[48]. The Great Western Turnpike did not pass through Schenectady, but was the one that led to Cherry Valley, while the Schenectady road connected with the state road, which extended to Buffalo. Strictly speaking, the two roads did not meet but ran nearly parallel to Lake Erie; however, a turnpike leading from Cherry Valley to Saline (Syracuse), intersected the state road at about the distance stated. Evans took this path. For the Great Western and State roads, see Buttrick’s Voyages, ante, notes 2 and 12.—Ed.
[49]. For a brief account of the Erie Canal, see Buttrick’s Voyages, ante, note 37.—Ed.
[50]. Wayne’s campaign, 1793–94, terminated in victory at the decisive battle of Fallen Timbers (August 20, 1794), where the confederated Indians under Little Turtle were completely routed.—Ed.
[51]. Evans was now passing through the settlements of the Schoharie and upper Susquehanna valleys. They had constituted the western frontier of New-York in the period of the Revolutionary War, and in consequence had borne the brunt of the Iroquois and Loyalist attacks under the leadership of Joseph Brant. The Susquehanna Valley was virtually reconverted into a wilderness, the most important single attack being the Cherry Valley massacre, November 11, 1778. The first settlers had been chiefly Palatine Germans and Scotch-Irish; those that repeopled the country after the war were almost entirely from New-England. See Halsey, Old New-York Frontier (New-York, 1901).—Ed.
[52]. A fortified town on the Dniester in Bessarabia, Russia, where Charles XII took refuge after the battle of Poltowa.—Ed.
[53]. At Onondaga village was formerly located the council house of the Six Nations. In the treaty of Fort Stanwix (1788) this village was retained as a reservation; but ten years later a large part of it was sold to the state, and the town of Onondaga was incorporated thereon.—Ed.
[54]. Evans was now in the military district. The legislature (1789) had set aside 1,680,000 acres as bounty land for the soldiers of the Revolutionary War. The tract extended from the eastern border of Onondaga County to Seneca Lake, and was surveyed into twenty-eight townships, upon which the governor bestowed classical names.—Ed.
[55]. The Housatonic Indians who had formed a mission settlement at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, were granted a township by the Oneida—the present New Stockbridge, Madison County. Thither, immediately after the Revolutionary War, they removed to the number of about four hundred. The Brothertown Indians had preceded them. In 1774 the Oneida had given to the remnant of Narragansetts, Pequots, and other tribes living for the most part at Montville and Farmington, Connecticut, a piece of land fourteen miles south of the present Utica. They emigrated with their pastor and organized a new tribe, the Brothertown Indians. Both tribes later removed to Wisconsin, the Stockbridge Indians settling at South Kaukauna on Fox River (1822–29), and the Brothertown Indians on the east side of Lake Winnebago a few years later. See Davidson, In Unnamed Wisconsin (Milwaukee, 1895).—Ed.
[56]. At Geneva, Evans left the military district and entered the Phelps and Gorham Purchase. For a brief account of this tract and the towns located upon it, see Buttrick’s Voyages, ante, notes 3 and 36.—Ed.
[57]. For the Holland Purchase, see Buttrick’s Voyages, ante, note 4.—Ed.