Annual Report

The Senecas ratified their former agreement, and on August 6th they deeded to the English crown a strip of land four miles wide on both banks 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 Britain might have title to the land where Fort Erie, at 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. The Senecas were ready to do anything asked of them while that British army was on the ground, so they readily assented. They specially excepted from their grant, and gave to Sir William Johnson, personally, as a gift, all the islands in the Niagara river, and he promptly gave them to his Sovereign.1

This was the first tract of land in the limits of the present Western New York to which the Indian title was absolutely extinguished, and this remarkable land deal, so vast in the amount of territory involved, so beneficial to the whites in the power it gave them 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 thirty years, especially during the Revolution, the Senecas were allied with and espoused the cause of the British.

The treaties with the many other tribes were then arranged without difficulties. On August 6th, Sir William Johnson seems to have completed the formalities by having a separate treaty

(1) Col. Docs. N. Y., vol. VII, page 647.

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. 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.

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.