USA > New York > Oneida County > History of Oneida County, New York, 1667-1878 > Part 149
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" This Peter Frey, born in Germany, lives since twenty years among the Oneida Indians, and gained their confidence in such a degree that they use him in any affairs of consequence, and consider him as the most honest white man with whom they have been acquainted. True it is that he takes care of their interests with a fidelity and ardor bor- dering on enthusiasm, which is but seldom met with. He is peculiarly entrusted with the management of the affairs of a Colonel Lewis, # who served in the Revolutionary army, and was rewarded by the State with a bounty in land.
"The Oneida and Onondago Indians cultivate many hundreds choice apple-trees, from which they liberally distribute the fruits among their white neighbors, and provide them with grafts and young trees, if they are inclined to settle in their vicinity.
" While Major De Zeng continued his course in exploring the Canada Creek, I took a walk along the eastern sandy shore of this charming lake, and examined its northeru salient angles, of which the first was four, the second about nine miles distant in this circuit from the mouth of Wood Creek. The woods on the south shore are overshadowed by a chain of mountains, from east to west, curiously diversified by three elevations, which, by their undulations in a serpentine line, altered the horizon in a most delightful manner. The small islands in the lake could be distinguished, and zephyrs ruffled the silver waves. Within a few moments I saw thrco canoes, one with Indians, among whom Capt. Jacob Reed, and one bateau from the sonth aud west, while two bateaux with four families, from the Fish Creek, landed a little below our eneampment.
" The soil is a barren sand ; the trees near the shore dwarfish and of little value. At first, when I entered the woods, I met with a swampy ground, but further proceeding, a good loam, inereasing in depth and richness as I went on. Oak, fir, pine, water-ash, then oak, beeeh, and maple, are the principal timber.
" The baron returned about twelve, with two most eapital eels, pre- sented him by an Oneida, Good Peter, wbo had been hired by him the last year to follow him on a similar expedition as that in which we now were engaged.
" Having loitered here away the afternoon in examining shells and stones, and plants and shrubs, we pursued our course the next morning ; then rowing, then using the setting-poles along the shore, till we reached the point from which its northerly side may be calculated. From here the shore was generally covered with pebbles. A small creek, ealled by the Indians who were with us Little Fish Creek, falls here in the lake. At the coast-side, near the lake, the pine, oak, and hemlock elevate their heads, and overshadow an extensive tract of tolerable good land, although it does not assume this appcaranee, as at some distauee from the lake, where they are intermixed, often outnumbered by bass-wood, ash, whitewood, chestnut, and sugar-maple. To the west side of this creek is a large tract of oaks, a gray, sandy soil; a little further it is covered with a thin loam; there the oaks become
mingled with becch, cre long with butternut and maple, then ash, walnut, maple, and beech, in a rich loam from six to eighteen inches deep, increasing by every step which you advance to the interior.
" We had now lost a great part of two days in fishing, without an adequate reward to our exertions, and might have suspected that the exuberant abundance of this lake in fish, of which we had heard so much boasting from white men as well as Indians, had been exag- gerated, but we soon discovered the cause of our failure, while the Indians and roving Americans confirmed us in our opinion. The lake was now covered as with a white eloak of hundred, thousands, millions of insects, which we call Haft in Holland, and which lay in some parts of the shore one and two inches deep. This insect appears here an- nually at a stated period, although somewhat earlier than in Holland. The eggs are hatched in the surface of the water, the winged insect flutters a short time in the air, and is buried after a short life in its watery grave, to supply the finny tribe a rich repast, from which man reaps in his turn the advantages. My imagination, warmed and cx- alted by tbe present scenes, brought me in a twinkling of the eye on the Meuse, and I ordered the rowers to steer to the Stone Chamber (Steenc-kamer), to regale myself with that delicious and so hand- somely-shaped fisb, the roach,; which preys upon this insect, and is never called for by the lovers of a good fare except in these few days. A decent publie-house, at the mouth of the Wood Creek, might here replace the Steene-kamer, and the landlord might regale his guests in a more luxurious manner. The water-plants, with their broad, oval leaves, and their yellow and white flowers, continued the illusion. It wanted only to complete its suceess a few bottles of old Mozel wine.
