[76]. The Oneida alone remained neutral, and in consequence suffered severely at the hands of the Mohawk, who burned their villages and drove them to seek shelter at Schenectady.—Ed.
[77]. For the early history of Fort Erie, see Buttrick’s Voyages, ante, note 5.
Eleazer Derby Wood, born in New-York City (1783), a graduate of West Point (1806), served in the West during the early part of the war, having conducted the defense of Fort Meigs, and commanded the artillery at the battle of the Thames. He was killed in General Brown’s sortie to raise the siege of Fort Erie (September 17, 1814), and a monument to his memory was erected by that general at West Point.
James Gibson, who also died from a wound received in this sortie, was a native of Sussex County, Delaware, and a graduate of West Point. He had been in the battle of Queenstown Heights; was made a colonel, and in July, 1813, inspector-general of the army.—Ed.
[78]. In 1750, Joncaire built a stronghold at the upper end of the Niagara portage, which was known as Fort au Portage; but when, eight years later, the English advanced to invest Fort Niagara, he blew it up and retired across the river. At the close of the French and Indian War (1763), the English built a fort at this point, which they named Fort Schlosser, in honor of Captain Joseph Schlosser, its first commander.—Ed.
[79]. In retaliation for the burning of Newark, General Riall, upon the capture of Fort Niagara (December, 1813) ordered his troops to destroy all American settlements on the Niagara frontier. Buffalo, Black Rock, Lewiston, Schlosser, and the friendly Seneca and Tuscarora villages were accordingly burned, and the people driven to seek shelter at Batavia.—Ed.
[80]. The Seneca Indians were the most western of the Iroquois, and during the Revolutionary War had their principal villages on the Genesee River, one of them containing one hundred and twenty-eight houses. These were completely destroyed by Sullivan’s expedition (1779); but although the English invited them to cross into Canada with the Mohawk, they refused to go, and a considerable number settled near the mouth of Buffalo and Cattaraugus creeks. When in 1797 the Holland Company purchased the Indian title to their lands, the Seneca retained reservations at these points, also the Allegheny and Tonawanda reservations already mentioned (ante, p. 153), and five smaller ones in the Genesee valley. In 1838 pressure was brought to bear by the Ogden Land Company, and certain chiefs signed a treaty ceding their lands in New-York, Congress at the same time granting them lands in Indian Territory. The body of the people, however, refused to move; the New-York and Pennsylvania Friends interested themselves in their behalf, and they were allowed to remain.—Ed.
[81]. The history of the tribe known as the Erie or Cat Nation is obscure and involved, and their habitat uncertain. See Jesuit Relations, viii, p. 305; xxi, pp. 313–315.—Ed.
[82]. For the early history of Presqu’ Isle, see Croghan’s Journals, volume i of our series, note 62.—Ed.
[83]. For the Grand, Cuyahoga, and Rocky Rivers, see Croghan’s Journals, volume i of our series, notes 70, 72, and 73.—Ed.