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 British and Canadians and 1,000 Indians, was detained at Fort Niagara till August 8, 1764.

By that date the Indians, having made their 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 General 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, while £38,000 sterling was expended for the presents made to them. It was money well spent by Britain.

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 me 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 river or the lake. In those days, all through the

(1) Mante, History of Late War in N. A., page 511. (2) Montresor Journals, N. Y., Hist. Soc., 1881, page 275.

eighteenth century, and during the first decade of this century, a large tract of land, that has now been washed away, existed at the foot of the bluff, extending to the northwest for some rods right out into the lake; and in the memory of men now alive a fruit orchard stood on this land, where now is a depth of ten or twelve feet of water.

The French Mess House, or Castle, was originally built, not on the edge of the bluff, but probably one hundred feet away from the lake.

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 angle 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 1759;1 and which stood on the low land below the bank. The British are said to have added a story to the "Castle." 2

The first story was built by the French in 1725, as noted before, and the second was probably built by them afterwards, probably about 1756.

It is not certain, but probable, that the roof of the Castle had been adapted by the British 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 the castle was probably a timbered roof. Durig the war of 1812 this timber roof was removed by the Americans and the roof of the second story was mounted with cannon, its edges probably protected by an embankment of some sort.

(1) Hough's Pouchot, vol. I, page 168. (2) Turner's Holland Purchase, page 189.

The two square stone block-houses now standing within the fortifications were built by the British in 1770 and 1771 respectively, 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 these two block-houses are modern affairs.

Those two structures are to-day the best example of that style of defense in America.

The old entrance to the parade grounds was by the land gate, which led through the embankment and was reached by a flight of steps. This entrance was further protected by the erection in 1770 of the block house; for the entrance passed through its first story, the north and south walls being arched and gated. The lines of those old arches, which have been filled in with masonry, are distinctly visible to-day.

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

In 1767 Captain Jonathan Carver, a well known British traveler, visited the fort, which he said "was defended by a considerable garrison." 1

One of the traditions that has clung to the fort, and that started in the days of British 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 and moaning 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

(1) Carver's Travel, 1781, page 170.

its use necessarily discontinued. The well inside the earthworks, and near the sally port, is certainly not the well referred to in the list of buildings left by the French when they dismantled the fort in 1688, for it is way outside of the area of that fort. I think that it belongs to a much later period than that of French occupation and that it was dug, not even during British, but during American occupation, therefore after 1796, but probably prior to 1812.

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 part of this time General Haldimand was its commandant.

DURING THE REVOLUTION.

While the war from 1776-1783 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 terrible 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 captives 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 regulars in succession garrisoned the fort. It was necessary for Britain 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 necessity of aiding the British by constant expeditions, organized and sent out from here, of devastation and death.

Sir William Johnson had lost a part of his influence over the Indians during the few years prior to his death, which occurred in 1774.

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

In all his domination over the Indians, and he exercised a one-man power for many, many years, he recognized that a nation, to be thoroughly successful, must not forfeit the public confidence of the world by too great atrocities.

The atrocities perpetrated from Fort Niagara during the Revolution only added to the determination and exertions of the colonists to throw off the British yoke; and the stories of these atrocities gave France an extra excuse to extend the friendly and needed aid that she furnished, at first secretly, afterwards openly, to those who were 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 in September gathered representatives of the Six Nations and ten other tribes, favorable to the British. The assembled chiefs all signed a manifesto in favor of the Crown, and appealed to