" It was infallible, my dear friend, as I spent in my youth so many delicious hours on the Meuse, when I often staid several weeks in its vicinity, or this remembrance contributed to exhilarate my soul, en- raptured with the charms of the spot, with the contemplation of the wonders wbich a bountiful God spread over the face of the earth, and might to be traced in every step.
"We were, a little after sunset, surprised at a number of fires in a semicircular form on the lake. I numbered nine, others several more. These were made by the Oneida Indians spearing eel. They are usu- ally two or three in a canoe,-one steerman, one who spears in the bow, the third takes care of the fire, made from dry, easily-flaming wood, in a hollow piece of bark, first covered with sand. This brings me again to the Meuse, to sec the fuyks setting for the salmon fishery, or emptying these from their eaptures, when some are saved, otbers, as you know, intended for fat salmon, receive their immediate doom, being knocked on the forepart of the head, which they term kuyzen. How the fisherman laughs at the fruitless endeavor of the inexpert youth to kill the salmon ; he performs it always with one, and well, a soft stroke.
" We procceded on our course, and arrived at no great distance to another, but much smaller creek, emptying its waters in a pretty bay. Ilere was the land to some extent towards the lake low, and eould only be appropriated for pasture or hay-land; but it gradually ascended about twenty feet, where it was covered with a deep, black, rich, fertile soil, mixed with a small portion of blaek sand, and covered with ma- jestic oak, beech, butternut, walnut, ash, and maple. Here the pros- peet was admirable indeed. Imagine, my dear sir,-and yours is lovely euough,-imagine that falling plain near the lake, cleared from trees and stumps, and covered with verdure, embellished with a dozen of cows, justly as you contemplated in the days of yore, in the rich pastures of the South Rhine and Delfsland, the lake in front, a wood to the south, at the other side, bebind it, the Canoserago Moun- tain, the small rambling creek to the east, and to the west the islands in the lake in the perspective, while behind you tbe noblest fields in- vite you to admire the rich produce of the soil, equal to the best-tilled in our country.
" Major De Zeng walked slowly with his gun on shore,
' With head upraised and look intent, And eye and ear attentive bent,'
while we rowed on ; he gave us a signal ; we pushed to the shore; he told us that he saw a bear on the next point ; in an instant we left the canoe, and dispatebed our boys, well armed, in the woods, to eut off his retreat. De Zeng and I advanced in his front from the lake-side ; wben within a pistol-shot of this surly lord of the woods, he stood still, trotted on a few steps, and received a shot from the woods, which
# Colonel Lewis, chief of the St. Regis tribe, and of mixed Indian and negro blood.
+ Ciseo, or lake herring.
FRANCIS GUITEAU,
MARY E. GUITEAU.
PHOTOS. BY L. B. WILLIAMS. UTICA NEW YORK.
LITH BY L. # EVERTS PHILA PA
RESIDENCE OF MRS. FRANCIS GUITEAU, TRENTON, ONEIDA CO., N.Y.
551
HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
broke his left hind leg; another glanced his brawny side. De Zeng missed bis aim, and while I stepped forward with the coeked gun, De Zeng, throwing his gun aside, sprung impetuously forward with the tomahawk in bis hand, attacked him in front, and knocked him on the head twice. Bruin lifted up his paw, twice he opened his mouth ; at last, staggering, he falls; in blood and foam expires. We dragged him with difficulty towards the canoe, as he was indeed of monstrous size, lifted him in it, and returned by land to the little creek, while our men rowed towards the same spot. Here we resolved to make our encampment for that night. In the morning it proved to be the most delightful spot which we had yet seen.
" Methinks, my dear sir, you must now be pretty tired with the reading ; take, then, what repose. The bow cannot be always bent ; we are making our preparations for the same ond, while our boys are opening the bear early in the morning. They shall take off his hide to preserve it our trophy, fasten his limbs to the trees for the first pas- senger,-man or other beast of prey,-and prepare for our breakfast a few slices, roasted, with a small piece for soup at dinner.
" Adio. Yours."
" KINGSTON, Ist August, 1792.
