The attempt to settle western New-York by the French was in the age of chivalry, (the 16th century,) and was truly Quixotic.
Tradition.
Pompey and its precincts were regarded by the Indians as the ground of blood, and it brought up to their minds many dark reminiscences, as they passed it. Some twenty years ago, there lived an aged Onondaga, who said that many moons before his father’s days, there came a party of white men from the east in search of silver. From the heights of the Onondaga hills, they descried the white foam of Onondaga lake, and this was all the semblance they ever found of silver. One of the men died, and was buried on Pompey hill, and his grave was marked by a stone.[109] The others built a fort on the noted ground, about a mile east of Jamesville, where they cultivated the land; but at length the Indians came in the night, and put them all to death. But there was a fearful and bloody strife, in which the Indians fell like leaves before the autumn wind. This spot is the field of blood.
[109] Query.—Is not this the inscription stone now deposited in the Albany Academy?
L. Birdseye.
Aurora: August. See Rev. Mr. Mattoon.
Vestiges of the Cayugas—villages—orchards—old forts. Get a vocabulary of their language from Canada. Get diagram of forts.
Karistagea, or Steeltrap, thought to have been unfairly dealt with at his death. Buried in the road.
Fish Carrier’s Reserve at the bridge. Four miles square.
Red Jacket born on the opposite banks of the lake at Canoga.