and more persistently,

NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

A RECENT VIEW OK NIAGARA FALLS.

NIAGARA /A H/STOR\

but the first real suggestion, though
made without any reference to details,
came from two Scotchmen, Andrew
Reed and James Matheson, who, in
[835, in a work describing their visit as
a deputation to the American church*
first broached the idea that " Niagara
does not belong t<> Canada or Ameri
Such spots should be deemed the prop-
erty ol civilized mankind, and nothing
should be allowed to weaken their etli
cacy on the tastes, tin- morals, and the
enjoyment of men."

Such, in tin- ordinary acceptation of
the word ami in the briefest form, is an
outline of the history of the Niagara
region. Many points and facts of in-
terest have necessarily been left un-
touched, but brief reference should be
made to the old tramway, built from
the water's edge, at the very head of
navigation on the lower river, up the
almost perpendicular hank, 300 fi
high, close to 1 lennepin's " three moun-
tains." It was used in very early days,
probably before the American Revolu-
tion, for raising and lowering heavy
goods between the vessels and the port-
age wagons, and consisted of a flat car,
on broad runners, moving on wooden
rails. It was raised and lowered by a
windlass, and this latter was operated
by Indian labour then accessible only
at the Indians' own price. Braves who
ordinarily would scorn to work at any
manual labour, gladly toiled all day for
a plug of tobacco and a pint of whiskey.
The tramway was notable as being the
first known adaptation of the crude
principle of a railroad in the United
States.

It may not be amiss to mention also,
the reservation of the Tuscarora Indians,
east of Lewiston, where the half-breed
remnants of the last-embraced tribe of
the Six Nations now reside, cultivating
their fields, and educating their children
under the care of the State. A tribute
also is due to Canadian foresight in Un-
building of the Welland Canal which
connects Canada's frontage on tin-
Great Lakes with her system of St.
Lawrence canals to the seaboard.
Mention, finally, should be made of the
modern suggestion of a ship railway

around the touchin

nals, about the

Upper and low

view in the p

canal, ,i\v\ pro]

■' the I moui

I which was the

( mtario before it 1

1 1, as remarkable a triumph •

ring skill as was shown in the

enormous project! d lo hun-
dr< ! basin of the s'

\t, glance ba< k to the m I an
villages which, long

the region, the four or 1 I the

ter nation, or Kahkwas, on the

eastern side <,| ii id a mui h
larger number on the

r on, to the gradual 01 cupation ol

these lands by the I hree
generations after their am
annihilated the Neuters; then, to the

Seneca village, built on the | the

'•nt city <>f Buffalo, and then to the
1 me built yeai on the .site of the

village still called Tonawanda, wl
of late \ ' tin- •' long hi - was

annually held the council of the
remnants of the Six Nations; ami then
at the docks in that village w In

floated tin- Indian's and where

now is seen the maze ■ '

C trgl >es li.i\ e, in the last two <;

built up the commercial trade ol this,
the second largest lumber market in
America.

Turn, next, to tin.
and recall the ever fresh and still much-
discussed question as to th< that
it has taken the Falls to cut th<
back from Lewiston to their pi'

insider, to,,, th< tion

irding the time when I inland

1 the w ' 1. of whi« h

proof iy, found in

shells which underlie tin- -oil on C
Island ami the adjacenl count) v. l
sider, further, the

and why tin

abandoned it> old channel which

1 from tin whirlpool to the

' the bl

the west of •,' itlet of the

river into Lake Ontario, and how that
old channel, still easily traceable,

NIAGARA IN HISTORY.

filled up to nearly the level of the sur-
rounding country.

Look also at the view, given in very
recent years by nature, of how her forces
worked to excavate the Niagara gorge
in the mass of old Table Rock, left hang-
ing over the abyss for years and falling
by its own weight in 1853. Remember
the thrilling trip of the little steamer
"Maid of the Mist," which, from the
quiet waters of her usual, circumscribed
limit below the Falls, was, in 1861,
taken through the mad rapids safely
into the whirlpool and, thence, through
the lower rapids into Lake Ontario, —
the only vessel that, during the 100
years of Queenston's existence as a port
of entry, ever entered it from up-stream;
and which vessel was compelled by the
canny officer then in charge of the port,
to take out entrance and clearance
papers, although, according to these,
she carried "no passengers and no
freight. ' ' The trip of that little steamer
proved, so far as the river below the
Falls was concerned, what the courts
have since decided, that the Niagara
river throughout its entire length is a
navigable stream.

Finally, think of Niagara as the
Mecca of all travelers to the New World,
think of

" What troops of tourists have encamped upon
the river's brink.
What poets have shed from countless quills,
Niagaras of ink."

Turn also to the long list of noted
persons who have paid their devotions
and tributes at Niagara' s shrine. Poten-
tates and princes have come, gazed on
the Falls, and gone away, their visit to
Niagara, perhaps like their lives, color-
less and without a trace. Then, with
greater satisfaction, turn to the large
number of famous men and women, un-
crowned, but still, by reason of their
abilities, rulers of the people, who by
their words, their pens, or their pencils,
have given their impressions of the
cataract to the world, and have, at least,
earned for themselves thereby the right
to be allowed a niche in Niagara's
temple of fame. And numerous are the
names of men and women who, in these
and other ways, have connected their
names with Niagara, embracing the

leaders in every branch of science,
knowledge and art.

There is yet another set of men whose
greatest notoriety has been acquired at
Niagara. Among these are Francis
Abbott, "the hermit of Niagara,"
whose solitary life, close to the Falls
themselves, and his death by drowning,
have stood as a perpetual proof of the
influence of the great cataract on human
nature ; Sam Patch, whose daring led
him to make two jumps from a scaffold,
100 feet high, into the deep waters at
the base of the Goat Island cliff, safely
in both cases, although, not long after-
wards, a similar attempt at the Genesee
Falls proved to be his last ; Blondin,
whose marvelous nerve led him repeat-
edly, and under various conditions, to
cross the gorge on a tight-rope ; Joel
Robinson, whose life was often risked
thereabouts to save that of others ;
and Matthew Webb, whose prowess as
a swimmer led him to try, unaided by
artificial appliances, to swim through
the whirlpool rapids, in which attempt
he lost his life.

Of early Indian names on the frontier,
two are specially prominent, — Red
Jacket, a Seneca, the greatest of all
Indian orators, who spent most of his
long life near Buffalo, and died there,
and who fought, with the rest of his
tribal warriors, in the American army
in the war of 1 8 1 2 ; and John Brant, son
of the famous Joseph Brant, a Mohawk,
educated mainly at Niagara at the
mouth of the river in Canada, whose
first leadership in war was as an ally
of the British at the battle of Oueenston.
Forever and inseparately connected
with the Niagara region will be the
names of all of the persons here referred
to, some mentioned merely as members
of a class, others individually. Among
the first on this roll of honour, as they
were among the first to view, depict,
and describe the Falls, are the names
of La Salle and Hennepin, — the intrepid
explorer, and the noble, though much
villified, priest, for since 1678 there has
been no portion of the globe to which
the attention of mankind has been more,
and in more ways, attracted than to
this Niagara region.

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