" MY DEAR SIR,-If you never tasted it you might have declined to share in our breakfast. Stewed sliees of surly Bruin was the prin- cipal dish. It was not to his advantage that, though bulky enough, he was not fat ; otherwise you must know that in the country not only everywhere, but even to the fastidious palate of many polisbed New Yorkers, it is a dainty, and this meat deserved indeed this high praise, if you obtain it in its season in perfection. With all this I should not be surprised at all that you had rather preferred a pike, of three feet and six inches, which we discovered on shore,-his belly torn open, without entrails,-if we had caught it. I doubt not or he fell a prey to a bald eagle, who, by some accident, was prevented to destroy him.
"We entered once more our canoe; discovered two bateaux steering towards the south, and arrived about noon at the Black Creek, the largest at this side of the lake after the Fish Creek or Oneida River ; here we dined on an excellent rice soup, from one of Brown's gammons, which we had saved. Here was a broad picee of foreland, watered by this ereck, and about a hundred rods further on another creek, sufficient to turn a wheel, joined it. The upland was excessive steep, high, and barren ; tbe soil, fine yellow sand; the trees, fir, hem- loek, pine, and a few oak. At some distance the land gradually de- seended, the soil became richer, and the timber was improving; oak, ash, yet further, butternut, beech, maple, and again the same rich black soil, not subject of being so soon exhausted in intensive bot weather as the Whitestown loam.
" We continued our course after dinner along the shore, and hoped that we might reach the Fisher's Bay, in which the little creek empties herself, whose vieinity was highly extolled by De Zeng, with an un- bounded praise ; and yet his description did not appear to mne, after a cool examination, to he too highly colored.
" It was late before we reflected upon it, and a rising thunder-storm urged us to take quickly hold of all our oars. I ought to have said pagays, as we were in a canoe. We did run-by our hurrying too fast, and through the inattention of our man at the helm-with our canoe on a huge stone, without having it in our power for a long while to move it backward or forward; at length we got again afloat, and arrived safe in the creek at Mr. Bruce's, in former days a Conncetieut merchant, now an independent inhabitant of the Oneida Lake, main- taining himself by the chase and fishery, and what he carned from a small potato spot. He fetched directly upon our arrival a fine catfis b, from a reservoir constructed from saplings and twigs, so well twisted that no escape was possible. He praised himself not a little on his invention, as this magazine supplied his wants by foul weather, or, as he said, ' when Bruce was too lazy to go in quest for other food ;' and who would have been willing to poison his complacency, or withhold the tribute to his ingenuity, which was really exerted in no ordinary way in this and other similar circumstances, when his powers of netion were circumscribed within such a narrow sphere? Was not Cæsar himself delighted with the success of his invention, as when he con- structed that wonderful bridge over the Rhine, which be crossed with his army to penetrate into Germany, and of which he seemed pleased to leave us sueli a minute description ? and Bruce, poor as he now was, had a pretty higb opinion of himself, seemed not to wish to repass the Mohawk, and if not sua se virtute involvens, considering himself as
the best man, appeared at least to enjoy ease and contentment-he was a Bruce !
" This catfish weighed ten pounds. We obtained afterwards one of twenty-four pounds. Some have been taken of forty and forty-five weight; but those of the largest size are chicfly brought from Lake Ontario. When Bruce had prepared him, he showed us a handful fat, as yellow as gold. It was indeed a delicious repast for our sup- per. Roasted, as this was,-and no cook could have done it better, -- or broiled, or stewed,-as we did eat after a while,-you would not have been able to distinguish it from a fine turbot, if its shape had been imitated. A barrel containing about fifty catfish, the head and backbone being thrown away, is sold here at £4 108. We observed here two sorts of trout (Forellen), hoth known hy the name of salmon- trout, although incorrectly. We could not obtain a specimen of the white species. These were the yellow and the red-colored, properly named salmon-trout. The first is generally of a smaller size, its color a dark brown, with a yellow tinge. The other is larger, the brown more lively, with reddish spots, fringed with a color of gold, and are sometimes between two and three feet long. The chub (Triob) is the usual bait, sometimes frogs.
" In the morning we made an excursion in the country, took a straight northerly course, and returned through the west and south at the other side to our encampment. The foreland near the lake, at the east side of the creek, appeared but indifferent to the eye, now somewhat used to contemplate first-rate soil, and the timher stood in the same relation. At the distance of about one-fourth of a mile from the lake the ground rises gradually, and continues to do so, if you proceed another quarter of a mile. Then the soil increases in fer- tility from step to step, and iu the same proportion in depth. We had at first only a layer of four, then of six inches, which augmented from two to seven palms of my hand. When we had proceeded ahout two miles, sometimes it is a black woodland, in other places it was mixed with a fine black sand, sometimes a rich blue, sometimes a fine yellow clay.
