Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America, in the Years 1766, 1767 and 1768

by Jonathan Carver

At the entrance of Oswego River stands a fort of the same name, garrisoned only at present by an inconsiderable party. This fort was taken in the year 1756 by the French, when a great part of the garrison, which consisted of the late Shirley’s and Pepperil’s regiments, were massacred in cold blood by the savages.

In Lake Ontario are taken many sorts of fish, among which is the Oswego Bass, of an excellent flavour, and weighing about three or four pounds. There is also a sort called the Cat-head or Pout, which are in general very large, some of them weighing eight or ten pounds; and they are esteemed a rare dish when properly dressed.

On the north-west parts of this Lake, and to the south-east of Lake Huron, is a tribe of Indians called the Missisauges, whose town is denominated Toronto, from the lake on which it lies; but they are not very numerous. The country about Lake Ontario, especially the more north and eastern parts, is composed of good land, and in time may make very flourishing settlements.

The Oniada Lake, situated near the head of the River Oswego, receives the waters of Wood-Creek, which takes its rise not far from the Mohawks River. These two lie so adjacent to each other, that a junction is effected by sluices at Fort Stanwix, about twelve miles from the mouth of the former. This Lake is about thirty miles long from east to west, and near fifteen broad. The country around it belongs to the Oniada Indians.

Lake Champlain, the next in size to Lake Ontario, and which lies nearly east from it, is about eighty miles in length, north and south, and in its broadest part fourteen. It is well stored with fish, and the lands that lie on all the borders of it, or about its rivers, very good.

Lake George, formerly called by the French Lake St. Sacrament, lies to the south-west of the last-mentioned lake, and is about thirty-five miles long from north-east to south-west, but of no great breadth. The country around it is very mountainous, but in the vallies the land is tolerably good.

When these two lakes were first discovered, they were known by no other name than that of the Iroquois Lakes; and I believe in the first plans taken of those parts were so denominated. The Indians also that were then called the Iroquois, are since known by the name of the Five Mohawk Nations, and the Mohawks of Canada. In the late war, the former, which consist of the Onondagoes, the Oniadas, the Senecas, the Tuscarories, and Iroondocks, fought on the side of the English: the latter, which are called the Cohnawaghans, and St. Francis Indians, joined the French.

A vast tract of land that lies between the two last-mentioned lakes and Lake Ontario, was granted in the year 1629 by the Plymouth Company, under a patent they had received from King James I. to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and to Captain John Mason, the head of that family, afterwards distinguished from others of the same name by the Masons of Connecticut. The countries specified in this grant are said to begin ten miles from the heads of the rivers that run from the east and south into Lake George and Lake Champlain; and continuing from these in a direct line westward, extend to the middle of Lake Ontario; from thence, being bounded by the Cataraqui, or the River of the Iroquois, they take their course through Montreal, as far as Fort Sorrell, which lies at the junction of this river with the Richlieu; and from that point are inclosed by the last-mentioned river till it returns back to the two lakes.

This immense space was granted, by the name of the Province of Laconia, to the aforesaid gentlemen on specified conditions, and under certain penalties; but none of these amounted, in case of omission in the fulfillment of any part of them, to forfeiture, a fine only could be exacted.

On account of the continual wars to which these parts have been subject, from their situation between the settlements of the English, the French, and the Indians, this grant has been suffered to lie dormant by the real proprietors. Notwithstanding which, several towns have been settled since the late war, on the borders of Lake Champlain, and grants made to different people by the governor of New York of part of these territories, which are now become annexed to that province.