" It seems to me that you are somewhat surprised at my accuracy. Do you not then recolleet that I never could he satisfied in having done a thing hy half? I may be mistaken. I may make a wrong decision through ignorance or inadvertenee; but it was my sincere aim to obtain a correct view of this country for your, for my own, sake.
"I removed with my large pocket-knife first the muck, till I reached the first layer, and protruded then a sound stick in that spot as far as it could penetrate, when I often, at five and seven palms' depth, discovered the same sort of soil at the end of the stick as that on the surface. Beech, maple, walnut, was the principal timber, with here and there an ash and lime-tree, oak and pine, near the shore.
"We crossed the ereck a little above a beaver-dam, and found the same excellent soil at the west side, with the same gradation, and in the same proportion as that which we had explored on the east, till we arrived again at the plain covered with fir and pine.
"This is a harren plain, De Zeng, so it seems, but it has good water, it has good building spots, and hy manuring and good husbandry will make good gardens. It is harren indeed, De Zeng, although it may be meliorated, hut you do not reflect on the advantages of that ereck ; art thou not convinced by what thou hast seen that, with small exertions to improve it, full-laden bateaux may go in and ont,-may do it actually now ? Did your eye not discover the mill-seats on this creek ? Ought not the valuable lands hack to these not to come in competition ? Can you not see bateaux aseending Bruce's Creek and descending the Salmon Creek ? Can you not see the furs and other valuable produce of Canada brought hither through the canal ? Ah, do you not see already various stores and magazines crowded with merchandise ?- then you have nothing of second sight. Return to this spot within thirty or forty years, and you shall exclaim, ' De Zeng was pretty near the truth, but underrated yet the value of the spot ;' and so it would have heen indeed now had a colony heen planted here under Stuyvesant's administration, and the noble patronage of the Dutch government, of a few families of Boers from Guelderland, and of fishermen from the borders of the Meuse.
" A swamp begins about two miles and a half from the creek, which extends itself considerably in the country und joins an excellent piece of lund, which is separated by another marsh from the lake towards the west. You may calculate the value of this land by that one of the Oneida Indians. Colonel Lewis left nothing untried to have it secured to him as his individual property; and that the Indians,
552
HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
when afterwards a French adventurer, one Chevalier Bennett,# had obtained the possession, did give him in lieu of it 60,000 acres ncar Cataraqui. Even these swamps must acquire in time no inconsiderable valuc, from the timber which they contain. Their draining, never- theless, though it may be executed, must be an expensive undertaking, by want of a descent for the water, as they are lying nearly on a level.
" We left Bruce's Creek on Friday evening about six ; the sky was serenc and delightful ; a soft breeze curled the waves and fringed them with white, while the sun sinking towards the west beautified the whole scenery. I did not witness such a grand or majestic sight since I crossed the Atlantic. It must be seen before it can be fully ap- praised, and then it must be a brute whose bosom does not glow with an ardent love towards his Creator, and adores His goodness and wisdom, so majestically displayed in every part of the universe. In propor- tion that we penetrated deeper in the lake the beauty of this diversi- fied prospect was more and more enhanced ; the islands, the shores, the woods, the mountains obtruding themselves to our sight, seemed to vic with each other for the preference. At length the slight breeze increased ; ere long a brisk wind arose from the west; the increased undulated motion with the white-capped waves appalled our raw hands, whose trembling limbs and pale visages too clearly betrayed their fear of a threatening shipwreck. We endeavored to assuage it, as the wind was steady. If we had any apprehension, it arose from their inexpertedness, from their unsubdued terror, from the knowledge that two or three waves would have been sufficient to sink our deeply- loade I canoe. We conquered, nevertheless, and they rowed on with redoubled alacrity. We encouraged and applauded their efforts and laughed away their fears.
" I never witnessed a more charming sight; it was indeed exquisitely beautiful ; the sun in its full splendor at the western horizon, gilding the enchanted clouds, an extensive sheet of water in an undulating motion, two islands towards the south in front, which we were now approaching, a small opening between these through which we had a view of the southern coast, one single, covered with grass, and with one tree-adorned rock, behind which in perspective appeared the country of the Oneidax with the Canoserago hills.
" We landed half after seven at the largest and most westerly island, towed the canoe on shore, and walked by an Indian path in the woods.
" This island might in ancient days have been the happy seat of a goddess, in the middle age that of a magician, or a fairy's residence in the times of chivalry. Proceeding on one after another through the stately trees, through which we perceived yet the last glances of tbe setting sun, we were at once, after a few rods, surprised with an enchanting view, of which it is not in my power to give you an ade- quate description. All that the poets did sing of the gardens of Alcinons, all the scenery of those of Arneida, so highly decorated by Virgil aud Ariosto, could scarce have made upon me, who was capti- vated unawares and bewildered, a more deep impression than this spectacle of nature. We did sec here a luxuriant soil in its virgin bloom ; we did sce industry crowned with blessing ; we did see here what great things a frail man can perform if he is willing. It seemed a paradise which Happiness had chosen for her residence. Our path, gradually increasing in breadth, did lead us to the circumference of a cleared circle, surrounded with lime-trees ; at both sides of the path was planted Indian corn, already grown from four to five feet, while a few plants towards the middle of this patch were six feet loug, and this in the middle of June. A small cottage of a few feet square stood nearly in the centre of this spot. It had a bark covering, and to the left of it a similar one, three-fourths uncovered and appro- priated for a kitchen. Here was the residence of Mr. and Madame Des Wattines, with their three children.
"They lived there without servants, without neighbors, without a cow; they lived, as it were, separated from the world; Des Wattines sallied forward and gave us a cordial welcome in his desmenes. The well-educated man was easily recognized through his sloven dress. Ragged as he appeared, without a coat or hat, his manners were those of a gentleman, his address that of one who had seen the higher cir- cles of civilized life. A female, from whose remaining beauties might be conjectured how many had been tarnished by adversity, was sit- ting in the entrance of this cot. She was dressed in white, in a sbort gown and petticoat, garnished with the same stuff; her chestnut brown
hair flung back in ringlets over her shoulders, her eyes fixed on her darling Camille, a native of this isle, at her breast; while two chil- dren, standing at each side of her, played in her lap. Her appear- ance was amiable indced ; a wild imagination might have lost herself and considered the weary, toiling Des Wattines as the magician who kept this beautiful woman in slavery, but ere soon the charm dwindled away. Esteem for the man filled our bosom, and when you consid- ered how indefatigably he must have exerted himself, what sacrifices he must bave made, what hardships endured to render her situation comfortable and rear roses for her on this island, so deep in the west- ern wilderness, then, notwithstanding all the foibles which a fastidious, cool observer might discover at his fireside, in a character and con- duct as that of Des Wattines, he becomes an object of admiration. I, at least, gazed at him in wonder. Des Wattines introduced us to his spouse. She received us with that easy politeness which well-educated people seldom lose entirely, and urged, with so much grace, to sit down, that we could not refuse it without incivility. This couple was now in the second year on this island, and all the improvements which we had seen were the work of Des Wattines' hands exclusively.
"Our refreshment was a dish of tea, or rather their usual beverage from Venus' hair, which she has collected and dried, palatable enough indeed when sweetened with sugar. It was growing dark before we could be persuaded to leave our new companions, who insisted on our staying with theus that night, which we declined reluctantly, but en- gaged ourselves to return in the morning and to partake of their breakfast.
" Both had gained a claim to this sudden affectionate. attachment. He, initiated in the manners of the fashionable world of the old conti- nent, with a tincture of belles-lettres, with that sprightliness and versatility of mind, characterizing
"' Ce peuple aimable, ami des arts, Tantôt grave, tantôt futile, Par cent tourbillons emporté, Agitant d'une main legère Les hochets de la nouveauté ; Frivole et gaï par caractère Et raisonueur par vanité.'
"She so artless, so graceful, so fair ; who might have extorted com- pliance where a world of men could not prevail; could it be else, or Europeans not insensible to the pleasures of society, and separated from those dear to their hearts, must have been gratified with the vicinity and courtesy of this couple.
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